Tofu Shop International

When I heard there was a place that had tofu in almost every dish I was excited. I love tofu! I’ve heard good stories about the Tofu Shop International for a long time so it was about time we visited. As we walked in we were greeted with a warm welcome from the owner Malcolm who had opened the shop over 30 years ago. When he heard it was our first time at the store he gave us a quick intro on the background of the store and guided us through the menu options. He really made us feel at home.

The cosy little store had shelves with jars of herbs, ornaments, teacups, open books and paper fans on the wall, which sort of made you feel like you were in someone’s home. It was nice. The foods were displayed at the counter in bay maries with handwritten pieces of paper informing you of what each dish is and what the menu options are for the day (which regularly changes).

Depending on how hungry you are, you can opt for a small, medium or large sized serving bowl. Then you can select as few or as many dishes that you want. I got a medium bowl with a little bit of everything, it was delicious. I loved that I could taste everything in the one meal and wasn’t limited to choosing just a few options.

Everything was yum. There was a green bean sweet chilli tofu salad, which was really tasty and a tomato tofu bake, which was yum too. There was a ginger tofu in an Asian broth, which was one of my faves. The tofu was infused with the lovely flavours of the broth. There was also baked pumpkin w sage and garlic, broccoli w tempeh, black chickpea and beetroot salad and cauliflower & carrots. There was a satay potato curry, which was a dry peanutty curry (which would go really well with chicken, said the meat-eater in me). There was a white bean pot w spinach, tomato & paprika, and a chickpea pot w saffron and porcini mushrooms. They were sort of like stews and were two of my fave dishes. The saffron spice rice w fig and curry leaf had a really nice flavour and they also the option of brown rice if you wanted. Then on top of all that you had the option to include some condiments, they had soy dip, yoghurt dip, chilli and pickled ginger slithers (sort of like the ones you get with sushi). Each dish had a different flavour and texture but they all went well together on the same plate. It was a delicious and hearty meal.

Next to all the delicious savoury foods there was a display of tofu inspired desserts like tofu apple crumble and banana macadamia tofu slice. Yum! Also they had soy ice-creams in a range of flavours. They had coconut, chocolate, pandan and green tea. We had the tofu apple crumble with pandan ice-cream. It was good. The crumble had thin slices of apple, layers of tofu, pieces of dried apricot and a soft seedy crumble.

The food was honest and humble and absolutely delicious. It was really fun to eat tofu in so many different forms. They even had a Soyvalaki (a soy souva) and a soy patty burger. Just remember to bring cash because they don’t except card. If you forget dw there are a ATM’s nearby.

I heart Tofu Shop International!

Olives x

Tofu Shop International
Address: 78 Bridge Road, Richmond, Victoria 3121
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TofuShopInternational
Phone: 03 9429 6204
Trading Hours: Mon–Fri: 12pm – 8pm, Sat-12pm - 5pm (closed Sundays)