Another cold Melbourne weekend hasn't put Mr Curious and I off taking a Saturday drive through the streets of Collingwood to find something to fill our hungry tummies. I had spied Admiral Cheng Ho several times before, and it was always bustling with plenty of customers at all times of the day, rain, hail or shine. The menu has a wide selection of gluten free and vegan dishes, a generous single origin coffee menu, and fair-trade teas and standard coffees.

The furnishings are a eclectic mix of timbers and recycled materials, with the stools adorned with old Australian pennies from before the dollar days. We sat along the bench facing Johnston Street, and enjoyed the warm sun rays as they peeked through the clouds.

I started off with the Admiral's House Made Organic Hot Chocolate made with raw cacao and coconut sugar ($4.50). It isn't like your thick bodied, rich hot chocolates, instead it was creamy and had a light nutty flavour.

Mr Curious ordered the Umami Mushrooms with slow roasted king oyster, shitake, oyster and swiss brown mushrooms on a house made pumpkin, spinach and sundried tomato polenta bread, served with organic almond feta. He described the dish as creamy, but not too creamy, and the fried shitake mushrooms had a nice woody flavour to it. The other mushrooms in the creamy sauce were very juicy and flavoursome. The polenta bread was dense, but once it had soaked up the sauce, it complimented the mushrooms and organic almond feta very well. 

I chose the Northside Quinoa Pancakes made from organic quinoa flour, served with candied orange, Lotus Solkiln Geisha coffee soil, raw vanilla cream and maple. The raw vanilla cream was coconut cream with plenty of vanilla bean throughout. The quinoa pancakes are heavier than your standard pancakes, but are still light and yummy. The candied orange had intense flavour that suited the pancakes and raw vanilla cream well.

The dish is best eaten with all the elements together, a little bit of quinoa pancake, topped with some raw vanilla cream, a dip of maple, and a sprinkle of the coffee soil and a piece of the fresh crunchy pear allowed each mouthful to be a flavour opera in your mouth.

Warm and cosy, Admiral Cheng Ho was the perfect place to fill up on delicious wholefoods with plenty of vegan and gluten free options available. The staff were friendly and accommodating to our seating requests, and the portions very generous in size and well presented.