Shakahari

201 Faraday St
Carlton VIC 3053
www.shakahari.com.au

I know what you’re thinking!
Shaka Zulu? Hari Kumar? Kit has gone all African-y/Indian on us!
But nothing could be further from the truth! Shakahari is the name of a vegetarian restaurant in Carlton I went to with some friends for a vegetarian meal the other night, and I thought you might be interested.

I’ve had complaints about this blog previously (hello Dharamjot!) that everywhere I pick is polluted by the corpses of our animate brethren. But far be it for me to be said to be biased agin vegetables. Hey, I don’t mind lentils and mung beans. Let’s see how the herbivores do it, baby! (Answer: on the grass… much like the reviewer - Ed).

Located in a terrace house opposite Brunetti’s, Shakahari was the only vegetarian restaurant in my copy of the Age’s Good Food Guide. The only one? Yes! And a hat! So let’s take a look at the ONLY vegetarian restaurant in Melbourne that made the cut for the Age Good Food Guide, shall we?


Shakahari has been around for donkey’s years (read around twenty), and some of my older pals had heard of it. Ask a Gen Y-er about vegetarian food, though, and they all say ‘the Veggie Bar’ (Brunswick St).
So how would you describe Shakahari? In one word? Hippies. In a few words? Vegetarian hippies who have a predilection for Asian grub. I should have been twigged right off when I called to make a booking.

“Hello? I’d like to book a table for four tomorrow please.’
(Longish pause…) "Sigh. Alright.”
“Um, would you like my name?”
“I suppose.”
“Kit. For four.”
“Fine.”
“Would you like a mobile phone number?”
‘I guess... You know there’s no BYO?”
“That’s OK. See you tomorrow!”

How’s the ambience, I hear you ask? My initial reactions were positive. Wood floors, wood furniture, carved elephant statues, orange walls. But the tables? Too high. Chairs? Too hard. Lighting? Too bright. Porridge? Too hot… oh no, that’s another story. But you do have to go into the back garden and trip over loose bricks to go to the loo, though, so there is an element of a bear in the woods… if you get my drift.

And the other clients? Nutty. As in as nutty as a nut cutlet. It did make for an entertaining floor show though; people with anaemia saying things like “I’ve just been really stressed, you know?”, rockabilly boys chatting up tattoo girls, and same sex couples holding hands over lentils. You know. Cool people. Vegetarians.

The food is Asian inspired with a western influence. This can pretty much be distilled down to “Eastern food, Western plates”. Not a share thing, although the entrees said ideal to share and each one came with four portions. But then they came out on massive bits of white crockery, we had to decant them onto side plates, the serving was a disaster.

The menu has V (vegan), D (dairy), and E (egg) written against the various dishes, so you can work out what is least offensive to your sensibilities and or delicate digestional situation. I did, however, find myself with a tummy upset after going here (whether it was the food or not I’m unsure, so am unwilling to litigate); I guess the moral is just because something’s vegetarian doesn’t necessarily mean your body won’t reject it.

We had the mushroom dumplings (yum), the fried five C’s in pastry (I dunno what the five C’s were – and stop being rude), and the avocado magic (deep fried with capsicum and eggplant). For mains, I tucked into something called the Shaolin Treasure Chest – basically tofu with mushrooms (Asian) with five types of rice grain. Dessert was a lactose intolerant person’s wet dream, with tofu based baked goods that were delish.

The verdict? I thought it was a little bit on the expensive side, especially considering that no one died in the preparation of my dishes. If you HAVE to take out a vegetarian, or even better a vegan, GO! Go gangbusters. But if you’re looking for a fine dining experience, cross the road to Brunetti's and have a cake and coffee. Hard core vegetarians would no doubt give it a seven and a half out of eight. Me? A confirmed mollusc eater and lover of luxury? Meh. Let’s call it a scrape-y five tentacles out of eight.

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St Jude’s Cellars

389-391 Brunswick St
Fitzroy VIC 3065
www.stjudescellars.com.au

Brunswick St, eh? Gee, I haven’t been down there in ages. And I literally work three blocks from it. For some reason, I always turn left when I walk out Blue Vapours office door: my current theory is that if I turn left it’s down hill, my house is in that direction and Smith St is so much handier (at only a block and a half).

But nothing on Brunswick St has changed, although curiously and conversely absolutely everything has changed. There’s still year ten kids drinking coffee and smoking sly cigarettes outside Italian cafes in their school uniforms, there’s still young men from the country and suburbs toting instruments to gigs at the various bars, even the old bearded hobos playing guitar and busking for a few coins are still there. But I’m old (well, older) now, and fashions have changed… though I did see a guy down there with a flat top with blonde tips, a white windcheater, white high top Nike sneakers and Levi 501 jeans (I had to laugh - he was way over forty!).

Anywho, I was told about St Jude’s by my mate Suze (Hi Suze!), who’d been taken there by her boss David (Hello David!) for lunch and gave it two thumbs up. As always, intrigued by the advice of someone with taste (they do work at groovy architects Heritage Alliance), I took myself out there for dinner last night. Let’s go in and take a look, shall we?

St Jude’s is brought to you by the same people who own Rice Queen, the Panama Dining room (Smith St) and apparently the Veggie bar (Brunswick St - nice website).

Now let’s get this straight; it’s not strictly speaking a restaurant. They’ve got a kitchen, and it’s very good, but they seem to really do “the booze”... as they say in Eastern Europe (ahoj Stanka y Katka!). Hey, this is turning into a “shout-out to my homeys” review. Keep reading, you might be next!

The Booze. Booze, booze, booze. Look at the wine list. Very nice. But they’ve got more. Look at the racks. Someone came in from an office over the road and picked up a dozen bottles of champagne I’d never heard of and they handed them over without a receipt. Spirits. Martinis. A “with drinks-nibbles” section on the menu.

The food is competent, not high art, but the prices are reasonable. I had a baked chicken with parsley sauce entree (that's a "starter" if you're reading this in the US), and the fish of the day for main - grilled Blue Eye on a quinoa, spelt and hazelnut bed with a side salad.

Wines? A Spanish white wine type Albarino (very nice – apparently the Australian Albarino was going great guns until they realized the Spanish suppliers had sent the wrong grape type and it wasn’t Albarino at all), then changed gears to an Australian sauvignon blanc, and then a French "savvy b" to see the difference. I can’t remember the difference, incidentally, because the rest of the night then devolved into a haze.

The décor is all hard surfaces (which I see everywhere); lots of black and white and racks of the booze. A high ceiling in a kind of old warehouse, it's very tasteful. I can’t say there were people falling out the door, it was pretty quiet really, but that whole end of Brunswick St (down near Alexander Parade) has sprouted restaurants and bars where I can’t remember there being that much action. I spoke to one of my publican mates about it, Guy from the Napier Hotel (Hi Guy!)…which was absolutely pumping by the way… who said that the building was cursed and had had serial failed businesses in it. Maybe it is, but I’m crossing my fingers they stay around. The menu advertised what looks like an extremely attractive set menu event at the end of the month (26th June) with five courses and seven matching wines for a tonne. But don't quote me.

So in summary? Go for a wine or cocktail. Maybe skip the main courses and just have the nibbles that go with the drinks. The drinks list gets a rubbery seven tentacles, the food a strong five, five and a half, the decor a six. In total I give St Jude’s a six tentacles plus a couple of suckers out of eight! Enjoy!!

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