Peppe's (CLOSED)

Did you know that most dry pasta you buy is actually vegan? While many fresh pastas rely on eggs to bind them, the simple combination of flour and water, can produce a perfectly good dough, ready to be shaped and extruded into fettucini, spaghetti and more. Enter Peppe’s – a fresh trattoria on Bondi road, using old school pasta making techniques with a new world plant-based approach, proving carb-a-rific staple doesn’t necessarily need animal products to taste great.

Word has spread fast that this place is a vibe – in all it’s emerald-walled, disco-loving, vegan glory. On any given night you’re looking at a 45 minute queue (they don’t take numbers down, so it really is a waiting game). But patience, like ethical eating, is a virtue.

They’re making all the noodles here in-house daily, and each bowl has an excellent al dente bite to it. But before you order the pasta, make sure you order some garlic bread – slices of Iggy’s sourdough come dusted in a paprika and thyme mix and coated in garlicky olive oil. The arancini are the antidote for every sad hors d'oeuvre you've ever had. These are golden and crisp on the outside, dense and creamy at their core, courtesy of nutritional yeast, parsley and veggie stock used to make the risotto base. It also comes with a generous serve of I-can’t-believe-it's-not-aioli, which uses emulsified soy milk and grapeseed oil, smoked paprika and housemade tomato sugo to bolster the flavour.

Everyone’s favourite humble legume, the chickpea, gets a starring role in a rustic and comforting serve of mafaldine. Reminiscent of ciceri e tria – a rustic peasant’s pasta dish of chickpeas, broth and tagliatelle – this dish is a bowl of winter comfort. The squiggly ribbons of mafaldine pasta and bitey nubs of chickpea trade textural blows, proving good quality EVOO and careful, simple seasoning is all you need to make pasta sing. You’d think all these flour-rich foods would leave you feeling immovable, but when there’s no meat or dairy, these typically hearty dishes feel decidedly lighter.

Peppe’s signature dish is the gnocchi – there are red, white and green iterations on nightly. We try the bianchi, where neat potato pillows come slicked in an earthy, mushroom sauce, but without the bounce from ricotta or a binding egg things get a bit sticky. It’s here that chill oil comes in handy for those craving a bit more ferocity on the flavour front.

Flavour high kicks can also be found by-the-glass thanks to a natural leaning wine list. A grippy field blend from South Australia’s Jauma is dry, bright and funky; or you can order up a well-stirred Negroni.

This little strip of Bondi is having a moment – you’ve got Ode for more great wine, Totti’s for more (meat-focused) pasta and now another place that offers both, but one that let's you invite your vegan friends. More carbs for everyone is a win for Bondi.