Green Gourmet

Being vegetarian is not often an impediment for me. Normally when I go out to eat, I always find dishes that I thoroughly enjoy with most cuisines. The only time I feel as though I am missing out on some seriously tasty dishes is when eating Yum Cha. My friends always seem to have so many choices, however there are only ever 1 or 2 dishes that I can choose from. Browsing the internet for vegetarian Yum Cha restaurants, I came across 'Green Gourmet' in Newtown, and knew that I had to try it out!

Cold weather seems to always be the best time for Yum Cha, with the steamed buns, hot dumplings and warm noodle soups. Luckily for me, the day I had planned to go here turned out to be perfect Yum Cha weather. Given that my friend was also vegetarian, this vegan restaurant was a perfect fit for the both of us - and I knew that I didn't have to put up with complaints of meat dishes being more superior and tasty :P

Located at 115-117 King St in Newtown, this little joint is hard to miss with its bright green exterior. The venue was quite busy given that it was a Saturday night, however given the amount of restaurants located on King St reaffirmed for us that it was a good choice. Scrolling through the menu, there were dozens of options for us to choose from, all of which sounded just as delicious as the other! After much confusion, we ended up choosing the steam buns with spicy pork, the chia and vegetable dumplings along with the deep fried mushroom with crispy noodles. To wash this all down, we ordered the organic coconut water which was not quite what we were expecting (our fault though!)

So from the description of our meal, some of you may be slightly confused as to how 'spicy pork steam buns' falls under the vegan category. At this restaurant, dishes are made with soy fake meat, so although dishes

might have pork, chicken, prawn etc. within the descriptions, those of you who are vegetarian/vegan can rest easy that no actual meat products are used. All dishes that we ordered were delicious and we had no trouble smashing it all down, however the one down side was our organic coconut water. From the description on the menu, we thought that we were purchasing the young coconut which would be served in the actual coconut when it came to the table. However, we received it in a can and accepted the fact that this is what was served at the restaurant. However, 5 minutes later the table next to us received their coconut water in the actual coconut and we were outraged! Only to realise that we had accidentally ordered the beverage above the one we wanted. Derp!

And ofcourse, no meal would be complete without dessert! Luckily for us, even though we were completely bursting at the seams with the amount we had eaten, the fact that the desserts on the menu were gluten free, dairy free and sugar free meant that we could eat our dessert guilt free! We ordered the berry creme cheesecake with fig ice cream - Oh Hello! Amazing! (For those who are looking to try the desserts and don't want to dine in, Green Gourmet have their own little shop attached to the side of their restaurant for the purchasing of their desserts and other vegan products).

All in all, it was a delicious meal, and I encourage anyone to venture out for something a little different.

For this one, I score an 8/10.

For more info on Green Gourmet, visit http://www.greengourmet.com.au/