Broken Hill Hotel

The Broken Hill hotel is nicely split into a restaurant and bar section, which is great because it nicely cater for our large group.


Food Choices


Besides sides there was only one main on the menu. It was pumpkin and feta tart that came with chips and salad for $16.50. However, there was a specials menu that had a vegetarian pizza ($18.50).  I went for the pizza and split it with my friend.


Food Quality

The pizza was very good. It tasted fresh and handmade. The tomatoes were very sweet and the feta made a good addition. Overall, I was very impressed with it.

Tomatoes, feta, onions, olives and basil

My friend ordered a chicken pizza, with feta, pinenuts, pumpkin and rocket. She told me that the chicken ruined it for her, and she picked it off. So, if you're looking for another option, you could always order that without the chicken.

Overall Rating


1 point per vegetarian choice (max 3): 2
Quality of meal (1-3): 3
Value for money (1-3): 2
X-factor (0-1): 0.5 I don't dislike it, but it's not amazing
Total: 75%


Guess I won't have to drink my calories tonight...

UPDATE: 20/11/2012  
 So I went back last week and the menu had changed. There was no longer anything vegetarian available. However, they were able to make a vegetarian option pasta special for $20.50. It was quite good, and seemed reasonable. I just wanted to note that maybe it would be best to check the menu before you go, to see what they can do for you.

 

Little Creatures Brewery

Little Creatures has a good reputation. Freo is generally a little far away for most of our group, but we thought we'd give it a go. We had been there once before, about a year ago, and generally had a good time. We had sat outside on one of their long tables. This time, after fighting for a place to sit, we sat inside, cramped up against another group of people. As it's Christmas time, you would expect the place to be busy, and it's generally hard to accommodate a group of 14, but the ability to make a booking to ensure we had a table would have been nice. Having two of our group go home before we even ordered put a negative light on the evening.

Food Choices

Little Creatures isn't the kind of place where everyone gets one main meal, it's more of a sharing kind of place. They had a range of pizzas (including a couple of vegetarian ones for about $19-$22) and what I would usually call sides (including chips, corn cobs, nachos and salads).

Mushroom and pumpkin pizza

Food Quality

I ordered the $19 mushroom pizza (mushrooms, mozzarella, olives) but replaced the olives with pumpkin and some frites ($9.50) which I shared with another person. The pizza was good but bottom was a little burnt. It didn't look burnt, but you could definitely taste it.

I had remembered the chips being amazing, but I wasn't too impressed.

My friend ordered the corn cobs, which strangely enough came out about 15 minutes before the rest of the food. She said they were a little burnt too, but that you want that in corn, so she liked them. Another friend got a salad, which she enjoyed. She said the dressing was good, but it could have had a few more ingredients on it.

Another friend ordered the nachos. He said "they are everything you could want in nachos". He was pleased with all the toppings, especially the capsicum, which he said worked really well. He said they were the best non-handmade, non-Mexican restaurant nachos he's ever had. That said, it's hard to get nachos wrong unless they are very soggy. 

Overall people seemed to think their food was OK, but not amazing.

Overall Rating

1 point per vegetarian choice (max 3): 3 - It's hard to rank as they were all sharing dishes, but there was three vegetarian pizzas, and they were a few options with the sides.
Quality of meal (1-3): 1.5
Value for money (1-3): 1 - relatively expensive
X-factor (0-1): 0 - losing this for it being too loud, and not enough chairs.
Total: 55%

Guess I will have to drink my calories tonight...

Rosie O'Gradys (Northbridge)

To me, Rosie O'Gradys has always been one of those nice and cosy pubs that I've always had a soft spot for. Like The Oxford I was looking forward to reviewing it, and giving it a good review, as I was fond of it. 


Food Choices

For some reason everyone seemd to arrive really early last night, so I didn't have much time to look over the menu. The Deep Fried Camembert ($12) jumped out at me straight away, so I just went for it.

You can't really tell from the photo but the salad was actually more than just lettuce

 I didn't get an opportunity to check the Soup of the Day ($9.50) or the Pasta of the Week ($19.50), so I'm not sure if they were vegetarian. As they change I guess it's not worth commenting on further. Other options included a Salad for $17.50 and a Vegetarian Lasagna for $22.40.

Food Quality

The salad was pretty good. I liked the dressing and the inclusion of an orange. It was quite rocket-heavy, and I'm not a fan of rocket but there was enough other things to make it enjoyable. The deep friend Camembert itself was great on the first bite, but seemed to go downhill from there. It was really rich and creamy, which was great at first, but by the end I didn't want to finish it. At first I was pleased by the small portion size, but then I found it was too rich to finish, and then about an hour later I was hungry again.

Vegetarian Lasagna - I felt the need to caption this as you can't really tell what it is from the photo.

My friend had the vegetarian lasagna. It was over budget or I probably would have given it a go too.That said, it probably isn't the best choice for a hot summer night. I didn't really hear much about what my friend though about it, and if it was really good, or really bad I think I would have heard about it. Therefore, I am assuming it was average.


Overall Rating


1 point per vegetarian choice (max 3): 1.5 (1 for the deep fried Camembert, half for the salad)
Quality of meal (1-3): 2 - it really wasn't great, and it wasn't terrible
Value for money (1-3): 2 
X-factor (0-1): 1 - as I said, I like the place, it's got a great cosy atmosphere
Total: 65%


Probably, again, this is a place for drinks, not for dinner.


Guess I will have to drink my calories tonight...

Side Quest: V Burger Bar

To make this side quest official I have gathered a small team of adventurers who are going "Veggie Questing" with me. Their code names, for the purpose of this blog, are: Lancelot, Guinevere, Morgan Le Fay and Galahad. I'm King Arthur, because I'm the fussiest and hardest to please.

V Burgers had 3 vegetarian bugers: Med-Veg, Halloween and Gucaloumi.

Morgan had the Med-Veg plus mushrooms. She described it as moist, messy and filling.

Med-Veg with mushrooms

Lancelot had the Halloween. He described it as good, interesting and said that he would have liked another. He went on to say that it was lovely and crispy, but would have been nicer with more pesto, and less feta. Morgan said that she though the feta balanced out the taste of the pesto.

Halloween

Guinevere had the Gucaloumi. She described it as nice, perfectly salted with good guacamole.

Gucaloumi

As King Arthur, I of course have something to say about all of them.

The Med-Veg whilst very nice, unfortunately fell into the warm sandwich trap. Everyone can make a nice veggie sandwich. It was also quite messy to try and eat. 

The Gucaloumi also fell into the same trap. Whilst the cheese almost pulled off being a patty, it pretty much wasn't. I did like the cheese though and it was definitely an enjoyable warm cheese sandwich.

The Halloween, however, had a layer of crumbled pumpkin that could definitely pass off as a patty. It passes my definition of burger. I was pleasantly surprised, that seeing it had a patty, it wasn't horrible. The crumbed pumpkin was very nice, and seemed to work for the burger. It could have done with some more veggies, but I guess it can't have everything. 

Edit (19/12/11): I had this burger again last Friday night, and whilst it was OK, It wasn't great. When I did this review, I tried a small portion of each burger, and last Friday I ate a whole one to myself. The onions, which I hadn't noticed the first time, were very overpowering, and made the experience mostly unpleasant. After I picked them out I was happier and whilst it was still a good burger, I can no longer label it amazing.

Would recommend! 

Side Quest: The Burger Bistro

I was out with a couple of friends in Leederville looking for dinner and we decided to stop by the Burger Bistro. They had two veggie burgers on the menu, the "Veggie Max" and the "Chickpea Chow Down" both for $15. Whilst the Veggie Max looked nicer, I was afraid of running into another warm sandwich and I ordered the Chickpea Chow Down.

"chickpea patty hand made with zucchini, carrot, cumin, turmeric and paprika served in a sough dough roll with sour cream on a bed of our usual salads"

It was terrible. Not just bad, but really bad. There was one slice of tomato, and some rocket. I'm not a fan of rocket really, and the terrible patty didn't inspire me. I'm not really a fan of spicy, so if you are, maybe you will enjoy it. However, that said it was unnecessarily dry.

I wouldn't mind trying the other choice, but I think it will probably fall into the warm sandwich trap. 

Tiger Lil's

This is going to be a bit of a mixed review I think. I like Tiger Lil's as a bar, my brother had his 21st there earlier this year, and it had a great atmosphere, nice cocktails, etc.

Food Choices

There were two vegetarian options. A (non-standard) side, and a main. The main was a vegetarian curry for $18.95. The side was Spiced chickpea croquettes with lime yoghurt dipping sauce ($11.95). Now this would be fine, but I really cannot eat even the mildest of spicy foods. So this put me back at square one. I was tossing up between chips and onion rings, both $6.95 and I decided to go for the chips.

Food quality

I don't particularly like reviewing places based on their chips, but they were good chips. The lime aioli was particularly nice too.

My friends ordered the vegetarian curry. I didn't try it because I was afraid of the spicy, but they gave it the following review:

It was average, about 4/10. They'd expect something of that quality to be about half the price. They said it wasn't bad, it was enjoyable, but they were expecting better.

This was the serving dish, after it had been served...

Basically, Tiger Lil's is a great bar. Nice atmosphere, great cocktails. Nice snacks (the chips and the onion rings were both really tasty). However, I wouldn't go there for dinner again. Most people were generally unhappy with their dish, and they were all really pricey.

Onion rings and pak choy (sides)

Overall Rating

1 point per vegetarian choice (max 3):  1.5
Quality of meal (1-3): 1

Value for money (1-3):  1

X-factor (0-1): 1 - I like the place, it has a nice atmosphere.

Total: 45%

Guess I will have to drink my calories tonight...

The Breakwater

This place is really pretty. It's right on the waterfront which is really nice. I used to go to Hilary's boat harbour a lot as a kid, so it brought back a few memories for me.

Food Choices

Wow, the prices were as impressive as the scenery! Mains included: portobello mushroom ($23.90), fattoush with grilled haloumi ($22.90) and two pizzas (bocconcini, roma tomato, basil & kalamata olives: $19.90 and pear & gorgonzola, fontina, mozzarella, caramelized sweet onions & chopped hazelnuts $20.90). There were the regular sides as well as grilled baby eggplant ($11), an antipasto plate ($23.50) and arrancini balls ($15). So not really very much within my budget.

I decided to split a pear pizza, so even though $20.90 is technically over-budget, it was shared.

Food quality

The jury is out on the pizza. Three people tried it. One really liked it, one really didn't and I'm still kind of undecided. It was very sweet because of the pear and the caramelized onions. The cheeses kind of gave a very sharp contrast in flavours. I guess if you're looking for something you know will be good, order the other pizza, but if you're willing to take a risk, get this one. I do like sweet things, but I'm not sure if It quite worked.

My friend ordered the portobello mushroom. She was surprised at just how tiny it was for the price. However, she gave it a 7/10 for taste.  

 One of my friends mentioned this was a place for "cashed up bogans". It's seems apt. The prices are too high for the food. The food quality is average at best. The location is quite nice though. Maybe just come here for a cocktail by the harbour.

Overall Rating

1 point per vegetarian choice (max 3):  2 - Looking at in budget only - half for both the sides, and 1 for the pizza.

Quality of meal (1-3): 2

Value for money (1-3):  0 - Everything there was VERY expensive

X-factor (0-1): 0.5 - I did like the place, it had a nice atmosphere, however the place was too expensive not to have table service.

Total: 45%

Guess I will have to drink my calories tonight...

Side Quest: Pink Pepper

This isn't a pub, I know that, but there was a claim it had a good vegetarian burger, and I can't let that go. As my loyal readers know, I'm very picky about my veggie burgers, so I had to give it a go.

I was there with friends and we shared a vegetarian pizza, veggie burger and chips. To keep some suspense I'll talk about the pizza first. It was pretty good. I'd recommend it when you're looking for a good quality pizza. I enjoyed the crumbled feta.

It's only wonky because we cut it

The burger:

It was ... good! I was impressed! However, I'm afraid I can't say I've finally found my veggie burger of choice. It's not really a burger. My definition of burgers usually includes some sort of patty (be that beef, chicken, lentils, chickpeas, etc) and unfortunately this was just vegetables and mushrooms. It was delicious, don't get me wrong, but it was more of a warm sandwich. I'm not very picky about those, and I'd has very nice, similar sandwiches on plenty of occasions.

So, was there a nice meal at Pink Pepper, yes! Was there a nice veggie burger, unfortunately not. I will keep you posted if I have any other discoveries.

The Woodbridge Hotel

Aka "The Woody". I remembered it to be kind of grungy, and I didn't think it would be vegetarian friendly.

Food Choices

There was basically one option for a main. The "Woody Vegetarian". It described itself as a "potato and vegetable cake" and was $22. That was outside my budget, so I looked at the starters, besides the usual there was spring rolls, and a grilled mushroom with salad, both $11. I ordered the mushroom, my friend ordered the Woody Vegetarian and the spring rolls.

Food quality
Good! All three things were good. The grilled mushroom dish would probably not be enough for a normal person, but I don't eat much, so it was fine. I wasn't a big fan of the dressing on the salad, but it wasn't smothered in it. It would make a good entree for bigger eaters, or a pleasant meal for small eaters like me.

The spring rolls were big and tasty. Hard to go wrong with spring rolls. I enjoyed the plum sauce too.

The Woody Vegetarian was good too. I didn't get to try it, but my friend said it was tasty. It looked good. It had all the things a good vegetarian dish needs. Piles of vegetables and beans, with some bread and sauce. I'd recommend it. It was only just over budget!

Overall Rating

1 point per vegetarian choice (max 3):  1.5 - Half for each of the starters, half for the over budget main
Quality of meal (1-3): 3
Value for money (1-3):  1 - The main was over-budget, the mushroom wasn't particularly big, but the spring rolls were huge
X-factor (0-1): 0 - I don't like the atmosphere there
Total: 55%

Guess I will have to drink my calories tonight...

The Oxford Hotel

I had high hopes for The Oxford. It's one of my favourite pubs, as a pub. It has a pretty good atmosphere. I like the outside, yet undercover area. I had a private function there for New years eve, and it was cheap and everyone had a good night. They had a private "downstairs" area, that looks kind of like a dungeon. It's cute, I like it. I was excited to see how they went for food. I wanted to see The Oxford in my top 5.

Food Choices

Ccccccombo breaker! Back to the drawing board. No options. Seriously. There was a vegetarian pasta on the special menu that was $27.50 and some sides! That was all. Otherwise, no options. To make matters worse, there were lots of meat dishes with amazing sounding (vegetarian) ingredients such as lentils and quinoa. Basically they had everything they needed in their kitchen to make something amazing, and they were choosing not to. I looked through their sides menu, and they actually had a quite a range, all for $7.

I ordered the macaroni cheese. I was pleased. Most of the dishes were over $25, closer to $30 and I wanted to cut The Oxford some slack. I was going to give them high marks for value for money, even though mostly their meals were expensive, because I was able to eat something for $7.

Food quality


But they disappointed me... In the worst possible way. The macaroni cheese had bacon in it! It's partially my fault. I should have asked if it did. That said my friend did said to the waitress when she took our order "I wanted a vegetarian dish... I guess I'll just get the mac and cheese", which implies a meat-less dish is expected. It could have been misinterpreted, but let's move on. I was able to take the dish back and get a meat-free version. This meant that by the time I had my meal, everyone else had finished eating. It also meant that I'd finished my drink, consequently drinking my calories, and thus no longer being hungry.

This is not an attractive looking dinner

When I eventually got my meal I wasn't expecting much. It was pretty terrible. The pasta wasn't even macaroni, and it wasn't cooked properly. It tasted, and I'll quote my friend here "Like someone has taken some pasta and grated some cheese on top and gone DONE!". It really wasn't very special. My friend who had also ordered the same actually sent his back. I ate most of mine, but I wasn't impressed. Suddenly $7 seemed like a lot of money. I thought at first it was really reasonable for dinner, but when I realised I could get a bag of cheap pasta from Coles for 99c, and a block of cheese for a few dollars and I could make it myself it suddenly felt like a rip-off. In fact, I could make it better myself.


Overall Rating

1 point per vegetarian choice (max 3):  0.5 - 0.5 for the overpriced vegetarian dish. Nothing for the sides, even though there was lots of them. I cannot be sure they were vegetarian.
Quality of meal (1-3): 1
Value for money (1-3):  1 - Most dishes were quite expensive. $7 for that mess suddenly wasn't worthwhile
X-factor (0-1): 1


Total: 35%

Guess I will have to drink my calories tonight...

(You know, I say this ever week, but this is the first time I've actually done it!)

The Flying Scotsman

Food Choices

So, continuing the trend, there were a few options. Gnocchi ($20),  Vegetarian rissotto ($21.50), 3 vegetarian pizzas (Margarita: $13, Fat vego: $17.50, Tandoori: $17), Vegetarian platter ($33), Vegetarian burger ($16), 2 salads ($14, $16). So that's plenty of options, and plenty for under $20. Want to share a pizza or a platter and you're in for a cheap night out!

Tandoori pizza

Food quality

I ordered a pizza and shared it with my friend. I'm pretty sure I've had the Fat Vego before, and remember it to be good, but don't quote me on that. This time, however, I had the Tandoori pizza. If you like Indian food, but don't like spicy foods (like me, yes yes I know I'm picky), then this is the pizza for you. It was really tasty! You wouldn't think yoghurt on a pizza would be a good idea but it worked! It was a bit messy to pick up and eat, but other than that I was very pleased. I couldn't eat the whole thing, so I shared it with a friend. Nice and cheap. I had two other friends order pizzas, and they couldn't finish them either, so I'd definitely recommend this place to share a pizza.

The Vegetarian Platter changes with the specials

Two of my friends ordered and shared the platter. One friend said he was "in love" with the quiche. He then demoted to it "quite nice", and then didn't finish it. They seemed to generally enjoy it. I tried the quiche and wasn't impressed.

It doesn't look nice, but don't let that put you off

So apparently even though this looks awful it was really tasty. My friend said that even though they didn't like olives, it was still nice. He ate all the olives.

Overall Rating

1 point per vegetarian choice (max 6):  3
Quality of meal (1-3): 2
Value for money (1-3):  2.5 - There was a lot of options under $20, and $8.50 for a delicious meal. My only complaint is that there were meat pizza for cheaper than the vegetarian options. That just doesn't seem right
X-factor (0-1): 0

Total: 75%

Guess I won't have to drink my calories tonight...

The Rosemount Hotel

I really like the atmosphere at The Rosemount. It was a nice night and we sat outside. The beer garden has bench tables, grass and pool tables. It's a great place to chill.

Food Choices

I seem to be on a roll here, another place with plenty of options. Besides the usual sides there was primavera pesto quiche ($15), vegetarian burger ($16), gourmet pumpkin salad ($16), vegetarian and margherita pizza (small $11.50 / large $15.50) as well as a vegetarian asian platter (small $30 / large $50). Obviously the platter was outside of my price range, but the idea is that those are to share. Which is always a great option. Not only was there a heap of choices, they were all under $20! Dinner for as cheap as $11.50 is pretty rare these days.

Food quality

I ordered the pumpkin salad.

It was really good. It was definitely my kind of salad. It had all the things that I love in a salad, plus things I wouldn't normally include, which just added to it. It contained "roasted butternut pumpkin, baby spinach, feta cheese & pine nuts tossed in a light honey balsamic dressing" and it was delicious. It had no rocket, which is great, because I don't like rocket. I am definietely a fan of baby spinach though, and the dressing was really nice. The pumpkin was cooked perfectly. $16 seems a lot for a salad, but compared to a lot of other pub prices, it was reasonable. I was very happy.


A friend ordered the quiche. She said it was average, and nothing to write home about. Her chips were a little bit too salty as well.

Another friend ordered the burger. He said it was good. However, I think I've established how I feel about vegetarian burgers. I didn't try it, but he said he'd recommend it.

Overall Rating

1 point per vegetarian choice (max 3):  3
Quality of meal (1-3): 3
Value for money (1-3):  3 - There was a lot of options under $20, including non-vegetarian dishes. I was very pleased with my meal, and the price was good.
X-factor (0-1): 1


Total: 100%

Guess I won't have to drink my calories tonight...

Hyde Park Hotel

I'd been to the Hydey before, a few years ago and It used to be dark, grungy, and I wasn't that impressed. I didn't go there to eat last time, so I can't comment, but I didn't go back until I had not it had been renovated. Wow! What a difference. The place now looks fantastic, it's very spacious and modern. I was very impressed with the "Jugtails" which were only $25 on Thursday nights. (Normally $32-35) We tried the "Sex on the Beach" cocktail, and it was pretty tasty.

Food Choices

NONE! But they had plenty of:

Honestly, once again, not bad! I was impressed. Apart from the usual sides, there was  roasted beetroot salad ($17.90), an open sandwich($18.50) and a "Hydey casserecce" ($22.90). There was also a pumpkin cous-cous salad ($18.90) which you could probably have without the prosciutto.

They also had sweet potato fries. I really like those. We ordered some to share for the table, and I got the open sandwich.


Food quality

Good! It was tasty! There were a lot of chips and I probably filled myself up on those a little much, but apart from that, I was pleased with my meal. The sweet potato fries were really nice too. They had just the right amount of crispiness and salt.

As you can see, it's pretty chip-heavy

One friend ordered the beetroot salad. He said he didn't really like it, because he didn't like the dressing. I tried it and I thought it was actually really nice. He then commented that he normally ate salad without dressing. I would recommend it, it had hazelnuts and feta in it which were really nice.

Actually, I don't usually like rocket, but this was really nice

Another friend ordered the pumpkin cous-cous salad. This wasn't a strictly vegetarian dish, but I thought I'd comment on it anyway, as it could become one very easily.

I didn't get a chance to try it, but my friend said she enjoyed it. Actually, I asked everyone at the pub that night if they enjoyed their meals, and everyone did. One guy was a little skeptical, and said the food was average, however, everyone else was pleased. I'll also note here that I have one friend who always orders Chicken Parmigiana and he said that it was the best he's ever had. So if you're not a vegetarian, this place is still worth a visit.

Overall Rating

1 point per vegetarian choice (max 6):  3 - 1 for the sandwich, 1 for the salad, 0.5 for the casserecce as it was out of budget, and an 0.5 because of the pumpkin cous-cous option as well as the sweet potato fries.
Quality of meal (1-3): 3
Value for money (1-3):  2.5 - There were several options under $20, and the sides were reasonably priced. It was pretty standard for a Perth Pub.
X-factor (0-1): 1

Total: 95%

Definitely a winner. I was impressed with the atmosphere and the new look of the place. The food was good, the prices were standard and there were a few legitimate options.

Guess I won't have to drink my calories tonight...