mother chu's vegetarian restaurant

This is the last of my Sydney reviews. Thank you so much to everyone who left suggestions for me, they were greatly appreciated!

We arrived in Sydney just after midday, and having deposited our luggage at the hotel (Medina Central, fantastic location, awesome rooms, don't accidentally steal from the mini bar like I did) we wandered down George St to sate my desire to throw myself into the loving book shelves of Kinokuniya. We weren't there long, however, before we started getting really, really hungry. C and N wandered off, claiming vego food would not sustain them,* whilst D, E and I went in search of Mother Chu's Vegetarian Restaurant.

Mother Chu's is a tiny restaurant on Pitt Street. The menu is filled with delights and their mock fish comes out in the shape of a fish. The items on the menu are reasonably priced, with each of our mains costing about $10.

D opted for the chili noodle claypot, which was spicy but delicious. E accidentally ordered too much food, ending up with the avocado and corn soup, which was odd but tasty, and a cashew rice made with brown rice, which was awesomely flavoursome.

I ordered the wonton noodle soup, which was just the right amount of noodle, vegetable and wonton and I ate the whole thing, and then proceeded to roll out of there, committing to a stately waddle back in to town, on our pilgrimage to the Apple store.



*they went to HJ's instead

Mother Chu's Vegetarian Restaurant
367 Pitt Street
Sydney
Open 1200-1500 (mon-fri) and 1700-2200 (some other days...)

green palace, newtown (sydney)

Late Friday night, after shenanigans with plumbers, we headed on out to Newtown (woo!) to Green Palace, which Alysia had found in the Good Eats Guide. We decided a Thai vegan restaurant was a possibility for a gluten-free meal, and I haven't heard from either B or Alysia that there was gluten-related illness afterwards, so yay! (Also the internet tells me explicitly that Green Palace does cater for gluten-free)



We were incredibly indecisive, unsure of what to order and uncharacteristically unable to come to a decision, so we started with the delightful and familiar, spring rolls, which were crispy and tasty, perfectly serviceable spring rolls.



B, D and I shared a panang curry and a pad see eu. It was the best pad see eu I've ever had, for serious. It had just the right amount of sauce, and wide, thick noodles and perfectly cooked vegetables and I loved it. Alysia ordered another one of the curries, allegedly most of their curries are gluten free.



We rounded out the meal with a couple of serves of fried banana and icecream (with sprinkles!). The icecream was not great, with that watery aftertaste, but the fried banana was pretty tasty.



Splitting the bill came to about $25 per person, which is not bad for a Friday night out.

Green Palace
182 King St
Newtown

Bodhi in the Park, Sydney

It has been years since I last went to yum cha. Similarly it has also been years for D, whose attempts at yum cha in Tassie two weeks ago were foiled by a closed yum cha restaurant, so it was with not a small amount of excitement that we ventured forth to Bodhi in the Park.



It was slightly difficult to find, located as it was underneath where I thought College Park was located, and lacking any useful signs. Wander down the stairs, away from College St, towards the smell of chlorine and the splashes, and turn left. It is hidden there amongst the trees and under the walkways.

The menu is extensive, though not as extensive as I had hoped it would be, lacking my very favourite type of dim sum, chee cheong fun (and the related cha siu chee cheong fun). It is also expensive, coming to a total of about $65.00 for the two of us. The food was however quite tasty.



We started with a deep fried spinach roll, not exactly traditional dim sum but still pretty good. The spinach was complimented by I think almond flakes and tofu. We followed this with a curry bun, a new taste sensation for D, who has not had much experience with the squishy sugary bun and savoury filling phenomenon so common through Malaysia, and easily experienced (by non-vegans) at a range of chain bakeries such as bread top, bread box, etc (which I notice has moved in to Sydney).



The curry bun was excellent. This was followed by deep fried sweet potato squishy things, which were delicious but gooey and I could feel my arteries clogging, as it were. The sticky rice was okay, and being served on a tomato quarter was a nice touch, but nothing spectacular.



The cha siu bao, another of my favoured treats, was tasty. We rounded it off with some spicy noodles, which were good but definitely far, far too much on top of everything else.

As we sat there, unable to move, we picked up a little fruit bowl, as we hadn’t had any fruit all weekend, and in the hopes it would help us feel better after all of that deliciousness.



Eventually we stirred and went for a wander through the Botanical Gardens, walking very slowly and spending a lot of time sitting around, trying to force our bodies to metabolise faster.



I love the Chinese style, tiny dishes one by one, elongating the meal and picking and picking. Yum cha is that style taken to its optimum, the tiniest dishes ever and oh deliciousness. We have another dim sum excursion scheduled in March, when we will be venturing to Box Hill, and I am absolutely looking forward to it (and have high hopes for chee cheong fun). In the meantime, though, I am considering a dim sum party in my home. Om nom nom.


Bodhi in the Park
Cook and Phillip Park
(beneath the forecourt of St Mary’s Cathedral)
College Street
Sydney

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

recs for sydney

Next weekend I am returning to the town of my birth for a flying, 48 hour visit
(and to go see Top Gear). I'll be staying in Haymarket. Does anyone have any restaurants and artisan/craft markets to recommend? I already have plans to go to Bodhi, and I loooove Iku.

ETA: OH ALSO great op shop recommendations