Nosh is a fairly new Japanese-inspired health-food cafe that primarily does bowls filled with…read moregreens, grains, and proteins. They have "signature bowls," which all come with edamame, radish, seaweed strips, and sesame seed -- you can choose your protein (sashimi salmon, sashimi tuna, chicken, beef, prawn, or tempeh).
You can also custom-build your own bowl choosing one of the above proteins, then choosing a base (brown rice, jasmine rice, quinoa, cauliflower-corn rice, or coconut-turmeric rice) and finally choosing a salad (a mix of beetroot, kale, goji, and walnut; a mix of broccoli, shiitake and pumpkin; or a mix of roasted sweet potato, capsicum, and spinach).
Finally, they have these little wrap things called "nori tacos," which are basically supposed to be little tacos made out of nori sheets instead of corn taco shells. There's nothing TRULY taco-like about Nosh's nori tacos, but nevertheless it's an interesting idea. You can choose from salmon, chicken, prawns, beef, or tempeh for the nori tacos.
Tacos are 1 for $7.50, 2 for $14, and 3 for $20. Bowls are in the $11-13 range (small) and $14-17 range (large) depending on your ingredients. To me, this is overpriced by at least a couple of dollars. I mean, the bowls are fresh and tasty, and may have more expensive ingredients than usual (mine had quinoa and goji berries, for example), but it still seems overpriced given the portion sizes, which aren't big. If you're not someone who eats a lot for lunch, the small will be fine -- but for most people, it would be way too small. Go with the large if you're in doubt.
In terms of vegan options, all of the vegetarian options here are also vegan, and all clearly marked on the menu. I got the Tempeh Teri-san signature bowl, which came with teriyaki-glazed tempeh bits, regular tofu, lotus, quinoa, beetroot, kale, walnuts, edamame, goji berries, seaweed strips, and radishes. The tempeh was lovely and well-marinated (if you're not a fan of tempeh or tofu, you'll know like me that a good long soak in a delicious marinade makes all the difference in the world). At first glance I thought my bowl was heavy on the greens and thin on the quinoa, but it turns out the quinoa was all very deeply buried so I didn't even get to it until last.
Everything was very healthy and fresh-tasting. Like some super-healthy dishes, it was also mildly on the bland side, but not too bad. It's definitely rare finding food in this world that happens to be Japanese (or Japanese-inspired), offers vegan options, AND is actually healthy, so it gets bonus points for that. It's a bit cost-prohibitive, though, so go here on a day when you're feeling good about spending money on something healthy.
Atmosphere-wise, the place is still pretty new and therefore bustling with people curious to try something new and original (which it kind of is, for this area.) All the seats were taken, and take-away food (which is what I got) required about a 15-minute wait (I went at 12:30pm).
Staff was friendly and efficient.
In the morning, they do coffee, and it seems pretty popular with the 10am coffee break crowd.
Worth a look if you're in the area and want something healthy, as long as you've got the cash to spare.
