It’s been almost three years since Soul Burger owner Amit Tewari decided to completely revamp its burger menu to be entirely vegan-friendly – the first burger joint to do that in Sydney – and it appears he made the right call. He’s just launched its fourth location, this time in one of Sydney’s most popular vegan-friendly eat streets, Newtown’s King Street.

“We’ve been looking for a fourth location for a while,” he says. “Newtown seems to be a cultural birthplace for vegan and vegetarian food, so it was always a matter of when and not if.”

Like its other stores, the Newtown location looks like any burger bar. Its large casual-dining space has an open kitchen, and if you weren’t paying attention you could be easily fooled into thinking it was serving meat, especially because the burgers are categorised by protein choices, including beef, chicken and pork.

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Best sellers are the Southern-Fried-chicken burger topped with chipotle mayo, lettuce, tomato, Spanish onion, plant-based chicken and plant-based bacon; and the BBQ bacon that comes with aioli, lettuce, tomato, barbeque sauce, plant-based bacon, plant-based beef and chipotle relish.

“The perspective we take is that there is more than one way to produce meat. Currently meat is made with animals but we build meat with plants. We think plants are the future of meat. We use manufacturers that emulate the fibre and structure of regular mince to create a healthier, tastier version,” he says.

The menu also features house-churned, coconut-based gelato and all profits from gelato purchases go to charity. “We try to choose charities that have the largest impact on problems we care about. Currently they are geared towards global health, animal welfare and food innovation,” Tewari says.

While the intention is not to preach about veganism, Tewari hopes to see plant-based food become even more popular.

“I think animal activist groups, particularly undercover filming, has had a huge impact on our collective consciousness. I also think retailers and manufacturers have done a lot to bring vegan food into the mainstream.”

Soul Burger Newtown
229A King Street, Newtown
(02) 9550 3756

Hours:
Mon to Sun 11am–10pm

soulburger.com.au