Thursday, April 23, 2015

Transformer

You know what the sign of a good vegetarian restaurant is? 

When the menu doesn’t read vegetarian at all. 


After a glowing write up in Broadsheet, I expected Transformer, from the people of famous Vegie Bar to be absolutely packed to the brim the morning that Brad and I showed up for breakfast. 


But to our great fortune, the elegantly transformed warehouse space was relatively empty, with plenty of tables at our picking. Mildly disappointed there were no autobots hiding around, but that’s a nerdier conversation for later.



I love how the warehouse space has been divided, so that it feels private, despite being open, with interesting uses of textured concrete and plenty of lovely greenery draped on wire mesh. It’s bright, airy and such a lovely morning space. 

As I’m ogling the menu, it takes me a second to realise that there is no meat on the menu, as it reads so delectably (and maybe borderline pretentiously). 



No chai on the menu yet, so it’s a Lemonzilla tea by Storm in a Teacup, lemongrass, ginger, turmeric, galangal and lemon myrtle. I’m absolutely smitten with it’s golden hue, and is a lovely warming and invigorating tonic to begin the day with. 


Brad’s coffee was looking good too. 



It took a while for me to decide, but for Brad breakfast was a relatively easy decision. Turkish fried eggs, with spelt and seed flat bread, kirmizi biber butter, spiced labneh and silver beet. Now fried eggs aren’t a common menu item, but when they’re done well…well, I’d rather them over poached eggs most days. Gooey yellow yolks, lightly charred egg whites, just the way we like them. I didn’t really try any of Brad’s dish, but despite it’s simple appearance, it’s well done and Brad lapped it all up in a heartbeat.


Now, whilst I had every intention of eating green and clean after my gym session, I could not peel my eyes from the buckwheat and wild rice hotcakes served with coffee-cacao ganache, mascarpone, date syrup and snap dried mandarins. Gluten free hot cakes? That sound totally and utterly delicious? Well hello over there. 



These were just delicious. You would not have guessed they were gluten free, fluffy and remarkably light. With the coffee, chocolate combo, a little coffee dust and mascarpone, the flavour profile reminded me very much of a tiramisu, but not in the overly sweet way. And that date syrup? Mopping up that goodness. 


Feeling pretty full, I decide to also get a digestive tonic, of fresh ginger, cayenne pepper, lemon juice and raw honey. It packs a wallop, especially with the cayenne pepper in there, and is both good sipped, or gulped down (if you can handle it). It certainly helped with the metabolism I reckon! Perfectly warming, especially as winter sneaks in as well.


All in all, I can’t wait to revisit Transformer again, the menu is full of goodness, the space makes me happy to exist in, the waitstaff on the floor are friendly and lovely. Plenty of ticks here for me, and I’m also fascinated to see what dinner is like sometime too. Who doesn’t love visiting somewhere that makes eating veggies so easy? 

99 Rose Street
Fitzroy 3065

Transformer Fitzroy on Urbanspoon

2 comments:

  1. I was SO excited when I found out this place was opening! The space looks gorgeous, beautifully photographed! And those eggs look AMAZING!

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  2. I definitely want to try this place out (even though I'm not a vego).

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