Tea Shrine

On Gregory Terrace in the middle of Alice Springs, this vegetarian cafe pairs an encyclopaedic tea list, four pages of it, to drink in or take home, with a compact meat-free kitchen. The signature is a laksa bento, its broth deep and its meat drawn from mock proteins, joined by dim sims, dumplings, spring rolls and mock-meat sandwiches, plus a main that changes with the day of the week. In a desert town where the default meal leans heavily to steak and schnitzel, a fully vegetarian room is close to an anomaly, which is part of what makes it a fixture for locals and passing travellers alike. The tea obsession gives the place its character: unhurried, a little contemplative, as much somewhere to linger over a pot as to eat. Daytime trade only, closed Sundays.