Posts Tagged ‘vegetarian’
May 25, 2009 | 
Author Soul Food Cafe
10 Equitable Place, Melbourne
96425660
If you, like me, ate too much oily food and need to detox, but can’t be bothered making your own breakkie or lunch, this is the place to go- Soul food cafe!
No, this is not a sundae, as I say, this is healthy food territory. Soul Food cafe does healthy vegetarian food, at lunch time they have salads, healthy chickpea wraps and for breakkie they have berry museli yoghurt cup (above), breakfast wrap (with egg, tomato relish, avocado). Mmmmm yum yum yummmm. Berry museli ($4.8) is my favourite- they make it fresh on request, and it’s pileful of goodness- the museli is crunchy, with poppy seeds, dessciated coconut and sometimes hazelnut or walnuts. The yoghurt is the natural variety, which means my lactose-intolerent tummy is loving every bit of it. YUM!
And if you finish your healthy detox week, there’s also very yummy muffins waiting for you 
*drools* 7.5/10
Posted in 
Tags: 
Fu Guang Yuan Tea House
141 Queen St, Melbourne
(03) 9642 2388
So many people have raved about Fu Guang Yuan Tea House, which has fantastic vegetarian lunchbox sets, so I finally decided to trek up to Queen St to try it. Unfortunately when we got there, the menu had shrunk substantially, and “lunchboxes” became “Droplets Set Menu” and “Droplets” it was. For $6.80 you either get four droplets of Steamed Crystal Dumplings or 3 droplets of Steamed buns w/ BBQ fake BBQ pork stuffing w/ tea and dessert.
The fake pork buns are quite nice, it really does taste like pork. Although the bun is a bit bland, but considering that this is a full vegetarian restaurant, they can’t use ghee or pork fat to make the dough tasty like other yum cha places.
The dumplings were nice too, but the stuffings are quite inconsistent, one dumpling has a variety of vegies, such has corn, spinach and mushroom. But another one is full of spinach with only a bit of other vegies.
I ordered a stir fried rice noodle w/vegetarian BBQ pork, vegs, tofu, bean sprouts and carrots ($12). It’s OK, probably has more MSG than other chinese takeaway to make everything more flavoursome, but it’s really oily. My lunch buddy’s dish (same dish) was slightly cold. We wondered whether the dish was stir fried when ordered or just reheated. For $12 I sure as hell hope they freshly stir fried mine.
The dessert from the Droplets Set menu came- it’s a tiny cake that looks like a green tea tiramisu cake. The cake was actually quite nice, green tea mixed with white chocolate mousse, with a thin layer of chocolate in the middle and sandwiched with green tea sponge. It’s a tad bit too creamy and sweet, but it’s the best out of all the dishes we had.
At a nearby table, another couple complained about the lack of set lunch menu. We also bumped into one of my lunch buddy’s friends and she told us that Fo Guang Yuan has decided to place emphasis on the tea and pastries rather than the other food and hence the menu was simplified and lunch boxes has disappeared. Well, I hope they bring back the lunchsets and the yummie food they used to have, because the once packed Fo Guang Yuan has actually got empty tables at peak lunch hour and who is to blame but themselves? 3.5/10
Invita
76 Therry St, Melbourne (In Queen Vic Markets)
(03) 9329 1267
I’ve always walked past Invita on my way to the markets, salivating over their yummie looking quiches, fritters, muffins and soups, so when Nessy and MC decided to visit, I forced them to try Invita with me.
Turns out that this is an organic (where possible) vegetarian place (yay for me as Hubby would NEVER go to a vego place). We ordered a potato rosti ($10.50) The description said organic potato cake with cheese, onion, parsley served w/creamy mushroom and spring onion sauce. I don’t see any sauce, but the potato cake is a very thick serve with masses of potato shreds and quite a heavy dose of parsley. Though it was a tad bit oily it still tasted quite nice. The serve of mushroom was divine though and I can happily eat a whole plate of those mushrooms.
Other tempting choices are: buckwheat pancake served w/ strawberries, ricotta & organic maple syrup and scrambled tofu. Wondering whether I can con Hubby to go back next week?