james test

May 7, 2017 The Snug has been promising weekend breakfasts ever since they introduced their vegan menu last year , and they debuted mornings this month! Sharp-eyed Michael noticed it from the street within two hours of opening but I kept him waiting further 23 before letting him loose on the Big Breakie ($19). This is an enormous shallow bowl with sourdough toast and margarine, two rashers of the best streaky facon, a Tofurky sausage, scrambled silken tofu, grilled mushrooms, a golden hash brown, tub of baked beans, and bonus unlisted grilled cherry tomatoes. Michael attacked it with gusto, saw the meal through, and skipped lunch entirely as a consequence. I took a little more time to choose than Michael. Fruit toast excepted, the menu is all savoury, and it's dominated by carbs and mock meats. On another day I'd be drawn to the Facon Butty or the BLAT; there's also Bacon and Eggs (facon and scrambled tofu) for those who like to mock the simple things. But I was on the look...

April 29, 2017 We've become pretty lazy Brunswick brunchers lately, more often than not stumbling around the corner to the ever-reliable Wide Open Road . This weekend though we decided to try to recapture our more adventurous spirit and check out somewhere new. I'd been meaning to visit Kines ever since Keeden left Sonido to open it up. It's a nicely renovated warehouse space just off Sydney Road - they've made it comfy without going over the top, meaning there's a kind of ramshackle charm to the fit-out. The menu is full of interesting options - pickled beetroot sandwiches, vegan-friendly toasties, kim chi pancakes, creamed corn and more. It's pretty vegan-friendly by default and they're happy to tweak things on most dishes to cater for dietary requirements. The link to Sonido is strong, with arepas popping up across the menu. The coffee (using Seven Seeds beans) is fabulous, but Cindy was more excited by the possibility of ordering a Milo ($4). It turned ...

March 10, 2017 When we're feeling lazy on a Friday evening, we're lucky to have the Snug close by. (South-siders can no longer say the same, with their St Kilda sister closing this month .) We've been pleasantly surprised to find that even as folks clock off for the week, the back garden is not necessarily packed with drinkers and smokers. Their vegan menu has stabilised somewhat since our first visit . Michael went back to the bangers'n'mash (now $26) - it's a filling but not over-the-top serve with a lovely red onion gravy. Little else on the menu looks familiar but plenty looks appetising, from cauliflower poppers to shepherd's pie, spaghetti alfredo and three mock burgers. I took on the fillet-no-fish burger ($20) - it's a really nice rendition based around the excellent Gardein fillets, with a soft-but-not-too-sweet bun, tartare sauce and salad. Chips were abundant, cut thick with the skin left on. (I should've hunted down some sauce for them....

December 8, 2016 For my birthday dinner out this year I picked a Pierre Roelofs Dessert Evening. We've been following Roelofs' sweet degustations around town a while, from their long tenure at  Cafe Rosamond , across the river to  Fancy Nance  and then just down the street last summer at  Green Park Dining . This year he's been serving four-course dessert degustations on Thursday nights at Milkwood in Brunswick East. This arrangement is coming to a close this month, and so we were treated to a 'best of' dessert retrospective on our visit. These evenings always commence with a dessert tube, and ours was a strip of creme brûlée! We were instructed to steep the amber sugar cap in a beaker of hot water for 4 seconds - this was just enough to loosen it from the tube while preserving its dense caramelly contrast to the rich vanilla custard. Our second dessert was a medley of flavours and textures - beetroot, mandarin and chocolate took the forms of crumbs, jellies, mering...

November 26, 2016 We've been keen to check out Lankan Tucker since it opened in Brunswick West earlier this year. The location - tucked way down the western end of Albion Street near Lolo & Wren  - isn't super convenient, but the combination of breakfast and roti bread was enough to convince us to make the bike ride. It's a cute little place, with a mix of indoor and outdoor seating and lots of light streaming in. The idea of a place serving up brunchy dishes with a Sri Lankan twist is perfectly targeted at me - I'm generally keen on curry for breakfast and double so if I can somehow combine it with eggs. It's a bit surprising that so few places are doing this - the only other place I can think of is the vegan about town - endorsed Pavlov's Duck. The menu is long, with a mix of conventional brunch dishes (granola, omelettes, avo smash, etc) and more interesting Sri Lankan-inspired dishes (lots of roti plus interesting snacks like vadai and lunch food like ...

November 7, 2016 We've been meaning to check out the Tamil Feasts at CERES for months, having heard great things from a few friends and via Moni's rave review . It's a lovely concept - three nights a week a group of Tamil asylum seekers and volunteers take over the community kitchen at CERES and put on a feast. The Tamil guys have all spent years in detention centres and are still waiting for a final decision on their futures. In the meantime they bring their culinary expertise to CERES, raising money for their community and their friends still in detention. More than money raised, the night provides a place for Melbournites to meet asylum seekers, hear their stories and celebrate their culture - it's a lovely idea and the atmosphere on the night we visited was warm and friendly. You pay $30 up front for the food and there's a cash bar on the night with beer, wine and kombucha on offer. Luckily the food really measures up to all the good vibes. They started us off w...

October 15 & 22, 2016 Having lived in Carlton for 7 years, we've seen the best and the worst of Italian restaurants. Some fabulous pizzas, some fluffy gnocchi, some heavy and regrettable gnocchi, a couple of yawn-worthy mushroom risottos, and one or two plates of simple, fresh pesto pasta. Comfort food when it's done well, and often shared with friends, but nothing vegan-friendly. So I didn't pay attention to the first couple of Small Axe Kitchen reviews I saw online - what could this Sicilian restaurant be doing that would lure me away from Ray across the street?  Their primary novelty is reported to be a dish of breakfast pasta that includes cured pork cheek. Welp,  Veganopoulous set me straight. Small Axe Kitchen has all sorts of veg-friendly food for lunch and brunch.  Gluten-free folks have plenty to choose from, too! The menu's scattered with  v s, vgns and gf s that make it easy to scan... although there's a risk of scanning right past the unmarked gr...

October 19, 2016 I was pretty shocked when I read Faye's post about the vegan options at St Kilda's version of The Snug Public House - the Brunswick branch has always seemed quietly charming but very, very meaty. Luckily for us though, the St Kilda vegan menu seems to have gone well, prompting the owners to start rolling out vegan options out near us. We dropped by with a couple of friends on one of their first vegan-friendly nights to check things out. It's a small pub, with just a handful of tables inside and a few more in their cute little courtyard.   They were still sorting out the menu when we visited - there were just four dishes on offer and things were still changing from night to night. They're promising that a bigger menu is on its way, including vegan options for weekend brunch. Exciting times! The kitchen got us started with Guinness bread and Nuttelex while we workshopped our options. In the end, with four dishes to choose from and four people eating, it ...

August 14, 2016 Though it's still pretty chilly, there are signs that winter is receding - the neighbourhood magnolias are flowering, the magpies look ready to swoop any day now and we've seen 20 degrees again, just the once. It's enough to inspire Michael to get up early for bird-watching, and for me to grab a picnic blanket and meet him for lunch. Rather than preparing our own spread, we picked up lunchboxes from Mankoushe ($13 each). They'll cater to all manner of special dietary requirements, and the packages were vegan by default on the Sunday that we dropped in. We enjoyed dense little packs of a half-dozen dishes - grainy salads, garlicky sauteed greens, fresh tomatoes and pickley cabbage, nuts folded into a starchy mash, and slightly saucy lentils. Michael ably shovelled up his share with a wooden fork while the sun was still shining; I was slower. The wind picked up, the sun ducked behind a cloud, and I tucked up the last third of my food for later. We escaped ...

June 23, 2016 Cindy and I had a short overlapping window between my return from Sweden and her trip to the US and we were keen to squeeze in a quick visit to Very Good Falafel, a much-hyped new place in Brunswick. The duo who run it - Shuki and Louisa - have made their name serving up falafel pita pockets at markets all 'round Melbourne, and this is their shot at a permanent base. The menu is pretty simple: falafel, sabih (and eggplant and egg dish) or ktzizot (a lamb dish) served either in a pita or as a plate. You can also get a plate of their rotating selection of salads, with or without falafel balls, or hummus/babaganoush-based plates.  I couldn't resist the salad plate - green beans and Brussels sprouts in tomato and capsicum sauce, roasted pumpkin with kale and freekeh, cabbage, kohlrabi and sultanas - plus three falafel balls and tahini ($13).  This place really does live up to its name - these falafel balls are very good indeed: crispy on the outside, tender and spic...

April 29-30, 2016 Good Days has opened so unobtrusively next to the Cornish Arms that I was at risk of overlooking it. Luckily for me, several friends tagged me into their Broadsheet coverage so I was soon in the know. I even managed to catch a cold, all the better to assess the restorative properties of their vegan pho. The menu and venue are both small but carefully curated - there are rice paper rolls, pho, noodle salad and chicken rice, with well-marked vegan options on the former three. No hints for coeliacs; I'm hopeful the rice paper rolls might suit. On my first visit I tried the mushroom pho ($15). The overall effect was very gentle, from the subtly flavoured broth to the lightly braised and grilled mushrooms, bean sprouts and herbs (there was chilli and a lemon wedge on hand for a bit of bite). My favourite part was the thick, slippery noodles. I was also delighted to order and pour my own Vietnamese iced coffee ($4.50, pictured back). It wasn't as bitter as I...

March 20, 2016 With a day of Ottolenghi-related cooking ahead of us (blog posts to come soon!), we needed somewhere local for a quick and delicious brekkie. Having overdoses on the Wide Open Road menu recently, it was time for a return trip to Lucy Lockett. There's a steady buzz at Lucy Lockett these days - the outside tables were full when we arrived, and the inside tables gradually filled up while we ate. The menu has changed a bit since our last visit, but there's still an impressive selection, with heaps of vegan and gluten-free options. We both wound up ordering vegan dishes - with the breakfast salad of felafel, sauteed greens, cashew butter, beetroot and pickled carrot ($16) for me. This is a pretty lunchy breakfast - some crispy felafel balls on top of a lovely mix of leafy greens, broccolini and asparagus plus a couple of whole mini carrots and some slivers of beetroot and radish. The cashew butter lumped on top was a bit thick and stodgy - I don't really know why ...