Red Lime Shack - Vegan food for meat eaters.

If we hadn't been running the dogs along Henley Beach and if I hadn't checked my Facebook feed and seen an update from Red Lime Shack, there'd be little to no chance of us ever venturing out to the Port. Let alone to stop and have lunch!

But we did and I think we're better off for doing it.

We were with a severely hung over friend who probably needed a greasy fry up and a bucket of coffee, instead, we dragged her to a vegan cafe... in Port Adelaide. The cafe seems soulless, it's a big open space filled with a variety of mis-matched tables and seating and art tastefully hung on the walls. It sounds like every other vegan cafe and it should have a good vibe but it didn't, it was flat.

We ordered smoothies and juice, I had the ChocoLava smoothie made with raw cacao, bananas, coconut and dates. The others ordered a BerryRipe smoothie and one of the gazillion flavours of Mountain Fresh juices in the fridge.

His smoothie brings all the boys to the yard...

If you could consume nothing else in liquid form for the rest of your life, I would strongly recommend you consider the ChocoLava smoothie. The chunks of coconut mixed with the bitterness of the cacao and the sweetness of the banana and dates is like heaven in a glass. I didn't realise I was slurping the last millilitres of it out of my glass until the hung over friend snatched it from me and slammed it on the table. Oops.

I forgot to take a photo before I took a bite, excuse my teeth marks.

Hung over friend and I ordered chargrilled vegetable focaccias - they were nice. The bread was crunchy on the outside, and doughy on the inside but nicely toasted. Hummus and pesto (dairy free) added flavour to what could've been a pretty ordinary mix of roasted vegetables. Mark ordered pumpkin soup and a kale and chickpea curry (he was a hungry little caterpillar!). His comments: "The soup was thick and creamy but I was a bit lost without butter for my bread. However, the hummus was a solid substitute and something I hadn't tried before."

Mark waiting patiently to eat his pumpkin soup

"The curry was well balanced but a little bland. Perhaps a few more spices would've added more depth of flavour. I'm a sucker for brown rice and loved that they included it with my curry," concluded food critic, Mr Watson.

Kale and chickpea curry.

While Mark was full and hung over friend was coming down from her juice induced sugar high, I was eyeing off waffles with the lot. YES, THE LOT! It'd been well over four years since I'd had waffles and they were something that slipped my mind when I started eating a vegan diet. How could I resist? I couldn't!

I was so overwhelmed, I have so much to say, I'm going to break it down. Here goes.

This one's going straight to the pool room.

Waffles: Importantly, they're made to order so expect a ten minute wait (which seems like forever). I think they're wholewheat waffles and they're delicious, lightly covered in real maple syrup and slightly crunchy.

Ice cream: It's house made banana ice cream and it's so creamy and smooth. Normally, vegan ice cream comes with icicles in it, not this one. It's also not super sweet, in fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the only sweetener in there was the bananas.

Berries: They're plump, not mushy and have a slight tang to them. There's the perfect amount to eat with the waffles and ice cream and they're nice a sweet.

After writing that, I'm so keen to go back and eat more waffles instead of going to my gym class.

Ambiance - 2/5: Maybe the room needs to be sectioned off or the ceiling lowered, I don't know.
Service - 2.5/5:  It was sort of warm but not overly efficient.
Food: 9/10:  The waffles brought this baby home. OMG, those waffles.

In total, Tom gives the Red Lime Shack 13.5/20 chops on the chopping board.