Healthy high-crunch lunches at Britomart

For Japanese-by-way-of-Hawai’i, you can’t go past Yeah Bowl’s takeout poké bowls (bonus: the actual bowl is compostable). Top your favourite combination of fresh cucumber, edamame, carrot, tropical fruit, crispy shallots, spring or white onion, seaweed, almonds, coconut or pickled ginger with tuna, salmon, tofu or chicken. If you’re going low-carb, skip the rice.

For a bar snack, The Brit’s delicious triple-cheese and ham toasted sammies can’t be beat, but they’re not exactly Heart Foundation-approved. But their Green Bowl ($18) is possibly the healthiest lunch on the block. Broccolini, edamame beans, snow peas and feta are piled on a freekeh wheat base and brightened with avocado dressing, in a lunch that will have you feeling super-virtuous.

On Cafe Hanoi’s new menu, there's a wide range of salads to try: like dried beef with carrot, papaya, Thai chilli, sprouts and peanuts ($20), or roast duck with red cabbage, pickles, lotus root, lime, chilli and ginger ($26).

Amano has a large range of inventive vegetable sides, ranging in price from $10 to $14, which can be mix-and-matched to create the healthy lunch of your dreams. We like the combination of chargrilled courgette, buffalo curd, almond and chilli alongside chargrilled asparagus, pine nuts, pecorino and shallot. 

Right now, it’s that transitional phase between the last of the winter root veg and first of the summer herbs, and the menu at Ortolana is taking full advantage, with a delicate beetroot, halloumi, mint, cumin and almond salad ($24). Green it up with the addition of a Gypsy side salad ($10) with goddess dressing.

Salads are a strong point of The Store’s diner menu. You could get through a week rotating between the smashed eggs with courgetti, halloumi and chilli salsa verde ($24), arrow squid salad with fennel, orange and chorizo ($29) and the organic chicken, apple and walnut salad with cultured cream  ($28). 

On Britomart Place, the Pita Pit has a wide and accessibly-priced range of salad bowls, starting at $14, and encompassing your choice of leaves, tomato, carrot, cucumber, onion, pickles, avocado, beans, grains, roast veggies and proteins, finished with your favourite dressing.

Next door, La Petit Fourchette has just one salad on their all-day breakfast menu, but it’s the only salad you need. The Salade Chevre Chaud combines goat's cheese, New Zealand honey and dried figs with fresh mesclun and romaine lettuce ($25).

And last but not least, Smart Sushi in the Atrium on Takutai does a fine line in takeaway salad bowls, with options for teriyaki or katsu chicken, salmon, wakame, classic crab and udon noodles.