Serving award-winning, fabulous vegan and glutenfree tapas and entrées, El Piano brings a Spanish twist to plant based food. The entire enterprise is grounded in sustainability and local community involvement, and all food is made on-premises from locally sourced fresh produce.

Is this your first restaurant?

El Piano York, in the United Kingdom, was the first to open.

When did it open?

El Piano York opened in 1997. El Piano Granada, in Spain, was our second restaurant to open, in 2007. And El Piano Málaga in Spain became our third restaurant in 2011.

How many restaurants do you hope to have in the future? Will you expand further?

At the moment we hope to expand in Spain.

What’s your favorite dish on the menu?

The one dish that has never left the menu in fifteen years and the one longtime staff members still happily eat is lentil dhal, a simple blend of lentils, curry, coconut milk, and fresh coriander.

What’s your most popular appetizer?

The menu gets revised frequently, so this changes, but probably baba ghanoush.

What’s the most popular entrée on the menu?

The dhal probably, as described above.

What’s your most popular dessert?

In the UK, that would be our sticky toffee pudding. In Spain, our Brownie Andalus.

What do you feel is special about your restaurant?

We maintain a broad commitment to our product, our customers, our community, and push for education and sustainability. All our food is wholly vegan and wholly gluten-free. We offer free classes and workshops on vegan, gluten-free cooking. And our customers and our staff are stakeholders in the businesses.

How often do you change your menu items? Do you have daily or weekly specials?

The UK restaurant has a printed menu that changes every six months. The Spanish operations are different; the food changes daily and there is no printed menu.

Do you have gluten-free, soy-free, and sugar-free options on your menu?

Yes to all.

What do you do to reduce your environmental impact?

The core focus of El Piano is sustainability, and that begins with the food, which is vegan. We also source local ingredients to reduce our carbon footprint. Next is the packaging: It's one-hundredpercent biodegradable, except for cellulose bags, which have a ten-percent plastic content. We do not use air-conditioning. In the wintertime, we make use of our outside spaces for cooling. Deliveries are made by bicycle (happily all three cities are fairly flat). And staff members share rides.

What are the most important lessons you’ve learned as owner or chef of this restaurant?

Give knowledge away. People return to a restaurant for so much more than just the food.

What led you to want to open a vegan restaurant, and/or what led you to the vegan diet yourself?

The decision to have a vegan and gluten-free menu wasn’t driven by a desire to exclude any diners. We wanted the maximum number of people with dietary restrictions to be able to eat the maximum amount of food on the menu and to be able to eat it with others.

In the time since your restaurant first opened, how has the plant-based food movement changed? Do you find more demand now for vegan food?

No idea. Some of our customers do come because it is vegan, but just as many, or more, come because of our other qualities. In the UK there is more demand and the overall number of vegans within the population is greater.

Since your restaurant first opened, has your view of what constitutes healthy or delicious food changed? Have you changed the types of foods you offer?

Not really. We offer what people want. And we’re aware that people can’t want things they haven’t encountered. There’s always a balance to be struck between what’s familiar and what’s cutting edge. Recently in the UK we offered a number of raw-food options that we later removed from the menu, as no one ordered them. In Spain, however, raw foods are more popular.

Also, any new trends or options have to fit within our environmental policies of being local and organic. For example, we are not much taken with the so-called “superfoods,” as they are rarely organic or local to Spain or the UK—and they’re almost never fairly traded.

Where do you see the plant-based food movement going in coming years?

Urban plant-based food production is going to grow exponentially in the coming years. We’re already planning to use the external walls of our buildings to grow both ornamental and edible crops. Out of necessity, food is going to become a local issue, involving business and the community. Laying down the rails for this type of cross-sector cooperation is essential, and as people in the food industry, we have an important role to play in this, and a responsibility to do our part.

This is a big favorite with many customers in both Spain and the UK. The syrup is based on Arabic flavors and will last months in the fridge.

Granada Chai

Makes approximately 2 cups

2⅛ cups water

2 to 3 black tea bags

½ cinnamon stick

½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

10 green cardamom pods

½ red chili, chopped

A few coriander seeds

Sugar, to taste

1 cup soy, coconut, or rice milk

Combine all the syrup ingredients, except the milk, in a saucepan and bring to simmer. Simmer gently for 20 minutes. Taste and adjust the sugar to your desired sweetness.

To make the chai, heat your desired milk in a saucepan. Remove from the heat, pour it into a mug, and add the syrup to taste.

HappyCow Member Reviews for El Piano

Superb

“An amazing all-vegan, all-gluten-free tapas bar.
Affordable and superb food.”

—Vegantravels

Warm Welcome, Tasty Food

“The choices span the flavor spectrum, from curried potatoes and squash to Mexican cabbage salad to corn fritters and falafel. Everything I chose was perfectly seasoned and delicious.”

—Aurelia

Based on a traditional Peruvian recipe, this dish was developed in Málaga by the Peruvian cook there. It’s typical for us to use our international team to introduce new items to the menu. The beauty of this dish is that it is different every time because it is a way to make an original use of leftovers. It reinforces our commitment to sustainability and variety.

Peruvian Leftovers Pie

Serves 8–10

For the outer layers:

10 cooked potatoes

Salt, to taste

Juice of 1 lemon

Pinch turmeric

½ fresh red chili, chopped very finely

For the filling:

Anything you like, even leftovers... Typical fillings would be salads, beans, pasta, veggie burgers, or a mix thereof. Avoid frozen foods, as they’ll add too much moisture to the pie as they thaw.

For the topping:

9 ounces tofu

½ cup olive oil

Juice of ½ lemon

For the garnish:

1 red pepper, finely chopped

1 handful fresh parsley, chopped

Mash the cooked potatoes with the salt, lemon juice, turmeric, and chili. Using half of the mashed potatoes, cover the base of a round, silicone, ceramic-based springform pan. Now add a layer of filling, as little or as much as you wish. Cover with the rest of the mashed potatoes. Using an immersion blender, blend the topping ingredients (tofu, olive oil, and lemon juice) and smooth a thin layer of the mixture atop the pie.

Garnish with chopped red pepper and parsley. Serve cold.