Archive for July, 2006
V Rating: VV (but almost a VVV). Friday night came around and Andy and I headed to Libertine with our ex-housemate and his girlfriend. It certainly upped the glamour stakes from our usual Friday nights in - although I guess it’s not hard to out do beer, TV and tracky pants.
After sampling a cocktail we moved on to the restaurant for dinner. Some of us weren’t quite finished when the waiting staff came to shoosh us on, but I guess beautiful people wait for no-one. The restaurant is decorated in an opulent, rich style. Intricate chandeliers fall from the roof, their sparkles reflecting in the gilt-edged mirrors. What I liked most was that the designers haven’t sacrificed warmth for ostentation - Libertine has a feeling of openess, generosity and fun. For example, the restaurant is divided into different sections, including an outdoor area, but they all open onto each other. While Libertine is tagged as a French / Vietnamese menu, it’s more accurately described on the website as Vietnamese food with French influences. That suits me because I prefer the lighter Vietnamese flavours. There’s one vegetarian entree - a crispy noodle salad with nuoc xoat (a vegetarian version of a traditional table sauce with lemongrass, garlic, spring onions, chilli and soy). However, we skipped the not so veggie friendly entree menu and went straight for the mains. I was happy to see that three of the ten main options were vegetarian. We ordered two - the crispy spiced tofu and the Southern style vegetable curry with okra, sweet potato and eggplant. We also tried two of the side dishes - (chef) Ryan’s magic mushrooms, and wok-seared Asian greens.
For dessert Andy had the lemongrass creme brulee and I had the more traditional rhubarb, pear and Vietnamese mint crumble with vanilla ice cream and creme anglaise. Unlike Ed at Tomato I like my old faithful vanilla, and have been hankering for rhubarb lately (we used to have it a lot when I was quite young) and the crumble hit the spot.
The creme brulee produced more mixed feelings. I really liked it - I can’t remember having lemongrass in a dessert, so initially the sweet creaminess of the brulee was at odds with the strong lemongrass aftertaste, but once I was accustomed to it I enjoyed the combination. The others were less convinced - perhaps they have more of a sweet tooth than I do. I really enjoyed Libertine. I loved the decor, ambience, and combination of restaurant and refined cocktail lounge. I thought that the food was tasty and happily unpretentious. I’d rate Libertine as a borderline VV / VVV for food - the only downside for vegetarians is that there’s only one entree. However, making up for this is a great range of unique, all vegetarian salads. Definitely one to try again.
V Rating: VV Jimbaran sits serenely on Avoca Street in Randwick, a world away from the squashed and noisy Indonesian cafes on nearby Anzac Parade.
I assume that the restaurant is named for Jimbaran Bay in Bali, tragic site of bombings in October 2005, and whose upmarket restaurants were popular with Western tourists. Last Sunday, L. and I were led away from this romantic front area (perhaps they knew that even with plastic covers I wasn’t to be trusted) and into the large, covered back courtyard.
We eyed off the vegetable curry (lodeh), but opted for the fried egg noodles with vegetables and Morning Glory stir-fried with a preserved soya bean sauce. The noodles were huge and beautifully presented on a banana leaf. There were not a lot of vegetables in amongst the noodles, but it was certainly a filling dish. I was keen to try the morning glory and it reminds me of being in Asia. I don’t remember morning glory from Indonesia but ate a lot of it in Laos (not an overly veggie friendly place). It’s not a dish you see a lot in Australia - perhaps because it’s less euphemistically known as river weed, which makes it hard to move on a menu.
I ummed and ahhed about giving Jimbaran a VVV - the food is well-priced, the atmosphere is lovely and the menu has a good range of traditional Indonesian and vegetarian dishes, although other friends tell me that Jimbaran is famous for its seafood dishes. My only hesitation was that the vegetarian food I tried was pleasant but not particularly flavoursome. Disappointingly, Jimbaran doesn’t make use of tempeh or tofu, which are common in Indonesian, and half of the vegetarian dishes were variations on noodle or fried rice. The rating is provisional - I’d like to go again and try the lodeh, fried eggplant, and cap cay which might make better vegetarian choices than the options.
V Rating: VV Look, we’d been out for beers in a largish group and wanted some food, okay? We wanted somewhere close and simple and Blue Train was at least close. Their website describes the ambiance thus:
Spew. They were right about the delay but “comfy and funky lounge area” is stretching it a bit. When we were finally shown to a table I was starting to get a bit edgy about the awful noise of 200 drunken “young professionals” and “funky young things” shouting to each other across tables. But enough about my grumpy nature. The food was adequate. Veggie choices are restricted to a dahl, a pasta, a risotto, a few salads and a couple of pizzas. The menu was so boring I’m running out of motivation to type. I had the pumpkin, fetta, leek, pine nuts and roquette pizza which was okay. Somebody else had the mushroom, spinach, sage and marscapone pizza. It was okay. Ugh. Go if you must, but don’t say I didn’t warn you. Reviewed 21 July ‘06, SDEB.
V Rating: Super V Last weekend Andy and I belatedly celebrated our four year anniversary. Ahh yes, who would have thought that a humble invitation to see Spiderman could lead to a lifetime of wedded bliss (OK, the wedded part is still in train… but we have the bliss down pat).
While other vegetarian restaurants in Sydney are mostly Asian Buddhist, Harvest has a secular, European feel. There’s nothing like it in Sydney, although it reminds me of Bernadette’s in Canberra, Sprouts in Adelaide or the now defunct Squirrels in Brisbane. The street frontage is bedecked with fairy lights and the intimate view of the city skyline isn’t too bad either. Inside, the walls are painted vivd blue, the tables have crisp white linen tablecloths and the furniture feels like something out of a country kitchen. The comparatively expensive menu borrows vegetarian dishes from around the world, including pastas, stir-frys, fried and fresh spring rolls and pakhoras.
I went with a tapas plate combining guacomole, eggplant roulade, hummus, and goats cheese dip. It was served with long, thin wafers of bread. The dips were delicious - particularly the spicy eggplant and soft, rich goats cheese, but the hummus was too plain for my liking.
I chose what I thought was an Indian curry (which I love). Unfortunately, I didn’t read the numerous ingredients on the menu closely and it turned out to be more of a peanut satay (which I don’t love). The chutneys and pappadams that gave with it were great, but the dish was too heavy and rich for me to finish. Seeing as it was our anniversary we decided to splurge and get dessert - white and dark chocloate truffles filled with ice cream. These were luxorious, sweet and creamy - and definitely a job for two. I enjoyed them but should probably had chosen a less decadent option. While Harvest isn’t vegan, they ensure that there are a decent number of vegan dishes on both the entree and mains menu. All cheese is rennet free, and they only use free range eggs. Where possible they use organic food. From memory, there are other foods, such as honey, which they either leave out or can omit. Harvest is not a restaurant that I’d eat at everyday. However, it makes a wonderful and romantic choice for special occasions. Love you honey!
V Rating: Super V Ever since I’ve been writing this blog I’ve had a niggling feeling of inadequacy. How can I claim any credibility as a Sydney vegetarian restaurant reviewer when there’s no mention of Green Gourmet on the site? Green Gourmet has been around for years and is one of Sydney’s best known and most loved vegetarian restaurants. The Newtown restaurant was so successful that a small vegetarian grocery store was opened next door, and a second restaurant was opened in St Leonards. Fortunately, the stormy weather on Saturday helped me convince our group of friends to swap yum cha at Bodhis for yum cha at the original Green Gourmet in Newtown (nb: love a city where there are multiple vegetarian yum cha options).
Green Gourmet is a novel dining experience. You can order off the extensive and highly recommended menu. Alternatively, there’s a big dinner buffet where you pay according to the weight of your meal. I love the endless plates of vegetarian stiry-frys, fried snacks, and vegetable dishes, but not the moment of reckoning when my plate consistently seems to be the heaviest of everyone in my group (I figure it’s the guilt weighing me down). On the weekend Green Gourmet runs vegetarian yum cha. We arrived about half an hour after yum cha started and before the restaurant was full. While the staff were lovely, it was a slightly slow process with one or two dishes carried out on a tray at a time. This is no problem for a small table, but for our hungry group of six it meant taking whatever we were offered, rather than choosing from a selection. The yum cha options were diverse - fresh rice paper rolls, fried spring rolls, sweet and sour fake pork, fried fake drumsticks and seafood rolls, green vegetables, dumplings and satay skewers. The choices were distinctly different from what I’ve had at Bodhis, which focuses more on steamed dumplings and steers clear of fake meat. This may just have been luck of the draw - the menu suggests that there is also a range of vegetable and steamed yum cha offerings.
Another highlight of Green Gourmet is the long and unusual tea menu. Like many of Sydney’s vegetarian restaurants, Green Gourmet has a Buddhist ethic so there’s no garlic, onion or alcohol to be found on the premises. Green Gourmet definitely rates as one of my favourite vegetarian places in Sydney - but I’d try the dinner / buffet option ahead of yum cha.
V Rating: VVVV Last week Andy and I were back in Brisbane. We were wandering hungrily around the city when Andy (an ex-citizen of Brisvegas) had a moment of inspiration and realised that a vegetarian friendly place was just around the corner from us on Elizabeth Street.
There is a choice between some ready made meals, which you can take-away or eat-in, and an extensive menu. Helpfully, the menu is laid out on an A4 sheet, with one side listing meat options and the other vegetarian. Sweet! There were 19 vegetarian mains and 7 vegetarian options. Options range from soups, curries, stiry-frys and noodle dishes from across South-East Asia. Andy wisely chose a dumpling soup, which was delicious, while I went with the Malaysian stir-fry noodles. Adding a nice touch, when we ordered our vegetarian meals, the friendly waitress checked whether we ate egg, garlic and onion. Both meals were freshly and quickly cooked, and good value for money. We washed them down with a refreshing sweet milk and a fizzy lemon drink. With its close proximity to the Brisbane CBD and QUT, City Wok makes a great lunch spot for vegetarians and non-vegetarians alike.
V Rating: V-ware Cafe Sydney was the venue for a dinner with work colleagues this week. At the high end of the Sydney restaurant scene, it boasts beautiful views of the Sydney Opera House and harbour from the top of Circular Quay’s renovated Customs House. Enjoy the view because there’s little by way of choice for vegetarian folk. A quick squiz of the menu revealed no vegetarian entrees and a single choice for mains. After explaining my predicament to an attentive waiter, he suggested the cured meat and roasted pear salad with the meat removed. I’m not a big fan of modified meals. Meat eaters don’t have to ask for their meals to be modified when they go out for dinner, so why should I? But mindful of the need to eat, I took the waiter’s suggestion and also ordered the “roast garlic gnocchi with pumpkin sage and cashew pesto, taleggio and nut brown butter” for main course. The pear salad was dressed with a reduced balsamic vinegar and was tasty enough. The gnocchi though was ultra-rich and a little oily. I put my plate aside after a while and filled up on naan bread and steamed greens instead. The wine we chose from the extensive wine list was excellent. But typical of the top end of town, the meal was very disappointing as despite the best efforts of the waiting staff, the menu made no effort to cater for vegetarians. V-ware. Barry R. Reviewed 12/07/06. |
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