Archive for the ‘Pub grub’ Category
V Rating: VV All Bar Nun is one of the few genuine pubs in Canberra, and is a bit of an inner-north institution. During university terms or over summer it will often be packed out during the evenings. It can be a very pleasant place to spend a lazy Canberra Sunday afternoon. Whenever there is a rugby match on TV it will be standing room only. But on the Wednesday winter night that I went there for dinner and drinks with a few friends, there were quite a few free seats inside even at 8pm, and only a few brave souls at the outside tables. Food-wise, as far as vegetarians are concerned, All Bar Nun serves snacks and light meals. Choices for snacks include garlic or herb bread ($3.50), beer battered chips served with sour cream and salsa ($6.00), bean nachos with sour cream and guacamole ($9.00), vegetarian spring rolls ($5.00) or dips and bread ($8.00). The snack menu also features a tapas plate (”that’s like mezze…”), and although the tapas includes some meaty ingredients, you can ask for a vegetarian version (which will involve spinach and feta triangles, falafel balls and vegetarian spring rolls). The mains for vegetarians are a vegetarian pizza with roast pumpkin, bocconcini, spinach, pesto and olives ($12.50), fried pumpkin risotto balls with salad ($8.00), a falafel burger with salad and chips ($10.00), the bean tortilla with salad, guacamole and sour cream ($8.00), or there is the “big salad” ($10.00), which I suspect is named purely for the now-dated Seinfeld reference, rather than because it is actually big in size. The “big salad” is described on the menu as containing “mixed leaves, tomato, cucumber, onion, olives, feta and a dressing of tomato and basil “. Previously when I have ordered this I have received a not-all-that-big salad containing some, but not all, of these ingredients. Still, on that occasion the salad was still quite enjoyable and tasty and allowed me to convince myself I was doing something healthy to counteract the however-many pints I had to accompany the salad. I have also previously had the vegetarian pizza, which was agreeable, if a bit greasy. This time I decided to order the risotto balls. The two balls were a little smaller than a tennis ball, and were served sliced in half and lying on a bed of salad. All of this had been drizzled in a mysterious white dressing - perhaps an aioli? Whatever it was, the dressing was a bit overpowering for my liking. The risotto balls themselves were, I have to say it, a disappointment. The balls had apparently been deep fried and contained visible chunks of pumpkin and feta (I think), and yet, they weren’t very flavoursome. The frying had also made them quite fatty. All Bar Nun scores a VV. There is quite a reasonable vegetarian choice: four mains - sorry, “light meals” - as well as a selection of snacks. The choices are ok as far as bar food goes, they just seem to have the common theme of “fried and fatty”. But hey, it’s a pub, and that sort of food goes well with beer. - AC
V-Rating: V-ware Back in the day when I was a (nearly) Balmain local, pubs in Balmain were generally a little dirtier, grungier and less reliant on stainless steel as a design feature. Basically, they had atmosphere. However, The Monkey Bar was always a shinier, more polished location in which to eat and drink — and not necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes it’s nice to go somewhere with floors that don’t stick to your shoes. Recently I was visiting a friend in Balmain and he suggested we pop into The Monkey Bar for a spot of Sunday lunch from the bar menu. Unfortunately, I was less than impressed with the vegetarian options. My companions quickly selected what turned out to be very nice steaks and chicken burgers while I was left floundering. My choices seemed to be limited to bruschetta, chips or wedges. Luckily, there was an additional specials menu at the bar that offered a single veggie breakfast option: a leek and mushroom omelette, which was lovely. Confusingly, the bar menu offered on The Monkey Bar’s website contains a number of pub-standard veggie meals that were nowhere to be seen the day I was there. So, great for a drink, great for a steak, but not so great for vegetarians who desire more than deep fried potato. Reviewed 2 April 2006. SDEB.
V Rating: VV On Mulgoa road in Penrith everything comes in mega sizes. There’s the mega piano shop, the mega Freedom store and the mega Toys ‘R’ Us. But amongst this field of oversized dreams, nothing compares to the megaopolis that is Panthers World.
Panthers World is one of 14 Penrith Panther rugby league clubs. It is not a building - it is a city. Panthers World houses multiple restaurants and bars, a theatre, shops and a dedicated gaming area. There are staff stationed all around as tour guides. Befriend them. You will need their help to get around. Panthers even has a currency, ‘Panther points’, which you can use to pay for meals. I wasn’t confident that Panthers would cater for vegetarians. Actually, I was sure they wouldn’t. However, Flavours Cafe and Bar proved me wrong. There was a separate vegetarian section to the menu with four or five options, and a vegetarian special advertised everyday on a mega-sized dedicated blackboard. While we’re not talking gourmet fare, my pasta with sun dried tomatoes, zucchini and feta was fine, albeit 15 sizes too big for my generally greedy tummy. Andy went with the veggie lasagne with salad and chips, which was also bigger than he could manage. Interestingly, the trays that you use to collect your food, and the serving plates, are all over-sized. This made me feel a bit like Alice in Wonderland. The only veggie downsides are that there are no real vegan main options, the kids menu is only for carnivores and you can’t escape the pervasive razzle dazzle of the pokies. Otherwise, it’s commendable that Flavours makes a real effort to cater for veggies. Reviewed 24 March 2006.
V-Rating: VVV The Retreat Hotel is a bit of a Brunswick institution. It’s a little bit shabby and retro on the inside with a massive beer garden out the back that on a Sunday afternoon looks like some guy’s big BBQ house party with DJ. The street frontage boasts four large tables that catch the afternoon sun – perfect for that lazy afternoon in Melbourne’s cooler months. Settling in for the long haul one Sunday arvo I was expecting the veggie choice at the in-house restaurant to be poor. At best, I was expecting standard gastro-pub veggie choices such as a tomato sauce pasta or veggie lasagne. At worst, I was preparing to fall back on the emergency veggie “meal” of wedges and sauce. How wrong I was… I was startled by the veggie range given the pub location. A lentil burger, a roast veggie stack on salad, a roast vegetable pasta, a vegetable lasagne and – catch this – a vegan pasta. Now, we’re not talking haute cuisine here but the carnivore choices (parma, fish and chips etc.) aren’t exactly three star Michelin offerings either. As much as I wanted to give the veggie stack a whirl I couldn’t go past the lentil burger. I’m a bit of a lentil/ tofu burger junkie and, don’t forget, a burger goes oh-so-nice with a pint of Guinness. The burger was all I hoped for and more. The genuinely tasty lentil pattie was well balanced with the fresh salad and mystery dressing. As long as the mystery isn’t chicken stock I’m happy for the mystery to remain a mystery. The large burger and thick-cut chips to round off the plate made it value-for-money pub grub. My dining companions highly enjoyed their meat-based meals so The Retreat will satisfy both herbivores and carnivores with food+beer needs.
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. |
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