Sydney is a city of multi-culture, which reflects on the vegan food options as well. In this post you will find the authentic Chinese vegan dishes from Mother Chu's, creative vegan dishes from a local popular bar Yullis, and assorted macrobiotic vegan lunch boxes from Iku Wholefood. You might want to follow the part 2.

Mother Chu's Vegetarian Kitchen

Mother Chu’s Vegetarian Kitchen is located right in the CBD area of Sydney. After a full morning’s strolling around, we were ready to satisfy our hunger.

The restaurant is medium-sized, although has extremely high ceiling. A few pink paper lanterns hang from the ceiling. Chinese calligraphy works are on the walls. There are simple metal tables and chairs with pink surface. It looks like a very typical non-fancy Chinese restaurant in China. The menu is available in both English and Chinese and there is a full range of various dishes. Hmm… so many to choose from! The dishes here are typical Chinese mock-meat dishes, stir-fries and casseroles.

Those are the assorted appetizer, we got a small bunch of salad, a deep fried ball with filling, two pieces of tofu, two pieces of tempeh, two pieces of fried mock chicken, 1 deep fried spring rolls and 1 deep fried wonton. They were neatly made and looked very cute.

We ended up deciding to order the deep-fried eggplant chunks, soy protein slices, cucumber cubes (don’t be surprised that cucumber is used in many stir-fries or stews in Chinese cuisine), paprika and celery, with featuring black bean paste. It tastes very good, and very authentic to Chinese black bean dishes in China that I have loved. The only downside is that it’s slightly too dry.

The soy protein chunks, sugar snaps, pumpkin chunks and mushrooms immersed in black pepper sauce is our favorite. It’s succulent, juicy, chewy and soft. Highly recommended!

We also tried another mock meat stir fry with delicious sauce. Although we weren’t very fond of the deep fried noodles with greens, carrots and sprouts. The after taste was a bit bitter, which was unpleasant even Honey is fan of everything crunchy. The deep fried banana with coating, according to Honey, is a staple dessert served in many Chinese restaurants in Sweden, although mostly it is served with syrup in Sweden, while in Australia the two times we tasted it, it was always served with ice-cream.

The portions were pretty generous, so two dishes plus two bowls of brown rice were enough as a lunch for two, even we are big eaters. Although unlike many vegetarian restaurants in China, the hot water and tea were not available for free, you have to order them from the menu.

As a whole, Mother Chu’s Vegetarian Kitchen is a nice place to taste quite authentic Chinese vegetarian dishes (most are vegan naturally). The interior might not be the best, but food have good portion and taste. Not to mention the location is very convenient, so definitely put it as an option on your vegan-restaurants-to-go list when you’re in Sydney!

• Address: 367 Pitt St, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia
• Website: https://www.motherchusvegetarian.com.au/

Yullis

Before we flied away from Sydney, we decided to try something local and chose Yulli’s.

It’s located in an area where a lot of restaurants and bars were opening until late, and seemed to be very popular among locals. Unfortunately we didn’t book table, so we weren’t able to sit outside during the hot weather, instead we got a small table close to the entrance to the kitchen, which was quite noisy. So we advise booking ahead if you want a nicer table.

The restaurant and bar has a red theme with quirky wire decoration in the ceiling. Tables are made from wooden boxes and a piece of glass top. They have a few tables outside the restaurant, as well as a few in the back alley. Through a narrow stair you can climb to the second floor, which is more bar-like and has many couches instead. The atmosphere was bustling and noisy. The service were quite friendly and cordial.

We were presented with a vegetarian menu with a lot of vegan options when requested. We ordered this Eryngii mushrooms (King oyster mushrooms) and vegetable skewers with Malaysian Satay sauce on shiso and baby cos leaves (romaine lettuce). The vegetables were slightly grilled, but the Satay sauce was a bit disappointing as we expected something richer. In my opinion it was a bit too bland on the taste and too thin over the top. However I did like the shiso leaves mixed in the vegetables, which made the whole skewers taste better.

The other dish we ordered was papaya and Asian herbs salad with toasted peanuts, served with some deep-fried tofu. The tofu chunks were quite good, crunchy crust with soft inside, although the tofu itself didn’t have any taste, we had to ask for salt and pepper to make it taste better. The papaya salad was quite good, a bit sweet and sour with slightly spicy taste from chili, full of fresh flavor of lime, paired with crunchy peanuts．It was perfect.

We would love to try some dessert, but it was way too noisy for us, and the small space around the box made table made our legs quite sore, so we left sooner than we had wanted. As a whole I think it’s an ok experience. If you’re into something local and bustling bar restaurant scenes, this could be a perfect spot for you to catch something based on local ingredients and Australian style fusion cuisine. Just don’t forget to book a nice table!

• Address: 417 Crown St, Surry Hills NSW 2010, Australia
• Website: https://yullis.com.au/

Iku Wholefood

Iku Wholefood is a macrobiotic vegan food chain in Sydney. They have various locations throughout the town. They use natural, wholesome and non-processed ingredients and cook food in a healthy way.

The selections include various salads, rice balls, rice rolls and several desserts, many are also gluten-free. Depending on where you eat, it’s either served on a plate, or crammed into a plastic take-away box (not very pretty, but you probably don’t mind if you want something quick for lunch at the busy CBD).

The food is generally tasty and fresh, and I noticed a pervasive pickle and vinegar taste in many stuff I’ve tried, which helps increase your appetite. My favorite were the rice lasagnes, fried rice balls, and noodle salad. The portion can be a little small, so you might need to order a bit extra than simply having a lunch box set.

• Address: 188 Pitt St, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia (many other locations available on their website, this is the one we tried)
• Website: https://ikuwholefood.com.au/