Enjoy dining without burning a hole in your pocket, no membership required
With the high saturation of salad shops in the CBD area, it's hard to stand out amongst the crowd. Platypus' salad bar venture stands out as the cheapest option around. $15 and above for the Daily Cut? Close to $20 for Shinkansen? Fuhgeddaboudit! Choosing the high-protein food box option like this one here (2 meats, no carbs and yes, you can take a poached salmon fillet as one of the options) is only going to set you back...wait for it...$8.50! That's right, you get change from a tenner at this takeaway-only place!
The veggie options are a bit limited as you can only pick one of the usual suspects (think mixed capsicums, cherry tomatoes, carrots etc.) to add to the bed of mixed lettuce, red onions and alfalfa, along with a topping and a dressing. Now, if you feel the carb cravings hitting you hard, you can take the balanced box option ($7.50) where you get one carb option (fried rice with smoked duck, varieties of pasta that change everyday, and potato slices) in place of one protein option.
As for the meats, there's quite a variety to pick from. There's salmon, beef meatballs, pork cooked three different ways (which changes daily), two types of chicken (which also changes daily), and of course, smoked duck. Their pork and duck is stellar stuff, their veggies are fresh, and the sauces are spot on. It's everything a salad should be, fresh, satisfying and simple.
EDIT: Nope, this isn't from Platypus Lobster Shack at Pickering Street. It's from the gourmet2go food bar at Golden Shoe carpark, but the geotag is being a naughty bugger again.