• 4
• healthy bowls

Contrary to the blurb above, there are not only grains to chose as bases, but also spinach leaves, mashed pumpkin, and mashed potato. You chose one or two bases (which is nice if you wanna mix it up) with 4-6 other dishes and sides and it'll cost you between $12.80 - $14.80. Now that we've got that cleared up, on with the review. I found the ordering system a bit disfunctional. You pick up a printed menu and tick off the things you want. Seems simple and efficient but I found myself looking from the sheet to the glass counter where the food was displayed, trying to work out what I was ordering. The dishes and sides are listed under headings which can also cause a little confusion. I ordered "cauliflower, black turtle beans, tumeric, and curry leaves" from the "smashes" section of the menu and (thankfully) there was nothing smashed about it. I love that there are influences of a bunch of different national cuisines - Japanese, Indian, Vietnamese, European - so that you can design your bowl depending on what you feel like on the day. If you want to go for a bit of everything, that's fine too and, mercifully, they don't load all the food into the one bowl, letting the flavours mingle. I also love the range of fermented foods on offer and that there's a good balance between proteins, grains, and fresh veggies. I found 4 items for $12.80 reasonably priced for a nicely filling, fast lunch in the CBD that I felt good about eating. If you don't mind sitting next to people scoffing burgers and fish and chips (don't bother me), the Emporium food court is much plusher than your average. I also grabbed a slice of the raw, vegan, lemon cheesecake to take away. There's a great selection made of the Mornington Peninsula by "Evelyn" for $7.80 each. I usually find raw vegan cakes a bit too rich and greasy with all the coconut and cashew but this one was a dream. Light, fluffy, creamy, with a refreshing lemon tang. They're packaged with a full ingredients list to prove just how full of lovely things (like activated macadamias, coconut water, and Victorian Murray River gourmet salt) they are. Be careful if you're taking away, though - they're precious little treasures and crumble easily. I'm looking forward to trying some more of their stuff. Already planning my next bowl.