The Lincoln

Cheap Eats 2006, a decade on

November 22, 2016

Hotel Lincoln (now called The Lincoln) has had several changes in management in the decade we've known it. This has meant a few makeovers in look and menu, although I think the atmosphere has been pretty consistent. The front bar has the typical Melbourne pub feel, while the dining room out back is much fancier. There have never been more than a couple of vegetarian options available, although we've enjoyed the ones we've had. When we visited as part of a large group recently, we were happy to order their set menu (The Half Lincoln, $45 per person) and let them show us how broad their vegetarian options really were.

The appetisers were light and fun - individual crackers piled with pink pickles, and kelp-salted edamame that kept our hands busy as we chatted.

One of the meal's high points was the shared entree of roasted cauliflower with a medley of buckwheat, pomegranate seeds, currants and mint. The puffed-up crunch of the buckwheat was unexpected and welcome, a switch-around on the Ottolenghi-style grain salads we seek and eat so often.

(Clockwise from top-left:) Asparagus with fried egg mayo and toasted crumbs was a winning side, the triple-cooked cooked could never have gone wrong, and a plate of cos hearts with fresh curd and shallots kept up the right ratio of green. I was skeptical of their teaming lentils with seaweed in the mushroom dish: the result was better than I expected, but not one of the night's favourites.

Dessert was another memorable point: Michael and I shared a feather-light beetroot and chocolate pudding. While it wasn't strongly flavoured, it was served in a pool of perrrrrfect anglaise.

The Lincoln's daily menu didn't much excite us vegos, but they're professionals who delivered a great experience. Staff were enormously accommodating of our group's various dietary requirements and various choices to eat communally via the Half Lincoln and individually a la carte.  The lentil-mushroom dish is the one official vegetarian main currently on menu, but through the Half Lincoln we learned that some of the sides are even better. With cheese and eggs liberally served throughout our meal, it remains to be seen how well they'd cater to vegans.

Staff didn't hinder us from chatting and chair-swapping into the night, even as the rest of the pub emptied out, and were easy-going as we split the last of the bill. I daresay they helped Melbourne make a great impression on our globe-trotting guests of honour, who are usually found fine-dining their way through DC.

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You can also read about one, two of our previous visits to Hotel Lincoln. Fellow veg blogger Nouveau Potato was less impressed.

Hotel Lincoln's several iterations are universally beloved by omnivorous bloggers, see The Bakeanista, half-eaten, Dining Nirvana, foodie about town, I'm So Hungree, Simple Palates, Seriously, Spoonfuls of Wanderlust, MEL: HOT OR NOT, Champagne & Chips (freebie), Sharking for Chips & Drinks (freebie), Melbourne Din(n)ing Blog (freebie) and Gastronomical Ramblings.

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The Lincoln
91 Cardigan St, Carlton
9347 4666
menu
http://hotellincoln.com.au/

Accessibility: Entry is flat. Indoors is quite crowded with high and low tables with stools and backed seats, respectively. We ordered at our table and paid while standing by the bar (but not across it). We didn't visit the toilets.

Pellegrini's

Cheap Eats 2006, a decade on

November 16, 2016

Our Cheap Eats project has mostly been about revisiting places we blogged way back in the day, but we're also using it to visit some long-overlooked Melbourne stalwarts. When we needed a quick dinner up at the Parliament end of the city, it seemed like the perfect excuse to finally visit one of Melbourne's institutions: Pellegrini's. It's been trading on Bourke Street since 1954 and by all reports very little has changed in 62 years - there's a wooden board listing different pasta dishes, scrappily decorated walls and staff chatting away in Italian. 

It's charming enough, but the bar seating is a little awkward in a group of four. The staff were reasonably helpful taking, us through the vego dishes - the choices are pretty simple: pick from one of a handful of pasta options and then choose either pesto or napoli. I ordered the ricotta ravioli with the napoli sauce (~$18). It was fine - very basic and quite old-fashioned food, served without much care for its presentation - but satisfyingly huge and tasty for all of that. 

Cindy went for fettucine with a pesto sauce (~$18). As with the ravioli, this was nothing fancy, but the pasta was fresh, which is the key for such a simple dish. The servings were huge, and the half a white roll we were each served on the side seemed like an unnecessary carb boost. 

I'm not sure how I feel about our Pellegrini's visit. It's obviously a hugely nostalgic experience for many Melbournites, with an unpretentious vibe that seems almost entirely unchanged since Italian food was impossibly exotic. Without that connection though, I'm not sure it really measures up - the food is a little uninspiring and when you're paying nearly $20 for fettucine with some pesto stirred through it, it really needs to be amazing. On the plus side, everything happens super fast - our food turned up almost immediately after we ordered it - so it's good if you want something hearty but you're in a bit of a hurry. The watermelon granitas we all ordered to drink (~$3 each) were tops too. 

Looking over the brief review in our 2006 Cheap Eats Guide it's clear that Pellegrini's have just kept doing their thing over the past decade, right down to the old dude flirting with the women customers. Prices have gone up a bit - from $12-$14 in 2006 to roughly $18 these days, but otherwise they're just doing what they do. It's not somewhere we'll visit often, but I'm still glad it exists.

The rest of our night was spent at the quite wonderful Hush event at Melbourne Music Week - a series of wonderful bands playing short sets around Parliament House. It was pretty special.

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There are lots of positive reviews of Pellegrini's - see Espresso and Matcha, Linnie Eats all the Food, Melbourne Food Baby, It's an Expensive but Delicious Habit, Tempting Palates, The Melbourne Local, Meetoo, Let's Get Fat Together, The Epicurean of Southbank, The Juliet Report, Gastronomical Ramblings, Sweet and Sour Fork, Mochii Eats, Kran and Nina, Gastronomy Gal, Simon Food Favourites, What's for Tea?, Spatula, Spoon and Saturday, The Melbourne Local, Jack Ate the Beanstalk, Melbourne Coffee Review, The City Gourmand, Craig on Toast and Spaghetti Blogenese. 

A few people have been much less impressed - there are pretty negative reviews on Adventures with That Fooodie, The Escort and the Thief, Storytelling, First, Melbourne Patron, Suntown Sunbird, New International Students, Let Me Feed You Melbourne, Melbourne Culinary Journal and Tomato.

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Pellegrini's 
66 Bourke St, Melbourne
9662 1885

Accessibility: There's a small step up on entry and a pretty crowded interior. You order and pay at the bar. We didn't visit the toilets.

Shakahari VI

Edit 05/01/2025: Sadly Shakahari has closed after many decades.

Cheap Eats 2006, a decade on

October 22, 2016

Shakahari is a true stayer of the Melbourne restaurant scene: our decade-spanning Cheap Eats project covers just a fraction of its 44-year tenure in Carlton. We made our first visit within a month of arriving in Melbourne and starting our food blog, and notched up five blog posts by 2008. After that we relegated our revisits to twitter, facebook and our own memories, but veg bloggers easy as vegan pie, vegan about town and In The Mood For Noodles carried the blogging baton for a few years after that (see end of post for a link round-up).

For a long time Shakahari switched its east-meets-west vegetarian menu seasonally, but it seems to have steadied over time. If anything they've improved their vegan and gluten-free selection. Many of our favourites have stuck around, and we were able to revisit them on a Saturday date night in Carlton. The first is the Avocado Magic entree (now $16; then $12 in 2007) - a hefty strip each of avocado and capsicum, rolled up in the thinnest sheet of eggplant before being battered and fried. It's mild and crisp and creamy, and best dredged through its share of coriander sauce.

Michael claimed the Legendary Satay Shakahari (now $21.50; then $17.50 in 2006-2008). The skewers line up smoky seitan cubes, tofu and veges, and the satay is thick, generous and minimally spicy. The sides are mercifully lighter: turmeric rice, blanched green vegetables and bright pickles.

I returned to the Quinoa Croquettes (now $21.50; then $17.50 in 2006-2008). They're mushy-middled with mashed yam, speckled with black quinoa and macadamias, and fried to a brown crisp on the outside. Like the satay, they rely on their sauce (this one sweet and tangy) to fill out the flavour. More steamed greens on the side, and kim chi for the pickle. I like this way with simple vegetables and striking pickles to round out the main dishes.

The Tofu Caramel (now $14.50; then unknown) didn't join the menu until a couple of years later but became an instant classic. It's wobbly and silken and milky - yet again, its salvation is an intensely flavoured sauce. I've come to expect supercharged sweetness from this dish and was delighted that the pistachio toffee is now tempered with ginger!

Service at Shakahari has always been patchy. On this night our table was available for little more than an hour, but they easily whisked us through three courses in that time. The restaurant's greatest weakness has always been its loud, echoing acoustics. When we first encountered Shakahari, it was an all-vegetarian special-occasion restaurant like we'd never encountered in Australia before. The prices seemed steep but they've withstood inflation well. Shakahari now takes a back seat to the flashier Smith & Daughters and Transformer, but it definitely still has its charms.

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You can read about one, two, three, four, five of our many past visits to Shakahari. Many veg*n bloggers have some affection for it, see Melbourne Vegan, easy as vegan pie (one, two, three, four, five), vegan about town (one, two, three, four, five, ), In The Mood For Noodles (one, two, three, four, ), Damn right I want a cupcake!, Nouveau Potato, vegienomnom, the broke vego, Fire & Tea, little vegan bear and Green Gourmet Giraffe.

Reviews from omni bloggers have generally been positive over the years, see I'm So Hungree, Let's Get Fat Together, Kit's Cucina Culinaria, Food of the Soul, A Chronicle of Gastronomy, Wayfaring Chocolate, storm in a tea cup, Cartolina Gourmet, Typical Food Blog, Eating Diaries, Eat & Be Merry, Sweet and Sour Fork and Foodscrazy.

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Shakahari Vegetarian Restaurant
201-203 Faraday St, Carlton
9347 3848
entrees, entrees & mains, dessert
http://www.shakahari.com.au/

Accessibility: There are a couple of steps up on entry, and a couple more between rooms on the inside. Tables are widely spaced. We ordered at our table and paid at a high counter. We haven't visited the toilets in a while.

Friends of the Earth

Cheap Eats 2006, a decade on

August 13, 2016

Part of the reason we decided to do our Cheap Eats 2006 project was to catch up on some glaring omissions in our near-decade of blogging. Cindy covered off Fo Guang Yuan in April, and this weekend we made our first ever visit to Collingwood vego stalwart Friends of the Earth.

We haven't actively been avoiding it, but the fact that it's taken us so long to visit is probably at least partly due to a suspicion that FOE would serve up worthy but bland vego food. Luckily, that impression was completely wrong - the cafe has a lot more to offer than just lentil stews: there are doughnuts and other sweets, lunch rolls, pizzas and more, along with a seasonal mixed plate. Everything is vegan by default (although there's dairy milk and butter on hand), and they're good at gluten-free options as well. There's a handy selection of veg-friendly groceries, including organic fruit and veggies.

I really wanted to try the baked tofu roll with cashew cheese, slaw, spinach and sesame mayo ($9), but I was hungry enough to tackle the large seasonal plate ($12.50). This is a classic vego buffet plate: rice, salad, a delicious tofu curry - hearty, tasty and healthy. It's a good option.

Cindy wasn't hungry enough to tackle a real lunch, so she ordered a lemon currant scone ($4) and a cup of dandelion tea ($4.50 + $1 for almond milk). The scone was a departure from the classic Australian version, with its triangular shape and dusting of sugar, but Cindy was impressed by it nonetheless. 

There are plenty of lovely-looking vegan sweets to choose from - at least partly provided by Crumbs.

Steph convinced me that I had to try FOE's newest special - a vegan croissant filled with smoked tofu and cashew cheese ($6). I took one home and had a wonderful breakfast the next morning - it's worth a visit to FOE on its own.

We can now personally recommend Friends of the Earth - it's doing much more than the daggy 1980s vego food we were half-expecting, and we really shouldn't have taken a decade to visit. It'll be much less time before we go back.

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Friends of the Earth has received pretty limited blog coverage over the years - there are positive write-ups at The Wholefood Mama, Vegan About Town, Veganopoulous, New International Students and MEL: HOT OR NOT.

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Friends of the Earth

312 Smith St, Collingwood

9417 4382
menu

http://www.melbourne.foe.org.au/

Accessibility: FOE has put some thought in - there's a shallow ramp on entry, non-gendered individual but standard-width toilet cubicles on the same level (the wooden floor is a teensy bit uneven) and a low counter for service.

Gopal's Vegetarian Restaurant

Cheap Eats 2006, a decade on

August 2, 2016

Between Michael's and my travels, we've let our Cheap Eats 2006 project lapse for a few months. We're reviving it with this visit to Gopal's in the city. When we first moved to Melbourne I was just barely done being a student and Brisbane's Hare Krishna restaurants, with their cheap and filling vegetarian meals, were a favourite hang-out. Gopal's had the same relaxed atmosphere and we notched up two short reviews in our first months here. We later checked in for a marathon cooking class, and we've failed to mention this dependable eatery on our blog for a good five years since.

While we were originally a bit put out by the cost of the chef's special, it has aged well! $12 in 2006, the equivalent feast plate is still just $12.95. This entitles you to a tray heaped with food - soup, rice and your two chosen curries, two chosen salads, a drink and a dessert. It's hearty, bulk cooking based on affordable vegetables and dried spices. I've always liked the kofta, and on this visit particularly enjoyed the tanginess of the lassi. Michael's chocolate ball reminded me of oat cookie dough, and my apple crumble was similarly oaty and comforting.

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Gopal's has received low-key blog coverage: praise from vegan bloggers Veganopoulous, Almost Skinny Vegan Food and Green Gourmet Giraffe, as well as omni bloggers The Melbourne Glutton, Food Food Food and Sweet and Sour Fork; only Eat & Be Merry have been notably disappointed.

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Gopal's Vegetarian Restaurant
139 Swanston St, Melbourne
9650 1578
menu
http://www.gopalspurevegetarian.com.au/

Accessibility: We entered via a narrow staircase with a handrail and did not notice an alternative access point. We ordered and paid at the counter. Tables were quite well spaced. We didn't visit the toilets but noticed gendered doors for them on the same level as the restaurant.

Water Drop Tea House @ Fo Guang Yuan Art Gallery

Edit 07/03/2020: The tea house is now closed.

Cheap Eats 2006, a decade on

March 29, 2016

Fo Guang Yuan Art Gallery is one of the two biggest oversights highlighted in our Cheap Eats project spreadsheet - it's a vegetarian eatery that's been open the entire decade we've lived in Melbourne, yet we've never visited and blogged it until now. I put this down to the dining hall's opening hours, which are restricted to weekday lunch times and therefore quite inaccessible to us non-city workers.

My workplace issued me with an Easter Tuesday off this year, and I used it to sneak in and give the gallery tea house a go at long last. It was quiet, almost hushed, and I had no trouble getting a four-seated table to myself.

The menu is much longer than I'd expect for such an unassuming operation. The appetisers alone run to twenty mostly deep-fried options, and then there are several dozen more stir-fries, tossed noodles, noodles and noddle soups. Most dishes involve mock meat, with a few centred around tofu or mushrooms instead. Each day of the week has its own set of three bento specials, and there's a range of hot and cold teas. I enjoyed an iced kumquat tea ($4), which had the syrupy sweetness of cordial and a contrasting pithy aftertaste.

At my late arrival time, two of the Tuesday bento choices were sold out; I didn't mind ordering the remaining nasi lemak ($12). It arrived quite swiftly and contained (clockwise from top left): lots of tangy pickled vegetables; a spicy mock beef rendang with potatoes, carrot and generous gravy; firm tofu with a chilli dipping sauce; steamed rice, mock anchovies, cashews and diced cucumber. It was all fun to graze on, and I was especially delighted to see the mushroom-based mock anchovies that we first discovered at Vincent last year.

This eatery's reputation has waxed and waned over the years. I don't think it serves the best mock meat in Melbourne, but my bento box was pleasant, varied and very reasonably priced. The venue's greatest appeal is as a quiet, comfortable respite from the bustling city workday outside.

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Most veg bloggers are very fond of this tea house, see praise on Veganopoulous (twice), vegan bullsh*t, easy as vegan pie, Nouveau Potato, and two contrasting posts on Miss T: Princess Vegan.

Omni bloggers seem to have always been divided, with I Am Famished, New International Students, The Hungry Grub, Eat & Be Merry, Chomp And Slurp, Edible Posts, Confessions of an Eco-Food Dude, melbourne gastronome and We Do Chew Our Food in favour, MEL: HOT OR NOT against, and Mon's Adventure, Consider the Sauce and Ms I-Hua having mixed experiences.

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Water Drop Tea House
Fo Guang Yuan Art Gallery
141 Queen St, Melbourne CBD
9642 2388
menu 1, 2
facebook page

Acessibility: The entry from the street is wide and includes about ten stairs (and I didn't see an alternative approach). The floor inside is flat, tables are low and chairs have backs, with furniture well-spaced. I ordered at the table and paid at a high counter, and didn't visit the toilets.

Andrew's Hamburgers III

Cheap Eats 2006, a decade on

February 27, 2016

We're still working our way through our Cheap Eats 2006 project, revisiting places from the first copy of The Cheap Eats Guide that we bought way back when we moved to Melbourne. On the last Saturday of summer, we headed back to Albert Park for an early dinner in the sunshine at Andrew's Hamburgers. They pre-date the American-driven burger craze that's swept through Melbourne in the past five years or so by about 60 years, first opening in 1939 and coming up with the current burger recipe in 1957.

They've put some tables on the footpath outside, but otherwise not much have changed: the menu's the same, the burgers are the same and the steady stream of customers is the same. Prices have crept up alongside inflation - from $7 for a veggie burger in 2007 to $10 in 2016 - pretty reasonable really.

Andrew's aren't in a hurry to change a formula that works for them. We grabbed one of their veggie burgers (with a homemade patty based on potato, sweet potato and pumpkin, with coriander, feta and parsley), a couple of potato cakes ($1.50 each) and a small serve of chips ($3). The potato cakes were uninspired, but the golden, salty chips hit the spot nicely. From what we could tell, the veggie patties are cooked on the same grill as the beef and chicken burgers, which is probably a turn off for some vegos.

The burger is a classically messy takeaway meal with salad spilling out everywhere. The patty is soft and pretty plain - the sauce and gooey cheese are doing most of the work flavour-wise. Veggie burgers at places like Howler and B.East are streets ahead of this offering (although they charge more as well to be fair).

Andrew's does a good line in Australian takeaway nostalgia - it's offering a retro lineup of burgers and souvlaki served up without any of the fancy toppings on offer at higher end places. It's great that they offer a vegetarian burger, but it's probably not something we'll hurry back across town for any time soon.

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We first visited Andrew's in 2007 to sample their burgers, and returned in 2010 for a souvlaki. Since then, only New International Students have reviewed the vego offerings (positively). 

Among the meatier blog scene, there have been many, many positive reviews: Jar Fed, Melbourne Places, Simon Food Favourites, Burger Review Crew, The Juliet Report, Let's Get Fat Together, Eat and Be Merry for Tomorrow We Die(t), Ms I-Hua and The Boy, The Very Very Hungry Caterpillar, Burger Friday, Melbourne Culinary Journal, Eat.Play.Shop, Edge of My Plate, Food Rehab, The Burger Adventure, One Fat Cow, Mostly Food Adventures, My Diet Starts Tomorrow, The Escort and the Thief, Melbourne Din(n)ing Blog, It's a Tall Order, Sharking for Chips and Drinks, One Fat Spork, yum yum, The Hungry Melburnian, The Baroness of Melbourne, Table to Tummy, Ichigo Shortcake, Gastronomical Ramblings, Simple Palates, Seriously, mochii eats, Sweet and Sour Fork, ps: I heart you, Melbourne Places, Lucy Likes Food, Of Breakfast and Tea, Em's Burger Quest, The Epicurean of Southbank, Eve Lovelle, The Hangry Bitch, The Food Society, Decisive Cravings, Under the Wire, Vanhell's Corner, Sean's Burgers, Verdict Lobster and Chasing a Plate.

A decent number of bloggers have been less enthused - most comparing Andrew's to bog standard fish and chip shop burgers: Andrew's Food Adventures, Missy Ness' Food Train of Thought, Curious Charlie, Food Etc, Double Dutch Oven, Tuesdays with Thao, For Food's Sake, The Best Bloody Burgers, Because I Can't Cook, Tirache and The Hungry Excavator.

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Andrew's Hamburgers
144 Bridport Street, Albert Park
9690 2126
menu
http://www.andrewshamburgers.com.au/

Accessibility: The entry is flat, but the interior is quite crowded and you order and pay at a high counter. The outside tables are reasonably well spaced, with bench seating. We didn't visit the toilets.

Ray IV

Cheap Eats 2006, a decade on

January 26, 2016

Our Cheap Eats project was a welcome excuse to revisit Ray, a cafe we've long liked. I reckon it might've been the first eatery we visited sporting the exposed brick-and communal table look that's now so ubiquitous in Melbourne. Ray's popularity has motivated an expansion and minor remodel since then, though the ambience is much the same.

The menu's had something of a remodel in the last couple of years too. Known initially for its Middle Eastern tweaks to the usual brunch fare (such as dukkah-spinkled poached eggs and French toasted Turkish bread), it's now a haphazard litany of pop culture references with Oatkast and Iron Maiden sitting alongside Avocado Da Vinci. Thankfully their dietary features are clear, with plenty for vegan, gluten-free and halal eaters.

Michael took on the handsome Cob Dylan ($19.80), a generous stack of corn fritters topped with a fried egg and augmented with avocado, fattoush salad, radish, pickles and preserved lemon yoghurt.

I was momentarily disappointed not to see French toast or pancakes on the menu, but perked up when I noticed the granola and the bircher muesli were both vegan. The Pineapple Express ($13.20) seemed the best analog of the bircher I ordered in our first Ray blog post (just $7 back in '07!). It's a riot of julienned apple, mango, pineapple and berries scattered with "chilli popcorn praline" (actually heat-free popcorn crumbs and tiny toffee shards). They conceal a deceptively dense bircher that I had no hope of finishing.

Ray's once outrageously cheap breakfasts are now up at market value, and the menu's had a major makeover. However the service and setting are reassuringly familiar, and we've never had a dud meal there. We reckon it's kept its cool rather admirably this last decade.

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You can read about one, two, three of our previous visits to Ray. Fellow veg blogger quinces and kale likes Ray, as do omni bloggers The Hungry Grub, BEAN HERE MELBOURNE, CHOMP AND SLURP, the coffee guide... and the hungry lawyer. Reviews are more mixed on New International Students, Available all day and mochii eats.

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Ray
332 Victoria St, Brunswick
9380 8593
breakfast, lunch & drinks
http://www.rayscafebrunswick.com.au/

Accessibility: There is a shallow and slightly narrow ramp on entry. Tables are quite densely packed, but there is a clear corridor through the cafe. We ordered at our table and paid at a low-ish counter. Toilets are unisex fully accessible individual cubicles.

Tofu Shop II

Cheap Eats 2006, a decade on

January 25, 2016

We were heading in to Richmond for a gig on Monday night, so decided we'd take the opportunity to revisit The Tofu Shop as part of our Cheap Eats 2006 project. This place has been trading since the early 1980s, so it's no real surprise that it's still going strong.

The basic ordering process hasn't changed since our first visit in 2008 - you pick your plate size and then select from the bain marie dishes until they've filled it up for you. The prices have gone up, but not by a ridiculous amount - a small plate costs $12, a medium $17 and a large $26 (compared with $8, $15 and $17 back in the day).

I ordered a medium dish and let the staff work out a selection for me - there was lots of good stuff in this bowl, including: broccoli with sweet chilli tempeh, potato and black-eyed beans, chilli jam tofu, chickpea curry, baked zucchini with paprika, feta and garlic (this was the only non-vegan dish) and pickled cabbage salary with celery.

Cindy had a small bowl and picked out her own flavour combo, topping things off with a big dollop of tofu dip and pickled ginger. The food is excellent - fresh, healthy and loaded up with vegetables. It's very reminiscent of Munsterhaus (which originally had some sort of Tofu Shop connection), right down to the same tempeh broccoli dish. Smooshing all the dishes into one plate makes the flavour combinations a little tricky, but it somehow seems to work okay.

We left enough space to try dessert - a piece of the apple crumble with a serve of vanilla malted soy ice-cream ($9). They've ditched the soft-serve that they used to offer, but still have a selection of five soy ice-cream flavours (4 of which are vegan). I quite liked the ice-cream, but it was a bit too tofu-y for Cindy. The apple crumble was pretty bland, sadly.

The Tofu Shop is a reliable source of healthy, flavoursome food. It's been dishing out the goods to Richmond people for decades and the steady stream of people dropping by to grab takeaway suggests that things are still going strong. The prices are a bit steep, and the space itself is nowhere near as nice as the otherwise similar Munsterhaus, but it's a speedy and delicious option if you're in the neighbourhood.

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Read about our first visit to The Tofu Shop here. Since our visit, it's been positively reviewed on vego blogs In the Mood for Noodles and Veganopolous, plus non-veg visitors Poppet's Window, Gastrology, I Talk Too Much My Mouth Hurts, New International Students, Who Told You That?, mochii eats, Olive Sundays and MEL: HOT OR NOT (although there are a few complaints about the prices). KT Eats the World and Sweet and Sour Fork were less impressed.

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The Tofu Shop
78 Bridge Rd, Richmond
9429 6204
price list, our dishes, ice-cream
facebook page

Accessibility:  The door has a small lip owing to the street-level incline. Things are pretty spacious inside, with only high stools to sit on or a lower outside table (see top photo). We ordered and paid at a low-ish counter. We didn't visit the toilet.

Cafe Lalibela II

Cheap Eats 2006, a decade on

January 11, 2016

Cindy's family wanted to meet us for dinner in Footscray and, with our enthusiasm for our new Cheap Eats 2006 project still high, we decided it was a good opportunity to revisit Cafe Lalibela. It's been more than seven years since we last visited, and not much seems to have changed. The staff are friendly, the service casual, the menu has a good range of vego options and there's a steady stream of people coming through the door.

We made the same move as last time and ordered the beyainetu (the platter below serves 3), a combination of different veggie dishes on an injera platter ($14 per head - up from $12 seven years ago, which is pretty good going).

The dishes are heavy on the protein: lentils and beans cooked in various sauces, along with a potato and carrot dish. The injera is the star of the show - the fermentation adds a citruss-y kick to the chewy, spongy bread, which soaks up the relatively mild flavours of all the stews. It's fun and messy to tear at the injera and scoop up the stews - it's a rare treat to eat with your hands. Added bonus: the delicious Ethiopian beers are a ridiculously affordable $5 a pop.

Cafe Lalibela feels timeless - almost nothing has changed since we visited nearly eight years ago - great, cheap food in a cheerful, casual setting. We really need to go back before 2023 rolls around.

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Since our visit in 2008, Lalibela has been positively written up by vegos In the Mood for Noodles and omni-bloggers Footscray Food Blog, Howie's Melbourne Food Blog, Gosstronomy, Apples Under My Bed, Eurasian Sensation and Eat and Be Merry for Tomorrow We Die(t).

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Cafe Lalibela

91 Irving Street, Footscray 
9687 0300
vegetarian menu

Accessibility: The entry is flat and there's a reasonably clear path up the middle of the restaurant, although the tables themselves are all wedged in pretty close together. We paid at a high counter and didn't visit the toilets. 

Tom Phat III

Cheap Eats 2006, a decade on


January 6 & 10, 2016

In 2006 Tom Phat was a new entry into the Cheap Eats guide, on the frontier of Brunswick gentrification and Asian fusion food. A decade later its brunch & bar fit-out has barely changed and aged rather well, with floor space doubling thanks to an extension into a neighbouring shopfront. While dishes have shuffled around from time to time, the menu has remained a mish-mash of eggs and roti, curries and stir-fries, cocktails and mocktails, with well-marked veg options, plenty of tofu and at least one mention of tempeh.

We first visited and blogged Tom Phat in 2008 and made a follow-up post in 2011. While these describe positive encounters, we'll admit to a couple of disappointments regarding both the food and the service in between; Carla was far more thorough in her polarised feelings on easy as vegan pie. In the past week we've returned for both dinner and breakfast to find out how Tom Phat is faring in 2016.

For dinner, Michael ordered the fried crispy silken tofu with red pumpkin curry, basil and lime on rice ($19). The tofu pieces were like deep-fried clouds, the curry was fragrant and citrusy, and Michael was very pleased.

I took on the nasi goreng ($18; we paid $12.90 for the same dish in 2011). It was sweet with kecap manis and a little smoky, with skewers of tofu and tempeh and a fried egg that spilled golden yolk over the rice. Another winner, we reckoned. I washed it down with a tangy Eastern Sunset mocktail ($6) of orange juice, pineapple juice, lemon juice and grenadine.

With happy memories of a scrambled tofu dish back in the day, Michael set his eye on their current version for breakfast ($14.90). It wasn't the spicy egg-substitute he was anticipating, instead a soupy bowl of 'roast tomato salsa' holding silken tofu blobs, wilting spinach leaves and a few button mushrooms. 

Michael does credit Tom Phat for introducing him to Vietnamese iced coffees (still $4 after 5 years). He's mighty fond of getting his summertime caffeine with a shot of condensed milk, though he now does so more often from Wide Open Road.

Meanwhile, I was curious to revisit the roti pancake ($12.90; up from $11 in 2011). Indicative of changes in me more than at Tom Phat, this didn't work out. Tough to cut, filled with mashed banana and encased in toffee, this was extraordinarily sweet even before the icecream hit the plate (oh, for a little lime or spice to cut through the sugar!). My two favourite things about roti are its flakiness and its delicate crunchy surface, and this approach maintains neither.

If nothing else, Tom Phat remains consistently inconsistent! It seems any dish is equally likely to generate a grin or a grimace. We were similarly bemused by the playlist, a mix of early '90s hip hop by night and Wilco backed up against CDB by day. The service staff, at least, were reliably friendly and efficient. It's fascinating that such a restaurant has persevered for a decade with very few updates - we'll probably continue to swing by every now and then, but Tom Phat has never really locked down our loyalty.

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You can also read about one, two of our previous visits. Since then it's received praise from fellow veg blogger little vegan bear.

There's also praise on omni blogs frenchtoastandindiepop, gluten shmooten, Eat Like Ushi, Peach Water, I Talk Too Much My Mouth Hurts, Klaus and Fritz, Only Through You, TEXTURE by alexandra, egg tarts and apple pie, Asian Restaurants in Melbourne, Melbourne Epicurean Eats, Chomp And Slurp, krapow, Lots of Cravings and Ms I-Hua.

Reviews are more mixed on Mon's Adventure, The Misadventures of MissC, New International Students, Skinny Glutton, bows with boats, The Bakeanista and Monschable Melbourne.

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Tom Phat
184 Sydney Rd, Brunswick
9381 2374
breakfast & drinks, lunch & dinner
http://www.tomphat.com.au/

Accessibility: Tom Phat has a small ramp on entry. Tables are aligned through the length of the building with a corridor through that starts off wide but gets a little more crowded towards the end. There is a disability-marked toilet out back. We ordered at our table and paid afterwards at the low-ish counter.