February 25, 2007: Lentil As Anything

Update 18/06/2023: Lentil As Anything is now closed.

As aspiring vegetarian food bloggers, we really should have made more of an effort to review Lentil As Anything some time in our first 150 posts. You'd think a not-for-profit place with no set prices, that has won Australia Day awards would have attracted our patronage by now. Alas, unless you count our breakfast at Lentil As Africa, we failed. With the encouragement of Emma and Simon and their visiting friend Ben, we finally made it there on the weekend. And, unfortunately, it was a little disappointing.

We turned up at around 7 and fortunately snagged a table for five - it's a tiny place, which probably only seats 30 people at a stretch, so we were pretty lucky. The walls are covered with a mixture of artwork and posters for yoga classes, and the general vibe is as hippy friendly as you'd expect. The menu is a fairly impressive list of vegetarian delights - curries, burgers, noodles and other vaguely Asian-inspired options. We started off with a round of mango lassis which, in the idosyncratic manner of the place, required us to relinquish our water glasses as there were insufficient glasses for us to have both water and lassis. The drinks were small but tasty - loaded up with fresh mango, honey and sprinkled with cinammon.

When it was time for eating, I chose a pea and potato curry, served with yoghurt, relish, red rice and roti, while Cindy went for oknomiyaki, topped with tofu mayonaise, pickled ginger, sweet soy and seaweed. The food took ages to come and, after 45 minutes or so, my curry came with neither rice (they'd run out) or roti (no idea why - Ben's was roti-tastic). Still, I could count myself lucky - Cindy's Japanese pancake was nowhere to be found. After waiting for another few minutes, I enquired - unfortunately they'd somehow forgotten it, so Cindy - the slowest eater at the table - was left waiting while the rest of us dug in. By the time her meal arrived, we were all finished and the night had become slightly frustrating. To be fair, despite the lack of rice and roti, my curry was pretty tasty - the potatoes were well roasted, the sauce was spicy and the salad broke up the carbs nicely. And when Cindy's oknomiyaki finally turned up, it was the highlight of the night - piping hot, slightly sweet and delicious. Unfortunately, the kitchen seemed ill-equipped to keep up with demand and it seemed like the gimmick of having no set prices provided a licence to be a bit slapdash with the service. It's a shame, because I was all set to write a rave review of a place with a fantastic menu, great food, ridiculously large portions and a wonderful philosophy, but it all ended up a bit of a let down. Maybe it was karma - fate getting us back for ignoring Lentil as Anything for so long. We'll probably try again at one of the other venues in the future, but with slightly lowered expectations.

Address: 41 Blessington Street, St. Kilda
Ph: 95344844
Unlicensed (there was some evidence of BYOing going on, but I'm not sure if it was entirely legit)
Prices: Whatever you like! They recommend about $7 for mains.
Website: www.lentilasanything.com