V&V

Where Vegetables Set the Agenda

British fine dining spent decades organising itself around protein. A piece of aged beef, a fillet of turbot, a breast of game bird: these were the architectural centre of the plate, and vegetables existed to frame them. That hierarchy has been shifting, and a small number of kitchens in the UK now operate on a different premise entirely, one where the carrot, the leek, or the forced rhubarb is the point of the dish, not the garnish. The address is 68 New Briggate, LS1 6NU, in the heart of Leeds, which makes the ambition here all the more notable: this is not a remote countryside retreat where produce can be grown on-site, but a city-centre restaurant operating in a competitive urban market.

The We're Smart Rating and What It Signals

We're Smart Green Guide is not a household name in the way Michelin is, but within the vegetable-forward restaurant community it carries real weight. The guide assesses kitchens on their commitment to seasonal, local, and plant-centred cooking, awarding between one and five Radishes as its rating currency. Four Radishes, which V&V has received alongside the description of chef Jono Hawthorne as "a chef of the world with his respect for local products," places the restaurant in a tier that includes serious seasonal kitchens across Europe. The phrasing in the award citation is telling: it is the combination of global technical awareness and local sourcing discipline that the guide is recognising, not simply the absence of meat. That distinction matters. Vegetable-focused cooking in the UK has fragmented into two quite different modes: one leans into novelty and Instagram legibility, the other into genuine craft with producers and seasons. The four-Radish signal suggests V&V is working in the second mode.

For context, the restaurants that collect recognition at this level across the UK tend to sit in the same broader conversation as Moor Hall in Aughton or the kitchen discipline you find at Hern in Leeds itself: kitchens where the technical foundation is high enough that the choice to foreground vegetables reads as a considered position, not a limitation.

Leeds and the Moment for Serious Vegetable Cooking

Leeds has been developing a more confident restaurant identity over the past several years, moving from a city with a strong Indian and South Asian dining culture, represented by places such as Dastaan Leeds, toward a broader range of formats and cooking approaches. The emergence of venues like emba and Eat Your Greens alongside V&V suggests the city has an appetite for cooking that takes its own rules seriously. In that context, a kitchen earning international recognition for vegetable-led work is not an anomaly but a signal of where Leeds dining is heading.

The seasonal British creative model that V&V operates within is not unique to this city, but it is particularly relevant here. The North of England has strong agricultural supply chains, and the leading Yorkshire and surrounding county producers have been feeding ambitious kitchens for decades. What changes when a restaurant commits to vegetables as its primary subject is that the relationship with those producers has to be closer and more demanding, because the quality and timing of the raw material has nowhere to hide behind a piece of protein. At V&V, that supplier relationship is central to the operation's credibility.

Hawthorne's Approach in a National Frame

Jono Hawthorne is named in the We're Smart citation, which is significant because the guide does not typically foreground individual chefs in the way British food media does. The credential here is not a personal backstory but a technical and philosophical alignment: a chef operating at the level of international peer recognition within the specific discipline of vegetable-centred seasonal cooking. To understand the difficulty of that achievement, it helps to consider that the kitchens collecting similar recognition in the UK tend to be rural destination restaurants with significantly more resource overhead, places like Gidleigh Park in Chagford or, in a different price register, Hand and Flowers in Marlow. Operating at a comparable level of critical recognition from a city-centre Leeds address requires a different set of decisions about sourcing, format, and menu discipline.

Internationally, the restaurants that earn the highest We're Smart ratings sit alongside names like Le Bernardin in New York City in one sense: they are kitchens where a specific discipline has been taken to its logical extreme, where every decision on the menu flows from a single coherent idea about what the food is doing. At V&V, that idea is the vegetable as protagonist.

Planning a Visit

V&V is on New Briggate, which runs north from the Headrow through central Leeds, a short walk from Leeds train station and the city's main retail and cultural infrastructure. For visitors combining dinner with wider Leeds plans, the Casa Susanna neighbourhood gives a sense of how the New Briggate stretch functions within the broader city eating scene. Leeds's bar and drinking culture is covered in our full Leeds bars guide, and those planning an overnight stay will find hotel options assessed in our full Leeds hotels guide.

Given the recognition the kitchen has attracted, and the format of small, produce-driven seasonal menus that typically operate at limited capacity, securing a table in advance rather than attempting a walk-in is the sensible approach. Seasonal menus by definition change, so the specifics of what appears on the day will depend on where the growing season sits.

For a fuller picture of where V&V sits within Leeds dining more broadly, including how it compares to the city's other ambitious kitchens, see our full Leeds restaurants guide. Those with interests beyond restaurants can also consult our Leeds experiences guide and our Leeds wineries guide for broader trip planning.