Yulli's, Surry Hills

I'm not a vegetarian. I would like to be one for many reasons, but I just love eating meat a little too much to give it up completely. But for some reason, whenever my best friend Asian Gaga & I go out to eat we end up being drawn towards vegetarian options, probably because Asian Gaga isn't a huge meat consumer. And I enjoy the change too! We'd been dying to try Yulli's for ages, because it looked like they had a fantastic menu, vegetarian or not vegetarian. It's a dark little restaurant on Crown St, so please excuse the blurry shots, my poor little camera really can't handle taking photos under the light of a tiny red candle!

Pan-fried haloumi served with lemon ($10.50)

"I've never had haloumi before, what is it?" My eyes boggled when Asian Gaga said this. This pan-fried golden, squeaky cheese is so delicious that I get regular cravings for it. I had to get some just so she could try it! I think she was a little shocked at the huge serving of just haloumi, "I think there's a it's too much cheese for me...". I was happy to polish off the rest of the plate of these thick slices of awesomeness.

Yulli's massaman curry pie ($15.50) served with mash potato

We ordered the curry pie because we noticed that almost every other table was ordering it, some even ordering two. It was an impressive looking pie, with a big puff of pastry and creamy mash covering a rich curry sauce packed full of perfectly cooked chunks of vegetables. My favourite bits were definitely the lovely pieces of eggplant. I have trouble believing that eggplant was one of my least favourite vegetables a few years ago.

Mixed chip plate ($12.50) - sweet potato, taro, lotus root, beetroot and Spanish onion

We order the mixed chip plate because it sounds so fun and reminds me of how Asian Gaga and I used to hang out in her study while I tried to fix her computer and we would munch on a completely overpriced pack of random vegetable chips or apple chips. We both loved the taro chips, they had just the right amount of batter, a pleasing texture and a ton of flavour. The beetroot chips were very thin and similar to the type you get in vege chip packets and the lotus root chips had a great crunch and well with the spicy dipping sauce. The batter on the onion and sweet potato was a little thick and the sweet potato was a tad oily but they still tasted good. We struggled to finish all of this though!

Deep fried banana fritters with raspberry, mascarpone and honey ($10.50)

Asian Gaga knew I couldn't skip dessert no matter how full we were, and I had my eye on the mango tapioca pudding with coconut ice cream. Mango? Coconut? Tapioca?! That's just too many of my favourite things in one dish! But then we heard the dessert on the specials board was deep fried banana fritters. Asian Gaga raised her eyebrow at me in expectation, "You want to order both of them don't you?", she asked accusingly. I could only nod in glee, haha my friends know me too well! And so we did, and I was so glad, both were really nice, though Asian Gaga found the marscapone and honey on the banana fritters too sweet and overpowering. I loved it, the battered banana chunks reminded me of banana fritters that you get in Malaysia, but I agree the marscapone and honey was so sweet it almost hurt the back of your throat if you had too much in one mouthful.

Mango tapioca pudding with coconut ice cream ($9.50)

The mango tapioca pudding was gorgeous. Even though we were both completely full by this point, this dessert was surprisingly light and such a good combination of tropical flavours. The tapioca pearls were soft and drowning in a pool of thick mango sauce, rich with the intense taste of mango. The coconut ice cream was creamy and matched well with the mango. The meal was so satisfying, I never noticed the absence of meat at any point during the meal. In fact I don't think I would miss it if I could eat like this all the time. Asian Gaga and I enjoyed our meal in the dim, relaxed atmosphere of the restaurant, and we kept staring up at the ceiling which was covered in these ropes which ran in random angles off the wooden planks in the roof. It was really trippy and very eye-catching.

Overall, a very enjoyable experience, not too expensive for Surry Hills and friendly, (very) relaxed service.

Yulli's
479 Crown St, Surry Hills
NSW 2010
(02) 9319 6609
Tues-Fri: 11am-11pm
Sat-Sun: 9am-11pm