Veggie Vie Hahndorf

Veggie Vie is the fully plant-based cafe at Shop 1/13-15 Mount Barker Road on Hahndorf's main street, and it doubles as one of the easier dog-friendly tables in the Adelaide Hills. There is a large outdoor seating area out the front with well over thirty seats across the venue, so a footpath table with a leashed dog is usually available even when the strip is busy. Hours are 8:30am to 2:30pm Monday and Wednesday to Friday, 9am to 3pm weekends, closed Tuesdays.

The dog setup

Dogs are welcome at the outdoor footpath seating, on lead and settled at your feet, with the main street passing by for entertainment. Water bowls are typically available in the outdoor area, though a collapsible bowl of your own is a safe backup on busy weekends. Indoors is off limits, in line with food-safety rules for the inside of any SA food premises.

Worth knowing

Everything on the menu is plant based, and the kitchen has built a following beyond the vegan crowd: a vegan mushroom schnitzel burger, tofu scramble on toast, savoury croissants and pistachio croissants, hot pots and mango bowls, plus natural fruit smoothies and coffee. Reviewers sit around a 4.8 average across roughly fifty ratings, which for a small hills cafe is a strong sign. Weekday mornings are the quiet slot; weekends bring the Main Street tourist trade, so arrive early for a front-row dog table.

Getting there and parking

Hahndorf's Main Street is about twenty-five minutes from Adelaide up the South Eastern Freeway. Street parking on the main strip is limited, so use the larger public car parks a short walk off the street, including the ones behind the main shops and near the Hahndorf Academy, and walk the dog in from there.

While you're out there

The tree-lined main street is a good on-lead wander with the dog, and the Pioneer Memorial Gardens in town give you a patch of green for a break. For more dog-friendly tables on the strip, The Haus Restaurant and the Hahndorf Inn both take dogs in their outdoor areas, and Wunderbar Dog Haus is a dedicated dog-first beer garden.

More plant-based and dog-friendly eating around the state is on the South Australia restaurants list and the Hahndorf destination guide.

Pepsi: Vegan cafe, so the schnitzel is technically mine to guard. At least the water bowl is real.