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.



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!



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.



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