Bowl’d restaurant offers fare to bowl you over

A sizzling new addition to the Johannesburg culinary landscape is Bowl’d, a modern, elegant restaurant that will help redefine your taste buds.

This contemporary dining experience is set in a beautiful urban atmosphere in Morningside, Sandton, and, as I discovered, offers so much more than just a dining experience.

It caters for private events, has dining areas, a wine cellar with an outstanding choice of wines, a private lounge and a separate pool-side event space.

People are becoming a great deal more health conscious and there is a tendency towards vegan and vegetarian food. The restaurant serves food predominantly in bowls and there are numerous healthy options. Guests are encouraged to indulge in what they call “communal sharing” of food.

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Bowl’d offers an exciting fusion menu of Mediterranean, Asian and African delicacies that cater for the most jaded palate. It embraces both vegan and vegetarian cuisine in a creative way.

A novelty is that the price of each item on the extensive menu is indicated by the symbol of a bowl and each bowl is the equivalent of R40.

There are so many combinations that taking your time in ordering your dish is a pre-requisite to fine dining. The dishes are prepared from scratch, meaning the ingredients are fresh. A waiter is on hand to guide you and the recommendations are helpful.

The atmosphere is convivial, yet contemporary in design with an open plan kitchen where you can watch your meal being prepared by a female-driven team of chefs. At the opposite end of the 300-seater establishment is a wide bar stocking an enormous amount of exotic beverages.

What strikes one is the meticulous attention to detail in all aspects of the restaurant operation, from front of house to the servers, and from the kitchen to the meal itself. Herbs are grown in their own garden on the premises.

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There is also the carefully selected, reasonably priced wine list with names from many of the country’s top estates. The restaurant’s sommelier is very knowledgeable.

The menu, which includes an impressive range of sushi creations, also has vegan starters such as Corn Gazpacho and Tofu Parcels, both R80 and vegetarian starters that include a Bread Board (R40) and Asparagus Salad (R80).

Dim Sum, fish, poultry and meat creations are well represented on the menu and choices are difficult. Even the desserts are vegan, with a lot less sugar content.

As a starter my wife ordered the Tigers Eye Salmon sushi and I settled for the melt-in-your-mouth scallops. For my main course I selected a delicious Miso Duck Breast Bowl (R160) which consisted of crispy duck, avocado, tiny pickled mushrooms, carrots, cucumber, savoy cabbage and a miso dressing, while my wife tackled a succulent grilled fillet of beef (R200) with all the trimmings. I helped her.

My dessert was a taste sensation, the Vietnamese Chocolate Coffee which I had never before experienced.

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Bowl’d, which is the sister restaurant to the excellent, long-running establishment The Codfather, guarantees an extraordinary dining experience. I was certainly bowl’d over!

Info

Bowl’d Masingita Towers

• 15 West Road South, Sandton, First Floor
• Tel: 010-020-8356
• E-mail: gm@bowld.co.za
• Open seven days a week for breakfast, lunch and dinner
• Dress code: Smart casual from 6pm upwards

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