Tuesday 10 February 2009

naked espresso, newtown (sydney)

Wandering back from Green Palace the previous night, D spotted the Basil Pizza / Naked Espresso sign, and on Saturday morning, after an excellent sleep in, we walked up to Naked Espresso to partake of vegan breakfast. It was amazing, I cannot recommend Naked Espresso highly enough. The food was fantastic. The service was excellent. The owner(?) Charles was delightful, chatty and friendly and helpful, weaving the King St traffic to show us across to Vegan Choice (a delicatessen with tofu icecream and vegan cheesecake, which I was sadly too full to consume) and making us try the delicious soy milk Naked Espresso uses in their coffee machine.

Naked Espresso shares premises with Basil Pizza, making it vegan breakfast bar by morning, and vegan-friendly pizza bar by night. I wish I'd had an opportunity to try the pizza, if the delights of the morning were anything to go by.

scrambled tofu at naked espresso

Tempted by the pancakes, I was nonetheless swayed by the scrambled tofu, simply because I've never before tried scrambled tofu. It was delicious, slightly curried and served with a hashbrown, a tomato, baked beans and two slices of sour dough bread. The tofu wasn't great cold but it was fantastic hot, and I cleaned up my whole plate. D ordered the vegan Aussie brekkie (mushies, tomatoes, baked tofu, spinach, hashbrowns, baked beans and sourdough toast), not even noticing that the entire menu was vegan!

big vegan aussie brekkie at naked espresso

Later, incredibly stuffed but happy to sit around, we chatted with Charles' five year old daughter ("What are you made of?" "I'm made of vegetables!") and overheard very interesting vegan-related things, like why we might have to stop drinking Vitasoy and the availability of vegan marshmallows.

the sweedish coeliac

Finally, we purchased two pies, the outer shells of which were definitely not gluten-free but whose insides apparently were, even though they were made from fake meat. We ate these much later in the day, after going to see Top Gear, and they were delicious.

The menu prices were average for breakfast (at least average for a Perth breakfast!), $10-$15 for a serve. Several gluten-free items were on the menu. Definitely A++ would nom again (and I recommend it to all of your friends) - if it had been closer to the hotel, I would have nommed again before we left. Thanks to everyone who mentioned Naked Espresso, it was totally worth the walk. ZB also reviewed it on a visit in January here, if you need more convincing.



Naked Espresso
126 King Street
Newtown

18 comments:

spiceislandvegan said...

Looks so good! This is my kind of food. Glad you have great vegan restaurants in Aussie.

x said...

I sooooo need to go there! We're trying to organise a meet up @ Basil Pizza as well, I'm sure it's just as good as N.Espresso.

Cindy said...

Dang, that's some fine-looking scrambled tofu! I'm having a weekend in Sydney next month and I'm keen to make room in the itinerary for this one. :-)

Theresa said...

I will definitely have to go there when I'm in Sydney again!

steph said...

Hey Spice Island Vegan - it was really great food! And I'm glad we've got some vegan restaurants also, rare though they may be.

Mandee, you definitely need to visit Naked Espresso, it's fantastic. And I hope you get to Basil Pizza soon, it looked really great!

steph said...

Cindy, Theresa, I think that Naked Espresso is a must for everyone's Sydney visiting schedules. Awwwwesome, I cannot recommend it enough.

Anonymous said...

i'm so jealous, i wish i had made it there when i was in sydney, it looks incredible!

Anonymous said...

So jealous!

As to the vitasoy, a friend called them and anything that claims to be 'enriched with vitamin d' has wool derivatives in it. The others are fine, or so they say.

nixwilliams said...

wow, that looks amazing! OM NOM NOM INDEED!

steph said...

Phillipa, were you in Sydney recently?

Thanks Anonymous, I was thinking of your comment today when I was scrutinising the soy milk at the shops.

Nixwilliams, it was VERY OM NOM NOM. You know what else is om nom nom? DIM SUM DATE NEXT MONTH OMG.

ZuckerBaby said...

I'm so glad you enjoyed the cafe! I've been going there every Sunday since January (and may well be helping them out with the sweets side of things soon, eep!) and it's getting more and more popular! Looks like you had a great nomming time in Sydney, yay!

Anonymous said...

@ZuckerBaby: yeah, we heard your name being bandied around

Anonymous said...

Looks great for shure... but i seems to remember this was the place selling "vegan" pizas a year or two ago and it wasnt vegan cheese?
and they also still sell pizaa's smuthered with meat?
or am i out of date?
rsvp
top blog vegan about town

steph said...

Hi Anonymous,

I know that Naked Espresso shares premises with a pizza joint (Basil Pizza?) that is vegan-friendly but also does meat pizzas. I don't know if they have anything to do with the pizza place aside from sharing the same premises, but breakfast was certainly totally vegan.

Anonymous said...

Thanks Steph
McDonalds and KFC could also be classed as 'vegan friendly' if thats the case......?
My style of 'veganism' unfortunatley doesent include eating at places where they cook lots of chicken/meat/fish unfortunately for me.....
But i do agree, the breakfast looks fan-diddly-tastic. So... I'll just look for now :)

steph said...

Anonymous, you know perfectly well that KFC and McDonalds are in no way vegan friendly, and I don't know why you'd even bring them up. That's incredibly unconstructive in a conversation about veganism, unless you're talking about financial support etc, in which case it's still not terribly comparable because they're KFC and McDonalds! (I mean, good work PETA and all, but mock chicken at KFC in Canada? No thanks I'll get my mock chicken elsewhere)

Mungo said...

I can't believe no one mentioned their AMAZING COFFEE - I had one after Church on Sunday and it was truly sublime, and thats coming from a real coffee snob. I'm not vegan or anything but the soy milk they used in the coffee has gone a long ways to convincing me that its a viable alternative! I look forward to trying the brekkie as well.

Anonymous said...

Hi Steph,

Just wondering if you could flick me an email at monika@bfdbrands.com Just wanted to ask you a quick question.

Cheers,

Monika