Supa Bowl in the city has hit city workers by storm with its fresh poke bowls as Canberra’s first dedicated poke bowl store. Order forms displayed on a stand near the entrance need to be filled in. You can pick one of the signature bowls where you get to pick up to two bases (sushi rice, brown rice, soba noodles, zoodles or mixed greens), then pick your protein (salmon, tuna, chicken or tofu, each accompanied by different vegetables). If you prefer to make something else up, there’s also the Build Your Own option where the possibilities are endless! Choose your base, protein, toppings, sauce and garnishes at a minimum of $14.50 per bowl.
My friend and I had lunch during a weekday at around 12.15pm to be greeted by a massive queue out of the door already. I didn’t know there was an order form as they had all been taken leaving the stand empty but I’d already decided on Supa Bowl’s salmon poke bowl with carrot, cucumber, edamame, beetroot, daikon, Supa Bowl sauce, toasted nori and tobiko ($15.50). I chose sushi rice and soba noodles as my base. After paying for my order, I was given a receipt with my number on it, and joined other customers waiting to pick up their orders. Luckily there were a few vacant stools available and we sat down to wait. With all the people in the queue, I was surprised that it only took about 10 minutes before my number was called. My poke bowl was still warm from the sushi rice. I loved the mix of fresh ingredients – the edamame were my favourite as they were juicy and crunchy as well as the large chunks of salmon. Very tasty, healthy and satisfying but I thought the portion was on the small side.
My friend built her own bowl and it clicked that building a bowl may be better value as you can pick choose up to 5 toppings (included in the $14.50 price) and ALL the garnishes (7 garnishes that are included). I’ll need to try building my own bowl next time. You can also pick extra protein (an extra $2 for more salmon, extra $4 for more tuna, and an extra $1 for chicken and tofu). My friend’s order got lost somehow as she noticed her number had been skipped. Thankfully this was sorted out quickly.
Supa Bowl also brings ‘puffles’ aka the Hong Kong egg waffle to the Canberra scene. Puffles are freshly made so there might be a bit of a wait time for this to be made. The fresh plain puffle is only $5. The puffle with a scoop of ice cream, fresh fruit and 2 toppings will set you back $9. I chose the puffle with mango sorbet, what I thought were crushed cookies but turned out to be rice crackers and jelly beans as my toppings. If you’ve never tasted this, don’t worry it doesn’t taste eggy. It’s a popular Asian street food dish similar to regular waffle batter but placed in a mould allowing for an egg-like or bubble-like shape. I love that these can be shared as all you need to do is break off one of the bubbles.
Supa Bowl also has a soft serve machine and they change the flavour every couple of weeks. I visited when the flavour was sea salt ($4).
For winter, there are poke bowl and miso soup packages available. The large queue can be disheartening and it did go slowly. Although there were two cash registers, there was only one person managing all the orders. I guess it’s so the staff making the poke bowls can keep up with the demand. There are a few tables outside which seem to get snagged quickly, with some stools and a counter by the windows inside, but it’s mostly a take away joint. I recommend going early at midday or before, or late after 1.30pm to avoid the lunch time rush.
Supa Bowl
40 Marcus Clarke Street, Canberra City
Opening hours:
Monday to Friday: 11.30am-8.30pm
Saturday: 12.30pm-8.30pm
Foodgasm 8/10
Value for money 7/10
Service 7/10
FPJ score 22/30
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