Back in Brisbane

July 6-9, 2022

   

We're so very happy to be back in south-east Queensland for a holiday, spending time with family and friends. We've been celebrating milestones, playing games with the kids, browsing op-shops for bargains, and revelling in our mums' cooking. We booked ourselves a spot in South Brisbane for the last leg of our tour: it's right by the cultural centre, it's easy to get almost anywhere else from there via public transport, it's a short walk from our old neighbourhood of West End. And there's so much veg*n eating to be had! Here are the new-to-us places we loved best.

____________

   

Grassfed is a small shopfront in Fish Lane that serves all-vegan burgers, chips and soft-serve icecream. Everything is huge and over-the-top but we can happily report that it's big on quality too. Michael's fysh n chips burger (pictured above, right; $15.50) stacked beer-battered mock-fish fillets both inside and on top of the burger! My limited-time special chick'en katsu (pictured above, back centre; $14.90) was just as difficult to get my mouth around, with an ultra-crispy-crumbed mock-chicken patty, two hash browns (I pulled 'em out to eat separately) and a side of Japanese curry sauce for dipping and/or pouring. It was a mistake to order additional curly fries (above, left; $5.50 including aioli), although they were very good too. The seating is a bit of a squeeze, yet we witnessed the staff cheerfully helping a young family bring a pram in.

____________

   

El Planta is a nearby vegan Mexican restaurant with a more grown-up atmosphere. I appreciated that they offered specialty mocktails and house-made sodas alongside their alcoholic drinks, and I showed it by ordering one of each (a $12 pineapple margarita mocktail with a smoked salt rim, and the $5 cherry-hibiscus soda of the week). The menu changes often, and we loved everything we ate: cauliflower tacos with crispy kale and cashew cream ($15); beer-battered mock-fish tacos with a thick, dominating morita  ($17); fried Brussels sprouts with almond and habanero mole ($13); and the queso fundido (pictured above; $14), a shallow dip of queso cheeze with black beans, carne asada, chilli oil and spring onion scooped onto thick corn chips. Again, the staff were high energy and happy to help.

____________

   

Our friend Tash recommended Alphabet Café as one of the best local breakfasts, and sure enough we were smitten. It's tough to choose across a menu of breakfast tacos and waffles, mushrooms on polenta and a cabinet full of the most luscious looking baked goods and ready-to-toast sandwiches (vegan adaptations to the savoury porridge and sautéed mushrooms are clearly marked). The warmed pesto, pumpkin and parmesan scroll (pictured above, front centre) was perfectly balanced in flavour and texture, and my iced chai (pictured above, back right; $6.50) was gently brewed and not too sweet. Michael was just as enamoured of his savoury porridge (pictured above, back left; $24) which was pumpkin coloured, miso flavoured and topped with spinach, soy eggs, sweet potato, cauliflower, chilli oil, sesame and scallions. We snagged the last coffee cruller for breakfast-dessert.

____________

   

I've been following Botanical Lab's social media for some time, inspired by Susan's many positive posts. Sadly they were closed for several months after bad weather damaged their shop, and I felt very lucky that our visit coincided with their second week of reopening! Botanical Lab offers an overwhelming variety of cute, pastel sweets that I would associate with Japan and Taiwan: bubble teas, cream puffs, mochi, and soft-serve sundaes. There are a decent number of well-marked vegan options.  We were both impressed by the chewy-cakey taro-iced mochi donut (pictured above front). A huge portion of mango popping jelly and a lychee in Michael's iced tea slowed down his usually-speedy drinking in the best possible way (pictured above left; $7). I built a vegan-friendly sundae of Thai milk tea-style soft serve, brown sugar syrup and crunchy nut cereal (pictured above right; $6.80) - it was very cold and surprisingly refreshing, without the strong soy or coconut flavours that often bug me with mock dairy. It's possible to order even more decadently with mochi waffles, parfaits, and layered ombre teas. I can only dream of attending one of Botanical Lab's high tea events.

____________

   

Nonna's Nightmare is a vegan Italian restaurant that's willing to put pineapple on pizza and an eggplant parma in a burger. (In this way, it reminded me of dinner time at Sable.) We stuck with some of the more conventional, albeit veganised, main dishes. My plate of ravioli al tartufo (pictured above front; $28.50) was a study in deep umami: truffle mushroom, salted sage leaves, toasted pine nuts, and parmesan. Michael tried their current pizza special (pictured blurrily above back), a tomato base with roasted artichoke, bacon, black olives and a judicious, understated layer of mozzarella. While we cleared our plates with pleasure, we agreed that we didn't have the appetite for extras like the red wine arancini, crostini ai fichi, cannoli or (my usual weakness) tiramisu. Next time!

____________

Of course our primary purpose on this trip was to reconnect with people and places that are dear to us, and we've largely succeeded in that. Trying all these terrific restaurants was just a bonus! We both noticed how consistently sunny the staff were at every venue, and it was the easiest thing in the world to beam right back at them.