james test

May 14, 2017 The whole Korean fried chicken explosion that swept Melbourne a few years back kind of passed us by - it didn't seem to have too much to offer us vegos. It was a surprise then when we noticed the Gami Chicken & Beer in Fitzroy proudly advertising their 'signature' vegetarian fried chicken.  The Fitzroy restaurant is a cute little place - seats for maybe 30 people, lots of bright colours and K-Pop blaring on the speakers. Once you get past the fried chicken, the menu is surprisingly veg-friendly - more than half of the 'Gami Delights' and light meals are marked vegetarian, tempting us with kim chi pancakes ($14), potato heaven ($14) and fried rice cakes ($5.50). I couldn't resist a lunchtime beer, while Cindy ordered a crushed pear soft drink, which turned out to be a sweet juice rather than a carbonated soda. They came out with a serve of prawn crackers (not vego) and some pickled radish. Our choice of side dish was mushroom mania ($16), a hot p...

April 30, 2017 We used to love The Tramway Hotel, it had fancy burgers with vegan options, an open fire and relaxed vibes. The pub changed hands a few years ago and shifted direction slightly, but we'd heard good things about the new menu and have been meaning to go for ages. On Sunday arvo we had the perfect excuse - our friend's band Crop Top were playing a gig, meaning we could combine punk rock and vegan junk food. The menu is very veg-friendly, with a couple of vegan burgers and a vego one, heaps of sides and a vegan sundae for dessert. We went a bit crazy and ordered way too much food. Cindy couldn't resist the vegan mac and cheese ($12) and friends recommended the vegan mushroom poutine ($16). Foolishly, we also ordered a vegan whipper burger ($15) and the chipotle fried brussel sprouts with lime and coriander aioli ($12 - we weren't sure if the aioli was vegan or not). The poutine was out of control, with fat chips slathered in a chunky mushroom gravy and heaps...

March 12, 2017 We've noticed that the inner north's cafes are less busy on Golden Plains weekend, and we try to take advantage of it. This year we ventured out to Fitzroy's New School Canteen, which Steph & Hayley had been urging us to visit. They were impressed by the array of vegan and eggy breakfasts, respectively, and knew I'd be all over the 'dessert breakfast' section of the menu. Sadly, by the time we gave New School Canteen a shot the menu had changed and 'dessert breakfasts' were no longer a feature. For us sweet lovers, the solitary option was a chia pudding - no thanks! Rather, there's an abundance of rich savoury eggs, breakfast burgers and toasties (including vegan cheese!) with a superfood-styled rice bowl and grain salad as exceptions. Michael was, of course, spoiled for choice. He was impressed by the panko-crumbed poached eggs ($17.50) served with green papaya slaw, chilli jam, and tofu so deeply braised that it was nearly bla...

January 8, 2017 The Vegie Bar family has added another new member since Transformer. It's called Girls & Boys, and it's located right next door to the Vegie Bar on Brunswick St. Instead of smashing the gender binary, they've focused their efforts on sweet vegan snacks - the fanciest of raw cakes, a case of gelato, coconut-based soft-serve icecream, smoothies & thickshakes. They've got also a coffee machine and a selection of the latest lattes (turmeric, beetroot, etc), and the natural conclusion: a vegan affogato. We stopped by after a hot night at the Tote and ordered this choc-raspberry soft-serve explosion ($12) to share. The texture is bona fide and I liked the light, sweet coconut flavour of the icecream. The vegan meringue shards and freeze-dried raspberries were ideal crunchy-tangy counterpoints, but unfortunately the chocolate components were a let-down - the brownie squares were tasteless and the sauce dulled in the cold. It's awfully exciting to s...

December 11, 2016 Rue de Creperie sits in that strip of Brunswick St that's full of veg*n eateries. It's not entirely vego but their street board promises vegan options. They really deliver, too - the savoury galette batter is vegan and gluten free, and the sweet crepe batter is always vegan, with a surcharged gluten-free option. Toppings are above and beyond the usual - they've got vegan cheese, icecream, chocolate sauce and caramel on hand, yielding more than a dozen options all up (majority sweet). For all that, our touring friend went for the classic lemon and sugar crepe ($9) - like all the sweet vegan crepes, it comes with a scoop of coconut Zebra Dream icecream. Michael stuck steadfastly to savoury for breakfast, ordering a galette filled with mushrooms, spinach and sufficiently-melty vegan cheese ($12). In contrast to my milder-mannered companions, I went all out with a Thailand special ($13): a parcel stuffed with bananas, liberally spread with soy condensed milk,...

December 9, 2016 In December an old friend returned to Melbourne for a week. She's vegan, and was equally excited to revisit her old faves ( Yong , Casa Del Gelato ) and catch up with the new veg eateries that have popped up in the past 3 years. We booked in a Friday night dinner at Transformer as part of the latter project.  To ensure a good spread across the menu, we took our first shot at the chef-selected Feed Me option ($55 per person on a Friday, without dessert) and requested that everything be vegan. While we picked drinks, we grazed on a small plate of mixed olives, roast peppers, pickled garlic for the brave, and a little chilli. We also scooped up the dip plate with gusto; it was a savoury-creamy arrangement of white bean dip, artichokes and caperberries with an impressively doughy gluten-free flatbread. The bread was pretty great dredged through the olive's marinade too! These appetisers were rapidly followed with salads. The first was a study in astringency - fenne...

April 10 & 12, 2016 We're regular Smith & Daughters visitors and, as you can see up top, this is our seventh blog post about the restaurant. Yet our last post is from more than a year ago! Here's a run-down of the current, very-limited-time-only 2nd birthday menu. The weekend brunch menu takes its inspiration from American diner food, and with the help of Nat & Ben we were well across it. Michael was drawn in by the Brekkie Hot Dog ($15), piled up with tofu scramble, cheese, onion, bacon and BBQ sauce. It's an excellent vegan hot dog, to be sure, but one that taught me I'm not up to weiners and BBQ sauce this early in the day. Nat was most enamoured with the mac n cheese ($14), carby and creamy and garnished with just a sprinkle of paprika. My surprise highlight was the hash ($16). The jalapenos and avocado of their long-standing Mexican hash are replaced here with bacon, onion and kale; the same corn, cheese sauce and starchy foundation of fried potatoes s...

March 17, 2016 We've enjoyed a couple of visits to Mukka even in the face of stiff veg*n restaurant competition on Brunswick St. Most recently we met up with our mates Natalie and Ben, all of us agreed that we should trial the $30pp vegan "Just Feed Me..." menu. We also needed drinks. I circled back on the rose & cinnamon cooler ($7) of my first visit - it's so pretty and refreshing! The staff treated Natalie to a ginger beer souped up with pomegranate juice and seeds and a wedge of lime. This was a riff on their current jug-sized cocktail, which was just too much for Natalie to take on solo. The banquet proved particularly generous in its entree selection.  First up there were neat little samosas, dusted with black salt and served with mint and tamarind chutneys. More novel to us was the bhel puri, aptly described on the menu as "cold and crunchy, light and lovely"; a medley of puffed rice, Bombay Mix , nylon sev , pomegranate seeds, tomato, onion, lime...

November 8, 2015 Back in August, fitzroyalty noted that an Indian restaurant was likely to pop up on Brunswick St next to Madame K's , where the vegan-friendly Frolic had previously offered froyo and waffles. Vegan About Town got in as soon as Mukka opened, thrilled to access veg-friendly Indian street food so close to home. She went on to invite me there for lunch just a few days later and I was out the door in 30 minutes. The restaurant lets in plenty of light, and the interior is cheerful, casual and clean. I'm accustomed to Indian restaurant menus running to several dozen pages; the food here is listed on a single compact sheet, but maintains the high proportion of vegetarian and even vegan options, all clearly marked. I love me a lassi, and a Mukka they come in two flavours, mango and rose-cinnamon ($6.50). Even better, they offer vegan-friendly analogues ($7, rose-cinnamon one pictured), made slushy and refreshing with blended almond milk and ice. Steph and I shared a ...

November 4, 2015 We've had our eye on Shop Ramen and its vegan bowl a long time, but only recently made our first visit after 9pm on a Wednesday. Although we didn't get to witness their noodle-making in action it was the right time to comfortably snag a seat - two years after opening there's still often a queue out front. The menu is reasonably simple, living up to the neon sign out front advertising RAMEN, BUN & PIE. While dietary requirements aren't clearly coded, key ingredients are listed after each dish and the staff are on hand to help. We started by sharing a bun ($4) stuffed with special sauce-smothered tofu, sauerkraut, peanuts and coriander, and almost too steaming-hot to handle. Michael dipped into the widely lauded vegan tofu ramen ($14), piled with broccoli, pickled shitake mushrooms, edamame, cress and sesame (the standard version includes egg, but they're happy to exclude it). The excellent cashew milk broth is the novelty of this dish, but the fr...

October 31, 2015 Michael and I both had good news at work on Friday, and he insisted that we breakfast somewhere fun to celebrate on Saturday morning. I suggested we check out Stagger Lee's, which our friend Lisa recommended a few months ago as a good spot for vegan options. With exposed bricks and bulbs, two communal tables and serious, single origin coffee, Stagger Lee's fits the inner-north cafe mould. The menu is annotated with Vs, VG, VGOs and GFs (including the wine list!) but we couldn't see a corresponding legend. The V*s were all over the place, on lemon curd-covered crumpets, granola and bircher bowls with coyo and almond milk, ricotta-spiked avocado with corn and jalapenos, and a herby omelette. Michael exclaimed over how great the coffee was, then tucked into the vegan version of the green garden ($20), a medley of cashew cheese, broccolini, avocado, fennel, radish, herbs, pomegranate seeds and sprouted lentils. The smoked ocean trout and poached egg of the orig...