You guys, I’ve really been kinda struggling finding the time and motivation to do MoFo-y blog posts. Lately I’ve had lots of last minute “let’s go out to eat” invitations, or last minute visits somewhere where I’m piled up with food when I leave. I’m not complaining but it means I haven’t done any cooking or raw food prep of my own, and that’s what my theme was supposed to be. Sooooo I’m a-thinkin’ that MoFo here on my blog has been a bit of a bust. Not only that but I see so many fantastic look meals on other MoFo blogs and I end up making those instead of the stuff I had planned.
So today was one of those fly by the seat of my greedy pants kinda food days. I had to go in to the city and was right near Gopal’s. I’ve never been there and it’s a bit of an institution. So when 11am arrived (their opening time) I was THERE. At the bottom of the stairs:
The food on offer is all inside a bain marie style set up. I went for the ‘vegan special’ which was two veg dishes + rice or roti+ choice of salad + juice + dessert. All for $10.50 and let me tell you this was a big serving:
The salad was a raw beetroot and carrot (I said no to the dressing offered) and was quite nice and I’m usually not a beetroot fan. The two veg dishes were good (one had tofu, the other chickpeas) but nothing utterly amazing however to me the appeal of a place like Gopal’s is that the food is served like you’re in someone’s home, just plopped on the plate all homely like. I’m glad the rice was brown rice though I found myself thinking that I might get the roti instead next time (and there will be a next time!):
My juice was actually a lemon mint kind of lemonady drink which was lovely and refreshing. Window shot:
Dessert was sago pudding with some sliced banana and grapes inside it. I do admit when this was given to me I felt all ohhh… you mean dessert isn’t one of these lovely looking sweet treats in the counter display? You know, disappointed-face. But I was very pleasantly surprised with the sago pudding as it’s something I’ve never been that interested in, but with the fruit mixed in, it was good:
Dork that I am, I forgot AGAIN to take a photo of the outside from the street. Here’s an inside shot though:
I sat along the window bench and enjoyed the view and breathed a happy sigh about how much I love Melbourne… that means PHOTOS. With my phone camera. Enjoy!
Gopal’s Pure Vegetarian Restaurant is located at 139 Swanston Street up a lot of stairs. Website here.
I love Gopals, even if just to get out of the stinky, busy, noisiness of Swanston Street. It’s so peaceful up there by the window.
The window was great, there was a nice little breeze and it was all quite lovely 🙂
I used to go to gopals heaps in the days when we were in the city seeing movies and didn’t have prams and babies and early bedtime (for sylvia not me) – this makes me miss it – though I preferred it when the decor was more indian style but I guess they want to change a little – better to change the decor than the prices (which I think have gone up but still good value) – hope they still have the broccoli salad – I always had it
I didn’t look at the salads too much, I remember a quinoa salad. I’ll have to go back for more research 😉
Yay! I miss Gopals! I’m looking forward to living in Melbourne again for a while, soooo many good places to eat!
Melbourne rocks alright and it seems to be getting even better for vegans, yeahhh!