THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Cranks

THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Cranks Restaurant Review:

This long-established vegetarian café chain has shed its lentils and sandals and now sports citric colours and bright lighting to suggest that food is up-to-the-minute. Crunchy and varied salads---and, goodness knows, a worthy selection of these are hard enough to find anywhere in London---are often preferable to hot dishes such as stir-fried noodles or homity pie, which can be stodgy and dull-tasting. Cakes and puddings are okay. Service isn’t exactly slick---though what do you expect in a pioneering veggie business, even one which is trying to convince you that it has a contemporary commercial edge? Also in Covent Garden at 17-19 Great Newport St., WC2, 020-7836 5226; Docklands at Unit RP, 380-385 Concourse Level, 15 Cabot Pl., Canary Wharf, E14, 020-7513 0678; Marylebone at 23 Barrett St., W1, 020-7495 1340; near Tottenham Court Road at 9-11 Tottenham St., W1, 020-7631 3912; plus Cranks Express in Covent Garden at 9 Adelaide St., WC2, 020-7836 0660.