Let Them Eat serves the kind of food that could turn a confirmed carnivore vegetarian. If only you had your own personal chef at home to whip up all those colourful salads and tasty tarts, fritters and arancini.

Chef Tanya Agius and her partner Danielle Frankish established Let Them Eat six years ago as a wholesale business, providing vegetarian food for other cafes and market stalls, but demand has seen the operation expand exponentially.

They now have cafés in the trendy shopping enclave of Elizabeth Street, Croydon, and at the Adelaide Central Market, as well as serving mobile food at places such as the Adelaide Showgrounds Farmers’ Market and Stirling Market.

“We source ingredients locally as much as possible,” says Agius, who is not a vegetarian herself, but has always had a passion for vegetarian food.

“Being a part of the Showgrounds Farmers’ Market, we have to abide by the strict rules they have there (regarding food origin); we use a lot of other stallholders’ produce.

“The whole idea behind Let Them Eat is that it’s just good healthy food made with vegetables and grains.”

And it’s certainly not just for vegetarians. This is rustic-style food without pretentions, which has won many fans because of the chefs’ creative combination and presentation of ingredients.

The Croydon café fitout is pretty minimalist, with seating both inside and out, but it’s the glass cabinet full of tempting items that immediately catches the eye, prompting the inevitable dilemma: what to choose?

Favourite dishes: Let Them Eat’s spanakopita is so moreish that after you’ve had it once, it’s a struggle to order anything else. It’s a delicious take on the traditional Greek pasty filled with spinach and cheese, and the accompaniment of salads adds a fresh counterpoint to the cheesy goodness. Other winners are the broccoli and haloumi fritters (full of flavour and very filling) and the parsnip, sage and mascarpone arancini balls (with a creamy filling encased in a golden fried exterior).

Carrot and quinoa salad. Photo: Let Them Eat

Most items are $12 served with two salads or $14 with five salads, which represents excellent value. The vibrant salads are a treat in themselves, with favourites including the carrot and quinoa with toasted seeds, the risoni salad with preserved lemon, and the beetroot and lentils with yoghurt dressing.

Let Them Eat’s mobile food always draws a queue at the markets, with the falafel wrap highly recommended. The tasty, hand-rolled fried patties don’t suffer the dryness you find in some falafel, and the pita is also stuffed full of the trademark salads; the only problem is, it’s impossible to eat elegantly.

Other menu items: Although it offers occasional specials in the cafes, Let Them Eat’s standard menu consists of more than 30 items which are made at the business’s Rosewater kitchen, where Agius is still hand-on as chef. There is a range of soups and tarts (including caramelised onion, eggplant and feta tart, and leek and gruyere), as well as items such as pumpkin and red lentil lasagne; zucchini and red quinoa frittata, and spinach crepe with ratatouille and baked ricotta.

Something sweet: Like the mains, many of the tempting sweets are vegan and gluten-free. Popular options (most around $6) include the salted caramel chocolate brownie tart, chocolate vegan cupcakes, and a gluten-free rhubarb and cinnamon crumble.

Let Them Eat
16 Elizabeth Street, Croydon
Open Tuesday-Sunday
Central Market, Gouger Street, Adelaide
Open Monday-Saturday

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