We recently spent a lovely weekend in a holiday house down at Safety Beach with the Moody Noodles and some other vegan mates. We went to the beach, explored the markets, watched glorious sunsets and ate; boy, did we eat. The main agenda in terms of eating out was Wombat - an all-vegan cafe and store that's been open in Dromana for the past year or so.
We stopped in for lunch on the first day of the weekend and found a beautiful space, filled with light and with a relaxed atmosphere. The staff cheerfully and patiently dealt with our slightly chaotic group.
I went straight for the Wombat big breakfast - scrambled tofu, avocado, hash browns, stuffed mushrooms, spinach and tomatoes on a couple of slices of sourdough ($26). It's an expensive breakfast, but you really get your money's worth - this is enough food for two people (full disclosure: I ate it all). The eggplant bacon didn't really work for me - drying out thin slices of eggplant and giving them a good smokey flavour sounds like it should work, but they were a bit stringy for my tastes. Everything else was phenomenal though, the scrambled tofu in particular really hit the heights. This is definitely worth ordering if you're hungry.
Cindy showed a bit more restraint and ordered the nachos ($16): beans, rice, lemony avo, salsa and a creamy mock cheese on a big plate of corn chips. This didn't resemble a typical plate of nachos - it wasn't nearly messy enough for starters and was bulked up mostly with a big rice salad in the middle. The vegan cheese sauce and avo toppings were a hit and Cindy was pretty happy with her lunch (aside from all the raw onion she picked out).
Everybody had such a good time at lunch on Friday that we headed back for brunch on Sunday before the drive back to Melbourne - the smiley drink on the left is a delicious iced coffee ($6.50). My regular flat-white ($4.50) came with a unique Wombat-blend milk, that tasted mostly like coconut milk to me.
I wanted another hit of the scrambled tofu, so I ordered a side of it ($4) to go with the avo smash ($16). The avo came with balsamic roasted tomatoes, mock feta and basil and was fantastic - especially in combo with the tofu, which reminds me a lot of the wonderful Smith and Daughters version (which we've made a bunch of times but never blogged!).
Cindy took on something sweet: French toast with strawberries, maple syrup and whipped cream ($15). The toast bits were coated in chia seeds, which was a bit of an odd choice and the toast itself was super-soft under the seedy layer. It wasn't Cindy's favourite style of French toast, but it got the job done.
We had two fantastic meals at Wombat. The food is great, with a good mix of sweet and savoury dishes to choose from and a whole heap of fancy drinks if you want them (we didn't try out the smoothie menu, but it was comprehensive).
The staff were super friendly and managed the busy space pretty efficiently. It's a must-visit for your next trip down to the Peninsula.
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Messy Veggies loved Wombat - hers is the only other blog review we could find.
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Wombat
230 Boundary Rd, Dromana
5987 1193
food, drinks
Accessibility: There's a flat entry way and a reasonably spacious interior. We ordered and paid at a low counter.
Ooh now I wish I had more reasons to go down that way - used to have quite a few but sadly my relatives and friends no longer live down that way but this does look very tempting, even given the presentation on the nachos
ReplyDeleteHi Johanna! Yes, it's rare we make it to the peninsula either, we'll likely be waiting a long time between visits.
DeleteThis looks very lovely. The souvlaki looks interesting, and I would be all over a sticky date rye chai... what even is that? It sounds like a silly drink, which is right up my alley.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, Susan - I wish I had tried that drink along with my French toast!
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