More of Hobart 2023

February 23-26, 2023

   

Since our primary reason to be in Hobart was MONA FOMA, we relied on festival food trucks and supermarket snacks to cover several of our meals. Here are the main meals we fit around those festival times.

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Rude Boy was emphatically recommended by our friend Toby. It was also open late enough for us to grab dinner on our walk back from the cinema in North Hobart (where we saw the excellent Women Talking). Rude Boy is a loud and loudly decorated bar that's proud of its rum and fried chicken. The formula here is to order a plate or a burger and build up the components. I convinced Michael that a large plate ($33) would be enough to cover the two of us, and it definitely was! Our plate comprised fried mock meat in Old Bay seasoning, with rum BBQ sauce and a side of fries ($8). All of the seasonings and sauces were great, and the mock meat was of the dense and chewy kind.

   

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We also had multiple friends urging us to visit The Little Poet. It's a spacious Taiwanese patisserie with a very distinct atmosphere - decorated in layers of beige and white, with tinkling piano music, cushions, tasteful flower arrangements and... cute bubble tea plushies! The menu is all vegetarian with abundant vegan options and clearly marked gluten-free dishes. There's all manner of sweet and savoury, from dainty bites to hefty meals.

   

When we first visited for breakfast, Michael was aiming for the latter and ordered the Little Poet Big Breakfast ($24). The vegan egg was just tofu, but smothered in a nice hollandaise. The vegan sausage and walnut-based foie gras didn't make a strong impression either, and Michael's not keen on this many salad leaves at breakfast. The sum of this dish's parts was pretty good, though, with thick sourdough, tomato, mushrooms, and flawless avocado.

   

Meanwhile, I branched out into banana chocolate crepes with soy cream ($18). I don't come across crepes often and these were lovely, with that distinctive slightly elastic texture, and presumably coloured with butterfly pea (which Little Poet also offers in their iced lattes). The accompanying ramekin was stacked with perfectly ripe banana slices topped with a proper, cocoa-heavy chocolate sauce.

   

We returned for breakfast the next day, and I was ready for something savoury. The vegan version of the Taiwanese egg pancake roll ($7) suited me to a tee. The batter was just a bit thicker and more fried than the crepe; I was tired of mock meat and chose vegan cheese (+ $2.50) and mushrooms (+$3) from the nine fillings available and clumsily but happily dredged each piece through the garnishing soy and chilli sauces.

It's no coincidence that this allowed me room to try some sweets (pictured top)! The little bites of brownie and lemon-glazed cake ($3 each) were excellent, but the chocolate bear cookie ($5) was unbeatable for cuteness. We were too early for the full cake range to be on display yet, so here's hoping we make it back for morning tea one day.

   

After an ambivalent big breakfast, Michael was completely won over by the Taiwanese sesame paste cold noodle ($19). There was lots of variety in the noodles, veges and tofu strips and the sesame-peanut butter-soy sauce was a winner, and a refreshing change from his usual breakfast habits. It also didn't get in between Michael and a chocolate croissant (pictured top, $3.50).

While we could have happily returned to Little Lotus or Straight Up for seconds, or visited another cafe we've enjoyed in the past, I'm glad double-dipped on the variety of veg*n foods offered by Little Poet.

   

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The Sunday Farm Gate markets are typically our last food stop before departing Hobart and these days they're adjoined by Bury Me Standing bagels. The menu's got something for everyone gluten-tolerant, from (real meat) hot dogs (Shaunagh has alerted me that these are vegan!), to the classic cream cheese and a cashew-based vegan schmear. Though there are multiple bagel flavours on offer, deep down we're both everything bagel-ers. BMS were all out of regular cashew schmear so I fell back on classic cream cheese ($9.50), but there was jalapeno cashew schmear to spare so Michael had a pickle-filled Top Notch Bagel ($10.50). It's a very comforting way to start a Sunday and end a holiday.

   

Hobart 2023

 February 22-23, 2023

   

We made a happy return to Hobart in February, timed to coincide with MONA FOMA. It's been four years since we were last in town, the longest gap between visits over the 16 years that we've been Melbourne residents. This time around, we used the local buses to explore Mt Nelson Signal Station (where I photographed the above view of Hobart), the adjacent Truganini Reserve, and then Fern Tree and Silver Falls. We always find that there's enough to do and more than enough to eat. 

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We initially arrived in time for a late lunch at the vegetarian Little Lotus Cafe, and it was an auspicious start. There were friendly staff up front taking orders at the counter, and plenty of space in the cozily-lit back room for us to take our time over our meal. I carefully dismantled a stack of crackly-crusted sweet potato and corn fritters, thickly layers with cashew cheese, and crowned with house-made kimchi and green leaves ($20.50).

Michael's scrambled stunner ($19) was one of his favourite meals of the trip. The tofu scramble was teamed with broccolini, tomato chilli jam, rice paper 'bacon', pickled chilli and polenta croutons. Hobart was unusually hot, so we treated ourselves to iced drinks - a latte for Michael ($6) and a chai for me ($8.50). 

   

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We wandered the city for the afternoon, picked up a couple of second-hand bargains, and rested with a drink at Preachers. My feet had hit their limits so we postponed the few veg*n dinner spots on our wishlist and retraced our steps to Ti Ama, which Michael had previously visited on a work trip. Ti Ama is draped from end to end in millennial pink and dotted with disco balls, with their mirror-tiled pizza oven being the main attraction. Their omni menu has both traditional and changed-up antipasti, house-made pasta and pizza.   

   

I wasn't in the mood for pizza, and luckily this led me to an exceptional gnocchi ($28). It was marshmallow-soft, lightly pan-fried and folded through with summer beans and fresh basil. Underneath it was a deeply savoury Ligurian walnut sauce and ring of melted butter. (I'm belatedly noticing that a vegan version was also available.) Meanwhile, Michael worked his way through the vegan Bubby-G pizza ($26.50), which featured a smokey capsicum base, grilled eggplant, dukkah, chopped herbs and stripes of babaganoush. Props to Ti Ama not only for their vegan options, but for their mocktail list - I had a watermelon one ($14).

   

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Before our excursion to Mt Nelson and Truganini Reserve, we lined our stomachs with proper breakfasts at Straight Up. All vegetarian and gluten-free, Straight Up was probably my favourite cafe experience on our 2016 Hobart trip. I returned to their vegan and gluten-free waffle ($18.50) - the current version is orange and vanilla flavoured, topped with poached blueberries and a chocolate and almond crumb. I prefer not to have icecream on my breakfast sweets, but I'll make an exception for the house-made berry icecream at Straight Up, because it is spectacular.

Michael did well, if not quite as well, with the potato hash ($22.50). You can probably sense from the photo above that it was hearty but not crispy, but it was piled with a pleasant mix of roasted mushrooms, tomato and herb salsa, fried tempeh and harissa.

   

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With our first bus excursion done, we skipped across to long-time favourite Thai Veggie Hutt for lunch. (We first posted about it in 2012!) Their bain marie was bustling with city workers choosing one, two or three hot dishes with rice or noodles to takeaway. Michael joined in with them for a mixed box of goodies ($14.80), but I patiently waited for a cooked-to-order plate of spicy duck noodles ($17.80). They were well worth the extra minutes and dollars - the noodles were super tender, the duck pieces large and saucy, and interspersed with crunchy veges.

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That takes us to the half-way point of our current Hobart eating highlights! More mock meats and some brilliant baked goods are still to come.

Aløft

January 22, 2019

Our Hobart friend Liz kindly booked the three of us a table at Aløft when we stopped by Hobart in January. This restaurant's been operating from the fancy Brooke St pier for a couple of years, and has an entire glass wall offering a view out to the harbour. (We ended up just basking in that view in the moment and enjoying each other's company rather than capturing any great shots of it.)

Michael and I didn't know what to expect: we trusted Liz's eating recommendations, and by extension, this restaurant's. The less elaborate of the banquet menus is $80 per person, and there are explicit vegetarian, vegan and coeliac versions of it available. There's no problems mixing and matching those different versions of it at one table. 

For our first course, Michael and I shared a bowl of tapioca and nori crackers, and then received our own little bowls of crisp-edged turnip cakes.

There were enough wood ear mushroom dumplings to share around the entire table. The vegetarian accompaniment was a small bowl of agadashi tofu in a deeply flavoured broth with burnt onion and baby leeks.

The table favourite was the same course for both omnivores and vegetarians: in our case, the watery texture of zucchini was at its best encased in a thick, crunchy tempura batter. The batter was coated in hot and sour sauce, and it all sat on a bed of garlic greens.

I was skeptical that our main course of congee would be more filler than flavour, but I was very much mistaken! Crisp-baked greens and roast pumpkin kept the texture varied, and there was plenty of rayu to liven up every mouthful of rice. This would make a terrific meal on its own.

After a series of savoury course drawn from across Asia, dessert had different roots. I was well satisfied by the crumbled chocolate brownie, with little bubbles of dark chocolate and a scoop of fresh mint icecream. 

The team at Aløft have really figured out how to create intense, savoury flavours for vegetarians. Service is great, and the setting is remarkable. This a special occasion experience with plenty to offer both locals and visitors.

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You can read more positive accounts of Aloft on blogs Fork + Foot, Living Loving Hobart (twice), Just The Sizzle, and Linnie Eats All The Food.

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Aløft
Pier 1, Brooke St, Hobart
(03) 6223 1619
menu
https://aloftrestaurant.com/

Accessibility: Standard access to Aloft is via a small flight of stairs; contact the restaurant to find out if there alternative access via a lift. Tables and chairs are arranged with a moderate amount of space (see photo above). We didn't visit the toilets.

Franklin

Update 12/03/2023: Franklin is now permanently closed.

March 18, 2017

Franklin (not to be confused with Frank!) has ranked highly on Hobart fine dining lists for years. However, reviewers have always tended to recommend the seafood and other meats so we figured it wasn't really for us. Then in the past year a couple of vegetarian friends added their voices to the pro-Franklin crowd - that had us more interested, and we secured an early reservation at the bar on our Saturday night in town.

Franklin inhabits an ex-Ford car showroom and they've maintained an industrial look with lots of polished concrete and a scattering of leather and animal hide mats. Somehow they've managed the acoustics well so that guests can enjoy a positive buzz across the room without echoing music or competing conversations. The kitchen is completely open and visible; those of us at the bar had front-row seats to its workings. The centrepiece is an enormous Scotch oven (pictured above).

We'd mentioned that we were vegetarian in our online booking, and our waiter was well prepared with separately printed vegetarian menus to take to our table. We couldn't quite deduce from the descriptions how much we should order, but decided to request four of the six available dishes and hope for some dessert room. As is often the case at fancy restaurants, Michael ordering a G&T just in time to enjoy some fancy bread and butter.

The grilled eggplant ($16) was little more than a taster, a savoury finger-length each garnished with salted turnip and lovage seeds.

The just-barely-warmed tomatoes ($16) were more abundant, tossed with what I think was a buttermilk dressing (not listed in the name), cloaked in red basil leaves and seasoned with native pepper. I was glad I'd saved some of my bread for sopping up the juices from the bowl.

The toasted Chinese cabbage agrodolce ($19) also looked a little meagre on the plate. Nevertheless, the sweet and sour sauce dressed the leaves well.

Our most anticipated dish was the wood-roasted pink eye potato galette ($21; see the making-of in the top photo!). Thinly sliced potato rounds are layered to form the galette, and once they emerge from that formidable oven they're scattered with fresh green herbs, walnuts and finely grated cheese. It was a worthy finale to our main meal.

We had plenty of room for dessert! For me the night's highlight was the monochromatic malted barley parfait with toasted rye and plums ($14). As the kitchen manager described to us, the malted barley gave a chocolatey, coffee-ish flavour to the icecream wedge. The crunchy rye sprinklings were a complementary flavour and great contrast in texture.

The baked tarragon cream ($14) was no slouch either, with a herbal flavour that's rarely tasted at dessert and some gorgeous berries keeping it all summery-sweet.

We had a really nice evening at Franklin. As at many high-end restaurants, we got the sense that the menu's not really meant for us vegetarians, while still enjoying the options on offer. I thought the servings were small for the prices charged, but ultimately we left feeling satisfied and not stuffed. The capable service likely smoothed over my misgivings and I especially appreciated that, since we were sitting right beside the pass, the kitchen manager directly served and described many of the dishes for us directly.

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All the other online reviews we've seen of Franklin are very meat-focused and almost unanimously positive! See Living Loving Hobart (twice), Fork + Foot, Jacqui's Food Fetish, Get Forked and Fly and FINEEATING. There's a more mixed account on foodie mookie.

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Franklin
28-30 Argyle St, Hobart
(03) 6234 3375
vegetarian menu, full menu
http://franklinhobart.com.au/

Accessibility: Entry includes a shallow, wide ramp. Interior furniture is generously spaced, a mixture of low tables with mini-stools, standard tables with backed chairs and a high bar with stools. We received full table service. We didn't visit the toilets.

Hamlet & Veg Bar, Hobart

March 18, 2017

We skipped MOFO this year, but Hobart still called us down for a visit - a quick long weekend to see the excellent On the Origin of Art exhibition at MONA and to spend some time in one of our favourite cities. We did a day tour out to Bruny Island on the Friday, but had more time on Saturday to get into the local food. We started out with a visit to Hamlet, a cafe that's popped up in the year since our last visit to Hobart. It's a community enterprise, that provides employment and training opportunities for people who face barriers to employment. It's tucked away off the beaten track a bit, behind Molle Street near the start of the Hobart Rivulet track - on a Saturday morning it's a serene escape from the hectic bustle of Salamanca and surrounds.

The menu is super veg-friendly, with just a couple of meaty dishes. The options range from simple toasts and smashed avos through to more interesting options like the Buddha bowl (brown rice, shiitake, kimchi, pickled white beans, sweet corn, toasted nori, $17). Cindy wanted to save some room for our trip to the Salamanca Markets, so she just ordered one of their fancy scones (corn, spring onion and sage, $6) and an apricot and honey smoothie ($8). The scone arrived huge, flat, cheesy and warm, with a dab of butter on the side. The smoothie had a light, milky consistency and its fresh feature ingredients shone through.

I was a bit more adventurous, ordering the autumn veg curry with fried eggs from the specials board ($17). This came topped with crispy fried onions and fresh herbs and was an excellent start to the day - fried eggs and curry is a brilliant combination. The curry itself was mild but richly flavoured with a few different kinds of potatoes making up the autumn veggies. I'm a big fan of curry for breakfast - more places should offer it.

Service was friendly and efficient on our visit and the coffee was great. Hamlet is a welcome addition to Hobart's brekkie scene - good food and a good cause.

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There are a couple of positive reviews of Hamlet at Living Loving Hobart and Yippee Pie Yay.

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Hamlet

40 Molle St, Hobart

0407 169 352
food, specials, drinks

http://hamlet.org.au/

Accessibility: Hamlet is super accessible, with table service, accessible bathrooms and an accessible entry.

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After a stroll around the markets and a few op shops, we headed up to North Hobart to meet a friend and check out the brand new Veg Bar on Elizabeth Street. It's very on trend, with neon highlights, indoor plants and bench seating. The menu has the same well-researched vibe, a mix of 'clean eating' alongside burgers, nachos and the like. There are fancy cocktails sit alongside kale and acai smoothies, cold pressed juices and tricked-up lattes. It's all vegan.

Cindy and S both braved fancy drinks - a turmeric latte ($5.50) and a 'Sugar High' smoothie ($10). This was the first time any of us had tried a turmeric latte, and nobody was entirely won over - I was expecting at least some coffee in there somewhere. Cindy's smoothie was more successful, overflowing with garnishes and combining coconut water, mango, raspberries and passionfruit to good effect.

I was weirdly compelled by the promise of a vegan egg, so I ordered the kim chi fried rice ($24), which came with tofu, spring onion, burnt pickled onion, nori slivers, sesame and a big ol' vegan egg dropped right in the middle. The egg doesn't really taste anything like actual egg - the white is made out of coconut somehow, while the yolk is a sweet potato paste that's been jellied up somehow. It looks great though, and there was something spicy in the 'yolk' that added to the solid kim chi kick in the rest of the fried rice. I was really happy with the whole dish - a extra few bits of tofu would have made me feel better about the price, but that's just being grumpy.

Cindy decided to try one of the burgers, intrigued by the promise of a southern-fried cauliflower pattie ($15.50). The pattie came on a weird-looking matcha bun, along with house made slaw and agave mustard. 

The bun was basically a novelty, with the matcha adding nothing exciting to the mix beyond colour. The filling got a thumbs up though. While the cauliflower-based burger wasn't fooling anyone for chicken, but it a neat spiced crumbing that held together the soft interior (although I really think they should throw a few mock meat products on the menu even if it doesn't quite fit their health-oriented vibe). 

S ordered off the specials board, trying the tofu pad Thai. It looked great, and her only complaint was that they hadn't used the proper thick noodles - otherwise it did the job nicely.

Veg Bar is a fantastic new option in Hobart. It's run by people who have a handful of other (non-veg) restaurants around the place, and it's clear that they know what they're doing. It's a lovely setup, with a menu that's sure to please vegans, vegetarians and omnis. Fingers crossed it's a success so we can revisit next year.

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Living Loving Hobart have already written up their visit to Veg Bar.

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Veg Bar
346 Elizabeth St, North Hobart
0498 708 561
food, drinks
facebook page

Accessibility: Veg Bar has a flat entryway and a pretty spacious interior. Seating is a mix of regular tables, high bar stools and more restrictive benches. The toilets are a mix of gendered and unisex with some fully accessible options. We ordered and pay at a high bar.

Pilgrim III and Farm Gate IV

January 15 & 17, 2016

MOFO was primarily based out at MONA this year, so we didn't get too much time for Hobart eating. We were out at the festival by lunch every day, so we really only had time for breakfasts. Our first stop was a return visit to Pilgrim Coffee, a regular haunt on our Hobart trips. The menu has changed around a bit from previous meals, meaning I had to branch out from the bean-heavy 'hipster breakfast' that I usually order, instead trying out the omelette with kim chi, rice, spring onion, wombok, coriander and crispy shallots ($18).

The omelette is a wonderful combination of flavours - little dabs of blended up kim chi give it all a great spicy tang, while the shallots and rice add some crunch. It's a top-notch example of the genre, but at $18, it probably needs a slice or two of toast to go along with it.

Cindy's breakfast was even more minimalist - she ordered the charred stone-fruit with vanilla goats curd, mint and almonds ($15).

And she got this bowl containing one halved peach, a smear of curd and a decent sprinkling of roasted cashews on top. For $15! She was quite happy with the dish itself, but it's the kind of thing you feel like charging even $10 for would be a bit cheeky. 

I enjoyed my coffee as usual, but Cindy's chai was bergamot-heavy and lacking in other spices. All in all, Pilgrim has slipped down our Hobart breakfast ranking a bit - the quality of the food is still high, but the prices are a bit excessive (note also: there aren't any obvious vegan options on the current menu).

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On Sunday morning we headed back to the Farm Gate Market, the less touristy and more food-focussed alternative to the popular Salamanca Market. There's lots of excellent-looking fresh produce for sale, a decent selection of other food stalls (jams, teas, cheese etc) and a thriving little food court for people seeking brekkie - we come here every time we're in town these days (see one, two, three previous visits).

We got things started with a coffee and a blueberry bagel with raspberry cream cheese ($6.50) from Bury Me Standing - a perfect way to get Sunday going.

I was then drawn inexorably to Pachamama, for my annual Hobart breakfast burrito - they've always got a vegan option, but this year I couldn't resist the classic egg-cheese-bean combo, slathered in their smoky chipotle sauce ($13). It's a complete winner.

Cindy somehow resisted the lure of the burritos, ducking next door to Mountain Pepper Pizza who were offering up a range of rosti-based breakfast treats. She ordered the mushroom option ($7.50) and was well satisfied with the mix of starchy potatoes and creamy, saucy mushrooms. (They also do a vegan bubble & squeak with kasundi.)

We're always a bit sad that we can't buy up more of the great market produce each year, but it's hard to go past a $9 kilo bag of the plumpest, juiciest cherries imaginable. We gobbled these up far too quickly.

Farm Gate is well worth a visit on any food-related Hobart itinerary - there are tons of vegan options, foody gifts and souvenirs, and a steady stream of cute puppies awaiting your attention.

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