Restaurant Review: Harvest Vegetarian, Rozelle

Decent vegetarian food. Shame about the slow service.

When I first moved to Sydney I was living a few streets from Harvest Vegetarian Restaurant in Rozelle. With my sister, a vegetarian, visiting Sydney I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to check out the city's only 'fine dining' vegetarian joint.

I was surprised how busy the suburban restaurant was on a Wednesday night. Nearly all the tables were taken and there were people sitting outside too. I think the mid-week rush had taken Harvest by surprise as well, the one waitress was rushed off her feet. It took an eternity to order, for plates to be cleared and I had to ask three times for a bottle of water. Which was a shame as the painfully slow service marred some otherwise good food.

I ordered the Mediterranean Aubergine Tower. The tower of aubergine was alternated with roasted pepper, sweet potato and goats cheese. The richness of the goats cheese was balanced by a zingy tomato sauce. A couple of the bites of the aubergine tasted a bit leathery, like they had been pre-cooked some time before. However, overall it was a good mix of flavours. I didn't feel like I was missing any meat.

My sister ordered the signature Pancake Stack with sauteed brown oyster and button mushrooms. From my quick taste, the mushrooms had been friend in garlic and herbs and had a deep, earthy, garlicky flavour.

For dessert I chose the Zesty Orange and Almond Cake. Whole oranges had been cooked, pureed and combined with almonds. This wasn't a flourless orange cake, but a chunkier affair with large pieces of orange and almond adding texture to the cake. I really liked the large bits of orange that you might find in marmalade, the zesty orange flavours and sweetness of the cake.

I enjoyed the food, particularly my dessert. However, I couldn't recommend you visit until they hire a second waiter / waitress to bring more attention to their guests and speed up the service. Hopefully they were caught by surprise on a busy Wednesday night.

Harvest Vegetarian Restaurant
71 Evans St
Rozelle
2039