Knowing what goes into the food we eat is super important to us, and this makes finding places to eat out a little harder. Yes, we admit it, we are those customers that always take a little bit longer to order.

“Does that contain gluten/dairy/refined sugar? Is the chicken free-range? And is the beef grass-fed?” The list of questions goes on and on. We are used to it now but, oh boy, it would be nice to find a place where we could just go, order with no questions asked and leave feeling satisfied…

Well our wish was granted when THR1VE opened up in Canberra City (opposite Supabarn in the Canberra Centre) just two weeks ago. Their mission is to provide tasty food options for the busy, health conscious sorts.

Their menu is easy to understand in a ‘choose your own adventure’ sort style. For breakfast and lunch you choose your base, with your fillings and then add your extras! They also have ‘grab-n-go’ options which provide for an even quicker way to get your healthy feed!

We have visited twice now (all in the name of research to provide you a decent overview of what’s on offer…and perhaps for our own tastebud pleasure!) and we’ve been thoroughly impressed.

For breakfast, we tried the Breakfast Bowl, with three scrambled eggs, tomato, spinach, bacon (lots of it!) and smashed avocado. As you can tell they don’t go easy on the portion size! Normally we ask “where’s the rest?!” but THR1VE provided the perfect portion (aligning with their aim to provide us with high nutritional value options…yeah THR1VE!)

We also tried the Paleo Pancakes… one of our favourite things to make ourselves! We loved the cute factor of these – mini dutch pancakes (why haven’t we thought of that before?!) topped with maple syrup + cinnamon, these little morsels were delicious, and for $5.50 you can’t go wrong! You can also choose to add banana (for no extra cost!) We forgot to do this but would definitely recommend it!

For dessert (yes, breakfast dessert) we decided a smoothie would go down a treat. So we tried the chocolate fix (you can’t go wrong with chocolate) and the banana walnut. To our surprise the banana walnut came out on top! The consistency was perfect (smooth + thick) and the taste = all kinds of delish.

The following week we visited for an early dinner on Friday evening. We both have issues with food envy so ended up ordering the same thing: a lunch bowl with sweet potato + cauli mash, crisp greens (brown rice is also a base option) with lemon + herb marinated chicken, roast capsicums and basil pesto (we added smashed avocado because avocado makes EVERYTHING better)…gourmet to go! The chicken was delicious, tender and moist, and again we weren’t wondering where the rest of our meal was! The best thing is that we only waited two minutes from the time we ordered till when our dinner was delivered! Healthy fast food…who would’ve thought?

So the verdict? Healthy, satisfying, fast. Tick! Tick! Tick! We plan on venturing back to try the salmon and minute steak, which have all had raving reviews from our other health conscious friends. We also hear on the grapevine that the menu is seasonal…so expect some fresh changes come Spring/Summer! Woohoo!