✧ Sadhana Kitchen ✧

Sadhana Kitchen is a 100% plant-based, all-vegan, gluten-free and refined-sugar-free cafe! They have many raw dishes too. I was deciding between this and Zeitgeist Mylk Bar (vegan treats including donuts!) but on the day before this I saw on their Instagram that they were closed temporarily... and then later this day I realised that they weren't closed yet but it was their last day?? :(

But I also saw Sadhana Kitchen's Instagram - upon seeing their eggs benny I decided that I had to try it lol :) 

They have another branch at Enmore too!

Their decor is a lovely mix of rustic and modern ^^

We were there for breakfast, which is available from 9am-12nn. Lunch is available from 11am-3pm.

We shared the Eggs Benedict ($18) and Epic Acai ($18), and mum had a flat white ($4.5) while I had a cappuccino ($4.5).

The acai bowl wasn't anything special (I guess acai bowls all taste the same?) but the eggs benny was yummy - mopped up all the 'yolk' sauce! The only other eggs benny I've had, vegan or otherwise (lol I was vegan before cafe hopping was a thing ;)), was at Champs Diner in NYC last year! Visual- and texture-wise this one is more realistic but to be fair the Champs Diner one is called 'Tofu Benedict' lol. ^^ 

Btw their bronze cutlery is so pretty!

Sadhana Kitchen

132 Warners Avenue

Bondi NSW 2026

Daily 9am-4pm

✧ Sunday Market ✧

This market is somewhere between Sadhana Kitchen and the beach, at the Bondi Beach Public School Grounds! The food market is on Saturday, the Sunday one is more of goods - clothing, candles, jewellery etc. There are a few food trucks though!

I came here expecting to be able to find Nutie donuts but seems like I was mistaken and they're only there on Saturday. Their Space Jam donut looks amazing T.T

Bought a few candles here - I've never owned candles before because open flames are scary but they were too pretty.. and I couldn't buy donuts so I had to buy something LOL

Beautiful blooms!

Bondi Market
Sunday 10am-4pm
Bondi Beach Public School
Campbell Parade
Sydney NSW 2026

✧ Bondi Beach ✧

We were at the beach around noon and it was HOT. There were people surfing and sun tanning! We expected it to be windy and cold though haha

Blue skies and clear waters!

This photo and its colours look so calming ✧

There was a storm a few weeks back and the path hasn't been fixed yet, so this sign said to walk inside and not on the beach

But people were just crossing over the barrier tape lol. At the part in this photo where there's a lot of people, the pavement is seriously cracked and chunks were sticking out. Those people were just hopping over the pieces o_o 

In my original plan we'd walk from Bondi to Bronte but we were lazy and there's a lot of people. Maybe next time on a weekday... at 5pm when the skies are pretty ^^

✧ Funky Pies ✧

Funky Pies is an all-vegan pie shop! They have gluten-free pies too. I don't remember eating many pies in my life, let alone vegan ones!

They have many flavours of pies, and they sell raw desserts too. You can also buy their hot/frozen pies elsewhere, like at The Cruelty Free Shop! 

Their most famous pie is the Funky Chunky (shiitake mushrooms + gravy + mash) but it wasn't in the display when we ordered. 

So we had the Chilli Non Carne and Butterish Chicken (I think) with mashed potatoes and gravy! The pies were really yummy - perfect crust and saucy, not-dry filling - but I loved the mash the most!! I can't remember exactly but I think it was around it was around $6 a pie and +$4 for the mash :) Great place for a treat! 

Funky Pies Cafe
Shop 2/144-148 Gleaner Avenue
Bondi NSW 2026
Weekdays 7am-8.30pm
Weekends 11am-8.30pm

✧ Badde Manors ✧

Badde Manors is a 100% vegetarian cafe! We came here for brunch on the second last day in Sydney.

The decor is cosy and old-fashioned, with wooden seating booths! They have a large selection of desserts, but just one of the cakes is vegan. They have a few vegan sorbets to choose from though.

Somehow I couldn't find online when breakfast is served until (it's on their website lol idk why I couldn't see it), but we arrived around 11am so we didn't miss it!

Breakfast hours are 7am-12nn Mon-Fri, 6.30am-12.30pm on Sat, and 7am-12.30pm on Sun.

Lunch/Dinner hours are 12nn-11pm Mon-Fri, 12.30pm-11pm on Sat & Sun.

(On their website their opening hours are different though hmm)

There aren't as many vegan options for Breakfast as there are for Lunch & Dinner, but the Vegan Breakfast looked good from reviews I saw!

So many cakes but none are vegan T.T

Only the brownie under the Small Treats section is.

As expected by now (did you notice that like 90% of the time on this trip Mum gets Chai tea??), Mum had the Badde Manors Chai with almond milk ($5). There were lots of ingredients (including many bits of ginger) in the pot and it was pretty rich.

We shared the Vegan Breakfast ($13.5), Avocado on Toast ($7), and Chocolate Fudge Brownie ($5.5) with Raspberry Gelato (+$3). Initially when the avo toast arrived we regretted not ordering another vegan breakfast instead since it was more worth it, but we were really full from eating this lol! The brownie was yummy - really fudgy and dense, and got chewier as it cooled down. Like this is the chewy-est brownie I've ever had!

Badde Manors Cafe

37 Glebe Point Road

Glebe NSW 2037

Sun-Thur 7am-12mn

Fri-Sat 7am-1am

✧ The Cruelty Free Shop ✧

A little further down the street from Badde Manors is this all vegan grocery store! :) They also sell skincare & makeup products, shoes, Matt & Nat bags and more.

Bought some black salt (kala namak) and Kewpie mayo! I've seen the mayo before but wasn't sure if it was vegan - sounds too good to be true - so I'm glad to find it here!

The Cruelty Free Shop

83 Glebe Point Road

Glebe NSW 2037

Mon-Wed 11am-6.30pm

Thur-Fri 10am-6.30pm

Sat 10am-5pm

Sun 11am-5pm

✧ Hari's Vegetarian ✧

Hari's vegetarian serves both Indian and Western food.

Their Indian meals (left side of the menu) are really cheap and from what I could see, portions are quite big! I overheard that all of the curries that day are vegan, but I'm not sure if that's the case every day.

We ordered Western food haha! We got the Pizza ($14) and Lasagne ($14). They come in both vegan and veg versions so be sure to specify the one you want.

The pizza crust wasn't really thin but it was quite crispy which was nice. Also there's quite a lot of veggies. The lasagne was pretty good but I'd like if it had more tomato sauce!

My main gripe about these two dishes is that I thought that they were unnecessarily oily. Like there's a pool of oil on the plate/dish under the food. o_o Perhaps it's possible to ask for less oil..?

They have lots of vegan desserts! All except the 2 slices of pie in the middle are vegan! We had the Sticky Date Pudding ($8.5, middle of second row) and Blackforest Cake ($8.5, left of last row) takeaway for supper. Sadly they weren't fantastic - the blackforest cake was highly recommended in reviews I read but I found it okay compared to other similar vegan cakes I've had. The sticky date pudding had date paste in the middle but was kinda dry overall. It'll probably taste better heated up but alas our hotel room didn't have a microwave :(

Hari's Vegetarian

157 Broadway

Ultimo NSW 2007

Mon-Sat 11am-9pm

We ate at Iku Wholefood for the first meal and Zeitgeist Cuisine for the last meal in Sydney!

✧ Iku Wholefood ✧

This Iku Wholefood we went to was in a food court at Westfield Mall. They have many branches across Sydney.

All their food is vegan omg! The name sounds Japanese but the food is mostly Western-style.

Ended up with three salads, soup and rice in three forms (nori roll + inari pocket + fried ball). The set of salads with 2 items was $13.9 and the set of soup with fried rice ball was $10.9. Doesn't look like much but the rice was so packed and so filling. I've never seen a nori roll like this lol - the ingredients are all jumbled up! We also got veggie dumplings ($5.8) from Din Tai Fung at the foodcourt.

Iku Wholefood Westfield

Level 5, Shop 5009

Pitt Street Mall

NSW 2000

✧ Zeitgeist Cuisine ✧

Zeitgeist Cuisine is a tiny vegan cafe in the CBD! Their fruit and veg prints are super cute! 

Oops didn't include the Breakfast and Lunch pricing but it's $8.9 for most breakfast items and lunch items cost an average of $12.9. 

Many reviews I read said that the food here is good but overpriced, particularly the smoothies ($9.9). I think the Breakfast and Lunch items are quite reasonable (especially if you eat-in) for a cafe though!

I had the Lox Bagel ($8.9) and mum had the Porridge ($8.9). I enjoyed my bagel - the carrot is made to look like lox (salmon) and it tasted pretty good with the cashew philly cheese. Mum's porridge was filled with lotsa goodness - quinoa, oats, almond milk and strawberries! I got The Green Z smoothie ($9.9) and Mum had the Chai tea I think. The smoothie wasn't really sweet and it made me feel really healthy haha! 

Afterwards we walked along Darling Harbour and this sounds weird but I've always wanted to drink a green smoothie while walking LOL. In that weather people's normal drink-of-choice while walking is hot coffee but I was feeling blissful with cold hands ^^

Zeitgeist Cuisine
153 Clarence Street
Sydney NSW 2000
Mon-Fri 7am-4pm

✧ Rubyfruit Vegan Bakery & Cafe ✧

We went to Blue Mountains on Friday (1st July) by train (about 2.5h which sounds long but not when you're watching a kdrama :P ). The closest train station to the Three Sisters lookout is Katoomba but we stopped by Leura (one station before) to eat at Rubyfruit!

I saw on their Facebook the weekend before that it was SNOWING omg!! But too bad it didn't snow when we were there! :( It was about 5 deg C when we arrived at about 11am.

Rubyfruit is 100% vegan and it's the only vegan place in the area. They serve breakfast and lunch. It's a small cafe with just 5 or so tables!

Specials of the day!

I got the Pump Up The Volume Frittata with Rainbow Salad ($14.5) and Mum got The Ruby Burger with Slaw ($17.5). We also shared the Curried Lentil and Zucchini Soup ($11), Turmeric Milk ($5.5) and Chili Hot Chocolate ($5). 

Really enjoyed both drinks because it's my first time trying turmeric in a milk and spicy hot chocolate! I add turmeric powder to my veggie stews all the time because it's good for me lol but I don't particularly enjoy the taste - this turmeric milk didn't taste bitter at all though! :) 

The frittata wasn't too tofu-y which was great, and the soup was quite a large portion and had lotsa ingredients. We were too full to try their desserts but they looked really yummy!

Rubyfruit Vegan Bakery & Cafe

10/166-168 Leura Mall

Leura NSW 2780

Thur-Mon 10am-4pm

✧ Carrington Hotel ✧

We stayed at Carrington Hotel for a night! It's like a heritage site and it's so grand and historical. Location-wise it's really convenient because it's quite near the Katoomba train station and the bus (686) to the Three Sisters lookout is right outside!

Look at the stained glass windows! So pretty! This costed $255 (probably because it was Friday too) but I think for the location and the fact that it's an attraction in itself it's pretty worth it!

Also the hotel breakfast!!!!!! On other days we stayed at Park Regis which was budget so there wasn't breakfast, and for previous trips (Melbourne, Tokyo, NYC, BKK and more) we stayed in Airbnb or non-breakfast hotels...... Hotel breakfasts are always something I look forward to haha!

There are quite a few rooms to explore and they all look old-fashioned and somewhat grand. There's even a fireplace here (behind me).

The Carrington Hotel

15-47 Katoomba Street

Katoomba NSW 2780

✧ Three Sisters (Echo Point Lookout) ✧

This lookout is actually quite near by bus (686 from the stop outside The Carrington Hotel)!

I enjoy looking at the sky more though haha

Particularly the 5pm sky!

✧ Sanwiye ✧

There isn't any vegan/vego restaurant open for dinner so we just searched for somewhere close to the hotel. Sanwiye is a Korean restaurant with really great reviews! It's a pretty small restaurant run by Koreans.

It was almost full when we arrived at 6pm but luckily someone just left. If you're planning on eating here it's better to make a reservation!

We asked about what was vegan (they don't use dairy but some have egg) and ended up ordering Spicy Noodle Soup ($11), Japchae ($16) and Dukbokki ($16). Maybe you can't really tell from the photo but the portion size was huge!! Especially for the japchae and dukbokki - I think 2 people with a normal-female-sized appetite can share either one lol! We were stuffed and dabao-ed the japchae leftovers (which I had for supper).

Also I've never seen Korean food with so much veggies before! Especially for the dukbokki omg wow

Sanwiye Korean Restaurant

2/177 Katoomba Street

Katoomba NSW 2780

✧ Street Art Walk ✧

I found this on Trip Advisor and it looked cool.

It's a really tiny street that you can finish in 5 mins ^^;

Street Art Walk

1 Beverly Place

Katoomba NSW 2780

We didn't do a lot of sightseeing (Mum's been to Blue Mountains before anyway) or go for day tours or to Scenic World (we watched Youtube videos of people experiencing Scenic World while in the hotel LOL vicarious experience) but we had quite an eventful and yet chill time ^^  

✧ Kindness Cafe ✧

I found this cafe on Groupon and I'm so glad that I did! It's this Groupon and it comes with Mixed Sides Platter + Roti w/ Curry Sauce + Two Mains + Two Iced Teas + Two Desserts for $39 for 2 pax (valued at $80.5). It's located at quite a secluded residential(?) area but it's together with a few other restaurants and the place seemed pretty modern. I think people get lost trying to find this place since it's not near the main road but thanks to Google Maps we didn't :>

Kindness Cafe serves Thai food and the owners, servers and chefs are Thai I think. Their food photography is really the style I like - bright and colourful with wood background haha! So pretty!

If I'm not wrong, all dishes are dairy-free but some have egg (and it's listed if it has).

First we got the Roti w/ Curry Sauce which I liked because it's like roti prata but less soggy and vegan roti prata isn't so easy to find (since most have ghee).

Oh and the Groupon includes Two Iced Teas but the owner(?) let us change it to hot tea since the weather was cold. I got an iced lemon tea while mum got hot lemongrass tea I think!

For the Mixed Sides Platter we could choose 4 items and we got the spring roll, curry puff, organic tofu cake and corn fritter!

For the mains we got the Coconut Lime Tofu and Pad Thai. We loved the Coconut Lime Tofu!! It tasted rich and fragrant, and it was almost like a curry. The Pad Thai was on the dry side but with the coconut tofu sauce added to it it was amazing!

The Groupon deal didn't include rice but we could swap one dessert for a bowl of rice and we did.

But then they gave us a double portion of dessert omg they're so nice! It's the Taro Black Sticky Rice dessert which seemed quite ordinary but the added taro bits made it special!

Overall, I really like that they don't use mock meat, their ingredients are really fresh and many are organic. Other than the lovely food, throughout the meal we had exceptionally warm and genuine service omg I can't remember the last time I got such amazing customer service! Like the owner (I think?) (a lady) was like so friendly and kept on checking on us and even explained how to cook some of their dishes wow! Mum & I actually felt bad that we were paying so little lol - Kindness Cafe is definitely worth a visit even without a Groupon!

Kindness Cafe

6/248 Plamer Street

Darlinghurst NSW 2010

Ties-Sun 11.30am-9pm

✧ Yulli's ✧

On another night, we had dinner at Yulli's with Mum's Japanese friend who works in Sydney. As with her other Japanese friends we met in Tokyo, this was her first time eating at a vegetarian/vegan restaurant! It's located on Crown Street, which according to Mum's friend is a famous street for good restaurants. The food here is more expensive than the other places we've been this on trip! It's recommended to make a reservation since this place is quite popular and gets pretty packed. We sat at the back which was quieter but pretty dark - we had to use a phone light for the following photos haha

All the food here is vegetarian/vegan but they have a separate vegan menu with dishes that can be veganised and dishes that are 100% vegan! They also have vegan desserts and alcohol.

The one on the left is the Edamame & Coconut Moneybags ($14.5). It looks quite tiny but it's packed with fillings! Mum liked this the most. The one on the right is Steamed Leek & Ginger Dumplings w Plum Sauce ($13.5) which (to me) was good but wasn't exceptional as far as vegan dumplings go (I don't really remember what it tastes like lol).

We also shared the Salt & Pepper Tofu w Green Papaya, Asian Herbs & Toasted Peanut Salad ($17.5) because Mum's friend likes tofu a lot and according to the waiter this was the dish with the most tofu lol! The tofu was great - crispy outside and silky soft inside - but I thought that the salad part was pretty ordinary! On the right is the Black Pepper Rice Noodles w Bean Curd, Chinese Broccolini, Lotus Root, Bean Sprouts & Shallots ($18.5) which I liked because it's like char kway teow haha!

Unpictured is a unique brussels sprout dish: Crispy Brussels Sprouts w Crunchy Chickpeas & Lemon Vinaigrette ($11.5) was like nothing we've ever tasted before! It was all black and probably really heavy (in the TCM sense) haha but really enjoyable! We ended the meal with a dessert: Coconut Sago Pudding w Dried Apricot, Passionfruit, Mixed Berry Coulis & Puffed Rice ($13.5).

Mum's friend was really impressed with the food and even went to the kitchen to compliment the chef!! She often goes to another restaurant down the street but said that she'll eat at Yulli's more often yay ^^

Yulli's

417 Crown Street

Surry Hills NSW 2010

Mon-Wed 5pm-late

Thur-Sun 11.30am-late