Easy Vegan II

December 26, 2023

   

We had a quiet Christmas holiday in 2023 and did some online scouting for fun places to eat - Easy Vegan came out on top for being open on Christmas and Boxing days and having a menu that we were keen to try more from. We ended up grazing on home-baked cheesymite scrolls on the 25th, but took a break from the televised cricket on the 26th for an Easy Vegan lunch. They were doing a bustling trade, but had us all set up with a cleared table and complimentary tea in good time.

It's been an unusually humid summer in Melbourne so we were keen for more drinks beyond the tea: an apple, watermelon and ginger juice ($8, above right) for Michael, and a custard-apple smoothie ($10, above left, and an old Fina's favourite) for me.

   

Michael lunched on the Spicy Satay V-Chic ($17) with rice. This isn't as thickly peanutty as the Thai and Indonesian satays that we're most familiar with but is consistent with the other Vietnamese one we know from Fina's: it's very savoury and well-spiced, a little oily, and not fiery-hot. Zucchini and capsicum add a fresh contrast to the mock chicken, and it's just perfect with a side of steamed rice ($3).

   

I also trialled a dish I've known and loved elsewhere, the Hainan V-chic Rice ($16). They use a layered mock-chicken with a crisp 'skin', and you can see the accompanying vegetables are on the fence between 'garnish' and 'side'. The real stars here are the rice and the pouring sauce - so fragrant, so complex! Sweet, salty, somewhat spicy, and herbal with a little funk.

   

There are a couple of vegan groceries at the counter, and we picked up a portion of vegan pâté on our way out. This made our next batch of home-made banh mi extra-special.

Easy Vegan excels again! Perhaps on our next visit it's time splurge on the pricier DIY V-ish rolls.

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You can read about our first visit to Easy Vegan here.

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Easy Vegan

140 Victoria St, Richmond

0432 955 735

menu: one, two

facebook page

Accessibility: There is a small lip on the entry and a clear corridor through the centre of the restaurant. Furniture is solid, with low height tables and backed chairs. We ordered and paid at a low counter. We didn't visit the toilets.

Easy Vegan

October 15, 2023

   

A visit to IKEA is a good excuse for lunch in Richmond and we identified Easy Vegan as something new to us to try. It's a casual and comfortable family-run cafe serving Vietnamese-style dishes. Everything is obviously vegan, and the menu invites people with other dietary requirements to speak with the staff for extra info. There are almost three dozen dishes on offer, with most featuring mock meat but some sticking to tofu and vegetables.

   

We were served complimentary tea while we made some tough ordering decisions. Ultimately I went for the broken rice combo ($17) and a coconut drink ($7) and received a feast! The soup had the most deeply flavoured broth I recall tasting as a vegetarian. I was served lots of rice, pepper-crusted 'pork', a rich square of 'ham', fried 'egg', pickled carrot and daikon, fresh cucumber and tomato, and a generous bowl of dressing. Every bite was different, and every bite was a delight.

   

Michael chose the Beyond pho ($18), which featured more of that remarkable broth, Beyond brand mock meat, lots of noodles and all of the usual trimmings. He was so satisfied with this meal, he didn't even look toward my plate of fun for a taste.

Easy Vegan will be top of our dining list for all upcoming visits to Richmond, as there's so much more for us to try across their menu. It's conveniently just across the street from Minh Phat Supermarket, too! With a full and happy stomach, I kept my Minh Phat impulse buying in check this time - just a jar of kaya and a mock fish snuck home alongside a new wok.

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Easy Vegan

140 Victoria St, Richmond

0432 955 735

menu: one, two

facebook page

Accessibility: There is a small lip on the entry and a clear corridor through the centre of the restaurant. Furniture is solid, with low height tables and backed chairs. We ordered and paid at a low counter. We didn't visit the toilets.

Tidbit cakes & cafe

Update 17/06/2023: Tidbit Cakes now operates from Kilsyth.

August 26, 2018

I first got to know Rhi through her blog Vegan in Melbourne and was very excited for her when she opened her own business, Tidbit cakes, in Richmond. Rhi's primary trade is in special occasion cakes but she also sells smaller daily treats from her brightly lit workspace. Everything is vegan.

Sadly our lunchtime visit was too late to claim any of the sausage rolls, but we were well satisfied with the toasties still available. Rhi blends two vegan cheeses to get the best combination of meltiness (Bio Cheese) and flavour (Vegusto). I liked that the pesto, tomato & cheese version ($10) was seedy and nutty, and loved the mustard and pickle piquance of the ham/cheese/tomato standard ($12.50).

There's a couple of little tables to eat in at Tidbit, but Rhi had also pointed out to me the dog park just down the street, so we had our sweets boxed up for a takeaway in the late winter sun. While we watched lots of cute canines frolicking, we split two excellent desserts. This is one of the best vegan cheesecakes ($7) I've ever eaten - super smooth and without a whiff of tofu, with a thick chocolatey biscuit base (get outta here, raw date crusts). We made a magnificent mess of the nutella brownie ($6), which was super-dooper fudgy, with just a little welcome crustiness around the edges.

Though we didn't buy any on this day, these guys make the most stunning vegan macarons! Sadly for us, Richmond's outside our regular circle of movement, but you can bet we'll stop in again (hopefully for a sausage roll) when we're within Tidbit's range.

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Tidbit has also appeared on the blog messy veggies.

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Tidbit cakes & cafe
255 Mary St, Richmond
0434 872 867
https://www.tidbitcakes.com/

Accessibility: There's a ramp on entry and more floor space than furniture inside. We ordered and paid at a low counter. We didn't visit the toilets.

Feast of Merit

February 15, 2017

Cindy's started doing a bit of work out at Monash which, if nothing else, gives us an excuse to meet up in Richmond after work for dinner. We'd heard good things from friends about the food at Feast of Merit, a social enterprise that raises money for YGAP and serves up Middle-Eastern inspired goodies all day long. It's a lovely space - lots of light streaming in through the big windows and a nice buzzy atmosphere without being deafeningly loud. 

The menu is pretty standard mid-range Melbourne: small, medium and large share plates with lots of veggie options and then nothing but meat under 'protein'. The staff gave us a good idea of sizing and we ordered a good mix from the small and medium sections, starting with chickpea chips with tomato jam ($9), braised radishes with pomegranate molasses and leaves ($9), caramelised onion hummus ($8) and za'atar grilled flatbread ($5). 

They were a beautifully presented selection of dishes that took up almost our whole table. The chickpea chips were probably my favourite - smooth on the inside with a nice crust, while the bread/hummus combo was inevitably a success. I wasn't really into the radishes - I think the texture of braised radish just isn't really for me though, because Cindy happily plowed through them.

We ordered two bigger dishes to follow up - fried cauliflower with crispy onions, hung yoghurt, sour cherries and chervil ($18) and a cucumber, lentil, baharat salad, with buttermilk and almonds ($18). Cauliflower really is an unsung hero of the vegetable world, especially when it's roasted or fried to within an inch of its life (see also Tahina), and this dish was my favourite of the night - the yoghurt and cherries adding sweet and sour notes to the beautifully earthy cauliflower. The cucumber dish was a nice, light accompaniment, with lots of fresh cucumbers given a bit of heft by the lentils. 

Cindy was eyeing off the impressive-sound desserts (peanut butter and raspberry sponge with basil!), but we'd gone too hard on the savouries and had to call it quits. Another time.

Feast of Merit is well worth a visit - the food is thoughtful and well executed and there's a good range of vego dishes to choose from (vegans might struggle however - all the non-meaty larger dishes seem to include dairy or eggs by default). We had friendly and efficient service and really enjoyed the space, all with the added bonus that your money is going towards a progressive cause (although I'm a bit sceptical of these kind of ventures after the Shebeen debacle and YGAP's entrepreneur-focussed approach to development isn't really my favourite - still: it's got to be better than an entirely for-profit business). 

Having said all that, we probably won't hurry back - Feast of Merit is doing the kind of food we can get get closer to home at Rumi, Teta Mona, Morrocan Delicacy and Mankoushe. It's a genre of eating that Melbourne is doing very, very well. If anyone has any other tips for places around Swan Street that we should check out, we'd love to hear them.

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Feast of Merit gets pretty universal praise from food bloggers both for dinner: Trading Plates, Lips Temptations, foodie about town, Sammy Says, Little Caps, The Baroness of Melbourne, A Chronicle of Gastronomy, Dammit Janet I Love Food, The Spice Adventuress, Petit Miamx, Food Rehab, Spoonful of Sarah and Second Helping and breakfast: The Very, Very Hungry Caterpillar, lifestyle by lily, Peach Water, I'm So Hungree, Emoji Food Review and The Brick Kitchen, although In Love With Brunch, Stuck in Transit and The New Fave had some complaints about the service.

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Feast of Merit
117 Swan St, Richmond
9428 8480
background, food
http://www.feastofmerit.com/

Accessibility: There's a a flat entryway into a spacious interior. There's full table service and accessible toilets. 

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.

Nhu Lan

Update 17/06/2023: Nhu Lan has now closed.

September 21, 2014

It's hard to go past a good vegetarian banh mi - we've had some luck with a seitan-based version at Tan Truc Giang in Footscray and the mock-pork variety at Fina's, and have incorporated a Vegan Dad-inspired version into our home cooking roster. Still, we're always on the lookout for more, so we were pretty excited when Olaf left us a comment recommending Nhu Lan in Richmond. We took advantage of a sunny Sunday afternoon to go and check it out (as an aside: we love it when people recommend place or recipes to us - please do leave a comment here or chase us up on Facebook or Twitter).

Nhu Lan is a classic Vietnamese bakery - no fuss, no chit chat, just speedy service, made to order sandwiches and a decent range of sweet stuff and pastries. It's all pretty pork heavy, but the $4.50 tofu roll is clearly marked on the menu. Vegans will need to be clear that they don't want butter or mayonnaise, but the rest of the fillings are pretty straightforward: grated carrot, slivers of cucumber, coriander, chilli and tofu.

Unlike our Fina's and Tan Truc Giang experiences, this isn't really trying to mimic the pork roll - the tofu is lightly battered rectangles with a slightly sweet marinade. The chilli provides the necessary bite and the fresh, crunchy roll is top notch. I think I still favour the seitan-based version, but this is a cheap, easy and delicious lunch in Richmond if you don't have time for a sit down meal at Fina's or Thanh Nga 9.

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It seems as though the Footscray branch of Nhu Lan is popular with bloggers, but not many have reviewed the Richmond one - Ministry of Gluttony and teenagefoodie weren't wowed, while chasing a plate, krapow  and Swimming in Coffee were much more enthused.

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Nhu Lan Bakery
152 Victoria Street, Richmond
9429 5545
menu

Accessibility: There's a small step up as you enter and the interior is pretty crowded (at least when they're busy). There's not really anywhere to sit. You order and pay at a high counter.

Cafe Azul

October 6, 2013

Cindy and I spent Sunday morning grabbing a few bits and pieces for our new place on what was hopefully our final IKEA trip. We were buggered afterwards and our initial plan of lunch at Touchwood was torpedoed by a half hour long wait for a table. Luckily, I remembered that Cafe Azul was nearby and had a good rep for vego brekkies (thanks to a long ago recommendation from Joanne).

We nabbed a table in the front room (they have a courtyard as well) and perused the menu. It's very veg friendly, with some fairly standard eggy dishes, quesadilla rancheros, a veganisable burger and some salads. The drinks menu has a bit of variety as well - the wattleseed latte ($4.50) had Cindy immediately intrigued.

Cindy found the wattleseed latte an excellent non-coffee option, with enough spiciness and bitterness to be interesting. The coffee itself was fine without really knocking my socks off.

Food-wise, I was all about the tofu scramble with Spanish onion, capsicum, herbs, baby spinach and organic quinoa and soy toast ($16.90).

I was very impressed by this - the tofu was well seasoned, with turmeric and cumin providing a nice rich warmth. There were plenty of veggies as well, although the big glob of spinach was a bit much on its own and could have been combined with everything else a bit better. Still: a good scrambled tofu is a rare treat around Melbourne, and this was a very good one indeed. 

Cindy had to order something sweet to go with her hot drink and her options were pretty limited. The ricotta hotcakes with salted caramel, pear, citrus chantilly cream and candied walnuts ($17) from the specials list were the only realistic option.

Everything was well prepared, but the whole dish was a bit heavy on the sugar - the cream was sweetened, the walnuts candied and the salted caramel super sweet. It all got a bit much by the end. A version of this that had plain roasted walnuts and regular thickened cream might have offered more contrast. 

Cafe Azul is a reasonable option for veg*ns wandering Bridge Road - the staff were very clear about vegan vs vegetarian dishes (my scramble was vegan, but I think they'll butter your toast if you'd rather), the cabinet has vegan pies and a smattering of vegan sweets and the food is solid. The staff were pleasant and there was a quietly friendly atmosphere to the whole place. It's definitely worth a visit if you're in the area, but probably not somewhere you'd head across town for.

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Pigging out around the world and Melbourne Din(n)ing Blog were pretty positive about Cafe Azul, while Bitch, I Like It Hot! was a bit more ambivalent.

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Cafe Azul
346 Bridge Road, Richmond
9421 5959
veggie breakfast: $6 - $18.50
facebook page

Accessibility: There's at most a small step on entry. Thing are pretty cramped, with most of the front room filled with tables. You order and pay at a medium high counter. We didn't visit the toilets.

Fina's Vegetarian Cafe II

Update 17/06/2023: Fina's is now closed.

May 25, 2013

With a free Saturday night and a craving for some Vietnamese, Cindy and I roped in a couple of friends and headed off to Victoria Street for a return visit to Fina’s. Our last trip had been a speedy pre-festival lunch, so we enjoyed having a bit more time to work our way through the gigantic menu.

We started out with some shared entrees, including Fina’s vegetarian fried wontons ($7.50).

These crisply little treats were stuffed with a delicious mixture of silken tofu, mushroom and the occasional chunk of mock-prawn.

We also sampled a serve of the vegetarian Vietnamese grilled pork skewer ($18.50).

Not having paid close attention to the photos on the menu, I had imagined these as just a big pile of skewers. Instead, we got a big pile of skewers plus salad, noodles and rice paper wraps to make our own little rolls with. The ‘pork’ skewers were brilliant, although my rice-paper wrapping skills need work.

Our final starter was a single serve of the ban xeo chay (Vietnamese pancakes, $10.50), which Cindy sampled on our previous visit. More awkward wrapping of things (this time with lettuce leaves serving as the wrappers) and more superb food – the pancake is stuffed with an excellent mess of sprouts, mushroom and mock meat.

Onto the mains! We all sampled a bit of the vegetarian salad ($10.50), a tasty mix of fresh veggies, crackers, noodles and mock meat.

You pour a little bowl of vinegary sauce over the salad and toss it all together before everyone tries to pick out all the weird little ham pieces for themselves.

I was convinced by the very charming owner of Fina’s to sample their specialty dish – vegetarian spicy noodles ($9).

This is a massive bowl of soup loaded up with noodles, chunks of mysterious mock-meat, eggplant and a side of sprouts, lemon for squeezing and fresh chilli. I made the mistake of adding both fresh chilli and a generous dollop of chilli oil and then spilling noodles straight into my tea cup, which left me spluttering embarrassingly with nothing to drink to sort myself out. Spluttering aside, this is an excellent dish – there’s way too much food for you to eat, it tastes superb (apparently the stock cooks for 10-12 hours) and it costs $9. Not too shabby.

Cindy went with the vegetarian dried noodles ($10.50), a tasty hodge-podge of noodles, tofu, salad and two kinds of mock-meat.

The prawns weren’t a huge hit, but the curly bacony looking things were a success. I was a bit overwhelmed by my spicy noodles to really sample this dish, but Cindy gave it the thumbs up.

End of meal table wreckage

Our second visit to Fina’s was as big a success as our first – they’re cheap, friendly and the menu is massive and massively delicious. There are still loads of dishes for us to sample, along with an incredible range of intriguing cold drinks. Fina’s may have surpassed both Thanh Nga Nine and Loving Hut as our go-to Victoria Street option.

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Nobody else seems to have blogged Fina's since we visited back in February.

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Fina's Vegetarian Cafe
268 Victoria St, Richmond
9428 6765
veg dishes $4.50-18.50, drinks $3.20-7.50
facebook page

Accessibility: There's a small step on entry, but the interior is flat with a clear passage through the middle. Tables are moderately crowded. The venue is well lit but the menu font is difficult to read - it's got photos of all the food anyway. We ordered at our table and paid at a low-ish counter. We didn't visit the toilets.

Fina's Vegetarian Cafe

Update 17/06/2023: Fina's is now closed.

February 17, 2013

It's taken us far too long to visit Fina's for the first time. Reader Ben emailed us about it more than a year ago, Jay reminded us more recently and, after we found their shopfront closed during the Christmas/New Year period, The Simple Eater stopped in and wrote a very positive post about the cafe. Hopefully having some friends living back in the Richmond neighbourhood will give us the excuse we need to sample more of their lengthy all-vegetarian, Vietnamese menu. We met our mates there between two of tomorrow's parties.

The menu is quite something to tackle - a plastic folder with a photograph of every dish plus a title and blurb in a difficult-to-read curly font. Don't dilly dally in front of the manager though! He doesn't care for time wasters. After the usual rice paper and spring rolls, the menu offers a wide range of soups, some noodle dishes, stir-fries and hot pots - many dishes are vegan, and there's a mix of mock meat and non-mock options. The enormous cakes out front look decidedly less vegan, and gluten-free choices aren't clear (though amongst all the vermicelli and rice paper I'm sure there are some).

On yet another hot morning, I was thrilled to see an extensive selection of juices, ice slushies and bubble tea. Michael fell back on a Vietnamese iced coffee ($4), served half-full as pictured above. He missed the shaved ice that it comes with it elsewhere, but most importantly it was strong and sweet.

I've long wished that iced chai was more widespread, so I had to try Fina's Ice Chai Latte ($5.50) even though I didn't really want something creamy. Oops. This was a triple-dairy-threat of milk, icecream and thick piped cream, more like a vanilla milkshake with cinnamon sprinkled on top. Fun but lacking the spiciness I want from chai.

By far the cheapest way to eat is to go with their vegetarian roll ($4.50), a mock-pork banh mi with a sweet and somewhat spicy sauce, plenty of fresh salad and peanuts. Michael slammed it in little more time than it took me to photograph my food.

On our friend Clamps' recommendation I tried the Vietnamese pancake ($10.50). It's an enormous vegan omelette imitator with a batter of rice flour and coconut milk coloured with turmeric and studded with chunks of onion, mock ham, mock prawn and mushroom folded over a mountain of bean shoots. The objective is to fold portions of it into lettuce leaves, add mint and dip - the pancake was a little greasy, and I was slow and messy at the task, but it was well worth the effort.

Fina is colourful, comfortable and casual. We encountered brisk but friendly service and didn't feel at all rushed. Meals are cheap and, for the most part, very generously portioned. Thanh Nga Nine and Loving Hut have a real rival here for our Victoria St affections.

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Fina's has previously received positive reviews from The Simple Eater and foodie about town, and an ambivalent one from Phúc Buddies.

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Fina's Vegetarian Cafe
268 Victoria St, Richmond
9428 6765
veg dishes $4.50-14.00, drinks $3.20-7.50
facebook page

Accessibility: I think there's a small step on entry, but the interior is flat with a clear passage through the middle. Tables are moderately crowded (see photo above). The venue is well lit but the menu font is difficult to read - it's got photos of all the food anyway. We ordered at our table and paid at a low-ish counter. We didn't visit the toilets.

New York Tomato

Update 17/06/2023: New York Tomato has become Galtee Cafe.

September 23, 2012

On Sunday morning I jumped on my bike early and hit Burnley for a 'fun' run. 10km and a fair bit of pain later, it was time to find some brekkie. For some reason, I've got a blind-spot when it comes to Richmond - I'm sure there are dozens of cafes around, but when trying to think of somewhere that would serve vegan breakfast for my running buddy Bec I was stumped. Luckily Bec had an idea - New York Tomato, which I'd never heard of, but which, it turns out, has an excellent reputation and supposedly some decent vegan options.

Although I didn't realise it at the time, New York Tomato's name comes from its location, the corner of New and York Streets in the back-blocks of Richmond (not sure where the 'Tomato' part comes from). At 9:30 in the morning things were just warming up, so we easily snared a table in the courtyard (the bitingly cold wind probably helped). The menu does suggest that they know what they're doing - vegan dishes are clearly labelled, as are vegetarian and gluten-free options. I considered the baked eggs or the carrot, chickpea and fetta fritters, before settling on the quesadilla (refried beans and cheese, topped with jalapenos, salsa, sour cream, guacamole and coriander pesto, $16.50).

This was the perfect post-run breakfast, hearty and filling and loaded with spicy goodness. I could have eaten two. Unfortunately, the vegan dishes didn't fare quite so well, largely because the kitchen had run out of beans. It's clear that the cafe is trying to cater to vegans, but without the beans there wasn't much filling on offer.

The coffees were pretty good and the service was helpful and reasonably efficient. By the time we packed it in at about 11 the crowds had started to take over, to the point that people were having to queue for tables. There's no way anyone is just wandering by New York Tomato's location, so it's clear that they've won plenty of fans around the neighbourhood. It's pretty easy to see why - the space is lovely (and would be even lovelier if the sun was shining) and the menu is loaded up with delicious-sounding goodies. It's not cheap, but if you're in the neighbourhood, it's well worth a visit.

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We're late to the New York Tomato party - Petit Miamx, The Very, Very Hungry Caterpillar , available all day, Once a Waitress, Chekoala, Ronnie's Spots, Let Me Feed You Melbourne, table to tummy, Yellow Eggs, melbourne gastronome, kate and zoe... and the kid, Do You Want to Stay for Breakfast?, Boobpop's Brunch Blog, Melbourne's bargain foodie, Gastrogasmic, Poppet's Window, food, glorious food, tell her she's dreaming and Adventures of Java Jane have all given it the thumbs up.

Julesgourmand and eggswithsides were a bit less enthused.

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New York Tomato
6 New Street (cnr York), Richmond
0459 721 321
veg dishes $6.50-16.50

Accessibility: The courtyard has a flat entry and isn't ridiculously crowded. There are two more levels of tables up some stairs. The toilets (which I didn't visit) are on the top floor, so aren't particularly accessible.

Loving Hut II

August 6, 2012

   

Our first visit to Richmond's Loving Hut was pleasant but not exciting and it was difficult to muster up enthusiasm to return. But every now and then another positive blog review would turn up, or friends of ours would mention new menu items or their favourite dish, and I knew Loving Hut deserved another go. Michael and I met there after work on a Monday night, armed with a mental list of dishes to try.

The menu, all vegan, has certainly expanded in the past year. There were the deep-fried entrees and mock meat mains that I remembered from our first visit, but also soups and salads, noodles, a dedicated Thai section and a reasonable proportion of mock-free meals including tofu in five different preparations. A tiny whiteboard on the wall listed dessert specials, many of them raw.

   

We started with the Royal Rendang ($14), thanks to Mel. The soy steak, potato and carrot chunks are hearty winter fare, more so when submerged in a pool of thick, aromatic and spicy gravy. We scooped it into bowls of brown rice ($2 each) for full sitck-to-the-ribs effect.

   

The salt and pepper tofu ($12) is K's Loving Hut fave. It's lightly battered with a perky spice mix and subtle crunch. Arriving without a sauce, I plucked my share straight from the plate without pausing for rice.

   

Michael would have happily stopped there, but all night he'd had his back to the specials board announcing "warm black forest cake with cherry cream $7.50". Meanwhile I'd been reading and re-reading and anticipating that cake. It isn't exactly authentic - I couldn't taste any cherries or kirsch, for starters - but the presentation is in the spirit of this ostentatious dessert. I was happy with the dense yet fluffy cake texture and the soy-free flavour, and rationed out the refreshing strawberry segments judiciously.

It was great to see Loving Hut in better form - while they did have a few hiccups on opening, a menu expansion and some tips from friends probably made the difference for us. Their prices are noticeably cheaper that Chinese mock stalwarts White Lotus and Enlightened Cuisine and if this Monday night is anything to go by, they're building a loyal following.

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You can read about our first visit to Loving Hut here. Since then it's received positive write-ups on easy as (vegan) pie, Vegan Revolution and CHOMP and SLURP. ForkSake's account is more mixed, while funky_ass enjoyed the food but was put off by Supreme Master evangelism.

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Loving Hut
Shop 10, 242 Victoria St, Richmond
9427 8916
veg mains $10-18, rice $1.50-2pp, desserts $5-7.50
facebook page

Accessibility: Loving Hut has a flat standard-width entry, with a difficult door and generously spaced tables.  Ordering occurs at the table, payment at a high counter. We didn't visit the toilets.

I Love Pho 264

November 12, 2011

Jo's been talking up I Love Pho 264 (formerly known as Chu The) for a while; we had our chance to lunch there together on Saturday before braving IKEA. It's plain, popular and has a high turnover. The five minutes we queued at the entry were well spent perusing the wall-mounted menu so that we could order before we'd even cracked open the thermos of tea on our table.

Here pho is of course the star, with the menu board dominated by the different varieties offered. It's full of beef, tendons and cartilage, but us vegos can skip right to the bottom and focus on the tofu and vegetable pho. There's as wide an array of drinks as soups and then a couple of spring/rice paper rolls on offer (with veg options on both). Prices aren't listed.

Pho bowls arrived within minutes of being ordered. (Note: the one above is a medium, and the large looks like a bird bath.) Michael liked the veges, trimmings and chilli, but the stock was pretty plain. By smell alone, we could tell that our beef-ordering friends were having a tastier time of it.

It took a good while longer for our double serve of vegetarian spring rolls to arrive. Spring rolls don't tend to vary a lot, but these were notably above average. And I liked that they were served with lettuce for wrapping.

A few more minutes down the track, my vegetarian rice paper rolls turned up. They were simple and fresh, stuffed with carrots, lettuce, noodles and a strip or two of fried tofu, and were accompanied by an excellent dipping sauce.

Last to arrive were our iced coffees (does this meal seem reverse-served to anyone else?). They were just OK; we've enjoyed better at Thanh Nga Nine and Tom Phat.

The bill (totalled up opaquely and perhaps arbitrarily on a calculator) came to about $15-20 per person; not bad for a big feed and a drink each. Service was rushed but also friendly and accommodating. It was nice to see clear vegetarian options, and I was really impressed with the freshness of everything we ate.

That said, there's probably much more to love at I Love Pho if you're into meat. For a greater variety of meat-free Vietnamese dishes and a faux pho to boot, we love Thanh Nga Nine down the street.

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Under its current name, this restaurant have received positive reviews on Sweet and Sour Fork, Barley Restaurant Reviews and Foodie About Town. That Jess Ho covers the drama and intrigue surrounding a recent name change, and is disappointed with the new incarnation.

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I Love Pho 264
264 Victoria St, Richmond
veg fare $5-15
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Accessibility: There's a ramp on entry; the interior is densely crowded with tables. We ordered at the table and paid at the counter. We didn't visit the toilets.