Eating Out*: Paper Moon Coffee House and Wild Spice Kitchen

*Pre-COVID

Earlier this year I went out for brunch with my brunch friends at a spot that we'd heard a lot about but never tried. It was definitely time to! Paper Moon Coffee House is an all vegan coffee house, they have a cute interior with boardgames and a pool table, a very chill vibe, and they also do functions there. Their menu is entirely drinkbased, with a few vegan treats. However, right next to them they have created a permanent space for Wild Spice Kitchen, a vegan food cart. You can order drinks at the cafe counter, but you need to go out to the cart to order and pick up your food.

It was a hot day, so I skipped what would have been my default choice of a turmeric latte and tried an Iced Chocolate once I confirmed that they use So Good vanilla ice cream in it (yay) and not a coconut based one. They have a bunch of plant milks to choose from, and I chose Oatly. I also got the option soy whip on top, because why not go all out?



My friend loves Mac and Cheese, so she had to get that. They have a build your own mac and cheese option, where you pick pasta (regular or gluten free), your sauce (original cheese, turmeric and cheese, or french onion cheese), a vegetable (roasted pumpkin, sauteed mushrooms, or the vegetable of the day), and a topping (garlic thyme panko, smoky panko, flaked almonds). She chose regular pasta, original cheese sauce, mushrooms, and smoky panko.



Her partner got The Varenne, which was a savoury mushroom mince with tomato, avocado, baby spinach and turkish bread toast. This was high on my list of options, however he said that the mince was very heavy with tomato paste and not much mincey mushroom flavour.



I had the Prince Lui, a salad with hoisin tofu, rice noodles, satay sauce (no chilli in it!), cabbage, pickled carrots, and herbs. It was so lovely and fresh and yummy. I also got a side of their hashbrowns with lemon thyme aioli because you should always have potatoes and brunch, and a side of their turmeric and carrot hummus because I just really wanted to try it.



Some chips were also ordered, with a side of chipotle aioli (I didn't try that aioli!).



And here is a photo of all the food together. Where we were sitting was pretty dark, so we took our food temporarily to this nice sunlit table that was in front of ours, before returning to our more comfortable table. Ha.



During high times of COVID here, Paper Moon and Wild Spice both switched to takeaway only. Wild Spice was making ready meals for, as well as getting weekly deliveries of vegan bread and pastries, so people could stock up for a while. As restrictions ease, they are now both open again for dine in (as well as take away still available) in line with government restrictions. Wild Spice is still getting weekly deliveries of bread and pastries, but I believe they are no longer doing take home meals and have reverted to an updated version of their regular menu.

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



This little doofus is Marigold. Being back at work means adoption kittens! Her head is not actually as big as it appears here, she was just being extra goofy trying to sniff my phone while I took the photo!