Monday, February 15, 2010

Bowl of Soul

I was sure that I had posted about Bowl of Soul before, but apparently not. I do have to admit that we don't go nearly enough because it's not a northside restaurant. Yes I know, so lazy! We went there as a part of the goodbye gluten tour and loved it. Bowl of soul is a small vegetarian cafe that specialises in mockmeat type sandwiches and burgers. You could easily grab some takeaway and walk the 10-15 minutes to the beach, if you felt inclined. The owners are friendly and most things can be made vegan by substituting soy cheese and vegan bacon. Most of the burgers/sandwhiches range from $10-$12 mark.

I had the stakeout sandwich deluxe with vegan cheese and bacon. This comes with fried onions, BBQ sauce, salad etc and is so damn tasty. The 'stake' texture is not particuarly steaky which is great because I always hated steak but it does have a slight beefy texture and I love the chilli rub that they apply to to 'stake' which gives it the slightest kick of chilli. I would so love one of these right now:
and Toby had the creole chic'n roll deluxe also with vegan cheese and bacon. This comes with cajun spiced 'chicken' with mayo and salad. I really can't decide which is my favourite between the two of these dishes., they are both awesome but Toby prefers the 'stakeout'.


Sometimes I think I could make these at home using mockmeat but the yummy bread, homemade sauces really do make it worthwhile. I think they are pretty filling and couldn't finish mine, whereas Toby being the crazy eater that he is, thinks he could eat 1 and a half.

Here's the standard menu (click on the pic to see a larger pic), which is pretty gluten heavy. But they do have a few gluten free meals and gluten free brownies (although not vegan) in their fridge section. I though the g/f meals looked pretty bland, but according to Carla they were pretty tasty.



As an added bonus, they sell my favourite juice- Charlie's old fashioned raspberry lemonade, so refreshing:
They generally sell vegan chocolate covered figs which are delicious, but were not available on the night we went. I've tried making my own chocolate fidgs, but they don't end up nearly as good, I'm not sure what their secret is, but they are well worth trying. Cindy blogged about them here.

I willl miss your gluteny dishes bowl of soul!

Bowl of Soul
118 Bridge St
Port Melbourne
9645 2470
Tue- Sat 12-4, 6-8

7 comments:

  1. Bowl of soul is awesome :) Love their food and they make the best coffee. And I love that they are on our side of the city :)

    Gluten free options not on the menu - Alida will make any of their burgers as a salad. Tell her you need gluten free and she will look after you. I get the creole as a salad regularly and it is awesome and Kev swears by their scrambled tofu, gets it every Saturday :D

    They make vegan brownies sometimes, just had to know what days they will have them. The usually have vegan, gluten free cupcakes though which are just awesome, sometimes vegan gluten free gingerbread. Nothing, however, beats the chocolate coated figs :)

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  2. never been there but would like to if I ever am in the neibourhood - I don't go across the river often either - glad you got to say goodbye to gluten there - the juice looks good and did you ask if the chocolate coated figs are gf?

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  3. I love Creole spicing! Perhaps one day you'll crack the secret of Bowl of Soul's saucing, and then all will be miraculous :) Were the chocolate covered figs made with fresh or dried figs? I've had a fresh fig craving for months now...

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  4. I really want to try out Bowl of Soul! It looks good!

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  5. Marisa, I really want a cupcake now or a gingerbread man :-) And you are so right about the figs.

    Johanna, I didn't but I can't can't imagine what would contain gluten, it is just wild figs, dark chocolate and vanilla dusting sugar.

    Hannah, I think there were dried but they must soak them though.

    Steph, you should check it out!

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  6. The figs are dried wild figs, but they do soak them first.

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  7. The stakeout sandwich looks so, so good! What a great meal to have before going gf!

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