It’s a brave new world in 2016. A few years ago if we’d have told you that the first floor vegan restaurant in an old pub was packed, while downstairs at the bar you could count the punters on one hand, you wouldn’t have believed us. But people are enthusiastically embracing a plant-based diet nowadays and the Green Lion pub kitchen (upstairs from the Red Lion Hotel) is surfing the wave of their fervour. The green mack burger is a house take on a Big Mac. It’s a double-decker, double (non) meat patty with lots of shredded lettuce and special sauce. The only thing that would have improved it would have been more pickles. The fishless fillets in the tacos are a good, neutral base for the flavours in the zingy salsa and red cabbage slaw, but if you’re not convinced by faux-meat products you should order the samosas and pakoras. They make them in house and it’s an excellent group snack – a basket piled high with little two-bite pastry triangles and fragrant crunchy onion fritters with a fresh and zippy salad on one side. Whatever you order, make your food and drinks out onto the balcony to watch the sun set over Callan Park.
Check out Time Out's guide to the best vegan restaurants in Sydney.