Restaurants with a conscience

Want to feed your soul as well as your tum? There are a host of restaurants across the capital that support different charities and worthy causes. Choose a kitchen with a conscience and not only are you guaranteed a full stomach, you'll also have that warm, fuzzy feeling inside. Here's our pick of the London restaurants that do their bit for charity...

The Blue Elephant
Stepping off Fulham Broadway into the opulence of the Blue elephant you're transported straight to Bangkok. And now this popular restaurant is getting even closer to home by supporting thai prince Bhisatej Rajani's Royal project Foundation. The scheme encourages hill tribes in northern thailand to grow foodbased crops instead of poppies and has so far reduced opium cultivation there by 85 per cent. The Blue elephant group buys in produce grown by the tribes involved in the project and incorporates it into a special menu. eating carpaccio of tuna with a dressing made from Royal project spices and fennel (£14), followed by thai original black cod in red curry with balsam pear (£24), has never felt so virtuous.
3-6 Fulham Broadway, SW6 (020 7385 6595)

Carluccio's
The Carluccio's chain supports action against Hunger. Owner antonio Carluccio is an ambassador for the charity, which works to save the lives of malnourished children and their families all over the world. He is its biggest restaurant benefactor, having donated £145,000 since august last year.

Order the penne giardiniera, a combination of pasta, courgette, chilli, parmesan, garlic and crispy, deepfried spinach balls (£7.25) and it will donate 50p to aaH. The latest addition to the restaurant chain sits under the nine-metre bronze statue of an embracing couple in St pancras station. grab a table outside on the concourse-marvel at the station's 100ft-high glass roof, and enjoy the strains of the wind instrument trio who often play nearby. You can also model-spot while you eat. Lily Cole was recently seen lunching at the café, no doubt before hopping on a train to paris.
St Pancras International Station, Upper Level, NW1 (020 7278 7449)

The Frontline Club
The Frontline Club is a private members' club for journalists, diplomats and aid workers who are united by a common concern: the importance of independent journalism. To fund their ground-breaking talks and events (alexander Litvinenko addressed the Frontline Club 10 days before he was killed), all profits from the restaurant are channelled back into the club's work. The restaurant is open to non-members from breakfast to dinner, serving very British dishes such as London pride beer-battered fish and chips (£16) and Old Bob's sausage and mash (£13). Expect very British surroundings, too - wooden floors, clean lines and walls full of black-andwhite photographs. And if you've also got a hunger for knowledge, Frontline's talks are open to the public as well. Get eating for the cause.
13 Norfolk Place, W2 (020 7479 8960)

Water House
To see the profits of Water House at work just look out of the dining room window. The once graffitied wall on the opposite side of the canal is now a colour scheme designed by artist Yuko Shiraishi. Water House restaurant is owned by Shoreditch Trust and all profits are ploughed into projects to regenerate the surrounding area. "We want the restaurant to be part of the community," says restaurant director Jamie Grainger-Smith (of Fifteen fame). Seasonal menus range from £28-£60 a head and feature dishes such as duck confit with vanilla mash potatoes and balsamic raspberries. The restaurant's eco credentials are also second to none. All the food waste is composted, it supports Greencare's "back to the tap" policy by filtering its own drinking water on site and it plans to install a heat exchange system to make use of the neighbouring canal. Rest assured you will eat good and do good.
10 Orsman Road, N1 (020 7033 0123)

Hoxton Apprentice
Housed in a former Victorian school building in Hoxton Square, a different kind of teaching now goes on at Hoxton Apprentice. This simple, unpretentious restaurant is the centrepiece of Training For Life, a charity which helps the homeless and long-term unemployed get back into the job market with training in the kitchen, administration, management and front-of-house occupations. eighty per cent of the last group of apprentices have gone on to find employment. British cooking icon Prue Leith was integral to the restaurant's 2004 launch and her inf luence is evident in head chef Torren Lewis's affordable menu. Choose miniature fishcakes with grebiche sauce (£5) and saddle of Kent rabbit stuffed with apple, black pudding & parsnip (£13.95) while listening to Claudio, the resident pianist.
16 Hoxton Square, N1 (020 7749 2828)

Whole Foods Market
Throughout the year, Whole Foods Market's first-f loor restaurants run five per cent community days: eat there on a designated day and five per cent of profits go to local charities.

The next one, on 12 November, is in aid of Action Against Hunger. The only tough choice is which restaurant to go for: the options include a sushi bar, an oyster bar and a buffet of salads, burritos, pizza and mezze. You could also try Vincenzo's Trattoria, a traditional Italian serving antipasti at £3.99 and primi piatti pastas at £5.99.
63-97 Kensington High Street, W8 (020 7368 4500)