19 November 2013

Suzy Spoon's Vegetarian Butcher ~ Vegetarian and Vegan - Newtown


There's a cow in the front window with a garland of flowers. Isn't this a vegetarian joint? Why is is called a butcher?






There's a helpful sign to explain the cow is vegetarian. Aaaah butcher indeed. Suzy Spoon's Vegetarian Butcher started out on Enmore Road a few years ago. Revolution Foods, a vegan joint with a good burger, has opened in it's place. Offering a range of vegan products mimicking a traditional butchers (think sausages, schnitzels and meat patties) the products use a mix of vegetables and soy products.

We love a good veggie burger as well as a meat one. In fact, we've been known to enter into periods of vegetable inhalation when we've indulged on the meat too much. Our travels in Sri Lanka meant we ate mostly vegetable curry 24/7 for two weeks, and the big serves of veggies in China were devoured faster than a plate of dumplings. What we like most is a real veggie taste and and not an attempt to make it something else, you could call it 'respecting the whole vegetable'. When soy is used as a replica for meat it doesn't always work. When there's a great big salad full of fresh flavours, that always works for us.



Case in point: Schnitzel Burger - $10.50. There was something unsatisfying about the schnitzel part of this burger. The bun was great, the onion relish and mayo on the fresh salad was tasty, it even had beetroot. The schnitzel itself really let the side down, a quite floury and doughy piece of non meat. The beauty of a meat schnitzel is the way the meat juices are captured inside the crusty shell of the breadcumb coating, this really needed some extra zing.



Burger $10.50, with extra notzerella $1. (Both schnitzel and burger can have optional vegan cheese, streaky strip or pineapple added for $1 each.) The burger was a much better option, a big full burger with a tastier patty that was kind of hard to wrap your mouth around. Alison is a fan of cutting her burger in half to make it easier to eat, she also eats her mars bar with a knife and fork). The burger patty tasted less of a manufactured soy product compared to the schnitzel, it worked far better.



There's salads on offer as well which are fresh, varied and great if you feel like you need something chlorophyll based to ward off scurvy. Fried tempeh with lettuce, roasted pumpkin, chick peas and potato is a nutty wonder. A small bowl is $8.50. Tempeh makes everything taste better.



Spinach, notzarella cheese and fakin' bacon. The bacon gave a crisp salty taste to the salad, and worked well as a fake meat (far better than the schnitzel). A sesame soy dressing goes over the lot. If you need a bit of a carb hit, they will also sell you a slice of bread to go with it so it's sort of like a deconstructed sandwich.



Loaves from the Grain Organic Bakery. $9 a is a lot of dough! (Groan now at cheap joke).



The store serves as the the kitchen and outlet for products and the corner spot is a real pleasant place for a sunny lunch time. Hit up Gould's afterwards for some book hunting.

Suzy Spoon's Vegetarian Butcher is at King Street, Newtown. Ph: 02 9557 7962

Suzy Spoon's Vegetarian Butcher on Urbanspoon

6 comments:

  1. Respecting the whole veggie - amen to that!

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  2. I'd bury my face in that tempeh salad. Do they make tempeh burgers by any chance?

    Also totally with you on the whole enjoying veggies in their purest, freshest form. There's so much flavour that we miss out on because we're so used to adding stuff to *give* flavour (like dressings, seasonings, etc) rather than stripping back our overstimulated taste buds and learning to taste the subtleties again and appreciate the flavours that exist naturally. Plus there's such an amazing world of textures with veggies!

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    Replies
    1. I don't think they make a tempeh burger, would love to try one. Vegetables on their own merit are very underrated.

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  3. I will always be a fan of your jokes! lol

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  4. I agree with you guys exactly. I love a good veggie burger as much as a meat one, but they suffer when trying too hard to imitate meat. Veggies are tasty!

    One thing you don't get here that I used to eat a lot of in the States are veggie burgers made with black bean patties. Now THAT is good stuff.

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  5. Ah, $9 for bread... Gotta love inner-west hipsters.

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Thanks for your comment joy - please keep your musings happy - if you want to complain about a restaurant please do it on a restaurant review site (or your own blog) - we're all about celebrating cultural diversity and the great eats that come along with it :-)

Our ethics: We pay for all our own meals and travel (though sometimes Mum shouts us).