Serotonin Dealer – Dani Valent

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52 Madden Grove, Burnley, 9428 8256

My score: 3.5/5

It’s not just a cafe. Serotonin Dealer is a “happiness educational institution” with a three-pronged attack on blah. There’s the eatery with its colourful, health-focused vegetarian food. There’s exercise: trainers in the adjacent studio would love the opportunity to turn your body into a toned temple. And coming soon, there will be seminars offering tools to smooth the path to happiness. You can’t knock the project, especially when the cafe is so bright and shiny, with exuberant yellow flowers, sunny cushions, la-la-land swing-seats along one window and gleaming gold cutlery. The waiters are similarly beaming. You’ll think I’m making it up but, while I was there, the sun refracted through the windows and covered everyone in rainbows. Karma, hey?

The menu is based on the purported healing and happy-making properties of eating well. If you’re avoiding gluten or garlic or general grossness, there are plenty of dishes to suit. Ingredients keep it real and are mostly organic though not avowedly seasonal or local. Think zucchini linguine, the requisite ancient grains, a chilli avocado smash and ‘smiling pizza’. The big breakfast comes with fried or poached eggs, dark rye toast, spinach, roasted tomatoes, mushrooms and beetroot relish. It’s nice but I was looking around for salt and butter which probably says as much about my bludgeoned palate as the clean eating approach here. Same deal with the lunchy ‘nutrition bomb’, a big bowl piled with kale, broccoli, roasted vegetables, ‘powerkraut’ and poached egg. My biorhythms probably said ‘yay’ but my taste buds didn’t swoon. For drinks, frothy nut-milk drinks include a winning ‘golden latte’ with turmeric, ginger and pepper, and smoothies have major superfood cred.

I like Serotonin Dealer. The aim is true, the space is upbeat and, when the food is as zoomy as the people eating it, please do deal me in.

See their website.

More healthy eats:

Street Organics, 1430 High Street, Malvern, 9972 8329.
It’s mostly a food store, with bulk ingredients and health-focused meals, but there is space to sit down for smoothies and snacks too.

Patch Cafe, 1/32 Bendigo Street, Richmond, 9029 0328.
Inspired by paleo and all about clean eating, Patch does bright, attractive dishes like schnitzel with kimchi slaw and chia-crusted salmon.

Walk Don’t Run, 17 Morey Street, Armadale, 9500 0823.
Nobody in Armadale has eaten gluten since 2010 so this ‘mindful eating’ cafe is in the right spot. Think detox salad, vegetable slice with activated cashew cream and, of course, kale smoothies.

First published in The Age, June 28, 2015.

2018-05-04T15:21:30+10:00

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