Healthy, Tasty Lunch

3.5/5 Stars

Refresh offers a creative menu of lunchtime items, with decent desserts as well. If quality keeps up and a delivery service is added, it will be a great new addition to the city’s lunch options. There are wraps, paninis and sandwiches on multi-grain bread, with avocado featuring prominently and a good number of vegetarian options. With its white and green décor and good juice and smoothie menu, Refresh is reminiscent of Beijing’s Livewell Café. The “mozzacado sandwich” (¥30) is made with fresh mozzarella, tomato, avocado and bacon, with a generous spread of pesto. The very large tofu and shiitake panini (¥35) is a healthy vegetarian sandwich with slabs of tofu, pan-fried with pesto and thick slices of mushrooms. It’s a good combination, but the mushroom pieces are so large that they remained a bit cold, even after the sandwich was grilled. The date salad (¥28), served in a wooden bowl, is also large. The homemade dressing on this spinach, date, bacon and pine nut salad is excellent, and the flavors of the ingredients come together very nicely. The beautiful carrot cake (¥15) is sadly bland and dry, but the muffins (¥10) are as good as the ones at Starbucks, and the lime cheesecake (¥18) is creamy and delicious.

Sienna Parulis-Cook