Veggie Bites

This is one of our standard favourites for pizza – they are close to home, quick and the pizzas are good without being greasy or smothered in cheese. On this occasion a group of us got takeaway, so we ended up ordering 5 or 6 vegetarian pizzas. Martin and I usually order the same thing all the time (vegetarian and mushroom with chilli) so it was good to try a couple that we don’t normally eat. And they were good. There was one which pretty much just had tomato and garlic on it, and it was really good, as was the Del Mondo which had feta, fresh tomatoes and fantastic olives. I think next time we are getting our pizza from here, we might try something different! They also do pasta and have a good variety of veggie ones to choose from – the pastas also taste good! They have 2 locations in Canberra, we usually head to the Dickson one as it is closest to home, but once we went to the Belconnen restaurant where we were really disappointed with the service, particularly because we mentioned we were in a hurry to be somewhere else and we were told it wouldn’t be a problem, however the pastas we ordered took twice as long as the pizza. This meant 2 things, one of us had to eat before the others had even got their meals and we were actually late for the netball game we were going to watch. Anyway, check out http://www.zeffirelli.com.au/.

We had lunch here one Sunday, since we have kind of given up going to Bernadette’s as our last minute food stop and can’t quite figure out where else to go. Since it was lunch we didn’t want to go all out and order a lot of different meals, so we decided to have a few entrée type things. So we had idli’s, a spinach fritters and potato salad thing and a masala dosa – all very yummy and we have vowed to go back for dinner…

I have eaten here many times – usually for breakfast, so was pretty keen to try it for lunch, and I have to say that the lunch is pretty good. They still have the fresh varieties of juice, but the lunch menu is completely different to the breakfast menu. And there is a pretty good vegetarian choice. I had a mini foccacia type thing (can’t remember its exact name) filled with roast pumpkin, almonds and pesto I think, and it was yummy, it came with a huge amount of salad! My friend had a chicken version and said hers was pretty good too. While we were deciding on what to eat, the dessert menu caught our eye, although we both had our eye on different things. So since we sat and chatted for ages after we finished eating we decided that we could actually fit in the desserts that had commanded our attention earlier. Mine was a Bailey’s cheesecake and my friend went for a white chocolate praline something. Sadly neither of us finished them – not because we were so full, but because they sounded better than they actually tasted. So, while I would recommend eating here, I would also qualify it with the phrase ‘don’t bother with dessert, no matter how good they sound!’.

This was a large group dinner, so food was banquet style. I am sure that Martin and I have looked at the menu here before and decided that there was not enough choice for us veggies… However, they seemed to be very accommodating and offered to do vegetarian paella. Not sure whether this was because the woman in charge knew the person who was organising it from our end, or because they were just very helpful! Anyway, we ended up with a pretty good variety of food. A friend commented that the potatoes are to die for and she was right! We also had some fabulous mushrooms and something else that I can’t remember. Of course, to top it all off was the vegetarian paella – which was pretty good… so good in fact that some people who couldn’t stand the sight of seafood in the paella munched into our veggie version! I think I would go back for the potatoes alone, but also to see how accommodating they are on a standard dinner outing. I’ll keep you posted!

I love going to Tilley’s for a meal – they have a great veggie selection on the menu and usually a few different specials options as well. Plus it is another great place to enjoy a drink! The food is always good and the servings are large (this time though, my pasta was enormous!!). The group I was with all ate veggie, although 2 are usually meat eaters, the pumpkin and tofu curry was a popular choice and I hear it tasted good as well. I had the pasta and Martin had the veggie foccacia, we also shared some mixed breads (garlic, pesto and olive) which were also very yummy. Tilley’s also has a fabulous selection of desserts and it is awfully hard to go past their cheesecake! So, I decided to not eat some of my pasta in order to fit in the cheesecake… it was well worth it – delicious as always (however, not particularly cheap – but definitely worth the money!)! Now, I just have to try and get up early enough to try a Tilley’s breakfast one day!