Zen Oasis Vegetarian Restaurant - Berrima - Southern Highlands, NSW.

Zen Oasis Vegetarian Restaurant

Ms Sassy asked Toto and I if we were interested in a vegetarian buffet in Berrima. She said it was a one and an half hour drive away from the south and south-west side of Sydney. One and an half hour drive for vegetarian?!? Toto and I weren’t very interested at first, given that it was so far and she loves her meat. But our parents, specifically, our mums, quite like vegetarian food and this would be a great opportunity to try it out.

A few messages later, a date was set and last weekend we had a huge family trip to Berrima. We made our separate ways there as I live in the south and the rest of my relatives live in the south-west but coincidentally we reached our destination within a few minutes of each other.  

A nice scenic drive through the pristine highlands with mountains, lush greenery, and trees in the back drop is just beautiful. Too bad the weather wasn’t so good but the rain did hold and it didn’t pour luckily.  

I really do miss these family gatherings and events. As everyone is getting older and have commitments and priorities of their own, we’re finding it harder to meet up as a family. I’m glad we were able to meet up on this occasion as everyone had a lot of fun.

 The restaurant is remotely located on farm land and if you were to drive past here, you wouldn’t actually know such a place existed within.  Once you drive in, you’ll notice that there is a nice little cottage surrounded by natural landscape and a man-made lake.  Very calm and peaceful surroundings with a whiff of fresh air like the country side.

 

Unfortunately, they are only open on the weekends and booking appear to be a must, as it was a full house on the weekend I went. Also, they only have two seatings per day, one is from 11:30am to 1:30pm and the other from 2:00pm to 3:40pm which is closed for functions and If you have a group over 20 people, you get a 3 dollar discount for adults and an one dollar discount for children from their usual cost of $31.00 per adult and $16.00 per child (4 – 11 years).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Zen Oasis Vegetarian Restaurant serves vegetarian, buffet style food with over 30 different types of foods.  An assortment of fried goodies, mock meat dishes, sushi, soup, desserts and many more are on offer depending on the week. Beverages including water, iced tea and orange juice are also available.

 

 

 The fried goodies were very popular as once the doors opened and people took their seats, most scrambled towards this area grabbing what they could. Vegetables and mock tofu of sorts coated in a batter then fried to a golden brown. The mini spring rolls were really good and highly addictive. The curry puff was drenched in oil and that scared me off it.

 I was in search of vegetarian fried rice and to my dismay there was no fried rice on the day! I had a bit of the mock chicken curry instead, which had a nice sauce but the chicken tasted artificial unfortunately. The fried mock fish actually tasted like fish and had that fishy taste to it; amazing technique. 

 

 

 

 Wide selections of desserts were on offer, all homemade in house and fresh. I really liked the mocha ball with a mung bean filling and coating with coconut cream. That was delicious.

Aren't those two little Pug’s so cute?

A bit on the pricey side, so you would have to eat a bit to get your money’s worth.  But well worth the experience and just the feeling of being away from the busy city, in the middle of nowhere, is great.

An excellent dining experience, though different from the usual buffets we get back at home in Sydney. Food was re-filled quickly and service was very efficient.

 

Everyone had so much fun chatting and catching up over the two hours we had there.  Then some went into to shop and look around as there was a Sunday market on and the rest took the long drive home back to Sydney.

Thanks Ms Sassy for organising.

Where?

230 Medway Road

Berrima NSW 2577

Australia

Phone no: 02 4877 1285

Opening Hours

Saturday and Sunday

11:30am – 1:30pm (1^st Seating)

2:00pm – 3:40pm (2^nd Seating – Groups over 50 people)

Website

www.zen-oasis.com