December 17, 2008: Gertrude Street Grub - Las Vegan Bakery and Cafe

July 3, 2015: Las Vegan have announced that they're closing the cafe and going to focus exclusively on catering from now on - we've sampled their catering before and it's great.

Okay, so this is pretty embarrassing. We've lived in Melbourne for more than two years, and I've worked on Gertrude Street the entire time, yet this is the first time we've blogged Las Vegan. It's not actually the first time I've been there - it seems every time I visit with the intention of blogging it, I leave the camera at home, or on my desk or, the one time I actually had it with me, the owners were on a three week holiday. It's been like a mini blogging curse. But at last I made it, camera in hand - just 2 days before they shut down for a month.

Of course by now, everyone's had their say (even people like Theresa and ZB have stopped in from far flung places). My previous visits have had mixed results - the calzone I ordered many months back was a bit dry and unexciting, but the sloppy joe that Toby recommended really hit the spot. I figured it was best to capture Las Vegan at their best, so I went back for another shot at the TVP-based burger ($8.50).

True to the name, the patty is sloppy - all sauce, mushrooms and pseudo-mince, plonked on a fresh roll, with a few cursory pieces of tomato on top. And it's good! Messy, but really, really good - it's mostly about the sauce I think, with the occasional hint of chilli bursting through the tomato-y goop. The salad on the side is fine, but I foolishly forgot to ask for fries with mine - another reason to resample the sloppy joe on my next visit.

It wouldn't be right to write this place up without mentioning the muffins - L.V. does an impressive range of vegan muffins ($3.50 I think). I was powerless to resist the sour cherry option - all sticky-sweet, sour and delicious. I would have appreciated some more cherries, but I think that would be true no matter how many were squeezed in.

Las Vegan is a great lunch place - a variety of burgers, calzones and salads on offer, along with some soups, the delicious rice balls we tried at World Vegan Day and a few other odds and ends. Everything is reasonably priced, generously portioned and, of course, vegan. Be warned: Las Vegan is only open for lunches on weekdays - so you'll have to take a long lunch break and mosey in to Collingwood to check it out.

Address: 22 Smith Street, Collingwood
Ph: 9415 9001
Price: $4 - $8.50