Salads and Grain Bowls

Healthy and tasty bowl. The prawns were juicy and nicely seasoned. The macaroni salad had a creamy and tangy dressing. The sesame spinach was a little too cold and fibrous. The steamed cabbage was my favourite of the sides.

It’s been years since I last came to The Salad Shop and wow, it has changed so much! They now offer bowls in three sizes with both cold and warm toppings and enormous portion sizes. This was the smallest size and it gave me a massive food coma afterwards. I liked the curried cauliflower and the brussel sprouts. The egg white with spinach was a little bland but very healthy. Chicken breast was not the best, but it’s ok. Skip the broccoli rice base though, it’s an extra $1 and it comes in cubes of broccoli stem only which was honestly rather difficult to chew.

So glad that Wafuken has come to Novena! This is one of the tastiest, healthiest salad bowls I’ve had. The sous vide chicken breast is so tender, it almost melts in your mouth, and it’s only $4! The roasted vegetables are well-cooked and seasoned, the ramen egg is of just the right consistency, and the sesame spinach salad is tasty.

Protein: chicken breast ($4)
Sides: roasted vegetables ($2), ramen egg ($2), sesame spinach salad ($2)

It’s been a long time since I came here, and it was good to come back to charred broccoli and scrambled egg whites again. The sweet potato in this summer menu is not the usual mashed version but rather half a baked orange sweet potato, which I found too sweet. Everything else was delicious.

Bases: sweet potato, quinoa
Protein: herb-crusted dory fillet
Supplements: broccoli, cucumber salad, scrambled egg whites
Topping: furikake
Dressing: smoked salsa

This bowl comes with quinoa, kale, broccoli, sweet corn, cherry tomatoes, dried cranberries, beetroot hummus, spiced chickpeas, falafel and dukkah. I added sundried tomatoes for $1. This is the cheapest bowl on the menu but it’s bursting with colour and flavour, with a mix of sweet and fresh ingredients.

The quality of the ingredients is impressive. The curried cauliflower was nicely cooked and seasoned (though spicier than I remember them to be), the cubed egg whites were cooked just right, the roasted pineapple was amazingly sweet and juicy, and the chicken breast was tender.

Base: romaine lettuce
Protein: chicken breast
Sides: curried cauliflower, egg whites, roasted pineapple
Dressing: citrus ponzu

In my opinion, Poke Theory has one of the best poke bowls around, and at just $9.90, it is one of the most value-for-money as well. The 7 standard toppings in this bowl are my favourites, but you can also choose others like kimchi or pineapple. I added an extra ramen egg for $1; my other favourite additional topping is teriyaki edamame. A new change since late-2020 is that you can request for aburi-ed salmon or tuna on weekdays after 3pm or weekends all day, and I love the aburi salmon. I got a salad base here, but I also really like the lemon herb quinoa and brown rice bases.

Base: salad
Toppings: wakame seaweed, sweet corn, carrot, cucumber, beetroot, cherry tomato, mashed sweet potato
Poke: aburi salmon
Extra topping: ramen egg (+$1)
Garnishes: furikake, tobiko
Sauce: mentaiko mayo (not pictured)

This has improved since I last tried it 3 years ago, from what I can remember. A small bowl gets you 75g of poke (original/wasabi mayo/spicy ahi tuna or salmon, a base (rice or salad), 4 normal toppings (mainly veg/fruit options), 1 superfood topping (avocado/quail’s egg/ikura/chia seeds), and there are several other add-one like ginger, scallions, kimchi (which I opted not to have) and purple cabbage. Although I chose a salad base, I was surprisingly full. I like the thick smooth cubes of tuna and the more unusual ingredients like ginger and ikura. It’s pricier than nearby A Poke Theory at Velocity where a similar sized bowl costs $9.90, but the ingredients are different and I’d be hard-pressed to say which is better.

Base: salad
Poke: original ahi tuna
Toppings: corn, edamame, golden raisins, seaweed salad
Superfood: ikura

This salad comes with a large amount of greens, seared tuna, quail eggs with runny centers, olives, pumpkin seeds, blueberries, dried cranberries and a light passion fruit dressing. I liked how the tuna wasn’t as salty as in other places. Good for a light lunch, and probably the healthiest option on the menu.

Almost every ingredient I’ve tried at Daily Cut is excellent. My favourite in this bowl were the balsamic-glazed carrots, which were tender and very well seasoned with balsamic, and the charred broccoli, which were cooked till they were very soft yet retaining a firm bite. The sirloin steak was juicy, flavourful, and not fatty.

Bases: mashed purple sweet potatoes, romaine lettuce
Protein: sirloin steak (+$0.75)
Supplements: balsamic-glazed carrots, brussels sprouts, charred broccoli (+$1 for extra supplement)
Topping: crispy garlic chips
Dressing: lime squeeze

I was in the mood for a carby creamy salad, so went to Plain Vanilla and got a mix of 2 salads in small size (petite is $6, small is $12, large is $18). One of them had orrechiette and carrots. The other had kale, red rice, pumpkin, edamame, pine nuts, pistachios, feta cheese and an avocado dressing. Both were creamy and delicious, the kale salad more so.

Trying out the new winter menu. There are some nice warm earthy items on the menu. I really liked the turkey breast, which was unexpectedly moist and juicy. The brussels sprouts and carrots were beautifully tender. I couldn’t taste any orange in the beetroot and orange salad, and I would have preferred the mashed sweet potatoes less milky, but I still liked them. The only thing I didn’t like was the cranberry compote which was very sweet.

Bases: mashed purple sweet potatoes, romaine lettuce
Protein: turkey breast (+$0.75)
Supplements: balsamic-glazed carrots, beetroot and orange salad, brussels sprouts
Topping: croutons
Dressing: cranberry compote