Green Gourmet St. Leonards Restaurant

By Franz Scheurer

Green Gourmet on the highway just before St Leonards station, looks like it used to be a Japanese restaurant, with the décor remaining much the same, and some healthy clutter thrown in for good measure.

The menu is vegan and interestingly (although they’re not halal) they forbid alcohol. Nor do they use any members of the onion family (including garlic, leeks and chives). They do use chilli, however, and soy protein to create mock duck and other mock meats.

I adore their ‘Peking Not Duck’, a wonderful version of vegies and crisp protein wrapped in a soft pancake with a sweet, smoky hoi sin sauce. Similarly the ‘Tasty Tofu Pastry’, deep-fried, marinated bean curd skin is fantastic. I am less enamoured with slightly gluggy ‘Shanghai War Tip’ (pot sticker dumplings) made from wheat flour pastry instead of rice flour and filled with tofu and bok choy. Even generous lashings of chilli and soy could not save them. The ‘Lo Han Tsai (or Monk’s Choice), traditionally made in East China for Buddhist monks, is very good, with bean curd sticks, sweet baby corn, carrots, tiger lily buds, wood ear fungus, red dates, bean vermicelli and whatever vegetables are fresh on the day, stir-fried with hoi sin and soy sauces and served piping hot in a terracotta dish. It’s a very traditional dish that appeals to a wider western audience. The ‘Salt and Pepper Tofu’ has good texture but, in my opinion, misses the onions and garlic normally used to garnish this dish.

The ambience of this casual diner is OK if you take it in context, as a haven for vegan food, and the service is enthusiastic, if a little lacking in accurate descriptions at times.

The original Green Gourmet is still in King Street, Newtown and they also have a restaurant in West Ryde where they offer daily Yum Cha. All are 100% vegan.

Score: 6/10

For more information or bookings:

Green Gourmet St. Leonards Restaurant

538 Pacific Highway

St. Leonards

Tel.: 02 9439 6533