Basil Pizza & Pasta

As we made our way to the airport I commented to Toby that the only place I was slightly sad about missing out on was Basil Pizza. We arrived at the airport and discovered that our flight was cancelled so was given the option to get a refund and make our own way back or get on a flight the following day and our accommodation would be reimbursed. We decided to abandon Cindy and Michael and stay an extra night since it was going to work out to be a financial loss if we made our own way back. Also, it meant we got to stay and have Pizza with Bec and Craig. After our massive breaky and yum cha, Toby and I were originally planning on going without dinner but since we were in Sydney for another night we planned to make the most of it.

Naked Expresso is a omni pizza place at night, which offers several vegan pizzas. While the guys popped out to get beer, Bec and I were given ordering responsibilities. We didn't hesitate in ordering the Hawaiian pizza with 'ham', pineapple and a decent amount of cheezly, it was exactly as I remembered Hawaiian pizza and I'm really not sure why more of the vegan friendly pizza places here don't put 'ham' on their pizzas, this was the group favourite:
We also ordered the 'Sheree and Neridah' with dijon mustard, artichoke hearts, roasted red capsicum, olives and sun dried tomatoes. It was tangy but worked well together as a combination:

We also ordered some garlic 'pizza bread' which kind of reminded me of crisp focaccia:
We were impressed with how straight forward their pizzas were, no strange combination or fancy sauces just simple old fashioned pizzas with a vegan touch. They have g/f bases too!

Also see Cupcake Kitteh1 & 2, Tropical Vegan and Vegan Underground.


Basil Pizza & Pasta
126 King St
Newtown
02 9519 4880

Btw, we discovered after a couple of trips via public transport back and forth between Newtown and the CBD that it is actually really cheap to get a cab and might work out better if there are 4 of you.

As we made our way to the airport I commented to Toby that the only place I was slightly sad about missing out on was Basil Pizza. We arrived at the airport and discovered that our flight was cancelled so was given the option to get a refund and make our own way back or get on a flight the following day and our accommodation would be reimbursed. We decided to abandon Cindy and Michael and stay an extra night since it was going to work out to be a financial loss if we made our own way back. Also, it meant we got to stay and have Pizza with Bec and Craig. After our massive breaky and yum cha, Toby and I were originally planning on going without dinner but since we were in Sydney for another night we planned to make the most of it.

Naked Expresso is a omni pizza place at night, which offers several vegan pizzas. While the guys popped out to get beer, Bec and I were given ordering responsibilities. We didn't hesitate in ordering the Hawaiian pizza with 'ham', pineapple and a decent amount of cheezly, it was exactly as I remembered Hawaiian pizza and I'm really not sure why more of the vegan friendly pizza places here don't put 'ham' on their pizzas, this was the group favourite:
We also ordered the 'Sheree and Neridah' with dijon mustard, artichoke hearts, roasted red capsicum, olives and sun dried tomatoes. It was tangy but worked well together as a combination:

We also ordered some garlic 'pizza bread' which kind of reminded me of crisp focaccia:
We were impressed with how straight forward their pizzas were, no strange combination or fancy sauces just simple old fashioned pizzas with a vegan touch. They have g/f bases too!

Also see Cupcake Kitteh1 & 2, Tropical Vegan and Vegan Underground.


Basil Pizza & Pasta
126 King St
Newtown
02 9519 4880

Btw, we discovered after a couple of trips via public transport back and forth between Newtown and the CBD that it is actually really cheap to get a cab and might work out better if there are 4 of you.

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Desserts from Vegan Choice Grocery/Green Gourmet: My idea of Heaven.

After my initial disappointment about not getting vanilla slice at Naked Expresso, Mandee pointed out that Vegan Choice should be opening soon (11am) and lead the way with all the brunch group following. Vegan Choice is next to vegan restaurant Green Gourmet and is a small store which sells a range of mock meats, Toby read a few which listed some of the Chinese ingredients which are not really vegan since they containing dairy. So vegans beware!

There are however a wide range of vegan desserts. I was super super excited, which is why I insisted that we had to go twice. I was in heaven! Yes we have places in Melbourne to get vegan desserts but not a wide range of vegan desserts in one place.

They have a range of vegan cupcakes:
Tofu based ice cream flavours (which I think were all g/f), including some interesting asian style flavours like taro, green tea, sesame:
Also, vegan Chinese moon cake, g/f brownies (the same ones you can get at Radical Grocery), cookies and g/f raw cakes:

On the first visit Toby had black sesame and goji-coconut ice cream. I wasn't a big fan of the sesame but we both enjoyed the goji -coconut with the subtle goji flavour, but Toby said the sesame flavour was just like how he remembered it in Hong Kong in his pre-vegan days.

Bec kindly offered me some of of her raw lemon blueberry cheesecake which was sweet and tart, I really enjoyed it:


I also got some coconut ice cream which was just as amazing as sydneysider Ingrid insisted it was. It was different to other coconut based ice cream/sorbet, creamy with quite a subtle coconut flavour. So subtle that I had to question if it was vanilla ice cream.

I also followed Cindy's lead and had a chocolate cherry cupcake. It did have a touch of almond essence which I'm not a fan of, but aside from that was pretty awesome. It was a chocolate cupcake, with the top cut out and filled with cherries, icing and then the lid replaced with more icing on top. Reminded me a lot of the pics in vctotw (it's the second one from the left in the pic above).

On the second visit I got two more cupcakes, the only remaining flavours- banana and blueberry/lemon. The blueberry one was delicious and I think lemon icing suited it perfectly. The banana one was super hard and I suspect it was either partially frozen or just a little old.
I also got a piece of strawberry 'cream' raw cake:
I had this wonderful idea of eating this cake on the plane, but after a cancelled flight and way too much time waiting and holding it, it didn't actually make it, it kind of melted. I did have a little bit of the icing which was nice but didn't eat the rest because I was worried that it had gone bad.

Toby got more ice cream on the second trip too, this time he tried green tea and papaya. He said that the green tea one tasted authentic and the papaya was nice and sweet. Toby said the sesame was his favourite though because it was rich.

You can read some older reviews of ice cream/green gourmet at Vegan Melbourne, also Not Quite Nigella, Cupcake Kitteh and more recently from Lisa.


Vegan Choice Grocery
113 King St
Newtown

After my initial disappointment about not getting vanilla slice at Naked Expresso, Mandee pointed out that Vegan Choice should be opening soon (11am) and lead the way with all the brunch group following. Vegan Choice is next to vegan restaurant Green Gourmet and is a small store which sells a range of mock meats, Toby read a few which listed some of the Chinese ingredients which are not really vegan since they containing dairy. So vegans beware!

There are however a wide range of vegan desserts. I was super super excited, which is why I insisted that we had to go twice. I was in heaven! Yes we have places in Melbourne to get vegan desserts but not a wide range of vegan desserts in one place.

They have a range of vegan cupcakes:
Tofu based ice cream flavours (which I think were all g/f), including some interesting asian style flavours like taro, green tea, sesame:
Also, vegan Chinese moon cake, g/f brownies (the same ones you can get at Radical Grocery), cookies and g/f raw cakes:

On the first visit Toby had black sesame and goji-coconut ice cream. I wasn't a big fan of the sesame but we both enjoyed the goji -coconut with the subtle goji flavour, but Toby said the sesame flavour was just like how he remembered it in Hong Kong in his pre-vegan days.

Bec kindly offered me some of of her raw lemon blueberry cheesecake which was sweet and tart, I really enjoyed it:


I also got some coconut ice cream which was just as amazing as sydneysider Ingrid insisted it was. It was different to other coconut based ice cream/sorbet, creamy with quite a subtle coconut flavour. So subtle that I had to question if it was vanilla ice cream.

I also followed Cindy's lead and had a chocolate cherry cupcake. It did have a touch of almond essence which I'm not a fan of, but aside from that was pretty awesome. It was a chocolate cupcake, with the top cut out and filled with cherries, icing and then the lid replaced with more icing on top. Reminded me a lot of the pics in vctotw (it's the second one from the left in the pic above).

On the second visit I got two more cupcakes, the only remaining flavours- banana and blueberry/lemon. The blueberry one was delicious and I think lemon icing suited it perfectly. The banana one was super hard and I suspect it was either partially frozen or just a little old.
I also got a piece of strawberry 'cream' raw cake:
I had this wonderful idea of eating this cake on the plane, but after a cancelled flight and way too much time waiting and holding it, it didn't actually make it, it kind of melted. I did have a little bit of the icing which was nice but didn't eat the rest because I was worried that it had gone bad.

Toby got more ice cream on the second trip too, this time he tried green tea and papaya. He said that the green tea one tasted authentic and the papaya was nice and sweet. Toby said the sesame was his favourite though because it was rich.

You can read some older reviews of ice cream/green gourmet at Vegan Melbourne, also Not Quite Nigella, Cupcake Kitteh and more recently from Lisa.


Vegan Choice Grocery
113 King St
Newtown

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