Secret vegan menu @ Cafe Sydney
An impromptu celebration with a bunch of flesh-eaters led us to Cafe Sydney last week. On arrival it dawned it was fine dining and had more animals on the menu than a zoo. Someone else was picking up the tab so the waiter was probed. “Umm…strict vegetarian options?…Oh and dairy allergies too”. Immediate response was “vegan, sure. I’ll get you the vegan menu”. Minutes later a fresh menu was produced. This aptly titled ‘vegan menu’ had a selection of 2 appetizers, 2 mains and 2 dessert options. Cafe Sydney now has now been added to the list of fine dining establishments that serve our kind, right under Tetsuyas. Anyone want to pick up the next tab for the next visit? 
Post-punk Potato Enchiladas
VeganSydney is under strict orders from the corporate board of directors to keep the site a recipe-free zone. You want vegan recipes use the Googler, want vegan-centric reviews of Sydney then this is the place! This recipe is so good we’re prepared to lose our jobs. Courtesy of the Post-Punk Kitchen comes this recipe for Potato Kale Enchiladas with Roasted Chili Sauce. Dust off your post-punk LPs and turn up the heat (on the oven, of course) for a night in that will satisfy all your cravings. Photos by the subversive staff at VeganSydney.
Vina Vegan Vietanamese
Sydney’s latest vegan addition is…wait for it…mock meat! How did you guess? Before we get too cynical thou, this is a refreshing change from the slew of Chinese places that have come to typify vegan cuisine in Sydney.
The latest addition to Sydney is Vina Vegetarian at 395 South King St., Newtown. Vina is a small, family run establishment serving up fresh, mock-meat versions of traditional south Vietnamese cuisine. Prices are cheaper than Green Gormet, staff are friendly and apart from some slow service (it was busy) they get the “I’ll be back” rating in our books.
The King street vegan quarter acre: part IV
This is a long overdue review. As best we can figure out Basil Pizza in Newtown, has a separate and completely vegan (and pizza-free) breakfast menu on weekends. Best guess is down to some restaurant sharing scheme between the owner of the pizzeria and the operators of the cafe.
Since the close of McDonna’s (RIP), Newtown has been a desolate wasteland for vegan breakfast and brunch. Pretty much if you wanted something that wasn’t mock-meat and vegan in Newtown (or Thai) the pickings were slim. Along came Basil Pizza’s weekend vegan cafe (for lack of a better name) and filled a much needed void.
Expectations were high and initial impressions are good. Friendly staff, decent coffee and an all vegan breakfast menu goddamn it! That’s three out of five boxes ticked (your guess is as good as ours with what the other two are, we just make this up as we go along). The menu features a fry up (half eaten and pictured below), scrambled tofu and buckwheat pancakes, among other things. We here at VeganSydney like to sample a place at least twice–preferrably several times before throwing it out to our readers, but initial impressions were good enough the first time around. Stay tuned for a more comprehensive review once we’ve logged some more lazy Sunday hours here…
About average at About Life
VeganSydney’s corporate board of directors have been having regular breakfast meetings at About Life in Rozelle for the past several months. While conspiring to overthrow everything from a corrupt government to bourgeois art, we have sampled the entire vegan menu.
Lets start by saying it didn’t take too long! For a health food store and cafe of this size the vegan pickings are slimmer than Kate Moss on a steady diet of cocaine. Prices are outrageous ($18 for the 2 lukewarm pre-made tarts pictured below) and the food is downright average and lets not even start on the scrambled tofu breakfast….
A quick browse of their website confirms a commitment to providing meat, dairy products, beauty products, gluten-free options. Enough said.
Macro Wholefood$ bought by Woolworth$
Cynical about corporate wholefood and organic retailers? Here’s more fuel for the fire. Woolworths have acquired Macro Wholefoods for $30 million dollars. Just when you thought Macro couldn’t get any worse (for vegan products or for working conditions) along comes Woolworths.
Macro, who recently closed down their cafe in Newtown for the second time in twice as many years will be now branded Thomas Dux. Goodbye vegan groceries and (already sub-standard) working conditions, hello overpriced conventional food and hoards of SUV driving breeders getting their biodynamic goats milk*
(*insert latest dietry fad).
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