Archive for April, 2006
V-Rating: VVV Friday night I ended up in Kings Cross with a couple of my favourite friends. We’d spent a pleasant few hours at the Darlo Bar and were looking for dinner on our way to seeing The Vasco Era at Spectrum. It was one of those nights where everyone was at a crossroad. One friend was on her way to Brisbane to start a new job. A second friend was spending her last weekend in Australia before returning to her home in Cambodia and had invited along a friend who had just returned to Australia after a year overseas. Perhaps reflecting our transient state, we were at a loss to find a restaurant on Victoria Street. (There are a lot of restaurants on Victoria Street. This is no mean feat). We’d ruled out Italian, Thai, anything expensive, or anything with limited vegetarian options. That doesn’t leave much in King’s Cross. Fortunately, our bingo like approach to eating led us to Kika Tapas Bar. For a Spanish restaurant, Kika had a great range of veggie dishes. There were about ten vegetarian tapas options (with their own menu page, no less). We tried the eggplant in parsley butter, the patas bravas, the green beans in butter, garlic mushrooms, and the veggie tortilla. I liked every dish, but made sure to take a second serve of the patas bravas and eggplant. We washed it down with a jug of not-too-sweet sangria, which added a festive touch to the night. We had one heart-stopping moment just after we sat down. One my eagle-eyed friends noticed a small caveat on the back page of the menu: on Fridays and Saturdays each person had to spend $25 on food alone. We queried the waitress and were assured that ’so long as didn’t just order coffee’ we were fine. This kind of begged the question of why they put the rule on the menu in the first place, but sure enough there were no recriminations when the bill came and we were well under budget. Kika is handily situated just across the road from the Green Park Hotel. The decor is bright and cheery, and there are some large tables on footpath that are perfect for dinner on a warm night. Even with a full restaurant, the food came quickly and let us with plenty of time to amble off to see the band.
Normally I’d only write up a restaurant once, but this weekend we happened to go to Dolcissimo for brunch so I thought it would be a good opportunity to add a postscript to my original review. As with most places, the brunch menu was a good deal more vegetarian friendly than the dinner menu. I’m not a big ice cream / gelato fan. In fact, it’s one of the few vices I can resist. But I couldn’t verily pass up such an opportunity. And actually, it was pretty tasty. The gelato was passionfruit, which was quite tart and worked well with the sweet taste of the muesli and fruit. Sadly, I was so busy ordering my gelato alla muesli that I forgot to take notes about prices, options etc… this may necessitate a return trip. For research purposes, obviously.
V-Rating: Super V He says: I’ve never been disappointed at Zenergy. Just down Druitt Street around the corner from Town Hall Station, it’s the standout choice in the city for a quick veggie lunch. Zenergy is a very unassuming spot which serves up a huge variety of delicious food - and very inexpensively. It is the sort of place where you almost have to say “stop” when the salad is being piled onto your plate - and there is usually a choice of seven or eight. If there’s no time to eat in, you can grab from a selection of ready-made wraps and sandwiches. The tempeh with sprouts and mayo is a real specialty and I’m yet to find anything comparable anywhere else. I could go on but I would just be gushing. She says: Zenergy oh Zenergy. How I love thee. Let me count the ways. I love your 20 different sandwiches, including marinated tempeh, soy mayonnaise and sprouts; avocado, hummus and parsley; and banana, dates, apple and cream cheese. I love your big, brown nori rolls for $2.60, one of the best value lunch options in the city. I love your great range of hot foods, like vegetable au gratin, shepherds pie and black-eyed beans. You make healthy, delicious foods for vegetarians and vegans. You make your food with care, and serve your customers with a smile. Were you only located closer to my work, I would never go anywhere else for lunch.
V-Rating: VVV Cafe Giulia opened two doors down from my apartment block a few weeks after I moved to Sydney. Every Saturday and Sunday morning I’d trot / stumble down there for a lazy brunch. I thought, ‘Sydney is great. There are amazing cafes located on your local corner that have extensive menus with interesting, gourmet food. Serving sizes are generous and yet most dishes cost little more than $5!’ And that is how Cafe Giulia ruined me for all future Sydney brunch experiences. I’ve since found that Sydney brunch often means a trade-off between price, quality, location and atmosphere. Perhaps this is why I idealise Cafe Giulia - it is my brunching rosebud. Since moving to Bondi I haven’t been back to Giulia many times. Perhaps it was fear of disappointment, or just the commute. Whatever the reason I went back recently and was relieved to see that they still make a great breakfast. Just like the old days, I spent ages deliberating in front of the huge blackboard menu. Haloumi bagel? Feta omelette? Avocado, ricotta and tomato on toast? Na-ah. I went for my all time Giulia favourite, olive tapenade, smooth feta, fresh tomatoes and basil on toast. Cafe Giulia has a good range of vegetarian food for both breakfast and lunch. There are not a lot of ostensibly vegan options on the menu because most breakfast dishes include cheese or eggs. However, many of the dishes seem easily adaptable, particularly as most food is made fresh in the open plan kitchen. The foundation stone of the Cafe Giulia’s success is that the owner knows how to make simple, original food extremely well. Combined with a beautiful modern interior that still has touches of Chippendale’s working class history, a sunny courtyard decorated with colourful paper parasols, and friendly artiste type customers, Cafe Guilia is undoubtedly one of Sydney’s best brunch spots. Reviewed 8/4/06. KP. NB: SYDNEY PITT STREET VEGETARIAN CLOSED AT THE END OF FEBRUARY 2007. V-Rating: Super V I have a job where I occasionally get to go out for fancy business lunches. This means lovely restaurants with small food, white tablecloths, and vegetarian unfriendly menus. It is these kinds of experiences that make carnivores lean sympathetically across the table and say ‘It must be so hard being vegetarian. I mean, what do you eat?’ With such scarring experiences in mind, I’m always happy to find a vegetarian business colleague and take them straight to a veggie friendly restaurant. Last week I managed just that with a rare foray into business yum cha at Sydney Pitt Street Vegetarian. My colleague and I both enjoyed the experience, not least because we got to concentrate on talking to each other rather than negotiating something to eat. We arrived at 12.30pm when the restaurant was still empty. By 1.00pm the restaurant was almost full with like-minded suits gossiping over their dumplings. The yum cha dishes came out thick and fast: fried spring rolls, different varieties of steamed dumplings, fried spinach rolls, green vegetables and rice noodles. Many of the dishes were similar to Bodhi’s, although the prices were cheaper (we had 6 dishes and a drink for $28). The service was friendly and the waiting staff were good at judging when to approach with new temptations. My only criticism is that most of the food we were offered was fried. Perhpas I’m used to Bodhi’s where there is a good selection of steamed food that I find kinder during the 3.00pm post-lunch stupor. However, we didn’t try the majority of yum cha dishes and you might be able to request steamed or less oily food. Before trying the yum cha I would have put Sydney Pitt Street Vegetarian in the VVVVV category. I’d eaten there once for dinner when the restaurant was largely empty and lacking in atmosphere. However, for a great value vegetarian yum cha experience Sydney Pitt Street Vegetarian gets a Super V.
V-Rating: VVV Friends of ours recently invited us to their house on a Saturday for a carefully planned gourmet dinner. Rude guests that we are, Andy and I changed the date at short notice to a Thursday night. And that’s how we ended up at Chu Bay II. Chu Bay II is a small Vietnamese restaurant that flirts happily with gaudiness. The tablecloths are deep red and the walls are covered in traditional art. Except for the back wall, which has a neon waterfall sign with water that flows hypnotically at the flick of a switch. More art should move, I think. The menu treats vegetarians kindly. There is a a separate vegetarian section including lemon grass vegetables, vegetarian pancakes and stir-fried vegetables. We began with the rice paper rolls, which were fresh, flavoursome, and much more colourful than my dodgy mobile phone photography suggests. For mains we chose the vegetable curry and then the fresh steamed vegetables on the recommendation of our friends. We also had the vegetarian special noodle dish. Rounding off the pleasant eating experience and great company was the friendly and familiar service that you only get in small, local restaurants. For example, our friend, Rebecca Huntley, has just had her first book published. (It’s called The World According to Y and is available at all good bookstores. I recommend you buy it.) Rebecca brought along a copy to leave at the restuarant for the owner’s daughter who was interested in the topic. The daughter was then called to the restaurant just so she could say thank you. As we were leaving Rebecca and her husband Daniel mentioned they were thinking of a visit to Vietnam. The owner unhesitatingly offered to put them in touch with Vietnamese friends and offered helpful tips on things to do in Hanoi. Chu Bay II is not a restaurant that is immediately striking. However, it was tasty, good value, and a great venue for a casual and intimate night out with friends. |
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