Pilgrims — Restaurant in Milton

We were recommended to try Pilgrims cafe in Milton. Quite a big cafe with indoor and outdoor seating. Serving up vegetarian meals. It was super busy and after ordering we were told it would be a 30-40 min wait. Whilst we weren’t keen on waiting, the town was fairly busy everywhere. They have a range of burgers, wraps, pies and salads. We ordered a spinach pie which was sold out, so we got the Vegan one instead. It came served with your side of choice and we opted for the avo, greens and some feta and was a nice fresh meal (though they shouldn’t serve feta with a vegan pie). We also tried one of their burgers and selected the “Mountain burger”, A huge burger with a mixed grain pattie, fried onion, pineapple, egg, lettuce, carrot, beetroot, tomato, cucumber, sprouts and a special sauce on a wholemeal roll. Quite nice and super big so you could easily share this. We also had the salad plate with carrots, beetroot, alfalfa, cucumber, lettuce, tabouli and hummus. I ordered the lentil pattie, but it was also sold out so they gave me the grain/brown rice one instead. Food here was nice, super fresh and healthy. The coffee is good, single O is used. They also have a bunch of juices...

Absolutely blown away by the food, quality, seving size, service and atmosphere of laid back but busy. Also inspired at the fact that a rural town with a population of 1600 can support a vegetarian and vegan cafe that more than holds its own with anything I have seen while living decdes in Melbourne or Sydney. It totally gives the lie to the claim I so often hear in similar sized towns that vegan or vegetarian cuisine is not viable in predominantly meat eating markets. It certainly is, if you do it well enough - as is the case at Pilgrims. Although often serving a line of customers, alterations to set items are not only accepted cheerfully, but suggested. Burgers to wraps and ingredient substitutions. My colleagues gluten intolerance was a non issue with the availability of ridiculously good gluten...

The coffee was average. Service average. Spinach pie tastes like bland boiled spinach. Smashed avo lacks any flavour. If you want to buy a $7 pie plus milkshake and your child ordering with you is asked if they want salad, even though you did not order it (i.e. upselling), and the child says yes, and you confirm it is not too large as the child does not eat much, you will not be informed it is an additional $10 for the mixed leaf salad which is massive and far too large for a child on its own, let alone on top of a pie and milkshake, bringing the child's order alone to $25. It is not a side salad. I later raised this issue with the staff who were not interested, despite the whole thing feeling a bit deliberately misleading and unfortunately wasting a large amount of food unnecessarily. Very...