VVOC.org

4/21 Nash St, Paddington Qld

This newly opened restaurant offers many dishes that vegans and vegetarians will enjoy. There are spring rolls that come with sweet chilli sauce, and more interestingly ‘transparent tofu rolls’ that contain plenty of mint with hoisin sauce for dipping; this is a strongly tasting concoction based on soy sauce, and the version served at Mints contains little pieces of peanut. For our main course we enjoyed tofu lemon grass and chilli (there is a wide range of tofu dishes), mixed vegetables with cashews (again, vegetables are cooked in a variety of ways) and a bowl of kailan, one of the Asian leafy green vegetables that is served with lashings of finely chopped garlic. It’s always reassuring when in an ethnic restaurant to see members of its community eating there, and the large number of Vietnamese diners who were obviously enjoying the food as much as we did was heartening. May Mint’s enjoy great success!

5/225 Hawken Drive, St Lucia Qld

This is an small, informal restaurant with a lot to offer vegetarians. The VVOC team of inspectors tackled a range of burgers, and all were impressed. The BBQ Tofu Burger was described as ‘Yummy! Delicious crispy bread (in this case gluten free), tasty soy mayonnaise, and the tofu grilled to perfection.’  The lentil-based Bliss Burger was rated ‘Delicious with lovely fresh salad on yummy panini; enjoyed that it had plenty of dressing.’ The Satay Bliss Burger was found so good our taster had to order a second, describing it as ‘very yummy!’ So much yumminess at one table. People who don’t like burgers are bound to enjoy other dishes from a very international menu, among them a very acceptable humus; there are excellent smoothies and, something unexpected, superbly rich coffee. The VVOC crew, well some of them, are used to excellent food at home, but all were bowled over by this restaurant. It has our strongest recommendation, and we’d like to thank the staff who looked after us so well.

3/147 Latrobe Terr, Paddington

 A reunion with old friends took us to this  restaurant, where the menu has a remarkably wide range of vegetarian and vegan dishes, the latter specially marked. We began with an old favourite, onion and spinach bhajji, and something none of us had heard of, Harra Bharra Kebab, which comprises, just as the menu promises, fennel scented spinach, corn and potato; I’m not sure how this dish, two of its ingredients clearly of American origin, fits into the great scheme of Indian food. For main meals we went for the ever popular Bombay Aloo of potato and cauliflower, a pumpkin and spinach salan with mustard seeds and curry leaves, and another dish that was new to us, an Aloo Baingan Bagarey of eggplant and potato. A naan helped the vegetarians mop up the curries, a roti the vegan. Not only is the food at the Indus very good, but the breadth of the menu means that the most seasoned eaters of Indian food are sure to find new things. Beware, however; its justified popularity and the happiness of the diners creates a level of background noise that can make conversation difficult. Enjoy the food and talk outside!

Our restaurant page has now been updated to include an alphabetical listing of all the restaurants reviewed by vvoc.org. Please go and take a look! The ‘Restaurants‘ page appears under the ‘About’ tab on our home page. Hopefully this will make searching for a place to find veggie food near you a little easier.

163 Given Terrace, Paddington Qld

A meeting with an old friend was the occasion for a very happy dinner at an Indian restaurant  which we both remember fondly from days of old. We began with vegetarian samosas, of the thick variety and nicely flavoured with tamarind sauce (the sweet chilli promised by the menu didn’t eventuate, but we weren’t complaining) and an onion salad with plenty of ripe tomatoes, enlivened by rings of red onion and sprigs of coriander. For main meals we went for a beautifully spiced dal masala with plenty of bay leaves and an alu palak with very fine and presumably fresh spinach. Within reach lay thin spicy lime naans, cooked vegan-style, and a large bowl of rice. The sultan from whose kitchen these delights come is a lucky person, his staff are gracious and obliging, and feasting on such excellent food is the perfect accompaniment to the more important task of catching up. May this restaurant flourish for many more years!

Shop K4, SunnyPark Shopping Centre, 342 McCullough St, Sunnybank Qld

This is a smart Taiwanese restaurant that was packed on the night we visited. For starters we ordered a dish described on the menu as balsam pears in plum sauce, but were in for a surprise, for the pieces were as crunchy as a gherkin, and the waiter later told us they were slices of bitter melon. Indeed, these ‘pears’ do not grow on a tree but on vines, and are members of the family that includes melons and cucumbers; there’s always something more to learn. The restaurant also offers fried battered mushrooms as a starter. When it came to a main course the menu offered nothing vegetarian, but the cook kindly prepared a special dish for us, made up of pieces of soft tofu with small pieces of mushroom and red chilli. It was bubbling as it was brought to the table and, when it had cooled down a little, delicious with rice. A most enjoyable, as well as educative, dinner!

42/342 McCullough St, Sunnybank Qld

Some the dishes at this popular restaurant are actually quite mild. The green onion pancakes, for example, seem free of chillis, and the tofu and bak choy soup, which contains more of the latter ingredient than the former, is if anything on the delicate side. But the chilli and seaweed salad, crunchy and dark green, packs a real punch, and the sauce that comes with the potato shreds and chilli is seriously hot. Top of the range, however, is the dish of cauliflower that comes with large pieces of fresh green chilli, dried chilli, lumps of garlic and shallots. It would be fair to say that the original taste of the vegetable has been lost; whereas the spices used in Indian cooking can add value to the mild-flavoured cauliflower, what’s been thrown at it here has smothered it.  Lovers of strong tastes will relish this restaurant, others may feel it’s not really their scene, but everyone will be glad to have a big glass of water standing at the ready.

Termini Railway Station, Rome

Self-service cafeterias at train stations can be sad places full of sad people, but not this one! As you enter you help yourself to a fresh bread roll, and might then turn to the right, where there is a stand with cooked vegetables, including potatoes fried in olive oil seasoned with thyme, and the oily aubergine so often a feature of Mediterranean cooking. To the left is a salad bar where the choices of include lima beans, beautiful tomatoes and greens. There are dishes of pasta with tomatoes and cheese mixed in, and a fruit salad bar where you can ladle as much fresh fruit as you can handle into a bowl. On the way out there is water and wine, while in the eating area are bottles of virgin olive oil and vinegar to splash over your meal. And just in case you think you are in a cafeteria at the train station, in one corner is a grand piano you may be lucky enough to hear played!

8-10 Neal’s Yard, London WC2

Funky is the style at this smart place that opened in 1982 and may have seemed a little retro in its ambience even then; now it almost suggests self-parody. But it’s a great  place to sit in the open air and admire the local scenery. For starters we enjoyed a vegan soup (pumpkin with coriander) and bruschetta on a kind of crisp bread made of rice flour. My companion ordered a quiche of spinach and ricotta that she pronounced ‘perfectly pleasant’, while I went for a large salad of tomato, celery, leek, beetroot, grated carrot and cucumber, its beautiful colours  echoing the psychedelic get-up of the neighbourhood.  For drinks you can’t go past the ABC (apple, beetroot and carrot)…so many vitamins in the heart of London! The food here is seriously good for you, and for some people this Salad Bar offers a trip down memory lane, although not necessarily the kind of trip people often took in those groovy days.

44 Cloth Fair, London EC1

Located, as the name of the street suggests, in a most interesting area of old London, and a stone’s throw from the Romanesque church of St Bartholomew the Great where we had been to a wonderful performance of medieval music, this vegetarian organic Italian restaurant was just the place for an apres concert. We feasted on bruschetta al pomodoro, more dainty in its presentation than this dish sometimes is, tagliere con foccacia (bread, cheese, olives and oil for dipping), crocchetta (luscious aubergines with spelt cake),  cous-cous and a dish of polenta with chick peas, tomato and shavings of carrot. For desert we were offered four different sorbets, among them an especially memorable peach. There is an interesting list of Italian wines, all of them organic and each labelled vegan or vegetarian; I’ll take a dry white with food of this kind. Stylish in ambience and innovative in its cuisine, Amico Bio can mix it with the best of them. I hope to be able to repay the generosity of the kind friends who took me there very soon!