I recently met up with a friend that I don’t see often. He works in London now, and when I’m up there, it’s normally only during the day, so our timetables clash. But recently, I realised that the meeting I had would finish around 5pm, leaving me free, so I fired off a text before heading in. Unfortunately, when I came out, I still hadn’t heard back, and his phone was off when I tried to call. Shrugging my shoulders, I started to head home – two connections on the Tube before getting to the station where I would be taking my final train.

Then of course, my phone went off. By now it was starting to get later, and with both of us on opposite sides of London, we headed for the Tube stop that was easiest for both of us to get to relatively quickly – which happened to be Monument. So far, so good. But where to go for food?

We stumbled across the Walrus and Carpenter, a pub just a short walk from the station that seemed inviting enough. We picked up a menu, I spotted the veggie burger, and it was settled.

It’s priced at £8.95 and is described as “Sweet potato, spiced aubergine, red pepper, sweetcorn and chickpeas, topped with mature Cheddar and tomato salsa”. It’s a fair price for a meal in London, and it was pretty filling, so I was happy with that. It also came with thick cut chips and coleslaw in a homemade style. The menu allows you to add guacamole for 50p, which I did!

The chips were tasty – pretty normal pub fare, but good all the same. I’m half certain they are the same ones used by Wetherspoons. The slaw was good too, if a little too peppery for my tastes – but to be honest, I’m not a huge fan of this style of slaw anyway.

The burger bun had a great balance of firmness without being too hard to eat comfortably, an indication of good bread. Inside the bun was a bit of a mess with sauce everywhere (my own fault for ordering the guacamole!), but it all went very well together. The guacamole was smooth and the tomato salsa was not spicy, so it was a good mix. The burger itself was really quite nice: the sweet potato and chickpea flavours came through most, and the chickpeas also contributed to an excellent texture. I’m not sure I could detect the spiced aubergine, though there was a nice mild kick to it. The cheese was a little thin on the ground but had been melted over everything to add extra deliciousness, and the salad was ample (even after I had done my obligatory removal of the tomatoes).

Generally speaking, it was a good eat. At that price, in London, at hometime, you couldn’t go wrong with this. We found a quiet, dim corner (sorry about the lighting in the photos!), had a couple of drinks, and had a great time.

On the VegBurge Scale, I give this…

Taste – 7/10

Price – 8/10

Rest of experience – 9/10