Double-downnn at The Cornish Arms

My buddy T was back in town this past weekend after a few months away, so she booked a table at The Cornish Arms.  I used this as an opportunity to finally get my maw around the Vegan Double Down.  That’s right folks, two southern-fried style slabs of seitan with vegan cheese, facon bacon and the salady bits.  This, plus a big serving of wedges and a decent blob of coleslaw made for an incredibly filling meal.  In case you can’t tell from the photos:

Let’s take a closer look at my pig out:

Although it tasted good and the crumb was yum, I find it pretty hard to eat so much seitan in one sitting. Please don’t let that deter you, it really is one of the best meals on the vegan menu. I find it hard to finish a big serving of green beans or okra, even if they’re in a fantastic curry.  Anyway, I couldn’t finish the last chunk of double down.  I did swap some of my wedges for a slice of the vegan Hawaiian pizza T’s daughter ordered.  I rarely order vegan pizzas unless I’ve heard rave reviews but this was pretty good and I would order it myself:

So I was sitting there all “oh man I’m so stuffed I can’t possibly finish this piece of double down”.  Which of course, in Veganopoulous-speak, means “I will still order dessert”.  T and I ordered the sticky date pudding each, but we were told they only had one left.  So we decided to split it.  I’d definitely order this again:

The kids in our group all went for the vegan cookies n cream cheesecake.  Judging by how fast they all ate it, I’d say it met with their approval:

That’s phone-camera-with-low-lighting photos and an aggressive looking fork for you.

This is my third visit to The Cornish Arms and although the noise level is uncomfortable for Husband and I (and our group found it too loud and we moved outside as soon as we had the chance), I’d still go back.  Our food came out surprisingly fast.  At far less busy times on a week night, my meals have taken much longer to arrive.  For a full house on Saturday night, having the food come out so fast was great.

The vegan menu at the Cornish shows a lot of thought and I very much appreciate that vegans now have a choice of three desserts.  The previous times I visited, there were only two options.

Where’s The Beef? blogged about the double down, so have Easy As Vegan Pie and Ballroom Blintz.

Since my visit, I can’t get this song out of my head, though I change the title and chorus to “double down”.  I think people who like the double down secretly imagine themselves busting out these Al Jarreau moves in the middle of the Cornish Arms.  Crotch-fanning photographer’s assistant optional. I know I was probably making the same faces you see at the start of the video when my double down arrived.  It was like “Where’s me double down… oooh here it comes… ZOMG CHECK IT OUT IT’S WIZAAAAARD!”.

The Cornish Arms is located at 163 Sydney Road in Brunswick.  Check out the awesome vegan menu! You can read about my previous visits here and here.

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Dinner at The Cornish Arms, visit 2

Today is a child free night for Husband and I as we have some stuff to attend tomorrow morning.  We didn’t actually plan to go to the Cornish Arms (which is why my photos were taken with my phone), we’d been driving around returning library books and as we were close enough to Sydney Road, we decided to go to dinner there.

I appreciate the effort the Cornish Arms go to to provide good vegan pub food options, though they are on the expensive side.  Today’s vegan options were:

Decisions decisions!  On our previous visit I went for the vegan parma and I didn’t really want something with a big slab of seitan so I went for the Texas BBQ Pork Bun.  I think that’s what it’s called, the Cornish Arms website seems to have a different menu.  Anyway, it was as described: “vegan roast pork cooked with housemade BBQ sauce, roast veppers and cheez.  Served with a tangy slaw and deep fried pickles”:

The deep fried pickles had a light, airy kind of batter.  Taste wise, they didn’t make much of an impact but for me the novelty was really in eating something puffy.  I told Husband that I better open one up to show the blog audience:

The roast pork bun itself was pretty good.  Having a BBQ sauce would pretty much put it on the sweet side of things but I didn’t find it too sickly sweet like other BBQ sauces can be.  The bread seemed your standard bakery bread roll.  The slaw was nice and not too much of it which was good. Because really, this meal is all about the bun and the puffy pickles!

Extreme closeup:

 

Husband ordered a non vegan meal (he said it was good) and we didn’t order drinks.  We always stick with the jugs of water.  Our bill came to $36.  Service was friendly and our meals took about thirty minutes to arrive.

I asked about the vegan dessert options and was told there was a peach cheesecake and a cookies n cream cheesecake.  Neither option appealed to me which was probably a good thing considering how much cake I ate the other day… anyway, as I said earlier I do appreciate the effort that has gone in to the Cornish Arms vegan menu but as with many other establishments offering vegan meals, I do wish there was more in the way of house made vegan dessert.

The Cornish Arms is located at 163 Sydney Road in Brunswick. There was live music tonight but we chose to sit outside as it was a pleasant night!

A vegan parma at The Cornish Arms

Before I was vegan, chicken parma (that’s short for parmigiana) was probably one of my favourite dishes to order in an eatery, though I’d often pick off the cheese because it was always big blobs of grease.  Anyway, I’m a sucker for anything in a crumb coating so you can see why this was a fave.  I did intend on making my own version at home with a Fry’s shnitzel but you know, mehhh.

Husband and I had some us time.  Which is the more-than-one-person version of ‘me time’.  I suggested we go for dinner at The Cornish Arms as they have a great looking vegan menu as well as non-vegan options.  Unfortunately I’ve had to give up my fantasy of Husband willingly eating at vegetarian/vegan establishments so when we go out to eat together, I look for places that cater fairly for us both.

We got there at 7:00pm which was lucky for us because about half an hour later all tables were taken and newcomers had to wait.  Our meals did take a while to come out (forty eight minutes to be exact) but I didn’t mind as I wasn’t ravenous.  I also enjoyed hearing the staff taking orders to tables and noting just how many people ordered the vegan dishes.

The Cornish Arms menu had quite a few temptations for me but well, I see ‘vegan parma’ on a menu and I’m putty.  Now some of my readers may be saying VEGANOPOULOUS YOU SAID YOU’D BE AVOIDING GLUTEN.  LIKE, 4623O04834^38453040 YEARS AGO.  Yea verily, the parma was seitan.  BUT tomorrow I should be getting a coeliac antibodies gluten shmuten blood test thingy done and I’m supposed to eat gluten apparently.  And secondly, I’m never going to make seitan at home to create my own parmas so really, the best option for me was to eat one that was made properly. Like this:

It was massive.  I don’t know if you can tell just how big it is by looking at the photo but folks, this was MASSIVE.  And thick!!! I knew there was no way I would finish it.  I gave half the chips to Husband and I ate the salad but managed half the parma.

The parma itself was tasty and dare I say quite meat-like, though softer than what a chicken parma would be.  But the crumb coating was great, the sauce was nice and the cheese was just the right amount for me.  However there was a flavour of some kind of herb (or spice) in there that really got to me after a while and I had to put the fork down.  I was stuffed full anyway so this wasn’t a big deal.  I don’t know for sure what it was as there are a few things I don’t like that taste the same to me (but different to others.  I have weird tastebuds).  It tasted like allspice and I find even a teensy amount of allspice is too much for me.  And even if this wasn’t allspice, it tasted allspicey.

I’ve finally satisfied the curiosity about trying a chef prepared vegan seitan parma.  It was like my last hurrah vital wheat gluten meal.  Although I won’t be having it again, anywhere, I’m glad I tried it.  I can definitely recommend it if you’re a seitan parma fan and don’t mind an allspicey taste  🙂

Here’s an extreme food closeup.  Nom!

The Cornish Arms is located at 163 Sydney Road in Brunswick.