November 15th, 2011 » Wellington: Midnight Espresso

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This post is also mentioned in The London Vegetarian blog. Thank you Preeti, a sweet darling! You can follow her on Twitter!

I find it a bit frustrating when a vegan-friendly restaurant does not have a website or an online menu, especially if you are new to Wellington or not a local. I’ve seen a few food pictures from some random bloggers, but not the menu itself. Midnight Espresso is probably one of my top cafe/restaurants I’ve been to in Wellington, New Zealand.

Location & Hours

• 178 Cuba St, Te Aro 6011, New Zealand. It was on the most prominent streets in Wellington, the Cuba Street.
• 7.30am-3am Mon-Fri, 8am-3am Sat & Sun
• You are probably looking at $10-20 per meal if you are from the U.S. Save plenty of money if you plan to go there!
• Plenty of local Kiwis with curiousity and questions. I had few men asking me what I do and if I was writing for an article, hehe.
• I love sitting with the front windows open. It’s actually a calming setting for a restaurant food reviewer and food photographer.

Menu

While there’s no visible menu online, I’ve photographed their menu which was written in colourful chalk. There were few vegan meals on the menu, and also on the special menus. You should also keep an eye out on these today’s snacks/meals that were displayed in glass section near the cashier (they usually have few vegan snacks out there randomly such as vegan lasagna or cake).

Here are some vegan dishes from the chalk menu I’ve written down for you just in case if you cannot see the picture clearly below (keep in mind that the menu items may change variably):

• Vegan Hash Stack (with mushrooms, tomato, toast, spinach, hash browns, avocado and vegan mayo)- $16,50
• Garlic Mushrooms on Toast (can be made Vegan) – $11
• Vegan Mayo Side – $3
• $4 Side Dishes (You need to ask the staff to make it Vegan) – 2 Hash Browns, Grilled Tomatoes, Mushrooms, Spinach, Avocado, Marinated Tofu or Hummus
• Gluten-Free Bread – $2
• Scrambled Tofu tossed in Seasonal Veggies and Sweet Chili Sauce – $12
• Vegan Nacho (with bean mix and vegan mayo, avocado, salsa and hummus) – Large $18
• Hummus & Pita, ask to make it vegan (with Kalamata olives and veggies) – $9
• Tossed Garden Salad with Marinated Tofu & ask to make it vegan – $12,50
• Stir-Fried Veggies cooked in Thai Coconut Sauce – $12

They do offer fresh juices, soy milk shakes as well as coffee/espresso with soy milk options.

Dishes I’ve Tried

Dish #1: Vegan Hash Stack (with mushrooms, tomato, toast, spinach, hash browns, avocado and vegan mayo) – $16,50

It was one of my favourite dishes at Midnight Espresso. It is actually amazing how a New Zealand cafe can make vegan mayo because that is a plus to the dish. These hash browns are like potato fritters in such buttery chive flavour. I love everything on the dish.

Dish #2: Special Tempeh Burger & Delicious – $13

It was on their special chalk menu. But $13 was pretty high for a small tempeh burger unfortunately. It was a plain tempeh with vegan pesto sauce and veggies in the burger. I don’t see any vegan mayo. It was a light burger, but I wouldn’t try it again for the price. It’s nice to see a vegan local tempeh burger in Wellington.

Dish #3: Vegan Banana-Maple-Coconut Cake – $6. I’m not sure about the price, errr.

It was actually an interesting looking cake! The frosting wasn’t too heavy. I tasted a lot of bananas in it, but not much coconut in it. Not sure if I want to eat it again. A bit heavy when I reached the last pieces. But I wouldn’t dare touch a vegan chocolate cake. I’m not a huge chocolate cake eater. Please pardon my photos since they were taken with a smaller digital camera in the late evening.

Dish #4: Scrambled Tofu tossed in Seasonal Veggies and Sweet Chili Sauce – $12

I was hungry for a huge breakfast meal since I didn’t had dinner that other night. The tofu scramble was in fact too sweet for my taste due to the sweet chili sauce. The veggies were plain, but I sadly have to admit it was a plain tofu scramble with sweet chili sauce. I probably prefer something spicier or yeast-like. It was actually a big plate, great for two!

Dish #5: Side Dish for 2 Hash Browns (Made Vegan) – $4

After I liked my Vegan Hash Stack plate the other day, I wanted to try these vegan hash browns. But they tasted a bit different and disappointing, perhaps they need a vegan mayo side dish for another $3. Seems a bit ridiculous for $4 two small vegan hashbrowns and $3 vegan mayo = $7 plate. Maybe it was cooked by a different chef that day. I don’t know why, but it tasted greasy potatoes with no chives or flavour in it.

Dish #6: Vegan Tofu Bun – $6

I’ve to admit I made the right choice, picking that lonely vegan tofu bun off the display area (that was off their chalk menu). It was made fresh that day for $6 compared to a small $13 tempeh burger that other night. It was a very good tofu burger with wild rocket salad and vegan pesto. It is claimed vegan according to a staff. I really hope to see this tofu burger again.

November 13th, 2011 » Wellington: Sushi Bi

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It was nearly our last day in Wellington, and my partner picked up some nice vegan-friendly sushi off Woodward Street and it was a small take-away sushi restaurant called, “Sushi Bi.” There was no respective website for Sushi Bi or any menu I can find unfortunately except for public online restaurant reviews such as Menu Mania, but I can only tell you what we’d discovered.

It is cheaper to purchase after 16:00 at 50c each, rather than $1 (NZD), which was a great deal for yummy sushi-to-go snacks! Sometimes lines can be long, so be prepared to show up as quickly as possible! The staff members at Sushi Bi were friendly, so if you are a vegan that can’t eat egg or fish, just tell her that!

Types that I tried were vegan:

• seaweed salad
• pumpkin or squash with lettuce and shredded carrots
• shiitake mushrooms with lettuce and shredded carrots

I also find it fascinating that these vegan-friendly sushi have a lot of veggies in it compared to these boring typical avocado or cucumber makis you will find in the U.S. Thanks a lot, New Zealand, you opened my eyes to trying beautiful sushi! It is also actually very nice that they provided white ginger rather than coloured ginger (pink), but these pink ginger aren’t usually vegan sometimes.

For more reviews or posts on other vegan-friendly restaurants in Wellington, view here.

November 13th, 2011 » Wellington: Hell Pizza

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You can find Hell Pizza anywhere in New Zealand, especially Australia, greater London, Dublin, Vancouver BC and Delhi of India. But there are many Hell Pizza locations in New Zealand compared to others. “HELL was spawned by Callum Davies in the year 1996, location: the Kelburn squash centre in Wellington.” (Hell Pizza International’s History) Hell Pizza offers one vegan pizza known as, “Vegan Sinister.” They also do provide gluten-free meals, which were indicated on the menu as black drops.

A Vegan Sinister pizza comes with refried beans, avocado, onions, salsa, tomatoes, jalapeno peppers and capsicum without cheese. On the menu, that pizza was labelled “VEGAN.” It is a possibility that Hell Pizza can create pizzas that were labelled vegetarian (V) on the menu as vegan without cheese or feta such as “Pride”, “Purgatory”, “Limbo” and “Damned.” I had Uncle Tony size, which was 10 inches in diameter and as of thin base, so it was 10.50 NZD.

Bits about Hell Pizza

• 14 Bond Street Wellington City / 04 473 5149
• Open 11am – 10pm everyday
• Wellington, New Zealand standard menu: (view here)

What Did I Think Of It?
I didn’t really care much about the restaurant setting and the staff since I brought the vegan pizza back to the hotel. The Hell Pizza restaurant off Bond Street was awfully dark and it’s impossible to photograph anything at all as shown above. Plus it was the day before Halloween so everyone got dressed up

The vegan Sinister was a bit unique, but didn’t really wow me at all. It was a Mexican-style pizza (and of course small if it was in 10-inches), so imagine eating a thin-crusted pizza with salsa as tomato base and these avocado bits along with veggies on it. I’m not a fan of refried beans, but it was definitely different. I never had salsa on a pizza. Surprisingly, the salsa was a bit spicy. However, I did not like how hard the crust was since it tasted like a flatbread cracker. I was contemplating I should get a Double 12.5 inches Sinister pizza to see if the crust is a bit thicker or better, but I never really did since I only had few days in Wellington to try other new things. It doesn’t hurt to try another different type of pizza at HELL Pizza next time in Wellington or other cities of New Zealand. It is also nice to stay away from soy cheese or unnecessary vegan cheese on these vegan pizzas so we can just taste the real pizza based in New Zealand!

If you would like to view other vegan-friendly restaurants in Wellington, New Zealand, you can read other posts here.

November 9th, 2011 » Wellington: Burger Fuel

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I spent few nights in Wellington, New Zealand and the weather was really windy for my taste. Wellington was just in time for a starting summer, but it felt like fall near harbours of Portland (Oregon) or Sydney, Australia.

Burger Fuel
101 Courtney Place
Wellington
New Zealand

In Wellington, New Zealand, I went to Burger Fuel twice: once for the vegan v8 burger, fries and a 5 NZD lime soy milkshake, second for the sweet potato fries with ketchup.

I’m glad that Burger Fuel offered a vegan option for a burger and it was pretty expensive though: 9.40 NZD = 7.50 USD. The vegan burger was in fact huge, and fun to look at, but the filling was disappointing (imagine eating a slab of soft patty and lettuces/tomatoes). The staff claimed that relish wasn’t vegan according to the menu I was reading, so we followed up with him, because it has to be vegan regardless. I wish they could take a closer look at the menu and check the ingredients for a V8 vegan burger again. It would be great if it has pickles or condiments such as vegan mayo or vegan-made cheese sauce. The patty itself was interesting, but I wasn’t a fan of olives. I felt like it needed something more.

The spud potato fries were amazing, wished I had more of them, but of course you need to purchase a ketchup cup for 0.50 NZD. I didn’t like the sweet potato fries. No flavour, a bit mushy, of course if you are out of a paid ketchup cup. I think I prefer the regular potato fries, they weren’t too bad