The whole Korean fried chicken explosion that swept Melbourne a few years back kind of passed us by - it didn't seem to have too much to offer us vegos. It was a surprise then when we noticed the Gami Chicken & Beer in Fitzroy proudly advertising their 'signature' vegetarian fried chicken.
The Fitzroy restaurant is a cute little place - seats for maybe 30 people, lots of bright colours and K-Pop blaring on the speakers. Once you get past the fried chicken, the menu is surprisingly veg-friendly - more than half of the 'Gami Delights' and light meals are marked vegetarian, tempting us with kim chi pancakes ($14), potato heaven ($14) and fried rice cakes ($5.50).
I couldn't resist a lunchtime beer, while Cindy ordered a crushed pear soft drink, which turned out to be a sweet juice rather than a carbonated soda. They came out with a serve of prawn crackers (not vego) and some pickled radish.
Our choice of side dish was mushroom mania ($16), a hot pan filled with three different kinds of mushrooms, tofu puffs and stir-fried veggies in a sweet soy sauce. This was fantastic - the tofu puffs soaked up all the delicious saucy flavours and the veggies and mushrooms hit the mark.
But the main event was the veggie chicken, which we got as part of a lunch deal - 7 pieces of veggie chicken and chips with a sweet black sauce ($15).
The chips were great - crispy on the outside and well seasoned and the sauce was sweet and sticky. The veggie chicken though was a bit of a disappointment - it was super chewy and a bit on the dry side. It's too bad, because the seasoned coating was good (though we hear it contains egg, making these unsuitable for vegans).
We had a pretty good time lunching at Gami - the menu is surprisingly veg-friendly and I'd be tempted to come back to try the kim chi pancakes. On the downside, the main attraction - the veggie chicken - wasn't really that exciting and the menu in general isn't that vegan-friendly. I'm glad that Gami offer a vego alternative to the fried chicken, but I can't see us rushing back for another shot.
_____________
I couldn't find any other reviews of the mock chicken at Gami. There are a couple of positive meatier reviews of the Fitzroy place at Eats By Donutsam and thebrunchaddict. We're not going to round up all the meaty reviews of the city branch.
Accessibility: There's a step up on entry, to a fairly spacious interior. The seating is all low stools. We ordered at our table and paid at the high bar. Bathrooms are gendered and not especially accessible.
I got up early on Thursday to hit Central Park for a few hours of birding - it's a world renowned birding site, although mainly during spring and fall migration, when it's the largest blob of green space for miles around and tired birds flop into it for a break. In June it's pretty quiet, but for an out of towner like me there's still a few exciting things to see. The slideshow below has my highlights, including:
Black-crowned night-heron
Northern cardinal
Gray catbird
Red-bellied woodpecker
Juvenile blue jay
American robin
Grackle
Double crested cormorant
Not a bad morning out.
Cindy came in on the subway a few hours later and we met nearby for breakfast - the upper east side isn't loaded with vegan options in the morning, so we settled on Alice's Tea Cup, mostly due to its location, but also because I had a vague memory of hearing something positive about it.
It's a slightly twee place, with a heavy focus on tea and Alice in Wonderland paraphrenalia. The savoury breakfast menu is very eggy and there are pancakes and crepes for the more sweet-toothed among us. But Alice's specialty is scones, so we both made sure to order appropriately. Cindy went for the two scone + tea deal (US$12 ~ AU$12.80), ordering pumpkin scones and a white/rooibos tea blend. The pumpkin scones were nothing like Flo's, coming with a thick sweet glaze and a cakey, gingerbready flavour. I went with the scones benedict, poached eggs and hollandaise sauce on plain scones, served with potato hash (US$13 ~ AU$13.90). It was fine, but had me craving some of the previous few days' more extravagant breakfasts. Alice's is a handy option if you're after an early bite on the Upper East Side, but with so much else to hit up in New York I wouldn't make it a priority.
After a bit of a stroll around Central Park we headed for our main goal for the day, the Guggenheim Museum. Which, it turns out, is closed on a Thursday. Bugger. We headed up to Harlem for lunch to figure out a new plan for the afternoon.
I'd been interested to read about Seasoned Vegan during our New York planning - it was just opening as I made my spreadsheet and the idea of vegan soul food seemed pretty fun. It wasn't on our 'must visit' list, but our location and spare time made it a handy option and it turned out to be one of our favourite meals of the trip.
The menu seems to be a regularly rotating one, with a couple of proteins, a handful of sides and a few raw options to choose from. We both did a meal deal - a medium for me (two proteins, two sides, US$13 ~ AU$13.90) and a junior for Cindy (one protein, two sides, AU$8 ~ AU$8.50). I got to sample both the 'meat' dishes - chicken masala and jerked beef - along with some stewed string beans and parsley potatoes, while Cindy had the chicken with sauteed broccoli and vegan mac 'n' cheese. Everything was incredible - the meats were excellent (probably seitan, but we're not totally sure) and the sauces were out of this world. We'll definitely be going home and figuring out how to replicate them. They do a range of smoothies (we split a delicious berry lemonade) and a range of raw and baked desserts (which we were too full to tackle). The staff were super friendly and made us feel very welcome. A definite highlight of the trip - we wanted to get back up there for another round in the few NY days we had left, but we ran out of time.
After lunch we fell back on The Frick Collection, a Manhattan mansion turned gallery stuffed with art collected by industrialist and militant anti-union capitalist Henry Frick. The house was fascinating to explore and the collection was interesting enough (although the more you read about Frick the more you kind of resent his wealth and the whitewashing of his reputation that goes on in the gallery).
We headed back to Williamsburg for a pre-dinner break, but wound up swapping an hour or two on the couch for a couple of cocktails on the rooftop at the Wythe Hotel. The main attraction is the view, although in the late afternoon the view over to Manhattan is also the view into the sun so we limited our photos to the rooftops of Brooklyn. It's a pleasant place to sit for a bit, although it was filling up fast when we headed off at around 6:30.
The dinner plan was Hangawi, a vegetarian Korean place in Midtown that had been recommended to us by Michelle. It's a big venue and was already bustling when we arrived - things stayed pretty full all night, so I'd really recommend booking.We kicked things off with a couple of soju-based cocktails (a reincarnation for Cindy and a mojito for me, $US10 ~ $AU10.70 each). They were light on the booze, but still refreshing enough.
The a la carte menu is overwhelming, with about 20 starters and soups (~US$10-12 each) and even more mains (~US$18-22 each). They've got a separate gluten free menu and everything is vegan. Luckily, they took the decision out of our hands by offering "the emperor's tasting menu," a US$65 (~AU$70) set menu that we were enthused to try out.
The starters were a dumpling soup steamboat and a summer green salad with silky tofu and a citron tofu dressing. The dumplings were great and the soup was filled out with little slices of rice cake. The salad was fresh and sweetly dressed.
The spring appetizer platter came out next, featuring a pumpkin-stuffed apple, a maitake mushroom croquette in dill sauce, a kabocha pumpkin cake stick and a couple of little cabbage rolls. A visually and texturally satisfying platter of delicious little nibbles. It was followed by the emperor's rolls, a DIY Korean pancake plate, with three different kinds of wrappers and an array of fillings including multiple types of mushrooms, carrot, seaweed and other pickled vegetables.
You have a choice of two dishes for the main meal, so naturally we ordered one of each - a mixed mushroom sizzler and tofu with mixed vegetables, both served with avocado stone bowl rice. The mushrooms were mild and hearty, coming with spicy pickle accompaniments (including some excellent kim chi), while the tofu had a bit more of a kick. The avocado rice bowl was like an egg-free bibimbap, with the bowl turning the rice at the bottom into crisp little chunks. Everything was excellent.
We were really struggling for room at this stage, and were relieved to see a modestly sized dessert turn up: a black rice pudding with cacao nibs and a blob of soy icecream in the middle. I'm often underwhelmed by the bean or rice-based desserts that Japanese, Chinese and Korean places offer up, but the cacao really added something to the standard rice pudding flavour here and the icecream was great.
Hangawi was another of the more memorable meals of our trip. With this banquet under our belts, we had the confidence but sadly not the time to work our way through the rest of the menu.
Warra Warra is tucked away at the back of the Tivoli Arcade off Bourke Street - it's got a few big outside tables and a stylish, exposed brick industrial-ish interior. The menu is long with plenty of vegetarian options, basically one for each menu section: a soft tofu stew, bibimbap, tofu bulgogi, a grilled tofu green bowl, spicy vegetarian hotpot, veggie tofu with kimchi, kimchi pancake, sweet potato noodles and a few others - you've got choices is what I'm saying.
I got there early and the super friendly staff plied me with free nibblies and not so free beer (the waiter helpfully pointed out that Hite beer is pronounced like 'height' not hit-ay).
When Cindy arrived we quickly negotiated our orders - I couldn't ignore the rave reviews that Hayley gave the bibimbap ($13.90), while Cindy was intrigued by the tofu bulgogi ($17.50, served with rice, salad and seasonal fruit).
The bulgogi comes out in five dishes - you get some leafy greens and a couple of bits of fruit, a seasoned rice bowl (the staff checked in with us as to whether we wanted fish flakes and/or egg on top of the rice, so it's probably worth being clear that you're vego/vegan when you order), a little pan of saucy tofu, kim chi and pickled oniony bits. The tofu was grilled and coated in a sweet sauce with a bit of soy saltiness, served on a bed of cabbage, carrot and onion. Cindy was happy to enjoy it as it was, but I'd have added a dash of hot sauce or mixed it with the kim chi to give it a bit more zing.
Thankfully, the bibimbap is designed to be self-sauced to your satisfaction, so I could happily squeeze on as much of the house made chilli sauce as I wanted (hint: a lot).
The dish itself was excellent - a good mix of tofu, veggies and rice with a squishy egg yolk on top that you mush up and stir through everything else. The stone bowl is super hot and everything keeps on cooking while you eat, so the rice gets crunchier the longer you go on. It's not heavily flavoured - just a drizzle of a sweet soy sauce on the tofu - but the staff are clear that you're meant to self season (there's a mild sauce as well as the chilli, but I was never going to make that mistake).
Warra Warra is a good CBD restaurant to have in your kit bag: fresh and delicious food, a quiet and relaxed atmosphere and plenty of vego options. The prices are reasonable (although not as cheap as the various dumpling houses we usually fall back on in the city) and the service spot on. They do cheaper set dishes at lunchtime, when I think things are a bit more chaotic. We'll definitely be back - I'm keen to try the kim chi pancake ($14.50) and the veggie tofu with kim chi ($19.50).
Accessibility: The entry is flat, but things are a bit crowded inside. The toilets are up a small step, are gendered and of
standard dimension. You order at the table and pay at a high counter.
