I love tempuras and find that it is reallly not easy to get them to make vegetarian ones for me. Tomodachi however do cater for vegetarians like us, so I get to enjoy tempuras with my non-vegetarian friends when we go out to have a meal. Since the chef was kind enough to look into my special needs, I thought I might as well take the opportunity to place a few more orders to try out. The vege tempura was freshly fried and very crispy, the stir fried udon was delicious and the tofu seaweed was very refreshing. Satisfied and full.
Name: Tomodachi Melbourne Central Location: Level 3, Melbourne Central, 211 La Trobe Street, Melbourne, Australia Tel: 9663 1940 Opening Hours: Mon to Sun - 12pm to 10pm
It will be a long time before I will go back to Melbourne and one of the food outlets that I will be missing will be The Nasi Lemak House. I like to frequent this shop and would like to share that the best 3 choices found under their vegetarian menu here will be their Curry Laksa, Nasi Lemak and also the Char Kuey Tiaw. The taste of all three are so authentic that I find that they are even better than the vegetarian restaurants found in Malaysia. No mock meat are used, only a lot of tofu and vegetables. The sambal is simply delicious. You can opt for mild, medium and very spicy when you place your order.
Name: Nasi Lemak House Address:113 Grattan St Carlton VIC
Feel that this is still the most tasty claypot rice I have tasted.
I love claypot rice and find that it is quite difficult to get vegetarian claypot rice in Malaysia. So anybody who has tasted and find any good claypot rice around, do let me know as I am sure crazy about them. This shop which is not vegetarian restaurant caters to my need when I requested for a vegetarian pot. They were quite versatile and replaced the meat with mushrooms and tofu with beans and other vegetables. The taste is very good and the rice cooked to the correct timing without any crust. Wondered how the chef timed it and veges on top also cooked to perfection.
Name: EC Pot Address: level 1 QV urban market, 200 Lonsdale St, Melbourne, Australia (near Dan Murphy's and Officeworks)
Had ran out of places to visit for vegetarian meals in Melbourne, so a friend recommended this place in Prahran Market for a change. So when we were around the area near the Prahran we decided to give it a try. However, it was quite late when we arrived and it was way passed lunch time and the cafe is already closed. Having no choice we decided to take some photos of the restaurant not realising that the owner of the cafe was nearby. She saw us snapping photos and confronted us. We apologised and explained that we were vegetarian food bloggers and had actually intended to have lunch there and finding the place closed we thought we just take some photos first and requested if she can cook us something for us. Maybe she was already annoyed by our earlier actions and had not granted us our request and even abruptly brushed us off. Anybody who has visited this cafe may want to share with us about the food served here. Name: Vegetarian Cafe, Prahran Market, Melbourne Address: Prahran Market, 163 Commercial Rd, South Yarra, VIC 3181, Australia.
It was quite unfortunate that Vegie Hut at Boxhill was closed when we planned to visit that day (they were still on their "xmas holiday break"). Following the trend of Aussie businesses, shops are typically closed from xmas eve onwards until a certain date after new year. Indeed this is a time where most people have to stock up on their things and also try to patronize as many eateries that they favoured before the holiday period, otherwise their craving will have to wait at least one week before their appetite can be satiated. Luckily for us, Pancake Village in Boxhill Centro was open for business. Pancake Village offers crepes with very unique ingredients like eggs, yau char kway (deep fried chinese doughnut) etc.
Crepe with Yau Char Kway, sesame seed and spring onion
Onion Pancake
Mung Bean Pastry - two thumbs up!
$0.50 for a cup of hot soy milk with any crepe purchases.
Finally, a truly Malaysian restaurant in Melbourne. Unfortunately, the taste is still so-so despite a crew of Malaysian-looking staff (including their chef, typical mamak "chef" look). Vegetarians can expect a great understanding of their diets here, without them questioning if you can take chicken or fish or squid etc. Mind you, I have had a restaurant asking me if taugeh (beansprouts) are okay after I said I do not want seafood, poultry and red meat. On the menu here, the only vegetarian dish I can see being offered is a vegetarian laksa. However, the waiter advised that they can also prepare a list of other dishes like mee goreng, maggi mee goreng, fried carrot cake and some selections of nasi kandar. Also availabe for vegetarians are butter toast, you tiau(chinese doughnut), potato balls, ham cheem peng (fried buns) and yam balls. As for drinks (this is a recommendation for non-malaysians), do try the Teh Tarik (pulled-tea), Cham (tea+coffee), Kopi 'O', black coffee, and honey lemon.
The "Nasi Kandar" corner
Seating - nice deco with the marble tables and chairs. typical kopitiam feel exactly how you'd expect a Malaysian Kopitiam to be
Minum Corner
Vegetarian Curry Laksa Sorry to say Nasi Lemak House's vegetarian laksa beats this one anytime. To me, this one lacked spiciness and also the creamy laksa feel.
Finally, the time has come for me to stuff my mouth full with sweet and juicy blueberries. As blueberries normally cost a bomb to enjoy fresh (125g for $5), I would chose to go for the frozen ones (1kg at $5.50). However, frozen ones are definitely no match when compared to the fresh ones.
Having heard a lot about blueberry picking from my uncle Silvio for years, I finally got the chance to go for the Blueberry picking this year. Located near Geelong in Melbourne, Australia, Tuckerberry Hill Blueberries offers a nutritious low-calorie snack, suitable for everyone. Having no entrance fee, this is a pick-your-own blueberry farm with a take home price of $16 a kilo. This year, Huckerberry Hill Blueberry had a new addition to their farm, a Blueberry Cafe serving Blueberry themed muffins, yoghurt ($2 a serving), ice-cream ($2 a serving), chutney ($5.50 a jar) etc.
Address: 35 Becks Rd, Drysdale Victoria. Phone: 03 52513468 Open during Blueberry season: from Dec 26th, January (everyday 9-5pm), February (weekends only 9-5pm)
We revisited this restaurant near the Crown Casino recently. Standard was almost the same compared to our previous visits, though still far from the high standards of veggie restaurants in Malaysia. Nevertheless, this is a good pick and is so far the closest to home compared to the other veggie restaurants in Melbourne.
Mixed Claypot tofu, "char siew", veggies Natural dish. I prefer the dish without the "char siew" though.
Fat Put - Yam Basket "Basket" made from yam, cashew nuts, capsicum, mushroom, veggies, water chestnuts My best pick of the night. basket was almost done to perfection, exactly how I would want my 'basket" to taste
Fried Rice quite worth it considering one bowl of white rice is $2.20 a bowl.
Beef in Black Bean Sauce taste was so-so, quite bland, prefer the kung po version.
PYO Raspberries! Juicy, sweet and simply irresistable!
Summer is here! Although I despise the heat and the aussie flies very much, but there is also a lot of things to look forward to, from perfect sunny weather that's warm enough to hit the beaches, to fun-filled bbq parties in the sun. For me, I look forward to berry picking the most. After strawberries and cherry picking, this time we found a hidden gem. Raspberry picking!
At only $16 a kilogram, these beauties are definitely a thing to look forward to every year.
Barking Dogs is Barking mad to serve such Barking good food
Barking Dogs! I would never be able to discover this place without my good friend Melissa. So, here's to Melissa, and hope that she'll be ever so radiant and jovial, and of course a very smooth sailing career ahead of her.
Back to Barking Dogs. Yes, it's unanimous that this place serves the best Western food that I've ever tried, the opinion is 'second-ed' and 'third-ed' by my parents.
Vegetarian Pizza with fresh cubed pumpkins, basil, tomatoes and PINE NUTS omg the Pine nuts definitely brought my standard of good pizza to a new level
Vegetarian Risotto unlike other risotto i've tried, this one is not creamy at all, making it a very healthy choice, though the flavor is still intense with fresh herbs, goats cheese, etc.
A must try dessert Sticky Date Butterscotch Pudding with a generous scoop of vanilla ice-cream YUMMY to the very end. I would definitely drive from Melbourne to Geelong again for this. Yes, that's how good it is.
Barking Dogs Wine Cafe Bar Address: 126 Pakington St, Geelong West VIC 3218 Tel: +61 03 5229 2889
This is what I call straight from the tree. Freshness guaranteed. For 4 years now, I have been picking cherries straight from the tree and popping them into my mouth as I pick them. As the juice squirts out onto your tongue as you sink your teeth into the crunchy cherries, that's definitely the most fulfilling feeling ever! And to add to the already joyful outing, we found wild raspberries, now that's a rare sight, not to mention that they're so sweet too!!!!!!
Located! The perfect Char Kway Teow outside Malaysia, only available at Nasi Lemak House, Melbourne
A non-vegetarian restaurant that offers authentic Malaysian Char Kway Teow (Stir-Fried flat rice noodles), nasi lemak (coconut rice with blended chilli sauce) and Curry Laksa (Curried Noodles enriched with Coconut Milk). I've tried their Loh Mee in the past and also found that rather delicious.
You would be asked the level of spiciness for both the Laksa and Char Kway Teow, and I found medium spicy to be just right for my pallete. The portion is so big that 3 big eaters found it difficult to finish the whole plate of 2 items.
Vegetarian Curry Laksa $10.90
Vegetarian Char Kway Teow $9.80
Location: 113 Grattan St Carlton VIC (in between Lygon Street and Swanston Street)
One of the few good vegetarian restaurants in Melbourne - Enlightened Cuisine
Ambience is so warm and cosy in this restaurant. The staffs are pleasant and friendly and the boss who is a Singaporean is so courteous and cater to our every needs. Drive to this place if you have a car because they have a big secured parking lot at the back of the restaurant. Just let the staff know and they can get someone to open the gate for you and then you can dine in peace and parking is free. Not only is the boss a very nice person, his dishes servings are so generous that you can actually order two dishes for three diners.
Craving for durians in Australia? Go to Il Dolce Freddo Gelato
After another satisfying very spicy meal in Ying Thai, what better way to cool the hot thickened tongue with some cool gelato ice cream. Just another three shops away is this gelato ice cream shop and I guess they are the only gelato shop in Melbourne and maybe the whole of Australia having the durian flavored gelato. The taste is fantastic - so creamy and aromatic - and one scoop of it will be able to satiate your crave for durians. I find that even though durians are on sale in the supermarkets they do not have any smell at all. Many international students especially those from Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia throng to this shop to taste this ice cream. Other than durian, they also have mango, passion fruit, pandan, lychee............ and many other flavors.
We went back for more over-the-roof spicy food at Ying Thai. This time, we decided to test our palette further by attempting the Thai stir-fried dishes. True enough, our "extra spicy" order sent our eyes watering and our hands were kept busy with everyone putting down their cutlery to reach for the glasses of ice cold sky juice. One of us left Ying Thai with a pair of red eyes and also a Rudolph nose to go with it, due to repeated tissue wipes.
Basil Themed Stir Fried Veggies with aromatic Jasmine Rice $8.90
Ginger Themed Stir Fried Veggies with aromatic Jasmice Rice $8.90 Extra egg $1.00
Location: 110 Lygon St Carlton VIC Opening hours: 12 noon - 10pm (Closed on Mondays) How to get there: Walk from Melbourne City / Trams (1, 8, and any other trams that travel to Melbourne University - Get off at Queensberry St) / Taxi Taste = *** Atmosphere = *** (quite cramped) Service = *** Price = $$$ (around $13 per meal) Entree: $7.70-$14.90 Mains: $7.90-$16.90 Dessert: $4.20-$5.90 Lunch menu ranges from $8.90- $14.90
Hunting for a place to enjoy your fave breakfast meals? Head towards the only place that serves breakfast until late afternoon and you'll never be disappointed that you missed your favourite breakfast meals because you woke up too late. Situated at the Queen Victoria Market, it is easily accessible for tourists and city workers.
Vege Big Breakfast - toast, spinach, mushrooms, tomatoes, poached eggs (you can request for eggs of the style that you prefer) $14
Pancakes - original - with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream and generous jug of maple syrup $12.50
Address: 422-428 Queen Street Melbourne VIC 3000 Tele: 9329 9080 Opening Hours: Tue &Wed: 6:30 am - 5:00 pm, Thu: 7:30 am - 5:00 pm, Fri- Sun: 7:30 am - 6:00 pm
Ramly stand one side, here comes the Humongous Burgers at Grill'd
Looking for something BIG to satisfy your burger cravings and reluctant to stuff yourself with McDs? Look no futher. Grill'd' healthy burgers are here to save you. At $9.90, you'll be expecting freshly baked bread sandwiching layers of goodies that include: preserved capsicum, chickpea pattie, lettuce and tomatoes. I'm not kidding when it comes to size. It is virtually impossible to take one complete bite unless you take the layers apart or try to compress the layers by force, that's why you see a "stabilizing" stick on the burger. Freshly cut potato chip sticks are to be ordered separately for $4.70 extra.
Bombay Bliss Burger with chips
Counter
Seating
All the fresh goodies
Concise Description of Grill'd
Not-so-healthy extra, LoL.
Location: Melbourne Central (Next to Hoyts Cinema) Other locations: QV (opposite Max brenner), Lygon Street (diagonally opposite Brunetti's). Service is excellent.
Two avid vegetarians are here to share some insights to the world of vegetarianism.
Hopefully, through this site, the lives of some animals can be spared. Always remember, animals have feelings too, they are our friends not our meal.
Stir-Fried Udon $17.80
Tofu Seaweed Salad $9
Name: Nasi Lemak House
Name: EC Pot
Name: Vegetarian Cafe, Prahran Market, Melbourne
Crepe with Yau Char Kway, sesame seed and spring onion
Onion Pancake
Mung Bean Pastry - two thumbs up!
$0.50 for a cup of hot soy milk with any crepe purchases.
Seating - nice deco with the marble tables and chairs. typical kopitiam feel
At only $16 a kilogram, these beauties are definitely a thing to look forward to every year.
Chinese Tea
Claypot Vegetarian Mutton
Sizzling Vegetarian Beef
Location: 110 Lygon St Carlton VIC
Counter
Seating
Concise Description of Grill'd
Not-so-healthy extra, LoL.
Vegetarian Party
Pot Luck Party