Little Bird Unbakery

November 30, 2013

There was a mistake with my meal on my flight over to Auckland, so I was vigilant about eating well on my way out again. Lucky for me, Little Bird Unbakery was a short walk from my accommodation and came recommended by @ryanpoet.

It's in an unexpected location - on the very busy New North Road, surrounded by light industrial businesses, with very few pedestrians passing. But inside it's unmistakably a trendy cafe, with a large timber communal table, drop lights, and a wall of twee shelves stocked with take-home teas and treats.

The main menu and display cabinet are at the counter. The food is all raw gluten-free and mostly vegan (keep an eye out for honey). The current savoury rotation included sprouted bread, 'pizza' and a couple of salads, but it's difficult to drag your eyes from the sweets on show - towering cheesecakes, cute tartlets, and slices recalling childhood favourites.

I ordered three items to take away to the airport food court. As I waited for my garden salad (NZ$15 ~ AU$13.60) to arrive, I wondered if I should have ordered the more varied Bird Bowl. These misgivings evaporated the moment that I opened the lid in the departure lounge. I must've spent around 50 minutes methodically working my way through the cucumber ribbons, sweet cherry tomatoes, strawberries, basil, parsley and avocado, dotted with Little Bird's umami-packed cashew cheese and lightly dressed in a vinaigrette. I paused only to pick out the shallots (I really can't handle raw onion), as pleased with my last mouthful as I was with my first. This is the salad to (I hope!) inspire an entire summer of salads.

Also - berries and cherry tomatoes together again! I like Auckland's style and I'm totally copying it.

Though the cheesecakes and tarts looked most impressive, I decided that some slice might be sturdier in transit. The berry crumble (NZ$5 ~ AU$4.50) was equal to its traditional counterpart, with a caramelised dessicated coconut top and jammy filling. The mint slice (NZ$6 ~ AU$5.40) was also lovely, with occasional cocoa nib crunches and a gentle peppermint tone, but no doppelganger for an Arnotts biccie.

Little Bird demonstrated the best of raw eating and had me in good shape for the trip home to Melbourne. I only wish I'd tried my luck at getting some of their 'cheese' through Customs.

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This Little Bird Unbakery has already received a lot of blog love, on An Auckland Vegan, Street Corner, What's yummy in Auckland..., the baking of..., Word on the Wheat, Toast, MEL to NYC, Eat Well Travel Often and Maddy Budd's Blog; the Ponsonby cafe also has fans at My Gap Year, What's yummy in Auckland..., The Oyster Weekend and The Yoghurt Pot.

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Little Bird Unbakery
385 New North Rd, Kingsland (also in Ponsonby)
+64 09 550 7377
savoury NZ$14-16 ~ AU$12.70-14.50, sweet NZ$5-9 ~ AU$4.50-8.20
http://littlebirdorganics.co.nz/

Accessibility: The Unbakery has a flat entry but is quite crowded inside. I ordered and paid at a low-ish counter and my food was brought out to me.

The Blue Bird Vegetarian Cafe

November 30, 2013

I dropped by Blue Bird Vegetarian Cafe (another tip from Carla) for a late brunch on Saturday morning. It's a slice of old school vegetarianism and associated with Sri Chimnoy, an unsophisticated, cheery and meditative place stocked with spiritual brochures and books. The staff were uniformly lovely and down to earth - the first I encountered urged me not to rush my ordering decision, the second helpfully walked me through my options, and a third later engaged me in a thoughtful conversation about my work.

The menu is entirely vegetarian with plentiful vegan and gluten-free options, clearly marked. It's centred around a display case of salads, sandwiches and cakes plus 'gourmet bowls' from the kitchen, where you select a starch (rice, potato, kumara) and one of half a dozen stews (such peanut satay or chilli black bean). There's also nachos and burgers, juices and smoothies

I focused on the sausage rolls in the cabinet ($NZ4 ~AU$3.60) and ordered cauliflower salad (NZ$7.00 ~ AU$6.40) to fill out the meal. The roll was small and mostly puff pastry; when I dug down to the filling it was much like my own - nutty, but with a little added carrot. The salad was the right ingredients in slightly unbalanced proportions - the enormous chunks of raw cauliflower were tough to take on, and the dressing was a little heavy on the vinegar, but I loved the fresh peas, and the capers and greens were nice accents.

When I saw iced chai on the menu ($NZ7.50 + 1.50 ~$AU6.80 + 1.40 for rice/soy milk), I had to try again. It was very sweet and milky, with a spoon of cream in the top but (I could barely believe it) it actually used real tea. A bit milkshakey, but easily the best I've ordered thus far.

The Blue Bird isn't going to win any awards for innovation but it has a calm and welcoming atmosphere and plenty of nourishing food at reasonable prices - the ideal complement to Merediths' degustation further down Dominion Rd.

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In addition to the two posts on easy as vegan pie, The Blue Bird also gets a thumbs-up on Cheap Eats.

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The Blue Bird Vegetarian Cafe
299 Dominion Rd, Mount Eden, Auckland
+ 64 9 623 4900
veg meals NZ$9.00-15.50 ~ AU$8.20-14.00
http://www.thebluebird.co.nz/

Accessibility: The entry appeared flat and tables inside were moderately spaced. I ordered and paid at a low-ish counter and my meal was delivered to my table. Gendered toilets are located up a flights of fairly steep stairs, but are roomy once you get there.

Merediths

November 29, 2013

When I put the call out for Auckland recommendations, @ryanpoet and @MetcalfeEliza chipped in with Merediths. This restaurant runs a vegetarian degustation on Tuesdays, and this commitment to meatless meals motivated me to book a solo table for Friday night, when they offer a nine course degustation to everyone with the usual accommodation of special diets. I asked for their best collection of vegetarian and vegan dishes.

I began with a G&T, then left the alcohol alone - I needed my wits about be for photographing, describing and appreciating all these courses on my own!

The meal started back-to-front with these savoury petit fours - paprika-dusted meringues with a bloody Mary filling, and a slightly sweeter beetroot meringue sandwiched with yoghurt.

The bread started too hot to handle, with a high-contrast thick crust and soft centre, and was served with olive oil.

The next entree maintained the dessert-ish theme, combining fresh raspberries, raspberry sorbet, cherry tomatoes, citrus-infused grapes, tomato water, chia seeds, and sorrel. It was lovely summery rendering of sweet and sour.

Introducing more stridently savoury flavours, this dish folded avocado mousse between layers of pickled celeriac as if to make tortellini, then covered them with shaved cauliflower, fennel and radish, apple matchsticks and apple jelly, then finished with crunchy scatterings of buckwheat, dehydrated olive and fried onion.

In an unexpected nod to raw 'cooking', I was served linseed wafers, with dehydrated carrot and mushroom, chickpea puree, and other fresh vegetables.

Caramelised zucchini arrived in a pool of chlorophyll dressing, dotted with macadamia cream then topped with dehydrated red cabbage and mixed greens.

In this dish mushrooms were presented three ways - as a paste, tender and lightly cooked, and roasted to chewy caramelisation - and teamed with edamame, a tahini cream, coriander flowers, and broth.

This nest of asparagus, broad beans, haloumi and almonds concealed a soft-poached egg, pea and rosemary puree and a mustard and chilli sauce. I enjoyed picking from the top a while, then once I hit the egg it added a richer dressing to the vegetables. I liked the effect, but I liked the herbal flavours of the puree even more - I reckon there's a subtler vegan dish hiding in here.

This bowl served as both palate cleanser and dessert. Inside to outside it contained coconut and lime cream, freeze-dried citrus fruits, vanilla bean and sago, and grapefruit granita.

The final course was a much heavier concoction of Vahlrona chocolate mousse, blanched almonds and candied almond skins, beetroot sorbet and beetroot leather, rhubarb syrup and a sherry topping. I nursed it for quite some time, skipping either side of the dividing chocolate wafer, a little sad that my meal was coming to an end.

This easily rates amongst my favourite degustations - yep, right up there with Attica. The springtime produce was beautiful and not weighed down or upstaged by butter, cheeses or oil. The arrangements were varied, featured lots of my favourite ingredients, and I was impressed by the couple of vegan cooking tricks that popped up along the way (dehydration, macadamia cream). I couldn't nominate a favourite or least favourite dish - the meal was an utter delight from start to finish. All I could do was swoon quietly by myself in the absence of a dining partner (... and then post photo after exultant photo to Michael as soon as got back to my laptop). If you have a fine dining wishlist, place Merediths at the top of it.

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The meaty menu at Merediths gets rave reviews on Eat Here Now and Auckland Food Blog, and you can read about a masterclass from Michael Meredith on my dining journey.

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Merediths
365 Dominion Rd, Mount Eden, Auckland
+64 9 623 3140
9 veg courses NZ$140 ~AU$125
http://www.merediths.co.nz/

Accessibility: I recall a wide flat entry, spacious table layout and full table service. The toilets were gendered and roomy with handrails. Lighting was a bit dim after sunset.

Revel

November 29, 2013

After my work commitments were over I stuck around Auckland for an extra day or so, wandering the streets of Ponsonby and Mount Eden. I started out with brunch at Revel, which I'd read about on easy as vegan pie.

Revel's menu is not entirely vegetarian but it has lots of well-marked options (for vegans and the gluten-free too) - so many that I didn't notice any meat mentioned in all the blog reviews I pulled up  (my list is compiled below as usual). A quick scan reveals the usual gamut of muesli and porridge, pancakes (I'm kicking myself that I didn't notice the vegan mark on those), mushrooms, eggs and/or baked beans on toast. The huevos rancheros and vegetarian Benedict hold a little more novelty value, but I wasn't in the mood for eggs.

Instead I had a crack at the vegan-friendly beans on toast (NZ$16 ~ AU$14.30). This was a huge and wholesome protein-packed plate of five-grain toast, saucy beans, avocado and crunchy soy-toasted nuts. Soy-toasted nuts? They're basically savoury granola. I like this brunch-time innovation immensely.

Having re-read Carla's posts, I'm feeling a twinge of regret that I didn't inspect the cabinet of cakes and pies more closely but I really can't complain - I was well fed at Revel regardless. It has the grungy, veg-sympathetic aesthetic that I associate with Brisbane's Brunswick St and Melbourne's Smith St, though that scene is dwindling in those locations. Here's hoping Revel keep it coming for a long while yet.

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It was two posts on easy as vegan pie that got me to Revel, but its veg options have also appeared on Gallery Food Exchange, An Auckland Vegan, Kittens Gone Lentil and Her Worldly Pleasures.

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Revel
146 Karangahape Rd, Auckland
+64 9-309 2372
veg brunch NZ$10.00-16.50 ~ AU$9.00-14.80
facebook page

Accessibility: The entry is wide and has a small lip, but is obscured by outdoor tables (see top picture); inside there's a narrow hallway and more crowded tables. I ordered and paid at a high counter, then my food was brought out to the table. I didn't visit the toilets.

Milse

November 27, 2013

Once I started seeking solo meals in Auckland I had entirely different selection criteria. I first focused on dessert and hence the dessert restaurant Milse. I'd read from An Auckland Vegan that they've got a few sneaky vegan options so I veered off-menu and asked what they could do.

What could they do? Only one of the loveliest desserts I've eaten in a long time (for around NZ$20 ~AU$18): a cobbled path of fresh mandarin and mandarin sauce, freeze-dried raspberries and papery licorice, poached cumquats and cumquat jelly, candied pecans, microherbs and flowers... all leading to a stunning balloon of mandarin sorbet.

The sorbet was secretly stashed with more of the same fruit and nuts. This is surely as delightful and clever as dessert gets - the two banes of the vegan sweet tooth, fruit salad and sorbet, tweaked and tweezered and transformed almost beyond recognition. Every typical flavour and texture had an exciting couterpoint: berries crunched, syrupy cumquats finished with pithy bitterness, and the sweet juicy mandarins were cut with coriander.

I was blessed with a seat overlooking the kitchen, and I could see that Milse is capable of much more besides.  For the non-vegans there's an entire patisserie of macarons and chocolates, cookies and bars, gelato sticks, tarts, verrines and gateaux. Though they're much cheaper ($NZ2.50-8.00 ~ AU$2.20-7.20) than the a la carte items (NZ$17-21 ~ AU$15.20-18.80), these sweets seem to be made with just as much thought and care - feijoa and salted caramel gelato sticks looked like Magnums from another planet, the gateaux like post-modern sculptures in miniature, while the chocolates bravely paired banana with rosemary.

There's still at least one more treat open to vegans - the take-home chocolate bars (NZ$7 ~AU$6.30 each). I picked up a pineapple & chilli and an orange & cranberry bar to share with Michael. The chocolate is dark, sweet and smooth (reminding me most of Koko Black) and while the flavours were fun, they didn't quite meld as I might've hoped they would.

That's the closest I can come to finding a flaw in the Milse experience. Their seated space is intimate (unlikely to hold more than a dozen customers), the staff are charming and considerate. They don't accept reservations but do keep a waiting list - I passed 25 minutes wandering Britomart and was lucky that they held my seat even though my phone hadn't worked. For the more impatient or easily pleased, it's possible to purchase most patisserie items on the spot and enjoy them elsewhere. I'm kinda kicking myself that I didn't stop by for a sly gelato stick later in the week. Really, I'm kinda kicking myself that I don't spend more time in Auckland - Milse now ranks among my all-time favourite sweet spots.

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It was these two posts from An Auckland Vegan that got me excited about Milse, but it's also won admirers on What's yummy in Auckland..., Ultimate OmNoms, Sweets & Brains, ouvertune, Auckland - A survival guide, the baking of..., A Rumbly Tummy, My Dining Journey, when food becomes our BFF..., Confessions of a Chopinholic, The Flâneur, Sparkles, Cheesecake Confessions and emma louisa. Only Touche Douche is unimpressed.

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Milse
The Pavilions at Britomart, 27 Tyler St, Auckland
+64 9 215 8996
desserts NZ$2.50-21.00 ~AU$2.20-18.80
http://britomart.org/milse

Accessibility: The entry is cobblestoned but otherwise flat. The interior is very cramped. I ordered at the table and paid at the door on my way out. I didn't see any toilets, I imagine some are available in the broader Britomart complex.

Elliott Stables

November 25-28, 2013

Last week several hundred Aussies and Kiwis in my field of work swooped on Auckland for a conference. The contingent from my office numbered more than a dozen and we met up often for lunch, dinner and/or drinks. Elliott Stables proved to be a particularly good location for such meet-ups. It's centrally located and essentially a glorified food court. Choose a heavy timber table to sit at and note its number, wander around the various stalls, order and pay for your meal, then sit back down and it's brought out to you. 

I was pleased with the veg choices I spotted at several stalls. Ela Cuisine even dared to mention vegan options on their menu! I enjoyed their conical masala dosa (NZ$12 ~ AU$10.70) and watermelon juice (NZ$5 ~ AU$4.50) on my first visit.

On Tuesday night I splashed out on a Vegetarian Box (NZ$20 ~ AU$17.90) from Samurai Japanese Restaurant. It offered a nice array of fresh and fried dishes (though no pickles!), and I'm pretty sure it was ninja vegan.

Thursday evening was spent drinking and grazing, so I looked beyond Bonz Cajun Kitchen's meaty mains and ordered a bucket of hushpuppies (NZ$6 ~ AU$5.40), ultra-fried bundles of cornmeal and corn kernels with a bit of jalapeno heat.

I would certainly recommend Elliott Stables for large groups. The range of vendors and casual, comfortable setting allowed us to arrive and leave in bursts, mingle at our leisure, and choose meals that suited our individual tastes and dietary requirements.

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An Auckland Vegan recommends the El Faro tapas at Elliott Stables. The Stables have also earned positive posts from Cheap Eats, the food pornographer, A Rumbly Tummy, I talk too much my mouth hurts, Amateur Foodie Review, Eats by Anna, Choice! NZ, Auckland Food Connoisseurs, HURRY UP AND EAT and Foodie Doodie.

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Elliott Stables
39 Elliott St, Auckland
veg snacks & meals NZ$5-25 (AU$4.50-22.30)
http://www.elliottstables.co.nz/

Accessibility: The stables have a wide entry but the tables are arranged at high density. The food vendors are all on the same level and generally accessible with varying counter heights. Food is ordered and paid for at counters then served at the table. I didn't ever track down the toilets.