The Best Vegan Cafés in Sydney

There’s a growing movement towards cruelty-free eating.  As more people are becoming conscious of what they eat, and how it is produced, more people are choosing to remove animals and animal products from their diets.  Vegan and vegetarian dishes are no longer relegated to Meat-Free Monday. Thankfully, more options are becoming available for people that choose a vegan lifestyle, with greater choices emerging on many standard menus.  Listed below are six of Sydney’s best vegan cafes or restaurants.  Some are new, some have been around for a while and some are veterans of the vegan scene.  All of them are producing quality meals full of flavour and without an animal product in sight.

Earth to Table

Bondi

We are start our list of Sydney’s best vegan cafés with Bondi’s Earth to Table.  It’s a gluten free, wheat free, dairy free, sugar free and a raw foodies paradise.  It’s organic, sustainable and environmentally friendly.  It’s everything the vegan community loves and wants in a café.  Smoothies, tonics and juices are plentiful.  Organic teas and cold press coffees bountiful.  Offerings from the kitchen are delightful.  Earth to Table is renowned for it’s shepherds pie – 10 different vegetables topped with a cauliflower mash, sweet potato chips and zucchini gravy.  It’s salads are a divine mixture of colour, flavour and nutrition.  But where Earth to Table excels are it’s desserts and cakes.  Not only can you sit back and enjoy a guilt-free treat inhouse, but the Earth to Table shop allows you to order the most delightful whole cakes to take home, for birthdays, special occasions or just to indulge in, because you deserve it.

Gathered Kitchen

Glebe

This little gem of a bakery and café has opened recently, but already gathering a great reputation for it’s vegan pastries.  Anywhere that nails a vegan croissant is going to quickly gain a word of mouth following.  Make it a vegan chocolate croissant and they’re going to sell out quickly. Daily. Gathered Kitchen’s insta is filled with mouth-watering pictures of avo on toast, buckwheat pancakes and pandan waffles.  More substantial offerings include a tom yum soup, pulled jackfruit burger and some gorgeous vegan sliders with black bean brown rice beet patties.  This place is definitely one to check out.

Bodhi

Sydney CBD

Vegan yum cha. There we said it. It exists. For nearly 30 years, the team at Bodhi’s has been taking quality fresh ingredients, sourced locally and organic wherever possible and turning it into mouth-watering dumplings, steamed dishes and sweet treats.  Open Monday to Sunday from 11-4pm, for Yum Cha, the menu is 100% vegan and delightful.  From Tuesday to Sunday, Bodhi’s is open for dinner from 5pm. Oriental tapas style entrees, sliders, salads and a great selection of mains to satisfy the harshest meat-loving critics.  Located in College Street in the city, Bodhi’s has 3 distinct entertainment areas, with indoor and outdoor seating.  Large groups are welcome as are weddings and events.  Careful consideration has gone into the cocktail, craft beer and wine menus.

Green Gourmet

Newtown and St Leonards

Since 1998, Green Gourmet has been creating 100% plant-based meals and banquets free from meat, dairy, onion, garlic, chives or shallots.  Now with restaurants in Newtown and St Leonards, Green Gourmet offers a daily lunch buffet, daily dinner buffet and an extensive yum cha lunch on weekends that can be cooked to order during the week.  Low gluten and gluten free options are available.  Meat alternatives of fried taro, yams, seaweed protein and tofu are offered as traditional Chinese meals – think sweet & sour ‘fish’, honey and lemon king ‘prawn’ and BBQ King Roast ‘pork’ to name a few. There are loads of choices on the menu and the omnivores and die-hard carnivores will be amazed at the dishes available.  In 2000, Vegan’s Choice Grocery store opened next door to the Newtown restaurant where customers could purchase restaurant quality prepared meals.  In 2008, a vegan cake café was added to satisfy the sweet-tooths.  Green Gourmet’s online store includes vegan macaroons, cakes and desserts.

Lentil as Anything

Newtown

Lentil as Anything is more than a restaurant with great food; it’s a social enterprise.  Almost everyone who works at any of the Lentil venues (Melbourne and Sydney) are volunteers.  Some of the key staff started out by volunteering in their spare time.  Anyone can volunteer their time, whether it’s to gain some necessary job skills or just an opportunity to help.  There are no set prices to the menu – you pay what you can afford or what you feel is right, into a contribution box. Anyone is welcome to sit at one of their tables, because at Lentil as Anything, everyone deserves a place at the table. Breakfast and dinner options are almost entirely vegan, or a vegan option is available.  Lunch is prepared fresh on the day with local produce and is a self-service buffet.  Each lunch is a themed cuisine and there are specials on the weekend.  The restaurants are a not-for-profit organisation and they rely on the support of its patrons to keep serving great food, 365 days a year.  Merchandise is available on the website as is the option to provide a tax-deductible donation.  Definitely a way to eat good and feel good.

Nourishing Quarter

Redfern

Vietnamese dishes fused with South American grains and Omega-3s from chia.  This is the basis of the dishes at Nourishing Quarter.  These delightfully flavoured dishes are nutritionally balanced with a healthy combination of protein, carbohydrates and fats.  Each dish has at least one herb or spice used for medicinal or healing properties, to remind us that food is the foundation for all healing.  This quirky little restaurant, with a reputation for great service and knowledgeable staff is a delight for any meat-free foodie and their meat-loving friends.

So is there a great vegan café we don’t know about?

It can take a while for a new place to be the next big thing.  If you know there’s an absolute hidden gem (and you’re prepared to share your secret), Green Goodness Co would love to hear about it.

Image: Gathered Kitchen