Newtown has many cafes and clothing thrift shops, and it's a long stretch of road so it's pretty easy to walk and explore. One of the cafes here is Black Star Pastry which is famous for their Watermelon Cake! But it's non-vegan so we didn't visit (they do have a vegan brownie(?) though). Other all-vegan eateries in Newtown that we didn't manage to go to was Gigi's Pizzeria and Golden Lotus Vegan.
After going to NYC and Melbourne (and now Sydney), I'm quite sure that places in Western countries with many vegan eateries look similar, in the sense that it looks slightly run-down from the outside ..hmmm.. Not that it affects anything but just an observation!
We went from White Rabbit Gallery → Lentil as Anything → Superfood Sushi → Gelato Blue but I'll start with Superfood Sushi since I need a landscape photo as the first one lol.
✧ Superfood Sushi ✧
Superfood Sushi is an all-vegan Japanese-style cafe! I'm quite sure that it's the only vegan Japanese eatery in Sydney. I've been to Beyond Sushi in NYC and this has a similar feel! The not-so-authentic Japanese feel haha but I guess it's to be expected since we're not in Japan lol.
The food here is pretty affordable!
Mum and I shared the dumplings ($4) and combo of Sweet Kiwi Nut + Mad 'Bout Yuzu + Sea Fruit Inari + Cheeky Chi ($14.5)
The dumplings are served with mayo which seems like a weird combination but it was great! Really liked the mayo!
69-77 King Street
Newtown NSW 2042
Tues-Sun 11am-9pm
✧ Lentil as Anything ✧
I was most excited to eat here!! It was quite packed when we arrived at about 12.30pm.
Isn't this wonderful :')
Their menu changes based on what ingredients they have I guess! We had the moussaka, curry, chocolate cake, hot chai and orange-grapefruit juice.
Portion sizes are on the smaller side but it doesn't really matter since you can order as much as you want anyway. It was really yummy! The rice was fluffy and fragrant, and though both dishes contained lentils (omg does every dish contain lentils here since that's what this place is called..?) they didn't taste the same, and the chocolate cake has a crunchy top and was pretty rich! :)
391 King Street
Newtown NSW 2042
Lunch 12nn-3pm
Dinner 6pm-9pm
Weekend Brunch 10am-12pm
✧ Gelato Blue ✧
Gelato Blue used to be non-vegan but they switched to using coconut milk in their ice cream earlier this year, making it 100% vegan yay!
They have so many flavours!!!!! The official opening time was 3pm but it opened slightly earlier at 2.50pm or so, and when we arrived it was quite crowded (even though it's winter)!
We shared this Pistachio and Dragonfruit+coconut+lime gelato, and mum (she isn't really an ice cream person) got a Chai tea with almond milk too. They have a sitting area inside which was nice and warm haha ^^
318 King Street
Newtown NSW 2042
Mon-Thur 3pm-10.30pm
Fri-Sat 12nn-11.30pm
Sun 12nn-10.30pm
There are many clothing shops along Newtown street. Not all are cheap but we found one that was (not the one in this photo), and I scored a pair of $10 sunnies yay!
✧ White Rabbit Gallery ✧
I was looking for something else we could do at Newtown in between all that eating, and I found out about this contemporary Chinese art collection which has really good reviews! Then I realised it wasn't in Newtown lol but we still went because it was a break from just eating and shopping.. and it's free!
They also have a tea house but we didn't try anything there.
It's located at quite an ulu (deserted) place - we walked through a graffiti-ed street to get here and I was doubting whether this art gallery was worth going to lol.
They have different exhibits on show at different dates and when we went it was Heavy Artillery. At every hour (if I'm not wrong) there's a guided tour of the exhibits. We arrived at 10.45am and waited for the 11am one, and I'm glad we did! I half expected the tour guide to be Chinese (it's Chinese art after all) but though she was Australian (I think) she explained everything really well and entertainingly! There were about 15 people in the group and mum & I were the only Asians lol
By the way from the front of this sculpture it looks like the thousand-hand Guanyin(?).
These rocks are paintings! So cool
It's quite a small gallery but quality > quantity and the tour was about 45 mins-1 hour long! I don't remember much of it but it was interesting when I was listening and I felt less uncultured haha
Also they had this cool levitating & rotating rock sculpture which was my favourite though I can't recall what it means. Pardon the low quality photo oops I screenshot-ed this from a video.
Overall the White Rabbit Gallery is really worth a visit! A little out-of-the-way but the tour was great and the exhibits came in many different mediums and weren't boring and it's free! ^^
30 Balfour Street
Chippendale NSW 2008
Wed-Sun 10am-5pm
