Amrutha Lounge: Pay-what-you-like vegan restaurant named London's top restaurant on TripAdvisor

A vegan restaurant with a pay-what-you-like menu has beaten Michelin-starred rivals to become London’s favourite restaurant.

Amrutha Lounge, in Earlsfield, has shot above world-renowned establishments such as The Ledbury and Claridge’s to claim the prized number one spot on TripAdvisor.

The restaurant was opened in February last year by former schoolfriends Arvin Suntaramoophy and Shyam Kotecha, both 36, who had begun with a street food stall in 2014.

It has received 273 five-star reviews out of a total of 281, with customers praising its “flavoursome and unique” dishes and staff who work “with smiles on their faces”.

Mr Suntaramoophy, who was raised in Clapham in a family originally from Sri Lanka, said the pair “couldn’t believe it” when they found that they were ranked above more than 18,000 other restaurants in the capital.

He told the Standard: “We’ve had a lot more bookings since then. This week we’re nearly booked up. But most of our customers are local people who keep returning. The reputation we have in the community is our foundation.”

As well as a purely vegan menu, another of the restaurant’s trademarks is to allow customers to pay as much as or little as they want for their meal. The Eastern-inspired main courses average about £12 — and no customer has ever underpaid.