Sister of Soul

January 1, 2022

   

On new year's day we got up a little early for a bayside swim with our mates Lisa and Steph. St Kilda had still barely woken up by the time we were done, so we took a streetside booth at Sister of Soul for breakfast. The staff were conscientious in checking vax status, and helpfully showed us the QR codes at our table that we could use to order and pay for food.

It was nice to still have access to paper menus as we browsed the options. The current breakfast selection is all vegan (with gluten free options clearly marked), running to 8 dishes that cover the important bases: toast with spreads, a big brekkie, smashed avo, an acai bowl, and pancakes. 

   

Surprisingly I wasn't in the mood for those blueberry pancakes, though I saw them go to another table and they looked great. Instead I worked my way through the corn fritters ($20), which had a fairly even ratio of batter to corn kernels, and apparently also include zucchini! There was lots of avocado-sour cream puree to slather them with, a smattering of mango salsa to brighten the flavours, and lots of coriander to garnish. I teamed it with a watermelon, orange, strawberry and mint juice ($7.50) - the juicing happens on site daily, but it looks like they're bottling portions up individually at the moment.

   

Everyone else at the table was set on the Sister's One Big Brekkie ($22.50): a well-flavoured tofu scramble on toast with an excellent potato & sweet potato rosti, avocado, roasted mushrooms and wilted spinach. Michael like the accompanying tub of tomato kasundi and spread it around liberally.

It was a refreshing and deeply satisfying way to start the year. But we can't promise to carry on the way we've started - visits to St Kilda have always been rare for us, and our inclination to eat out is in constant flux.

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Sister of Soul

73 Acland St, St Kilda

9593 8550

breakfast, drinks

https://www.sisterofsoul.com.au/

Accessibility: We signed in and showed proof of vaccination at the door and then occupied streetside booth seating, maybe one step up from the footpath. We ordered and paid using phone apps at the table. We didn't visit the toilets.

Matcha Mylkbar

Update 04/01/2023: Matcha Mylkbar is now permanently closed.

February 24, 2019

Matcha Mylkbar opened to a flurry of instagram attention a couple of years ago, at the forefront of the turmeric latte scene. Their fake eggs, charcoal buns and algae drinks struck me as gimmicky and offputting, so we didn't go to any effort to visit. Recently, the cafe turned up as a convenient spot for a late lunch and a score recount with our mate Lisa after a sweltering game of mini-golf.

The all-vegan menu was much more appealing than I'd initially expected. Yes, there are ten novelty lattes with the option of a flight of four, and five further matcha drinks. But plenty of the meals caught my eye and my appetite, from a summery acai bowl, to vege-filled bowls, burgers, and mac'n'cheese waffles (!).

Michael feasted on the big breakfast ($25) with turmeric scrambled tofu, two slices of sourdough toast, konjac bacon, potato and leek rosti, truffle roasted mushrooms, wilted kale and tomato relish. He rates it among the best vegan breakfasts around town.

At the last possible moment, I switched from a mac'n'cheese waffle order to the three piece feed ($22). This plate looks exactly like what you might expect from KFC next door! The house-made fried chicken isn't too dense (unlike its delicious but instantly regrettable Loving Hut analogue), and has a pleasantly seasoned crunchy batter. The crinkle-cut chips are crispy, the coleslaw is fine, and the tub of potatoes and gravy earned connoisseur Lisa's approval. I thought the portioning was perfect.

Finally, here's a shot of Lisa's mock poached egg. While the agar agar-set white is perhaps a bit too jellied, the gooey sweet potato centre looked just right.

The Matcha Mylkbar marketing has never been our style, but it turns out there's some great food to enjoy here regardless. I reckon we'll be popping back in next time we find ourselves in St Kilda.

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Matcha Mylkbar has received rave reviews from veg*n bloggers, see Like A Vegan, messy veggies and A Thoughtful Vegan. Reviews on omni blogs are less effusive but generally positive, see String of Events, Tomato, Wandering Mint, Lips Temptations, Melbourne Breakfast Diary, krumbled, Short x Stout, delightfully tasty, Lifestyle by Lily and TOT: HOT OR NOT. There's a more mixed review on A Hedonist's Love and outright negative experiences on all-caps blogs DONUTSAM EATS & TRAVELS and 2WO FAT GIRLS. 

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Matcha Mylkbar

72A Acland St, St Kilda

9534 1111

intro, menu

http://www.matchamylkbar.com/

Accessibility: Entry is flat, but furniture is tightly packed inside. We ordered at our table and paid at a high counter. We didn't visit the toilets.

The Snug Public House

23/03/2017: Unfortunately the St Kilda Snug is now closed! You can still visit them in Brunswick.

December 10, 2016

We had a good time checking out the new vegan options at The Snug in Brunswick and heard rumours that the St Kilda branch was even more impressive. Cindy and another friend scheduled their big joint birthday dinner there so we could check it out - we filled up a couple of the outside tables on a busy Saturday evening.

The menu is ridiculous - more than 50 vegan or veganisable dishes with an emphasis on mock meat and fried food (although there are a handful of healthier options if you're that way inclined). Think The Cornish Arms with a bit more traditional Irish pub food.

We kicked things off with a round of fried treats for the table. The battered sausages ($10) are more batter than sausage - gloriously oily lumps of fried that are not for the faint hearted. I ate more than my fair share of these, which left me struggling by the time the meals came out later.

Things got even more intense from there with - clockwise from top left - popcorn chicken in BBQ sauce ($10), Texan loaded fries ($14) and the chicken wings ($14). The wings didn't quite measure up to the glory of The Cornish's version, but the ridiculously loaded fries (topped with bbq pork, pineapple salsa and sour cream) and the BBQ popcorn chicken were ace.

I was struggling to breathe by this point, so the arrival of the main meals was a bit overwhelming. The Irish parma ($21) arrived topped with parsley cream, kale and rice paper bacon all astride a ludicrously big serve of mashed potatoes.

This was a solid performer - the parma itself was probably just something from the supermarket freezer, but the toppings were great and the meal was impossibly large. 

We also ordered a southern fried chicken burger ($18), which was a straightforward combo of a spicy chicken patty and some chipotle slaw, alongside another massive serve of chips. I really liked the burger, but I was so full I couldn't really do it justice. 

One of our friends skipped out on all the salty action and decided to have dessert for dinner - her banoffee pie with chocolate shavings, ice cream and banana fritters ($12) was a hit, but dessert seems like an impossible dream for anyone brave enough to order one of the mains here.

We capped the night off with a wander down to the St Kilda breakwater, which was positively teeming with little penguins - it's crazy to find this thriving colony so close to the city. It was the perfect way to end the night.

There are a huge range of vegan options at The Snug and we definitely had more hits than misses among our big group. The prices aren't super cheap, but the portions are crazily large and the service is friendly. It's a welcome south-side addition to the city's vegan pub scene. 

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We enjoyed dinner at the Brunswick branch of the Snug. The Rose and Bean and Veganopolous have reviewed the vegan food at St Kilda.

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The Snug Public House 
12 Fitzroy St, St Kilda
9534 4678
menu
facebook page

Accessibility: There's a flat entryway into a pretty crowded interior. The tables in the outdoor area are up a few steps. We ordered and paid at a high bar and didn't visit the toilets.

Vegilicious

October 11, 2014

We were completely unaware of Vegilicious, and owe it to Berk and Clamps for leading us there in between the bands we were seeing on our day by the green. I've since learned that Vegilicious has been run as a vegetarian food stall and catering business for years and before recently opening an expansive restaurant and bar on Carlisle St.

Surrounded by timber furnishings, tropical plants, and warm lighting, I felt like I was stepping into north Queensland's coolest vegetarian hang-out; I hear the courtyard's lovely too, though it might not have the humidity to preserve my delusion.

The menu tends toward the homespun and hearty, free of mock meat but offering plenty of tofu for protein. Vegan and gluten-free items are well marked and capture most of the menu, from fritters and rice paper wraps to pastas, burgers and curries. I appreciated their extended list of non-alcoholic drinks, selecting a mineral water flavoured with home-made orange passionfruit syrup ($3).

The potato wedges ($8) are tender and bountiful, sprinkled with rosemary salt and served with a side of tofu mayo and sweet chilli sauce.

Otherwise we shared the Vegelicious Extravaganza Share Platter ($36), ordering the two-person vegan version for the four of us (...Clamps and Michael had little appetite). It's a fair sample of what the menu offers - cauliflower fritters in a cumin seed batter, thick okonomiyaki topped with pickled ginger and shredded nori, mild mixed vegetable skewers, rice paper rolls, lentil patties, dips and a sprawling salad. We liked some elements more than others but never had a chance to tire of anything.

Purely for completeness, we shared a dessert too. The vegan option of the night was a raw chocolate and cashew cake served with a scoop of So Good brand icecream ($10). While the icecream was utterly ordinary, the marbled mock cheesecake marks a pinnacle for raw desserts - beautifully constructed and devastatingly smooth, with a satisfying chocolate flavour and a little something else that could've fooled me for a shot of Baileys. I assume they're ordering these in, perhaps from Pana or A2G.

The menu at Vegilicious doesn't break any new ground but it's generous in its style; inclusive of special diets, with home-made touches and lavish portions. I reckon this restaurant's warm, relaxed atmosphere is even more appealing than its cashew cake.

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Vegilicious
118 Carlisle St, St Kilda
9537 3820
specials, starters, mains, drinks, alcohol
http://vegilicious.com.au/

Accessibility: Most tables are quite densely packed but there's a clear corridor through the middle and a bit more space by the kitchen. Toilets are individual unisex cubicles and at least one of them is fully accessible. We ordered at our table and paid at a high counter.

Veggie Time

Update 18/06/2023: Veggie Time is now closed.

December 19, 2013

Cindy and I headed to St Kilda on Thursday evening for the rather excellent Cherchez La Femme 'Feministmas' shindig. Theoretically, this gave us the chance to sample some of the hip and happening restaurants in the neighbourhood, but neither of us really had any idea what they might be. Instead, we decided to rectify a ludicrous gap in our blogging history - we'd been in Melbourne for more than seven years and had still never visited Veg Out Time. Finally, we thought, we'll be able to tick it off.

Except that we seem to have been beaten to the punch - the old Veg Out is gone, replaced by a Thai place. Luckily, just a few doors down is Veggie Time, a restaurant that seems to be a continuation of Veg Out - it's got the same mix of hotbox and made to order dishes, a similar menu, even some of the same furniture. We haven't been able to confirm that it's the same people running it, but it seems pretty likely.

The hotbox dishes are pretty appealing, with a nice mix of curries, vegetable dishes and tofu.

I went for the meal deal - $9.50 gets you a plate with rice and two dishes. The black pepper tofu was excellent - the tofu dense and well marinated and the sauce bright and spicy. The lemongrass tofu was a bit less exciting - with sweetness overpowering the chilli/lemongrass flavours I was hoping for. Still, it's a hearty meal for an excellent price.

The a la carte menu revolves a bit more around salads and noodles - there's pad thai ($11), char kway teow ($11), laksa ($11) and so forth. Almost everything is vegan, although some of the noodle dishes have optional egg. Cindy was intrigued by the idea of a vegetarian prawn salad ($8.50).

This turned out to be a bit less exciting than I was hoping - it was basically a big bowl of garden salad (everything below the top layer in the photo above was leafy greens) topped off with a couple of prawns fashioned out of tofu skin stuffed with a tofu and veggie mix (and possibly a tiny bit of mock meat). It came with a peanutty dipping sauce for the prawns and a vinaigrette for the salad. On the whole, this was a bit heavy on the greens and a bit light on the prawns, but it was cheap and healthy and had enough novelty to be fun.

Veggie Time isn't doing anything very innovative or exciting, but they're a great option among all the mediocrity of Fitzroy Street - fast, tasty and with loads of options, it's definitely worth a visit next time you venture down to the beach.

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There are a couple of reviews of the old St Kilda Veg Out Time around (e.g. here and here), but nobody seems to have visited Veggie Time as yet.

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Veggie Time
49 Fitzroy Street, St Kilda
No phone listed anywhere that I can find
veg dishes $8.50-$12

Accessibility: There's a small step as you enter (although there are also outdoor tables at street level). Things are reasonably spread out inside, with a mix of low and high tables. You order and pay at a low counter. We didn't visit the toilets.

Soulmama III

May 13, 2012

Edit 07/06/2012: We heard last week that Soulmama is closed again!

   

Soulmama disappeared from the St Kilda Baths sometime last year and mysteriously reappeared later on Fitzroy St. While the ornamental dragon has moved with them, I gather that the owners have changed. The menu has shifted from mostly buffet to all a la carte and remains all vegetarian. Vegan options are well marked but gluten-free pointers are less consistent.

   

We visited with the Moody Noodles, and started out by sharing a bowl of fries ($9.50) and the Japanese gyoza ($11).

   

Both of these were solid renditions and turned up promptly.

   

Toby and Michael shared on, divvying up hot smoked tofu ($22) marinated in soy, plum and roselle then served with bok choy, peanut sauce, cucumber, red onion, coconut vinegar and jaggary. This was an odd combination of flavours presented oddly on the plate and it didn't win over either of them.

   

They enjoyed the soul burger ($20.50) more - the patty was well composed with black beans, pumpkin and chipotle, then complemented with caramelised onions and guacamole, and served with more fries.

   

I ordered again from the Starters section, hoping that the $16.50 price tag hinted at a decent portion. This really paid off - the soy-valaki boasts some excellent mock meat, which is stuffed into a wrap with more caramelised onions and salad. It's a lovely light meal if you're fond of faux meat.

   

K's fajitas ($24) attracted the most attention of all - their gluten status was questionable and seemed to come up clear in the end (K's bloat-o-meter scored low overnight), and they just looked damn tasty. There's more of those tender soy strips up front, as well as guacamole, fresh salsa, some green leaves and a couple of tortillas.

   

We found room for dessert - the vanilla panna cotta ($12) is coconut-based and vegan-friendly, topped with tart raspberries and coconut. Michael's serve seemed to disappear in seconds.

   

I plodded more slowly through the triple chocolate cake ($14.50), another vegan victory. The chocolates three are a dry cake base, impressive mousse mound and syrupy drizzle. If you're not up for the dessert and sorbet tasting plate ($29), this is a completely shareable half-price alternative.

Our waiter was friendly and attentive though she struggled a little to safely serve our resident coeliac. I've never quite worked out what Soulmama is pitching at; the fit-out is smart casual with new-agey Asia-inspired accents yet it serves fries, pizza and dumplings, and charges quite a lot for the package. Our dishes were more successes than failures but felt overpriced. Maybe we're just not the target demographic - we seemed surrounded by families happy to pony up and share a vegetarian meal in this setting.

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We reviewed the previous incarnation of Soulmama here and here. The only blog post I can find about the Fitzroy St restaurant appears on Megan & Melbourne.

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Soulmama 
79-81 Fitzroy St, St Kilda
9534 5472
starters $9.50-19.50, mains $16.50-26.00, desserts $3.50-29.00
http://www.soulmama.com.au/

Accessibility: Soulmama may have a small step on entry, and has moderately spaced tables inside. We received full table service and didn't visit the toilets.

Newmarket Hotel

April 6, 2012

Our main discovery this Easter weekend has been the surprising ease with which tables at Melbourne's trendiest restaurants can be procured while most of the population is hanging out at campsites and holiday houses along the Great Ocean Road. We decided to take advantage by crossing town for lunch at the much hyped Newmarket Hotel in St Kilda.

Despite the mountains of coverage this place has received (check out the list at the bottom of the post), it hadn't really made our way onto our wish-list, probably because almost every post focuses on crab tacos, roast pork and steak. Once I bothered to actually look at the menu though, it was clear that the Newmarket had plenty to offer vegos - we were particularly excited to have a chance to eat huitlacoche again.

The Newmarket presents an unassuming facade, befitting the kind of place with a fairly seedy history, but the inside has been remodelled to within an inch of its life. It's fancy. And while it still calls itself a pub, it's pretty clearly a restaurant - I can't imagine you can turn up of an evening and grab a drink and a bite, this is a place where you book a few weeks in advance. There's not an overarching theme to the fit-out, with concrete arches butting up against novelty wallpaper and old-fashioned carpet clashing with trendy light-fittings. The leafy courtyard looked glorious on the sunny afternoon we went, but I guess even on Good Friday you need a booking to secure a table out there.

The menu is heavily Mexican inspired, with a hint of Spain and California peeking through. It's also long, complicated and not particularly well designed. Thankfully, our waitress gave us a quick rundown and helped us figure out what kind of quantities would be appropriate (hilariously, she did mention that she's not allowed to use the word pizza when describing the wood-fired flatbreads, which suggests someone at the Newmarket takes themselves a smidgen too seriously). It's a menu focussed on sharing, and Cindy and I split three dishes between us.

First up, the soft tacos with crisp zucchini flowers, goat's cheese, olives and roasted peppers ($17).

I really liked these - they were a great combination of flavours and textures, with the cheese taking pride of place (a note for vegans: almost all of the veg stuff here is cheesy, although the menu does proclaim a willingness to cater to all dietary requirements). Still, as delicious as they were, $17 for two tiny tacos does feel a little bit wrong.

We couldn't resist ordering the huitlacoche quesadilla, with bbq mushrooms, spinach and jack cheese ($17).

This was a crispy, cheesy delight, but both Cindy and I were a bit sad that the flavour of the corn smut was kind of buried by all the other stuff. It still had a hearty mushroomy flavour and was complemented by the crunchy corn kernels sprinkled on top. Not too shabby.

The somewhat surprising star of our meal was the side-salad: a combination of radicchio, witlof and fennel with figs, mozzarella and an artichoke and walnut dressing ($16).

This was perfect - the sweet figs and salty mozzarella working turning the fairly simple medley of greens into a show-stopper of a salad. Cindy detected a hint of honey in the dressing, while I was trying to figure out how they'd snuck so much flavour into the white sauce on top of the mozzarella. Outstanding.

We'd intentionally saved ourselves a bit of dessert space, and happily split the Mexican coffee and tequila flan with drunken cherries ($14).

Boy were those cherries drunken. Deliciously, deliciously drunken. Yum. The flan itself was great as well - rich without being overwhelming and with a cute crispy fan of sesame seeds to provide a bit of textural variation. This is a fine dessert.

The Newmarket is pretty good at what it does: fancied up Mexican food with some clever twists. You do end up paying for it - I doubt the $17 tacos in the 'street food' section of the menu appear on any street in the world - but we didn't really feel like we were getting ripped off. For a tick over $30 a head, Cindy and I got four pretty wonderful dishes and were treated to friendly and helpful service from our waitress (although the surly guy who seated us is a weird choice as the first person you deal with). They take their drinks pretty seriously as well, with a wide range of excellent beers on tap and some stunning sounding cocktails. If you think of the Newmarket as an upmarket dining experience rather than a night at the pub then I doubt you'll come away disappointed.

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Bloggers have gone mad for the Newmarket, check out Gourmet Chick, Boy Meets Girl Meets Food, Poppy Gets a Life, FoodsCrazy, rebeccaanneparish, Mr Smith's Food Journeys, spicy icecream, two munch (special food festival event), the silent observer, Eat and Be Merry for Tomorrow we Die(t), MoMo & Coco, Terroso, The Burger Adventure, melbourne gastronome, Saucy Onion, melbourne food journal, Kit's Cucina Culinaria, consuming design, Sweet Cherrie Pie, Out of my kitchen, feedmemelbourne, whatiatelastnight, Gourmet Belly, Friday Night Date Night, Cooking with Goths, This Food Guy, onemelbournian and yo tengo ambre de viejo.

Where Adles Eats, The Very Very Hungry Caterpillar, AndAnotherThing and Black Garlic were all a little less impressed, although nobody really seems too disappointed by the food.

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The Newmarket Hotel
34 Inkerman Street, St Kilda
9537 1777
veg dishes $9 - $20 (expect to spend about $35 each for a decent sized meal)
http://newmarketstkilda.com.au

Accessibility: Excellent. There's a ramp entryway, a disabled toilet and plenty of space to manoeuvre around in (although the concrete arches make for some weird tight spots). Service and payment is all at the table.

Bluecorn III

Update 18/06/2023: Blue Corn is now closed.

November 4, 2011

We took advantage of Mike and Jo's wheels to head across the river and revisit an old favourite, St Kilda's Bluecorn. Since we last visited either our standards have risen or Bluecorn's have dropped - this was among our most disappointing recent outings.

They're as popular as ever, and our booking was for 7, with the understanding that we'd clear the decks by 8:30. Stuck in traffic on the way over, we rang ahead and were given the nod to turn up a bit late. When we arrived, the waitress made a worried face before seating us and proceeding to provide an evening of unfriendly, uninformed and vaguely hostile treatment. We knew we had to be fast, but we didn't need to be made to feel like we were imposing on them the whole night.

I'd have been willing to forgive mediocre service if the food measured up, but unfortunately our whole experience fell well short of expectations. My vegetarian burrito (spinach, rice, peppers, corn, black beans, iceberg lettuce, guacamole and salsa on corn tortillas, $22.50) was very disappointing - the tortilla was a bit burnt, the guacamole had big brown patches and the filling tasted like cheese and mush. There was none of the freshness or flavour that we remembered from our earlier trips. At more than twice the price of a Trippytaco burrito this fell a long way short of my expectations.

Cindy ordered the blue masa goats cheese quesadilla (with black beans, sesame eggplant, pumpkin seed rojo, chipotle crema and guacamole, $21.50). Again the guacamole was a bit on the brown side and, while some of the flavours were okay, the dish was mostly mushy, lacking any crispness or freshness.

Our meat-eating companions didn't have anything more positive to offer up either. The night was capped off by our waitress slapping the bill on the table with Cindy still eating and vaguely threatening us, "you've got ten minutes."

This is probably the most negative review I've written on here and it's driven mostly by disappointment - we had such fond memories of sitting out in the courtyard at Bluecorn and being wowed by their fresh, wonderful food. Our expectations were raised even higher by recent raves by other Melbourne veg bloggers. Maybe we hit them on an off night (in their defence they were clearly pretty busy and we were 15 minutes late), but it'll be a long time before we give Bluecorn another chance. Ah well, I guess it's back to Trippytaco (and eventually Mamasita) for us.

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Read our two previous (positive) reviews here and here. There's a wide range of opinions out there, from scathing (KC's Food Affairs), through mixed (Mr Smith's Food Journeys, Because I Can't Cook, Eat and Be Merry, For Tomorrow we Diet, Tomatom) to positive (Please Sir, Can I Have Some More, Eaterati)

From a veg perspective, Eat More Vegies, Pocket Carnival and easy as vegan pie have loved Bluecorn, while Hayley at Ballroom Blintz was a bit disappointed by her experience.

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Bluecorn
205 Barkly Street, St Kilda
9534 5996
Veg shared plates: $19-$27, veg mains: $21.50-$22.50

Accessibility: At most there's a small step on entry (we forgot to really pay attention!). Inside things are relatively tight, but not impossibly so. Ordering and payment happens at the tables. We didn't visit the toilets.

July 31, 2011: Slow down! at Harley Court

January 2016: Slow down! at Harley Court has closed

Last weekend was unseasonably warm so, along with about half of Melbourne's population, we set out for St Kilda for lunch and some sun. Stickifingers recently alerted us that Slow Down! at Harley Court has a new menu that's two-thirds vegetarian and vegan so we resisted a return visit to the Galleon and checked it out.

Part of this restaurant's interest in veg-friendly meals no doubt stems from its slow food ethos: Slow Down aim to source 90% of their produce from within 200km and make it seasonal, sustainable and organic wherever they can. (This means that there's no guarantee that what we ate will be on the menu if you choose to visit.) One of their sneaky approaches to upping the veg ratio is offering four kinds of soup. Granted, they are great sounding soups (minestrone, pumpkin and garlic, cream of mushroom and celeriac, cream of cauliflower, nutmeg and pangrattato - made with soy cream!), but I generally prefer something I can get my teeth into when eating out.

Michael tried the casserole of the day, a mix of chickpeas and vegetables in tomato sauce, served with toast (~$10). We were surprised at how small the serving was and though the quality of the vegetables was good, Michael wasn't much inspired by the flavour.

My vegetarian rendition of the Big Breakfast ($14.90) was more impressive. The beans were similarly under-seasoned but the mushrooms and spinach more than made up for it, just bursting with flavour - I guess that's local, seasonal produce for you. And few things endear me to a cafe quite so much as a hand-made hash brown. The eggs were well poached but I'm more of a scramble gal myself - I forgot to specify my preference to our waiter, he didn't ask, and I guess the chef just took a punt. At least it was a skilled punt.

It's hard to get enthusiastic about a venue with a slow turnaround; we waited a looooong time for our meals to arrive even though there would have been little else queued up at that time. Some other bloggers have reported similar waits.  The lunch menu was a mixed bag, largely saved by the quality produce rather than the preparation, and I'd be more interested in returning for breakfast or dinner - the options looks a little more diverse at these times.

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Eat More Vegies found far fewer vegan options when visiting last year. All the omni eaters blogging Slow Down! have enjoyed the food, though there are mixed reports of the service; see Social Change Room, The Chronicles of Ms I-Hua, Pete Does Stuff and KC's Food Affairs.

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Slow Down! at Harley Court
56 Acland St, St Kilda
8534 3030
veg lunches $9.50-$15
http://www.slowdown.net.au/

Accessibility: There is outdoor seating at street level (the ground is a bit uneven) and multiple stairs up to the covered and indoor seating; tables are somewhat crowded in together. There's full table service. We didn't visit the toilets.

December 5, 2010: Lau's Family Kitchen

Update 18/06/2023: Lau's Family Kitchen is now closed.

Good vego Chinese is hard to find (mock-meat places aside of course) - even in the vegetables and bean curd menu sections, many places throw in oyster sauce, pork mince or seafood (case in point: at a recent conference dinner I ordered 'stuffed bean curd in spiced salt', which turned out to be stuffed with king prawns). Our recent favourite, Idea Fine Food and Wine is no longer with us, so when semi-fancy meaty Chinese place Lau's Family Kitchen featured in Lisa's best eats for vegans and vegetarians we were very keen to give it a shot.

We teamed up with regular eating buddies Toby and K for an early Sunday dinner, admiring the cute wallpaper decorating small sections of the walls. The staff were quickly on hand to talk us through the menu - letting us know what could be done vegetarian and being completely on top of vegan requirements (the vego dumplings have a smidgen of egg, while the delicious sounding eggplant special had fish sauce in it). They were happy to tweak a bunch of dishes for us, swapping and dropping ingredients so we had a good range of options. We decided to order everything we could all eat and share - basically an entree and four mains.

The entree was a steamed rice noodle roll with spinach ($13.50) - we got two serves, and the waiter happily divided them up into four little bowls for us.

These were a great start - beautifully soft noodles, filled with spinach and sauced up nicely. flavours were not particularly strong, but I added a touch of the chilli sauce that they gave us, and was in heaven.

The first the mains was the most anticipated - ma po eggplant ($24, the waiter had decided that two dishes of tofu was too many, so he'd got the chef to make us an eggplant version of the ma po tofu).

The ma-po was the dish Lisa raved about, and this didn't disappoint. The eggplant was falling apart soft, while the mushrooms, capsicum and other vegies provided a bit of textural variety. But this is all about the sauce - it's much different to our version, but wonderful nonetheless. Spicy without being painfully fiery, sweet without being sickly and rich without being gluggy. If you're a vego at Lau's, order this dish (with tofu or eggplant, either would be great).

The tofu dish we did try was the deep fried bean curd with mushrooms ($18).

This was a nice enough dish, that suffered in comparison to the ma-po. The green vegies were fresh and crispy and there was a nice variety of mushrooms to accompany the big fried chunks of tofu, but the sauce was a bit lacking in inspiration - it was enjoyable without being particularly memorable.

Next up was the stir-fried seasonal vegetables ($17).

This came in a similar sauce to the deep-fried tofu and was basically the same dish minus the tofu and plus more asparagus and mushrooms. Again, everything was fresh and tasty, but it wasn't the most exciting way to spend $17 on food.

The last main on the list that was veg-adaptable was the Singapore noodles (minus the usual prawns and pork!, but still $24).

This had an nice spicy kick and was filled with fresh, crunchy vegies. The noodles were okay too (maybe a little overdone?), but the whole dish was a tad on the oily side. Still, it was probably my second favourite main of the night.

We left a little disappointed with Lau's - partly due to our high expectations. The combination of such a great pedigree (the guys running this place are the sons of the original Flower Drum owner) with a reputation for veg-friendliness had us expecting something spectacular. The ma po eggplant and the rice noodle rolls passed muster, but the rest of the food was just a tad underwhelming. Throw in some reasonably hefty prices and it's not somewhere we're likely to be hurrying back across town for.

Lau's Family Kitchen has been given positive reviews by everyone else who has blogged it, so maybe their meaty options are a bit more impressive - see: Melbourne Gastronome, Mel: Hot or Not, Jeroxie, Munching in Melbourne, I'm Hungry, 1001 dinners, 1001 nights, onnomnomnom, Delishaz, Tomato, Gastronomical voyage in Melbourne and tummyrumbles.

Environmentally-minded omnivores may be a tad concerned that Lau's sells Patagonian toothfish, which is on the Greenpeace red list and rated 'avoid' by Seafood Watch and the Australian Marine Conservation Society, suggesting it's not particularly sustainable.

Lau's Family Kitchen
4 Acland Street, St Kilda
8598 9880
Vegie mains: $17-$24
Licensed
http://www.lauskitchen.com.au/

November 14, 2009: Soulmama II

It is testament to the vast array of veg-friendly eating in Melbourne (and probably to our northside bias) that it's taken us more than three years to revisit the popular St Kilda vegetarian restaurant, Soulmama. Our only other visit occurred during our first month living in Melbourne and there seem to have been few changes since then. The setting is lovely, especially on a sunny day such as this one - the restaurant is located on the second floor of the St Kilda baths, with much of the seating in the large, well lit space overlooking St Kilda Beach and Port Phillip Bay.

The menu style is a little odd, given the classy-casual atmosphere this restaurant is going for. While table service abounds, main meals are 'medium' or 'large' and selected by queuing up at a buffet. Since this meal was both our lunch and dinner Michael decided to live large ($19.50), selecting five dishes from the display:

• seasonal vegies and cauliflower in mushroom oyster sauce
  
• beans and greens salad
  
• eggplant, tempeh and noodle salad
  
• tofu in Japanese Amai sauce
  
• carrot and cauliflower hotpot
  

While he enjoyed them all, the tofu impressed him the most. I wondered, though, whether there was anything here that we couldn't cook at home.

Not having fond memories of the hot-box approach, I looked to the small list of made-to-order entrees, picking out the rice balls ($9.50) and gyoza ($9.50). The rice balls arrived first, hot and crisp out of the fryer, rich with a cheese-and-basil pesto flavour. I particularly liked the creamy mustard dipping sauce on the side (the other appeared to be stock standard sweet chilli).

The gyoza charmed me as soon as they arrived. Presented elegantly, the skins were perfectly seared on one side and steamed all over. If I hadn't been eating them at a vegetarian restaurant, the filling's resemblance to pork mince might have had me nervous - as it was, I simply relished some fine tofu preparation.

I couldn't resist a peek at the dessert menu and cajoled Michael into sharing a jaffa honeycomb truffle ($9.50). I'm not sure exactly what we expected, but it probably wasn't this - a ridiculously dense and sweet segment of orange-scented chocolate, eerily posed like the black monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey, flecked with small crunches of honeycomb. (As an aside - this dessert was marked vegan and though I'm not certain, it's plausible that this is honey-free honeycomb... I certainly couldn't detect its flavour.) This is truly for the most die-hard dessert-lovers out there - we couldn't finish it and even yours 'chocoholic' truly wouldn't order it again.

My first reaction to the Soulmama experience is that it's overpriced, but on further reflection that's difficult to justify. The $20 mains, while not sophisticated, are generously portioned; the entrees and fresh and well executed. And the seaview setting is surely worth a few dollars. Regardless of our irregular patronage, Soulmama seems to be serving up something the St Kilda set likes with the restaurant booked out in the hours following our visit.

Updated 11/7/2011: Soulmama has closed down. It had its detractors, but it's hard to imagine a vegetarian restaurant with a better view.

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You can read about our previous visit to Soulmama here.

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Other bloggers who've visited Soulmama: Vegan Foodie Adventures, Foodie Wanderings, The Daily Veg, Gaztronomy, Off the Spork, Vegan Family vs Omni World, This is Vegan Melbourne and Veggie Friendly