Little Lotus Cafe is a warm and friendly eatery located in the heart of Hobart. Offering a creative plant-based menu and sourcing organic and local produce where possible.
Our Interview
Originally published 14 January 2020.
A café hidden in the heart of the city, which is getting a big recommendation from us, is the Little Lotus Café in Victoria Street.
This café can be described as serving modern house-made vegetarian and vegan food. The focus here is on local, organic and ethical food. Bonus, it is yummy and you leave feeling full, but not heavy!
Amanda is part owner of this beautiful café and we sat down with her and Head Chef, Carl, early last week.
‘I’m personally into health. So when I want to eat food, I want to eat food that is going to give me energy, not drain me’, said Amanda.
Amanda credits the success of the café to the staff whom she says are one big family. ‘Carl puts his heart and soul into every plate, everyone of our chefs does their absolute best’, says Amanda.
The team not only makes most things from scratch onsite, they also invest in some of the best ingredients. ‘We use the best products, and even in our nut butters we are using almond and macadamias, not cheap peanuts as you will often find’, says Carl.
We asked the pair what their favourite dishes on the menu are. ‘I love the soft shell tacos, it is a whole lot of flavours perfectly paired up’, tells Carl. Whilst Amanda loves the Buddha bowl for lunch and she can’t go past the smashed avo for breakfast. It is made with almond cheese too, so has a real nutty flavour.
The vegan breakfast platter is a bestseller. It includes scrambled tofu, herb-crusted tomato, roasted king oyster mushrooms, enoki, house-made baked beans and sourdough bread. All of their sauces are vegan too.
The sweets cabinet is made up of delights, such as New York vegan baked cheesecake, raw cranberry ripe, as well as house-made energy balls and muesli bars.
The Hello Hobart team had the Buddha bowl (thanks to Amanda’s recommendation), a combination of pickled vegetables, hummus, tofu, quinoa and brown rice. Let’s just say it was amazing, we gobbled it all up!
Now, we are all coffee nuts here at Hello Hobart, so we had to try a drop of the boutique coffee from Ludwig the Merchant to go with our bowl. Adorned with coffee art, the coffee was great!
Amanda had never run a café before this venture, but she has researched everything from the milk they source through to the living herbs on your plate. It has paid off and this café has somewhat of a loyal following.
The Little Lotus Café is situated in the Lotus centre and complements the other neighbours well. In the building you will find yoga, meditation, massage and next door is Padmalight, a store full of fantastic wares.
‘We are so lucky as our customers are really nice; everyone you serve is a bit like a big family – some people I might see 2-3 times in the same day’, says Amanda.