Vegie Bar — Restaurant in Melbourne

When the same friends that take you out to Mercer’s say that you need to visit another place, you listen. And to top it off, it also highlighted my own meat consumption and how I take it for granted. And an unintended, eye-opening lesson is worth looking into.

Located on the famous Brunswick Street, the first thing you will need to contend with is parking. Go in as early as possible, because if you do happen to get caught up with a local festival, expect a 30 minute hunt for a good spot. Then make sure you pin the location so you can know where to come back to after the meal. On the inside, the venue was quite rustic and unique. They made good use of a multitude of spaces – there was an upstairs loft, a bar for the waiting section and then two main dining areas. And if you aren’t there with your entire party, they put you on a waiting list and ask you to step aside until they all arrive to seat you. Which is a good and a bad thing. Good – because you don’t have to wait too long. Bad because, if your eating partners are late, then you could waste a fair amount of time having a liquid lunch. For entrees we did: Samosa (A traditional Indian pastry filled with mild vegetable curry, served with tzatziki and fresh chilli sauce) and Gyoza (Japanese-style mushroom, tofu and mixed veggie steamed dumplings, served with our special dipping sauce.) I have it on good authority that the Gyoza was good.

My samosa was good – nothing to rave about and the chilli wasn’t all that hot. A little letdown, but that’s ok.

For Mains we did: Mee Goreng (A classic Malaysian inspired disk of hokkien noodles wok-tossed with mixed vegies, tofu and sauteed potato in a lightly spiced peanut sauce.), Moroccan Stew (A rich tomato and chickpea stew with roasted eggplant, currant and almond cous cous, tzatziki, marinated cucumber salad, hazelnut dukkah and fresh parsley. Served with warm yogurt and pita bread.) and the delicious Mexican Burrito (Tortilla based wrapped around refried kidney beans, spinach, onion and mushroom, topped with melted cheese and fresh chilli sauce. Served on brown rice with sour cream and guacamole.)

The Verdict on the Mee Goreng: filling and delicious – this is something that was done with a lot of bean shoots. And the sauce was amazing.

The Verdict on the Moroccan Stew: Well my good friend was quiet during the entire meal. That’s enough said.

My verdict on the Mexican Burrito? Holy Moly, go in with an appetite. This thing was monstrous and in the right way. The brown rice was a great filler and the guacamole sealed the deal! On a scale of 1 – 5, it rated a 10. The flavours were well balanced but I was not prepared for the size of the meal.

We also did sweet potato chips, which, if I am being honest was ok. I know my dining partners loved it, but I wasn’t...

Full disclosure I was never vegie bar’s hugest fan as the food for me has always been largely average in quality so even as a vegan I haven’t eaten here for years. However when it was one of my friends turn to choose a restaurant for the three of us he chose this one (he has a proven track record for not choosing well). I was determined to give it another shot and, I’ll give them their dues, the staff were overall quite friendly and the restaurant does have a pretty interior. The gnocchi was pretty decent and was even gluten free, one of my friends got one of the pizzas which he said was good however, the other got the laksa which she reviewed as largely lacking flavour and fairly one note. The mulled wine was sickly sweet (I am a massive fan of mulled wine and this was the most shocking imitation I have ever tasted though to be fair they did list sugar as an ingredient I just hadn’t realised how much prominence they’d give that ingredient). When it came time for dessert my friend was informed that they didn’t have the citrus tart so decided upon the special which was apple pie with ice cream, my other friend got a sundae, I asked the waitress what she would order between tiramisu and carrot cake, we landed on carrot cake. A few minutes later, she came back to the table to inform us they were out of both the carrot cake and tiramisu so I also opted for the apple pie. This is where the night really went south. Whilst my friend with the sundae enjoyed it, the apple pie was a textural nightmare for my other friend and myself. The pie casing (because I refuse to call it a crust) had the texture of kinetic sand and seemed determined to coat the entire mouth like glue when eating. It was very sweet but lacked much flavour apart from a hint of cinnamon which was buried beneath mounds of sugar. The friend that introduced us to this grim experience thought we must have been being dramatic - which to be fair “this is the worst thing I’ve had in my mouth this week”, whilst true was dramatic -tried the pie and immediately agreed that it was in the top 50 worst foods he had eaten in his life. I have no idea how this became a special, perhaps the chefs were trying for something, failed and then the owner still put it on the menu as they didn’t see any sense in throwing it in the bin and writing off the cost of the experiment gone wrong, if this is the case next time I beg you to just write off the cost! It’s fitting that this dinner was in the month of Halloween as the experience was...

Vegie Bar has been my favourite restaurant since I first visited around 8 years ago! I love the cosy atmosphere, the vegan food is delicious, and the wait staff have almost always been very friendly and accommodating of dietary needs.

Unfortunately, my experience has significantly worsened over the past 6 months under the restaurant’s new management. I was so disappointed to see that Vegie Bar is no longer an all-vegan restaurant, as this was what made it stand out amongst the many great restaurants in Fitzroy. They have removed a few of my favourite items from the menu, including the unmatchable vegan strawberry cheesecake. My friends and I have also been asked to move or adjust our seating layout multiple times, as management wanted to squash in as many other customers as possible to an already full table. They have also seemingly permanently closed the outdoor courtyard dining seating out back, and often say the side room is “closed” in favour of squeezing everyone into the main room. Wait times for food have also been noticeably longer and wait staff have often not delivered menus, drinking water, or cutlery, unless specifically asked to. I was once shuttled into a corner where a water pipe promptly burst and drenched me and my belongings, including my phone and laptop — though luckily I was not injured.

My main complaint is the claustrophobic feeling of being assigned seating millimetres away from others with seemingly no other options or consideration for requests to be seated elsewhere, despite sensory needs / social anxiety which make sitting in the loud and crowded main room quite unpleasant when it is busy.

Sadly, I will be looking for an alternative restaurant for my upcoming...