Monday, October 11, 2010

Iku Wholefood

Iku is a vegan cafe that sells healthy style prepared dishes, there are 12 stores in total in Sydney. We visited a store in the CBD which was situated in a food court but I noticed that they had actual stores that I walked past in Bondi and Darlinghurst.
They sell a whole range of vegan dishes including lasagne, burgers, laska, cassaroles and salads and desserts. They try to use organic and local produce and are very g/f friendly too. Toby and I didn't actually have room for an actual meal so decided to share a snack pack which allowed us to sample a variety of the snacks that they sold including: a rice ball, rice paper roll, nori roll, tofu pocket, polenta slice, beetroot salad and two dipping sauces-tahini and chilli. It was either mostly g/f or all g/f. Everything was delicious, although it was all served cold. The tahini dipping sauce was great and I don't even like tahini, and the chilli was moderately spicy. The rice balls were probably our favourite. Although, next time I'm keen to try the lasagna though after Ingrid's glowing recommendation.
We also tried a friand which was g/f and made basically from almond meal, rice flour, tofu and maple syrup, it was ok but perhaps a little too healthy for me, I do like my super sweet unhealthy desserts.

I could see if I worked in Sydney CBD that this would make a great lunch option, if Sydney can have 12 stores, why can't Melbourne have 1? It would be great to have a healthy vegan cafe in the CBD!


Iku Wholefood-MLC Centre
Shop 6, Food court
19a Martin Place
Mon-Fri 8am-5.30pm

I struggled to find many blog reviews of Iku, so if you have blogged about it let me know and I'll show you some link love. Lisa mentioned their snacks here, and a cupcake or two mentioned their salads here. Edited to add Theresa's review here

Only 1 more post from Toby to complete our Sydney series.

4 comments:

  1. I've been to a few of their stores. The little black rice and sago dessert cup things were my favourites. The macro "burger" was an insult and my friand was soggy. The lasagna is good though and I will give them another chance next time I'm in Sydney.

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  2. I love the friands! Iky are great but pricey, if they were in Melbourne I probably wouldn't eat there much anyway.

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  3. I found Iku a bit overwhelming. It was so crowded that I didn't feel like I had time to study the menu to choose the best thing. And it was so expensive! Here's our review of it: http://travelingvegan.blogspot.com/2010/02/sydney-vegan-monday.html

    Still, I think it's so cool that there are vegan fast food places at all, so I'm not complaining too much

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  4. Veganator, I didn't even see their black rice and sago desserts.

    Lisa, I didn't notice that they were overly pricey. I guess I expect to pay a little more for organic food in the CBD, anyway.

    Theresa, which store did you go to? When I went past the darlinghurst one a couple of times it was empty.

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