Veggie Bites

I have often looked at this place and wondered whether we should eat here, so this farewell lunch for colleague was a good opportunity. The others all had a banquet which was very meaty, so I decided to order a separate dish. I opted for the veggie spring rolls and the Pad Thai. The spring rolls were great and the Pad Thai was ok. It kind of tasted like it had tomato sauce in it though. The servings were huge – even the banquet dishes came in massive serves – I couldn’t finish my Pad Thai and there was certainly a lot left over from the banquet eaters. There were a few options in the veggie section of the menu, so I might go back and check it out another time. I don’t think I would bother with the Pad Thai again though!

It had been a long time since Martin and I had gone out for breakfast, so we decided that the long weekend would be the perfect time, before we did the grocery shopping. Gotta keep your strength up for that! We wandered around looking for somewhere, and finally decided on this place. They had a few veggie choices, but hey, breakfast is pretty easy to adapt, right? I ordered the (something) omelette and a side of hash browns and a hot chocolate. Martin had the pancakes with caramelised bananas, muesli and apple juice. The food was pretty good – the pancakes with the caramelised bananas were divine (yep, I got to taste them!), and my omelette was full of chunks of potato, capsicum and onion – yum! The hot chocolate was so good that I ordered another, however, it took so long to come, that we finally cancelled it because we had finished everything else and were keen to get the grocery shopping out of the way!

I was in Hobart for work, and was basically in the hands of my boss who had lived there for many years and she suggested that we should go to this place for dinner, and I am so glad we did. It was amazing! The restaurant itself was beautiful, the decor was fabulous, although, I have to say that the very low chairs around the low table were a little uncomfortable after a while… Anyway, food – we started with some bread which came with some sort of dip which I think was garlic-y – I am not sure but it was certainly delicious! Since it is a veggie restaurant, there was lots to choose from, I eventually decided on the three cheese and pistachio cannelloni, with a spicy avocado salsa. It came as two large freshly made cannelloni’s absolutely smothered with this wonderful spicy avocado and tomato salsa. It was fantastic. I am almost sure that one of the cheeses in there was a blue or a gorgonzola which I am not a fan of, but it didn’t really matter as that flavour was not overpowering. My companions ordered the banana dahl, which came with pakoras, parathas and raita, and the twice baked souffle, which she had also had the last time she came here. Both looked delicious. The servings were quite large, but we decided to share a dessert between three and settled on the orange pistachio cake which was absolutely divine – and certainly big enough to feed three of us. Given the fabulous food, it was a little disappointing that is took us so long to order our dessert, as the waitress was off chatting – to her grandmother we later found out… However, I am keen to get back to Hobart to revisit this great place and in the meantime, I will just be sad that there isn’t a great veggie restaurant like this in Canberra…

This was a quick lunch after a hair cut. It was a little strange because we were the only customers here, but the other restaurants close by were quite busy! Anyway, we had the red veggie curry and the stir fried tofu with chilli and basil. Both dishes were pretty good, and they are a little inventive with the sorts of veggies that they use – eggplant, pumpkin – I am sure that these are not traditionally used in Thai cooking! It is pretty good food, but it definitely is not my most favourite Thai restaurant!