Handsome Her, vegan cafe, Brunswick

The was a buzz of excitement when Handsome Her opened last year.  It was the ultimate hipster Brunswick cafe.  They charged a 15% surcharge for men to reflect the gender wage gap and this payment goes to a charity.  Their meals were named after prominent women and were vegan and colourful.  And there was a wall of secondhand ceramic mugs for takeaway coffee. 

As always, it took me a while to get there.  I finally visited in November last year with Faye of Veganopoulous (follow this link for her write up). 

There was so much I wanted to try but we both chose one of the specials: The Kelis - a pulled jackfruit burger with smoky barbecue sauce, rainbow slaw, mayo, avocado, onion rings, grilled pineapple on a charcoal bun ($21).  I just don't have enough charcoal buns in my life.  And those onion rings on top were pretty cool too!

We enjoyed our burgers.  The pulled jackfruit was pretty saucy but I am a big fan of pineapple in savoury food so this was a winner for me.  Then we decided to go for dessert.  Faye had a peanut butter brownie and I had the peanut butter chocolate cake pop.  Rich but good.

The next time I was there was last month with my 9 year old Sylvia.  We sat in the window and ordered a home made lemonade and a kombucha.  They gave me a taste of the kombucha which wasn't that fizzy.  I like fizz so I went for the lemonade.  It was excellent and lemony.  With a bamboo straw.  We talked about politically correct cafes and had fun taking photos so the picture on the wall looked like it was drinking.

Sylvia was pleased with the kids menu.  There are very few kids menus that appeal to her.  This one hit the spot.  I loved the names of the dishes: I' don't know, I don't care and I'm not hungry.

Sylvia chose the crispy tofu bites and wedges and the pancakes.  The tofu bites were tofu in batter and most excellent.  Sylvia loved them.  In fact after toying with her pancakes she ordered another serve.  The only part of the dish that wasn't quite right was the seeds in the sauce.

Meanwhile I had the Bell Hooks ($18): Tofu benedict with home made organic tofu, kale, fresh tomato, pickled cabbage and carrot, smoky shredded tofu bacon and home made beetroot hollandaise sauce on two green pea fritters.  I chose it because I have never liked egg and never eaten egg benedict.  I am not sure this has much resemblance.  However it was a nice vegetable packed lunch.
.

I was really pleased they had coconut bacon.  I had always loved this at the Glass Den but they don't do it any more.  I had a chat to the owner/manager who said she used to own the Glass Den but her and her partner had gone their separate ways.  The creativity and beauty of the Glass Den meals is present here at Handsome Her.

However I was quite taken aback by the kids chocolate pancake with ice cream.  This was a rather fancy version of a chocolate pancake with ice cream.  It had a scoop of mango ice cream, a slick of chocolate cream with mango curd please some strawberries and blueberries.  Sylvia ate the ice cream happily but left me the pancake and other accompaniments.  It was lovely but a bit fussy for kids.

However I'd love to try other dishes (the breakfast burger, the big breakfast and the Spanish brown rice) and it is great to have a place where Sylvia can find tofu nuggets to please her so I hope we will be back soon.

Handsome Her
206 Sydney Road, Brunswick 3056
Open Mon-Fri 9.30am - 4pm, Sat-Sun 9am - 4pm
http://www.handsomeher.com.au/

This post is part of the Vegan Month of Food (Vegan MoFo) in September 2018.  Go to my Vegan MoFo list for more of my 2018 Vegan MoFo posts.