My disappointment with this place starts with the fact that they're closed on Sundays and on the…read morelast holiday I tried, leaving me to wonder when they think people go to the beach. Oddly this is not that uncommon in Australia, and it was not all that crowded here or anywhere else on the day I dropped in, and I do not get it. It's particularly a problem here as the area is not as flush with options as Brisbane or Gold Coast. Setting that aside, when I finally made it in, it was a small cafeteria-style place, a common mold around these parts. Ostensibly Indian, it has a diverse vegetarian menu (some dairy, but certainly vegan-friendly). The prices were not bad (if confusing) and the curries basic but tasty. I liked the selection, and ended up with a plate of two dissimilar dishes (noodles and paneer and pea curry), plenty of protein, and a full stomach. Palatable, but not great; I might well have taken them up on some of the chili flakes that lay out. Between that, the general lack of service, and the trouble in actually making it in, I've had better experiences elsewhere at places that aren't all vegetarian. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy there's a vegetarian place near the beach, and I may stop in again sometime, but I wasn't impressed on any level.

Tasty but simple vegetarian food in Maroochydore, tucked away in a little shopfront halfway between…read morethe beach and Sunshine Plaza. Most of the food is Indian-influenced -- curries and things -- but not all of it. You can choose combinations of rice with 1, 2, 3, or 4 things from the trays of pre-made foods on the counter, with the price going up accordingly, or you can pay a bit more for something more special, like the veggie-mince lasagna. Quite a few vegan options, with most things being vegan rather than not, and reasonably priced for the area. I choose rice + 2 options (noodles and dahl), and it was a strange but tasty mix. The dahl was super-spicy, and the Asian-influenced noodles were mildly spicy but not too bad. The dahl was kind of generic, something you can tell has been made to feed the masses, and the noodles had a nice Asian flavor but also didn't seem like anything wildly unique or special. They also have a display case of raw vegan treats and things like that. The atmosphere is super-cute. Nice simple decor, cosy space, and the type of Hare Krishna quotes on the wall that keep things intriguing without shoving ideology down your throat, ha! Nice relaxed vibe, and the guy behind the counter was super friendly and helpful. Wednesdays are vegan nights, which I presume means everything they make is 100% vegan. Definitely check it out if you're in the area and want some healthy vegetarian food for a nice change from all the greasy pub food and fine dining seafood places running all up and down the Sunshine Coast. Quite refreshing that there is a place like this in the area.

I've seen this place set up booths at the occasional local food festival, but their brick and…read moremortar location of course has more to offer. It's a small, unimpressive space, but their food menu is quite broad, and the thali I ordered offered a nice variety, a decent bit of spice, and a surprise. Upon asking, I discovered that the strange (and strangely delicious) red dessert item was a lentil halwa, a house special. If I went back, however, I'd most likely order some of their street food specialties. They are vegetarian but offer plenty of vegan items if you want to avoid dairy. Their ordering system was rather interesting; as they use small tablets rather than ordering at the counter or table service. It worked well enough. They had more to offer than some of the fast food places closer in (albeit no grocery store attached), but what could be said against them is that it isn't as cheap. But it was good enough that I could see coming back.

Although this Indian restaurants lacks space their food makes up for it. I've ordered Bombay…read moresandwich and it just tasted delicious, their super kind staff will greet you and make sure you have everything you need.

Located right on the esplanade directly in front of the ocean is Lemon and Thyme…read more They serve breakfast, lunch and dinner. We decided to give this place a try for breakfast. I think it's was a great choice. There's nothing like starting your day eating by the ocean. The food was very good and just the right portion size for most (except me of course as I am a little bit of a glutton lol). The staff was efficient and attentive. No complaints here

Such a promising menu and waitress…read more Food came out with no cutlery, had to wait for such a long time with hot food. All the front staff were standing around just watching the beach. Our drinks were not provided until we nearly finished our breakfast, our coffee was undrinkable and the smoothy never appeared. Such importance of team work to back the client facing staff.

Super delicious, extremely fresh, and the menu varies. It seems expensive when you look at the…read moreprices for the portions but it's extremely filling and ends up being excellent value. Beautiful cupcakes.

You heard it here first: Red Hill is about to become seriously cool. Secretly I've always thought…read moreit already was. I think I was already in lust with Botanica before I walked through their doors with perfectly spaced and aesthetically pleasing typography, but it was definitely love when I walked out with a fresh loaf of sourdough and freshly-made-that-morning Beetroot Slaw. The brainchild of two ex-private chefs for the Packers amongst other Australian celebs, Botanica is about one thing: Real Food. Daily made fresh salads, fresh loaves of bread, and small cakes. All take-away and all presentable on a dinner plate to either proudly boast where acquired or past off as your own divine creations. My small beetroot slaw was a neat $10 and fed two as a dinner side as well as enough left over to make friends with an egg and some fetta this morning for breakfast. Best of all they're open til 7pm, meaning you can pop in on your way home for those times when cooking seems too much but a oil deep fried takeaway dinner is equally lacking in appeal.

As the photo stream will indicate, I've been to Vegeme quite a few times, and ordered the majority…read moreof their menu. Experience shows that their dishes aren't all equally good. They've got a bit of a Korean slant to the menu, and most dishes smell strongly of sesame oil, which is delicious but gets a little same-y after a while. At their worst, Vegeme can deliver something simplistic and lacking in protein; some of their dishes are rice or noodles with sauce and one or two vegetables and without a whole lot else. However, those are good as a light meal, and regardless, you can eat well for your money. At its best, however, this place offers some pretty nice things. Bibimbap should probably be considered their signature dish, and while I waited a while to try it, it was quite good and had plenty of variety with kimchi and bok choy, soybeans and tofu, and carrots and corn with plenty of sauce on the side and rice underneath, and served in a legit hot stone bowl. Other winners include their dumplings, carbonized bamboo rice cakes, corn fritters, their gigantic noodle soups, and the intriguing basil paste inari. And while one might expect a vegetarian restaurant that caters to dietary restrictions to be a small, dingy space hidden in some distant suburban strip mall, this one is a decent location between West End and the cultural center, and gets a lot of foot traffic. It fills at peak hours, but it's also open mid-afternoon when many other restaurants are not. The crowd ranges from Asian tourists to local hippies and quite a few random passers-by. For me, it's generally the place I eat when I don't know where I want to eat, and the real challenge is trying to order just the right amount to get stamps on my frequent buyer card.

Great variety of delicious items, very reasonably priced, clean environment, friendly staff.read more

The new train line has opened, and this place which was once a massive pain to get to by transit is…read morenow walkable from a train station, so it seems like a good time to update the review. Logistics aside, I've been consistently intrigued. Malaysian cuisine is not a thing where I'm from. The basic elements are what you'd expect from any vegetarian Asian cuisine: noodles, rice, saltiness, soy products, etc. However, there is something slightly different; perhaps most notably when I ended up with some fried "chicken" product and watermelon juice and thought in my head that I might be eating comfort food from the American South. Among the many options I've sampled all have been palatable, and I'm still waiting to get around to the more recognizable names like nasi goreng and laksa. I've ordered differently every time, and if I were to repeat an order it would probably be for the roti chenai, a curry with fried bread that was much more delicious than the ones I've tried elsewhere. You can't go wrong with the noodle dishes either. It isn't the cheapest, but things are cooked fresh to order, and they're worth ordering. They also offer super cheap loose leaf teas. The worst that can be said of them is that once I came and they had closed during the slow hours on a weekday afternoon (inconsistently with their posted schedule), which in my experience is unthinkable for an American business, but not uncommon by looser Australian standards. Otherwise, the service and food have been on point, and I'm quite happy to have found them. I suspect vegetarian Malaysian will be a new thing for most diners as it has been for me, but I would suggest trying it.

Absolutely loved, Loving Hut! I cannot believe it took me this long to discover this place. Every…read morefew reviews I read were from omnivores, so it's a place for everyone, even being a completely vegan restaurant. The food was great! Menu is a great size, plenty to choose from. I ordered (so much), the B.B.Q Buns, Northern Pan Bread, Sweet & Sour Nuggets, Chocolate Mud Cake, Chocolate Soy Milk Frappe. Two highlight items for me were the Sweet & Sour Nuggets and Choc Frappe - so good! Coconut cream on top. I could pass on B.B.Q buns, but not bad! The menu has soo much to choose from, can't wait to discover more favourites! P.s. The atmosphere is very casual. Overall, a HUGE shoutout to Loving Hut, it's so nice having peace of mind that everything is vegan and can choose any option on the menu. Check out the meaty texture in the picture, WOW. Can't wait for the next visit!

Ohhhhhh my goodness gracious me!! Loving hut has been a family favourite of ours for years now. I…read morewas introduced to Loving Hut by a vegan friend when I wasn't vegan and have visited about 4/5 times a year. Sooo good. Not to far from my house. About a 25min drive which isn't too far. They are so friendly, fast and adorable. Tastiest food around. Do yourself a favour and get your little kid their spaghetti Bolognase!!! Yummmmmmmmooooo

The Northside had a serious dearth (none, actually) of great chaat places until the Spice Valley…read moreIndian Store opened up its adjoining chaat restaurant. Managed by a lovely Gujarati family, this restaurant is true to the Mumbai style of street food (Mumbai's the boss of Indian street food anyway) and features crowd favourites like masala dosa, utthappam, vada pal and samosas on the menu. The Gujarati influence in the food is very noticeable where pickles and preparation is concerned. As Gujarati food is mostly vegetarian, you know that you are getting your money's worth with wholesome fare. I often see them shop at our local farmer's markets and it's assuring to me knowing that they use fresh vegetables in their kitchen. Of special note is the thaali they serve - it comes with the softest chapatis I've had. I also loved their aloo parathas - bursting with potatoes and well-kneaded dough. The Spice Valley chaat restaurant is easy on the wallet too and if you plan on having a night out with your mates, go for it!

As the steady stream of photos indicates, I've found Spice Valley's restaurant to be a convenient…read moreand delicious stop, being next to a train station on the way to the northern sights. It doesn't offer much in the way of service or ambiance; it isn't even particularly clean. But I'm all about the food, and they deliver. The menu includes a range of tasty fried things, most of which I've sampled at this point. Many of these chaat items aren't easy to find. Highlights include a dabeli (a potato-peanut burger) and dhokla (some kind of savory chickpea flour cake with super spicy toppings), but I've yet to pick a bad one. For main dishes, their thali is one of the best food deals I've seen around Brisbane, offering no less than four curries, rice, three pieces of bread, some garnishes, and a bit of dessert all for a low price. To eat anything more than that, you have to be seriously hungry. But don't neglect the rest of the menu. A range of street food items, from dosai (crepes), idli (rice cakes), channa batura (fried bread and chickpeas) are delightful in flavor even before you add in the onion and chilli on the side. I still have yet to try their Indo-Chinese dishes, but I am reasonably confident that more delicious pictures are coming. Everything is vegetarian (and reasonably vegan-friendly if you ask), and you'll leave full for cheap. I often stop at their adjacent grocery store as well, where I have picked up a few Indo-Chinese items, as well as some snack foods and spice mixes. There are bigger grocery stores out there, but I like the selection at this one enough, and it makes for a convenient dual visit if I'm on my way back to the city.

We have here a small Indian food store, with a restaurant attached, all vegetarian. It looks and is…read morein substance quite similar to places I've seen on the other side of the world. This is not a bad thing; clearly having the groceries and restaurant together is a model that works. I went for the Sunday brunch buffet. This is not expensive, it is all you can eat, and I ate all I could eat. Did I really need to scarf down three baturas, three vadai, two idli, two parathas, and a wealth of chickpea curry and sambar to dip all that in (and some upma, because, you know, healthy)? I felt a tad queasy afterwards as a result, but there was nothing wrong with the food, that much is for sure. Readers who do not know what these things are would be well advised to experiment; most of them are fried, based on some combination of rice, wheat, and lentils, and all of them are delicious. To top it off, they had chai, which was quite sweet and some of the best I've had. The place is a bit of a dive, not to any scary extent but it isn't fancy. The grocery element is modest, and includes mostly packaged and frozen foods, with some nice grain and bean selection, but nothing really fresh. The place does catering, and the restaurant is open for more traditional made to order food as well as buffets at other times. If you're up for some reasonably priced, vegetarian (and reasonably vegan-friendly) food and can make the trip out to Kenmore, I'd give it a shot.

This is the best curry I have ever tasted. My friend and I were both super stoked so we blended…read moreboth of our curry's together and damn. She was bloody sensational.

Very attractive meal and coffee presentation. The cafe is quite and comfortable. Dogs allowed too.read more

We found this place while on a holiday to Caloundra and after that we came back every day. We…read morearen't vegetarian, especially my husband who will order a side of bacon with his bacon for breakfast, but no one was happier than him about the food here. Along with a beautifully put together menu, specialising in local fresh produce, there is a cabinet of house-made sweet treats - many of which are vegan and/or gluten free. The sweet potato brownie that I tried was a standout, especially with the avocado chocolate mousse topping. Vegetarians and vegans would love this place, as would those with food intolerances. The staff are super friendly, the vibe is laid back but passionate about their thing, and the coffee is really excellent. Not only will we be back next time we are anywhere near Caloundra, it's highly likely that we'll actually make a trip up from Brisbane just so that we can brunch here!