Amazing allergy-friendly desserts at San Churro!

Establishment: San Churro Chocolateria, various locations

Cuisine: Spanish Chocolateria

Allergy information: Their growing vegan options are all dairy and egg free and also include some nut free options as well. They also have wheat/gluten free options

Suggestions: Anything cookie butter! The filled churros are delightful and I also enjoy the insanely decadent Happy Vegan (though I only recommend if you've not had any sugar for a week!)

I do love my churros! For the longest time, San Churro was the only place I could go to with my friends to have something of a safe dessert when eating out in the city. It was also only one of two places in all of Sydney where I knew safe desserts were on offer (and sadly, the other place, Fountain Vegetarian, is now gone. I do miss their lovely vegan Chocolate and vegan Orange cakes). 

The classic churros with the dark chocolate dip were a nice option to have after years of going to dessert places with the others where I usually just sipped a tea and perhaps grabbed some safe biscuits to have with it if there was a nearby Coles or Woollies. Being able to just join in with the others as we all ordered some desserts and enjoyed ourselves was brilliant. 

Thankfully there are now a few more places that offer some safe treats, particularly for those with dairy and egg allergies, and that I love (such as Yullis and Gathered Kitchen), but I have to give San Churro extra cheers for their ever-growing allergy-friendly options, some of which are pictured below.

My first ever salted caramel ice cream!

Amazingly, it wasn't until last September that I was made aware of their growing vegan menu. My friend and I had decided to spend the long weekend in Melbourne and after heading into Chinatown (to have Korean BBQ!), we went searching for some dessert, eventually landing at the San Churro in the QV. I was originally thinking of grabbing my usual churros and dark chocolate, which I ultimately did, but then I spotted something surprising among the ice creams.

You can imagine the little dance for joy my brain did when I read this.

So as evidenced by the photo above, I gave it a try and it was really lovely! It was delicious and not too sweet, which I was very curious about. It also had these little honeycomb balls which add a little something extra. I especially enjoyed it because I don't often get to try salted caramel desserts and now there is a safe ice cream!

That same evening, while looking through the menu, I noticed they appeared to have a larger vegan section and one of the items on there sounded particularly interesting, if a bit much for some dessert on the go. However, when I got back to Sydney, on the same night that my friends decided to introduce me to the amazing Ramen at RaRa, they also thought it would be a good idea to head to San Churro for dessert so that's just what we did. That evening, on Glebe Point Road, I tried what the menu called the Happy Vegan. 

Would you look at that? I'd suggest refraining from sugar for a while after this bad boy.

What you're seeing is a churro bowl with salted caramel & honeycomb gelato, dark chocolate drizzle with strawberries and Oreos. Talk about an absolute dessert explosion! I was admittedly preparing myself for way too much sweetness but it all actually worked really nicely together. It also helps that the bowl was a lot smaller than I was expecting it to be. Salted caramel ice cream with dark chocolate? No complaints there. Add in some tartness from the strawberries and a bit of crunch from the Oreos and I was one happy non-vegan vegan. The churro bowl holding it all together was the perfect savoury vessel. 

Filled churros - what a joy!

It was a fair while after when I finally caught on to the Cookie Butter items on their menu and I discovered the wonderful world of the filled churro. Putting the two together is a sweet tooth's dream. A lovely, gooey, delicious cookie buttery dream. 

My friends' churros with milk chocolate and ruby chocolate dips.

All of the pictured desserts are dairy, egg and nut free, while the ice cream is also gluten free. As a range of friendly options in the one place, it is really quite incredible. And there are even more. I can't wait to give the Cookie Butter snack pack a go and some of those drinks look really enticing. 

A word of warning about the ice cream - be aware of the scoops being used. I can manage fairly well with 'traces' but depending on the severity of your allergies, it is well worth being aware and checking with staff just to be safe. 

Otherwise, if you've felt starved for allergy-friendly desserts, do give San Churro a look in and enjoy!