Gasometer Hotel, Collingwood

Disclaimer: The photos are pretty shitty because we didn't have our proper camera and I hate taking flash photo in restaurants.

East Brunswick Club has been looking after Melbourne vegans' pub meal craving for a few years. We love EBC for their one and only vegan parma, 'cheese burger', 'Philly Cheese Steak' and decadent vegan desserts. EBC is probably the only pub in the world that you can eat a vegan parma while listening to The Feelies' Crazy Rhythm.

So, when Kody (ex-EBC's manager) announced on Mess+Noise that his partner and him were starting a new vegan-friendly pub in Collingwood and posted the menu, I was very excited. The premise used to be the well-known Irish Pub Father Flanagan's and was renamed Gasometer, the building's original name in the 1800s.

Last Wednesday, K and I went there for dinner. We were welcomed by Kody's friendly smile when we stepped inside. It wasn't as packed (and not as many punks in black) as EBC but pretty busy for a new pub/restaurant on a weeknight.

There are many vegan options on the menu: stuffed fried olives (with vegan roasted pepper cheese, Spanish style mushrooms, smoked tofu strips with spicy buffalo sauce, areapas with shredded red chilli seiten, vegan chorizo burger, vegan mac and cheese, Spanish roasted pepper salad, seasonal sauteed greens and vegan pumpkin pie. I overheard the V word from both tables next to us. It doesn't take vegans long to catch on to new vegan friendly places.

K and I wanted to try as many dishes as we could but we only have two bellies. K dislikes mushrooms and olives, so we have smoked tofu strips with spicy Buffalo sauce($12) for entree:

There were two options on the menu: spicy or "brutal"(!!!!!) but they made it mild for me (wuss). I liked it a lot but K wished it was spicier (my bad). The house made ranch dipping sauce got the thumbs up from both of us.

Following up was vegan chorizo burger($15) :

The Chorizo pattie was easily the best vegan pattie I've ever had, served with yummy roasted capscium, fried onion and chimichurri aioli. We also liked the perfectly crispy chips a lot. It was almost like they were battered.

We also shared a bowl of vegan mac and cheese ($8):


it was a little bland for my liking and K thought it is not creamy enough.

We saved enough room for dessert and ordered the vegan pumpkin pie with gingerbread vegan ice-cream ($12):

We were not too sure about the pumpkin pie. We only had pumpkin pie once before last Wednesday night and could not get over the idea of pumpkin in dessert. I guess it is an acquired taste.

On the other hand, we both loved gingerbread vegan ice-cream a lot. I wish I can have a big bowl of it. By big, I mean a pint.

Both K and I liked the food would love to go back and try the other dishes, especially the seitan dish. I am very happy that we now have one more vegan-friendly pub. It kinda of reminded me of our visit Yulli's in Sydney with Cindy and Michael, a hip gastropub with good beers.

For the coeliacs, gluten-free options are not available at the moment but I heard that they are working on it and there will be a few g/f dishes and a vegan g/f dish!


Edited to add: there are now g/f options on the menu, see the comment from Annalee for more details

Gasometer
484 Smith St, Collingwood
9417 5538

On my Walkman:
Strange Tourist by Gareth Liddiard