Illustration by Marcelina Jagielka
Too Good To Go is an app which aims to reduce restaurants’ food waste by enabling consumers to rescue Magic Bags for a marked-down price, containing whatever didn’t sell that day. It ensures that restaurants can maintain their “made fresh daily” tagline whilst still minimising the food they throw away at the end of the day. As a former chef in a commercial kitchen, I can attest that unfortunately a lot of food usually goes to waste.
A friend put me onto Too Good To Go, and ever since, I started exploring the options available in Oxford. Once I told more friends about it, things started to get serious. We would compete to see who could get Magic Bags from certain stores: Knoops has sadly remained elusive for me! It got to a point where a friend left a training session halfway through to pick up a Magic Bag – and then brought it back to share! Now that’s a true team-player.
When I arrived in London, I was excited to see which restaurants would be offering Magic Bags. The usual suspects were there: Pret, Greggs, Leon. But I wanted to look for the smaller, lesser-known shops and restaurants to try some interesting food. I had an Ethiopian meal from a stall in the Old Spitalfields Market, and some pastries from Black Cowboy Coffee. But the best one I found – and one I went back to three times – was Moishe’s.
Moishe’s is a Jewish bakery and bagelry in Borough Market. Its colourful bagels are its USP, but (as mentioned in my last article) its pastries are equally delicious. Thanks to my three Magic Bags, I managed to try all of the bagels on offer, and can confirm that they are all as light, fluffy, and tasty as they look. They are bagels that deserve to be eaten on their own to truly appreciate the bread, but they are also excellent plunged into your favourite dip, or transformed into a mega sandwich.
Moishe’s are also extremely generous. Their Magic Bags are packed full of goodies, although competition to reserve one is still stiff. It is also great to see that no food is wasted: all of the leftovers are crammed into Magic Bags ready to be taken away. If you are at Borough Market, it is definitely worth hanging around until closing time (5pm) to return home with an enormous – and brilliant – bag of bagels.
Too Good To Go is an excellent initiative and one that is rewarding for both consumers and businesses alike. So, have a look at what’s in your area, just so long as you don’t get that Knoops bag before me!