Bondi Harvest – Detox By Day, Retox By Night

By Dining Dave on March 17, 2015 in Food

Are you living the Bondi lifestyle? If not, but you’d like to, a new café based on locally sourced produce, seasonal cooking and healthy eating is here to help you get there, one way or another.

Created by Jo & Willy’s Depot owner/chef Guy Turland and his creatively minded business partner Mark Alston, Bondi Harvest is an extension – or evolution – of their popular online video series of the same name, which focuses on Guy’s food philosophy and active, healthy lifestyle.

Opened in mid-December, you’ll find Bondi Harvest on the first floor of The Eastern Hotel at Westfield Bondi Junction. The single room venue is quite large and resembles the deck of a ship, with a bow overlooking Oxford Street and a stern gazing out at the Dior and Tiffany stores in the shopping centre. It’s essentially divided into two sections: the juice/smoothie bar and the dining area, though there is seating on all sides. A very long U-shaped wood-plank table is the centerpiece on the dining side, with fresh food being created in its centre. The room’s motif ranges from tall sailing ships and Bondi Beach volleyball to yachting and French paintings; it certainly is an interesting place to eat, drink and be merry.

My companion and I sat down for lunch at the ‘stern’ side of the U-shaped table for what was a special sampling of the lunch menu for invited guests. Both Mark and Guy were there to explain in detail how Bondi Harvest works, which added an extra dimension to the experience.
Highlights of the tasting menu included the BH Special and First Date smoothies, the former featuring tumeric milk, mango, goji berries, blueberries and coconut, and the latter a blend of cocoa, avocado, banana, dates and coconut water.

On the food front we kicked off proceedings with a pastrami smoked salmon sambo and a chilli lime broccoli salad with grilled haloumi, before tucking in to a quinoa salad with pumpkin and pulled lamb, and a grilled chicken sambo.

Dressed up with house-made fermented veggies, tomato and yoghurt tartare, the salmon sambo was a light and tasty choice, while the broccoli salad simply blew us away. The quinoa and pumpkin salad’s delightful panoply of flavours left me lost for words and the chicken sambo with its zucchini ‘noodles’ was so scrumptious I had to ask for another portion.

Still wanting more, we dove into some off-event menu pancakes with lemon-sweetened ricotta and rhubarb compote to finish. Superb.
As well as the delicious breakfast and lunch menus, Bondi Harvest also launched its dinner menu recently. Be sure to try the booze-stocked ‘naughty’ side of the juice bar if you do dinner. As Guy says, “What’s the point of detoxing during the day if you can’t ‘retox’ at night?”

Bondi Harvest

Address | Level 1, The Eastern, 500 Oxford Street, Bondi Junction
Phone | (02) 9222 9484
Website | www.theeastern.com.au for bookings; www.bondiharvest.com for info
Open | Mon-Tue: 7:30am-4pm; Wed-Fri: 7.30am-10pm; Sat: 9am-10pm; Sun: 10am-4pm
Prices | Brekky $14-19; Lunch $14-23; Dinner $16-26
Seats | 84
Cards | All major cards
Licensed | Yes