The Oaks, Neutral Bay

The Oaks in Neutral Bay is just a walking distance from our place. Although, it has always been quite inviting, I have recently started to go there. Being a pub and everything, we actually didn’t expect it to be vegetarian friendly. But, that’s not the case.

The best feature of The Oaks is its signature oak tree in the middle of the outdoor beer garden. It is “the” oak tree and it’s 78 years old. It was planted in August 1938 by Kathleen McGill. The sapling came from the old Anthony Horden’s department store on George Street as a gift with every purchase over 10 pounds.

The magnificent oak tree (above).

And this is what it looks like when the lights are on. It’s like an all-year-around Xmas tree.

Now, let’s talk about food, shall we? What can we, vegetarians, eat at The Oaks if we happen to be there?

So far, I have tried their veggie burger and two of the vegetarian gourmet pizzas.

The Veggie Burger
The veggie burger at The Oaks is grilled zucchini and eggplant, roasted tomato, rocket, halloumi cheese, caramelised onion, aioli and fries (I don’t have a photo for this one). The whole ensemble is huge; you wouldn’t go hungry.

The Gourmet Pizzas
One of them is mixed wild mushrooms, garlic, mozzarella and truffle oil (below). This thin crust pizza is $22 and I must admit, it was one tasty pizza. Actually, it puts Crust on the other side of the road into shame. I highly recommend it!

The other one was eggplant, roast peppers, zucchini, pesto and goat’s cheese (below). This one is greener and softer compared to the other one.

If you’d like to supplement your meal with some extras, I suggest you should get fries. They come with tomato sauce. They are thin chips.

Blossoming Lotus, Newtown

Your favourite vegan restaurant in Newtown may not be open for lunch on Easter Monday. Well, it happened to us. Green Gourmet is what I’m talking about. So, you take what you get. Blossoming Lotus was open and that’s where we had lunch just before we headed to IKEA to get me new bookcases.

Blossoming Lotus was the place where I had lunch while John was having his gallbladder taken out at RPA some years ago. Back then, it was called Green Palace Thai Vegetarian Cafe, I guess. Owned by the same family of Jackie Khan from Veggie Tree Delight Thai Vegetarian Restaurant right across from Taste Organic in Crows Nest. We loved that place, we loved the owner. They even did home delivery. Those were good days, unlike our Blossoming Lotus lunch during Easter.

On the day, we were lucky to get a park only a few steps away from Blossoming Lotus but that the only lucky thing.

The food situation works very much like Veggie Tree Delight and similar style Asian vegetarian places. You pick your rice or noodles and a number of other dishes from the buffet.

So, I picked these dishes: fried rice, crispy soy slices and roasted duck (below).

My husband on the other hand steamed rice, red curry and another similar style dish with Lamyong chunks in it (below). My roasted duck and crispy soy slices were delicious but fried rice tasted a little funny. So, I focused on the other ones and left the rice. My husband told me that his food tasted a little saltier than normal and even gave me a piece to try but I didn’t. In the end, he had funny tummy soon after the lunch.

The staff were not all that helpful or warm. The girl who was in charge with serving at the front went to toilet and left the front area unattended even though there were other people back in the kitchen who could have filled in for her. All in all, it was not a good experience.

So, if you really must go, Blossoming Lotus can be found at this address:
182 King Street
Newtown, NSW 2042

And perhaps check out their toilet before you have anything to eat there. It’ll tell you everything you need to know about their hygienic standards.