Warung Agus- Vegan Mofo Day 20

Photo warning: Toby's phone camera plus no lighting and his refusal to use a flash equals the worst photos ever. But I have to blog about the food because it was awesome.

For date night, a few weeks ago I suprised Toby by taking him to Warung Agus, a cute Balinese resturant. It's an omni place but they are very vegan friendly.

 They even have a special daybed style seating option which you can request:

We ordered the vegetarian banquet which cost $40 and included five courses (or 6 dishes). We were super super full by the end and I couldn't really eat the last course and even Toby struggled to finish it. So I recommend ordering entrees and mains instead.

I ordered the Es Jus Jeruk Nipis which tasted like a homemade style granata lemonade, it was refreshing and I think paired really well with the dishes.

It started with cassava crackers with peanut sauce. They were like huge vegetarian version of prawn crackers. The peanut sauce was served warm and was perfect and this was served with a spicy sambal sauce and shallots. I thought the sambal was fine as long as used tiny amounts, but Toby chose to avoid it.

Next up was the avocado with coconut and mushroom sauce. I was worried that the avocado was cooked because I think that ruins the flavour of the avocado, but instead it was served cold with a warm coconut sauce. This was unlike anything I have tasted before but so creamy and delicious.

Then we had more satay sauce with tofu, yes two dishes with satay sauce but we didn't mind because it was so tasty. You probably can't even see from this horrible photos but it was served with fried onions over the top.

Then it was time for the mie goreng noodles. This was probably the one dish that I didn't love, there was nothing wrong with it, I didn't enjoy the combination of flavours as much as the other dishes but can't put my finger on what it is that I didn't like.  

The braised eggplant and tofu in coconut milk was awesome. The eggplant was so tender and the flavours were incredibly rich, creamy and salty, with a touch of sweet.

                                            

The tempeh with corn and spring onion, was incredibly crispy, i've  never eaten tempeh like it before and I'm not even a big tempeh fan.

Overall, it was a great night. The staff knew what vegan was and informed us that all of the vegetarian dishes were vegan. They had cute decor and awesome food, I was a little worried that some of the food would be too spicy but it was mild with optional sambal that you could add to dishes if you wanted to. Toby was very impressed with the protein quota of the dishes. If you do order off the menu I strongly suggest the tempeh, avocado and eggplant dishes. They also have dessert options that appear to be vegan: fruit salad with palm sugar and coconut and black rice pudding, but we were too full to even enquire. They advertise as being able to do gluten free dishes but not sure which dishes are g/f.

Warung Agus
305 Victoria St
West Melbourne
9329 1737

You can read other reviews at confessions of a food nazi, and foodiefile (who has decent photos).