<<VEGAN SYDNEY >>

THE VEGAN SYDNEY GUIDE is a herbivore's guide to Sydney. Reviewed and written by local vegans and vegetarians, this is the low down on where to find vegan food in Sydney. From 'mock meat' to macrobiotic hopefully there will something for every fussy vegan here. This is a work in progress so there are still a heap of places to review, new sections to add or even places we do not know about, spread the knowledge and email us at vegan@vegansydney with any more reviews, or info. Enjoy!

Green Gourmet 115-117 King St, Newtown 9519 5330
Without a doubt the best 'mock meat' restaurant in the country. Featuring fresh vegan Chinese meals, desserts and Yum-Cha which is to die for. Green Gourmet offers an ala carte menu and also a buffet (cost by weight) Personally I prefer to order off the menu cause the food in the warmer is not as good, and actually more expensive (but then again you get more variety if eating alone!)

25a Glebe Point Road Glebe 9692 8720
62 Oxford St, Darlinghurst 9380 9780
168 Military Rd Neutral Bay 9953-1964
A franchise of all vegan macrobiotic, mostly organic eateries, that serve a wide range of things from burgers, casseroles, lasagne, nori and rice paper rolls, muffins, black sticky rice and vegan cheesecake. great for take away or a healthy quick snack.

Sydney Pitt St. Vegetarian Shop 7, 238 - 242 Pitt St Sydney 9283 3398
Located opposite the Pitt St Monorail Station, in a part of the city that has now become over run with ghetto fabulous bargain stores, this is another Chinese vegan mock meat places. The Yum Cha at this place is really tasty, definitely one of the best in Sydney! Rumour has it that the chef is formerly from Bodhi -when it was good that is! PS. This place is quite good value, especially the lunch time specials.

Bodhi Cook/Philip Park Corner of College & William St, Sydney 9281 6162
Pseudo-Buddhist, pseudo-vegan Chinese restaurant, run by a capitalist, sweatshop queen. This, like all the other Bodhi enterprises, without trying to sound like the vegan police, it is staffed by illegally paid workers. Overpriced, yuppie bullshit that is riding the vegan and Buddhist bandwagon while serving fish based sauces and alcohol. Moreover, the restaurant looks like the inside of a bathroom and the waiters use PDA's to take your orders. This place blows!

This is what 'Aussie RSL Chinese' would be like if it was all vegan: they don't serve brown rice, most things are fried and drenched in sweet sauces (I don't necessarily think this is a bad thing either!) and the place has fluorescent lighting. However, what the place lacks in atmosphere it makes up in mock! They serve everything faux animal under the sun from fish to duck, chicken and beef. This place is worth the hike out to Marrickville for the crispy soya roll entree alone, which kinda of resembles a vegan chicko roll, but filled with fresh vegetables and crispy tofu sheets. While not everything on the menu is as tasty as the soya rolls and the eggplant parcels I know I'll be back!

Vegan's Choice 115-117 King St, Newtown 9519 5330
Vegan's Choice is located next door to Green Gourmet, so when you finish 11 rounds of Yum Cha you can pop next door and stock up on frozen mock meat, tofutti, organic Chinese vegetables, condiments, homemade tofu ice-cream, books and other vegan propaganda.

Mother Chu's Vegetarian Kitchen 367 Pitt Street Sydney 9283 2828
This is another Vegan Buddhist Chinese restaurant in the heart of downtown Sydney. Heaps of 'the kids' swear by this place but I'd prefer Green Gourmet any day, though much better than the Bodhi™ Corporation. A large range of mock meat, gluten and tofu Chinese style dishes. A nice family run restaurant that serves the best wanton noodle soup in Sydney.

Macro Wholefoods Cafe 31-35 Oxford St, Bondi Junction 9389 7611
This one of those places that I’ve been meaning to go to for a while. Located inside of Macro health food store, this place is majority vegan and organic. It serves a large diversity of gourmet foods, including vegan breakfast, cakes and desserts, fresh juice and coffee. As far as vegan places in Sydney go this would probably be in my top 10. The staff are friendly and helpful and the food is healthy, gourmet and vegan. Moreover, the prices are total reasonable for organic food! The only downside of the place is the clientele. It is full of yuppie Eastern Suburbs new age wanker types, being served by punk looking students. Its funny how food can become a commodified status symbol. This class war at its finest. Anyhow the food is like an orgasm in your mouth, so I’ll be back.

Maya Indian Vegetarian Eatery Cleveland Street, Surry Hills 9699 8663
Returning from India an avid fan of Indian food, especially Masala Dosas, I was on the hunt to find this cuisine in Sydney, and I am not talking about North Indian Diner chain. I found it all at Maya, the most authentic South Indian restaurant I have so far found in Sydney. Featuring on Maya's menu is South and North Indian Thali, Dosas, Uttapam, Idli and on the weekend they have a Chat house. And for desert they feature a wide selection of mostly not vegan Indian sweets. Most things are vegan, or will be made vegan upon request. Watch out for ghee (clarified butter), paneer (cheese), and Raita (yogurt based sauce). This place is fucking cheap and tasty!

Govinda's 112 Darlinghurst Road 9380 5155
All you can eat Krishna vegetarian buffet, for under $20, watch out for things cooked in ghee as well as the dogmatic bullshit. The best thing about this place is the movie cinema upstairs that for a few extra dollars you can see a movie. Get rid of the ghee and dogmatic bullshit and this place would be a winner.

Laurie's Vegetarian Take Away Bondi Rd Bondi
A small café with a big variety of fresh and healthy salads, casseroles and a choice of 5 wicked burgers (vegan on request) that come with a large side salad for $5 bucks!!! Holy bargain basement!!! They also have a choice of vegan and vegetarian desserts but if these don't tempt you then the gourmet chocolate shop directly across the road may satisfy any dairy-free sugary desires you may have. Located on Bondi Rd, this has become a summer favourite on the way back an afternoon at the beach.

Zenergy 68 Druitt Street Sydney 9261 5679
Zenergy is an all vegetarian office city lunch type place. It is only open weekdays for lunch and snack type food. It serves lots of yummy sandwiches and rolls, hot food, smoothies, coffee, fresh juices and cakes and muffins. It is pretty good value and the food is wholesome and delicious. Last time I went there I got a tofu scramble sandwich, upon confirmed that it was tofu not egg the guy who served me told me how people come back almost everyday and ask for the curried egg sandwich none the wiser to fact that they are eating tofu!

Badde Manors Glebe Point Rd, Glebe 9660 3797
Badde Manors is a 20 year old vegetarian café, serving typical café food like soups, foccacia, cakes, coffee, and burgers and has a specials board. The highlights for me are the tofu breakfast (you have to request that this is made vegan- beware of rolling eyes). Badde Manors is not particularly vegan friendly, and you must also request if you want your food made vegan. Badde Manors is like that cool kid which everyone likes and keeps hanging out with but is actually not that cool or nice, and you think to yourself why is he/she so popular?

Vegetarian Thai 233 Oxford St, Darlinghurst 9360 6567
Don't be put off by the new age Yin Yang on the sign outside, the food at this restaurant is great. Being a big fan of Thai food I was thrilled to find a strictly vego Thai place. The dishes are different to what you might find at your average Thai restaurant, more gourmet, somehow more considered, but then again the prices match the extra care that seems to be in their food. **Just as I was going live with this site I was riding past this establishment to find it's now vegetarian + slaughtered animal Thai**

Tian Ci 1006 Victoria Road West Ryde 9874 9197
This place was one of my faves when I first discovered mock-meat. Tian Ci is another Buddhist vegetarian restaurant, largely focused on Chinese mock meat dishes such as Lemon 'Chicken' and 'Beef in Black Bean sauce'. Although this restaurant is good value, and definitely serves good mock dishes, it actually lacks vegetables!! Pretty strange for a vegetarian restaurant I know, but the food tastes quite greasy, sweet, fried, salty, with the only vegies tasting like they came out of a tin! They serve Yum Cha at lunch, which is better than the menu food! Because this place is not strictly vegan- they sometimes use egg and margarine - make sure you confirm that its vegan when ordering. Aussie RSL Chinese at it finest, except vegetarian!

Hot Chips and Potato Wedges are unfortunately not Vegan in this country, as they are pre-coated with tallow (not even vegetarian!). Place's that make their own chips on the premises are probably your best bet if you have a craving.

Other Vegan No-No's that one should be aware of are fish sauce, shrimp paste and oyster sauce. These ingredients are found mostly in Thai, Chinese and other Asian dishes---which otherwise could be very vegan friendly. A favourite of mine is to use "I'm really allergic to....(insert non-vegan ingredient) and I'll get really sick". One final word of advice is, just because it looks vegan, or is under the vegetarian section of the menu, doesn't mean its vegan (or even vegetarian I've found!).

Shakespeare's Pies King St, Newtown (opposite Post Office)
This place is not vegetarian, but is worth a mention because it is fast food that is very vegan and vegetarian friendly. Shakespeare's has a vegetarian pie menu, but only the curry pie and the Tofu roll are vegan. I wouldn't say these pies are totally delicious but they are good when you are hungry and don't feel like searching for vegan food, particularly at 4am on weekends. As most commercial chips are precooked in tallow it is hard to find take away vegetarian chips, but I am pleased to announce that Newtown Shakespeare's chips are 100% vegan, no tallow, cooked fresh for you and really tasty.

The Lounge Cnr of Crown and Goulburn St, Surry Hills (underneath Wheels 'n' Doll Baby) Situated in hip and somewhat pretentious Crown St, this place although not vegetarian, has a range of vegetarian and vegan (more on request) café style food. They do a 'Vegan Antipasto' Plate and the non-vegan option is called the 'Anti-Vegan Antipasto'. This place deserves a mention because the head Chef was the former owner of McDonna's (RIP) so you know it's got to be good. The highlight includes the 'Mud Burger' a large tofu burger with salad dripping in peanut sauce. If you're lucky enough they might even have a Vegan cake.

A small organic Japanese restaurant located at the end of Bayswater Rd in The Cross. While its not vegetarian it has plenty of vegan options made with vegetable stock instead of the usual fish or pork stock. Ultra friendly staff and an assortment of organic vegan options make this place a winner.

While this place is not even vegetarian they do have four vegan nories on the menu. They have aptly titled 'Vegan Roll' with avocado and tofu, a 'Veggie Roll' with brown rice, pine nuts and carrot (yum!) and a 'Sweet Tofu' roll with inari-style tofu and vegies. They have a not-so-nice Mushroom nori and also do miso soup on request without fish stock.