Archive for February, 2006
V Rating: VV A few footsteps away from the ginormous Noah’s backpacker hostel, Millenium happily caters to international backpackers as well as locals looking for a cheap and cheerful meal. The menu is low fuss. There are standard and gourmet pizzas, ranging in price from $10 - $18 for a medium and $13.50 - $23.00 for a large. There a four standard vegetarian pizzas, and a whopping six gourmet veggie pizzas. Unfortunately none come without cheese - although a few might be adaptable. You can also choose from three vegetarian past a sauces (two are vegan) and your standard assortment of breads and salad. I had a penne arrabiata (napoli sauce, chilli and ‘basil’ - really a garnish). This was a large, unpretenitous dish, with the chilli adding a little bite to an otherwise nondescript sauce. For dessert Millenium offers gelati (not all vegan). Wine is available, but at close to $30 a bottle I recommend you exercise some temperance or stick with the $5 a glass house shiraz. Millenium’s best feature is it’s atmosphere. A new restaurant, Millenium has taken full advantage of the Campbell parade aspect. Folding windows let the sea breeze float through the rooms. Dark wooden tables, candles and the diners’ mix of languages give the restaurant a friendly, warm feel.
V Rating: VV Lost in North Ryde? Dining at the massive Macquarie Centre shopping complex isn’t your style? If you make it to the Ranch Hotel, you won’t have the breadth of choice of your carnivorous companions but the good news is that you won’t go hungry. Faced with a hotel-style blackboard menu which boasts around a hundred choices, it might take a while to locate the small section devoted to the vegetarian options. There you’ll find a vegetarian quiche and chips ($12.90), rice noodles, vegetables and tofu ($13.50), mushroom stir fry with tofu and rice ($13.50), vegetarian lasagne with salad and chips ($14.50) and “grilled zucchini, capsicum, rocket, roma tomato and eggplant on herb roccini” ($10.90). You won’t find a veggie burger, but there is a choice of vegetarian sauces on pasta ($9.50 small, $13.50 large), vegetarian nachos ($16.80 large) and the trusty salad plate ($7.90). There were no vegetarian entrees on the board. Vegans can rest easy that they will also have a few options to choose from. I ordered the lasagne which was well sized, if cheesy. It was hard to get excited about certainly filled the gap. Verdict: Not a haven for vegetarians but it could have been worse.
V Rating: VVV Perched on the southern end of Campbell Parade, the renovated Bondi Trattoria has a panoramic view of Bondi Beach and the diverse gaggle of people that frequent it. The menu has a decent vegetarian selection, and more limited vegan choices. There were three veggie light snacks, 1 veggie entree, 3 vegetarian pasta or risotto choices, 2 veggie pizzas, but no veggie ‘mains’. Both the risotto and a pizza were vegan. The 5 yummy dessert options are all vegetarian, and two are vegan. All seven side dishes were vegetarian. Choices included a strong, salty risotto strewn with zucchini flower and mushrooms, spinach and ricotta canelloni, gnocchi with white asparagus, sage, burnt butter and parmesan and a light bordering on tasteless potato, garlic and rosemary pizza with olive oil. We went a bit crazy and also ordered the creamy mashed potato (a meal highlight), the sweet roasted chilli and parsley mushrooms (very spicy) and grissini with eggplant and garlic dip (tasty) in addition to two mains. This was more than enough food and left no room for dessert. Before being renovated Bondi Tratt filled a unique niche in the Campbell parade scene. It was many cuts above a cheap and cheerful backpacker option, but never a styled, expensive hang-out for the Eastern Suburbs in crowd. With its swish new revamp Bondi Tratt has taken a few more steps towards the latter camp. However, despite the oversized light shades, polished brown wood fittings, and tiled toilets, I got the feeling that Bondi Tratt still had it’s heart in the right place and wasn’t just for the beautiful people. Update: I initially gave Bondi Tratt a VV, but having been back numerous times and always being impressed with its great atmosphere and more than decent veggie selection, I’ve upgraded it to VVV. |
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