Henley's Wholefoods

By Karman Lee / Cafes, Eat, Sydney / 12 March 2014

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Henley's Wholefoods

By Karman Lee / Cafes, Eat, Sydney / 12 March 2014

Eat organic, eat clean, be sustainable, go local, be sugar-free, gluten-free, dairy-free – you know you’re suppose to but cooking from scratch is time-consuming. Eating out while staying healthy use to be mind-field but now there are more health conscience cafes and restaurants sprouting up in Sydney. Henley’s Wholefoods in Bondi Junction is one such health warrior.

Owned by Sophie Henley this wonderful cafe features a menu full of organic and sustainable produce. Henley’s Wholefoods is an airy and bright cafe with lots of natural light. You feel healthier the second you step into the calm surrounds.
The first thing you’ll notice is the space. Space is premium in Sydney and usually you have more body contact bumping shoulders with a stranger than your lunch date. Not at Henley’s Wholefoods. You can actually have a chat without hearing your neighbouring entire conversation.
The second thing you notice is a gym next door with people working out. Coincidence or is the healthy life just part of Bondi living?

Lunch starts with ‘Karl’s Pearly Whites’, a fresh carrot, apple and ginger juice and an extremely green Botanica ‘Turtle Power’ juice with kale, spinach, celery, cucumber, green apple and lemon. We love the reusable, recyclable Botanica jar! You can also choose to have a range of smoothies, coffee and organic Mayde tea.
Executive chef Sascha Seear creates a new lunch menu for the week every Wednesday. The menu is inspired by what suppliers have available so it makes complete sense that the menu is every changing. Shouldn’t it be the case in all cafes and restaurants?

Everything looks so appetising so we ask Henley’s friendly manager Karl to choose for us. First up is a big plate of three different salads. ‘Perfectly Pickled’ – roasted butternut pumpkin, aioli, nori seaweed silvers and black sesame seeds; ‘Striped Zebra’ – zuchinni ribbons, lemon zested yoghurt dressing with roasted almonds; ‘Dress Me Up’- roasted beetroot, citrus dressing and orange. We can’t decide on a favourite, each salad is fresh and packed with flavour.

If you need more than salad to fuel your day Henley’s lunch menu also features ‘proteins’. During our visit the proteins include stuffed como di torro (peppers) with Mexican style pork mince (similar to a chilli con carne, minus carne), green tomato salsa or Tasmania braised beef with minted peas. Karl brings us the ‘Dished’ option which is slightly more substantial. We have the chilli served with salsa, guacamole and corn-chips. The chilli is gooooood, your-Mum’s-best- bolognese kind of good.

The glass cabinet houses juice, young coconuts, protein balls, wraps and salads ready to go, lemon squares and a cocoa and sweet potato chocolate mudcake with coconut icing. Yes that’s right sweet potato in a cake, it’s good for you! We don’t have room to give the sweets a go but they look incredible. Henley’s food is nourishing and light so you don’t get that foggy 3.00pm slump. But we’re still surprised at how full we are, not bursting but happy.

We’re keeping our eyes on Henley’s Wholefoods Facebook page for the weekly lunch menu. Previous menus have featured a Tasmanian grass fed beef ‘shepherd’s pie’, quinoa with torn cumin leg of lamb and minted coconut yoghurt and paleo pizza. Comforting wholefood heaven.