Arcadia - Melbourne

With not much open on the public holiday we ended up here for lunch. While there are a couple of dishes that are vegan standard on the menu, the majority of options involve modification. This matters primarily because of the the animal death and cruelty involved, but also because the variation often involves omissions or inferior substitutions. Having tried most of the vegan options here including the reasonably decent mushroom medley and smashed avo, and the incredibly tough and bland veganised burger this time we chose the cauliflower steak and the burrito bowl. The former had little flavour and not much to make it moist. The bowl was more like nachos than a burrito, and was better, more substantial for its smaller size, but still not very tasty. In my experience omissions and vegan tax are the rule here. This is a popular Fitzroy cafe that is often packed on the weekend, but increasingly I’ve been left cold by its menu.

Menu has clearly marked vegan and vegetarian options

Super friendly staff and yummy food. We had the vegan smashed avo and porridge with poached pear... both yummy.

I didn't love this place. Although I appreciate the few vegan options (not tons) I found the dessert too sweet. Their chai latte is already mixed with honey and I found the hot chocolate too sweet as well.

Great place to have a nice break in gertrude street