Revive

Revive is one of my favourite lunch places in Auckland’s CBD. I have been coming here for about five years now and I love their delicious vegetarian salads, dahl, curries, soups and many other dishes! Here is a taste of what you might find on their menu:
— Revive Raw Salad with beetroot, carrot and mint
— Israeli Couscous with pumpkin, homemade aioli and green beans (I am not a pumpkin fan, but this salad makes it surprisingly taste good!)
— Moroccan tagine with chickpeas on brown rice
— Leek and feta frittata with potato and free range eggs
— Mexican ‘not chicken’ and bean stew on brown rice… and so much more!
Revive also sells smoothies and great lunch box snacks which you can purchase at the counter — their bliss balls are moorish! And, if you fancy recreating Revive’s dishes at home, the owner, Jeremy Dixon, has released five cookbooks, which you can purchase in most stores or on Revive’s online website.
Note: They now have new eco-​friendly packaging, which is used for dine in and take out (see picture). Also, if you sign up to Revive’s newsletter, you will receive a recipe each week, great tips for living a healthy lifestyle and printable $ 4 off vouchers — bonus!!!

I was very excited to try Revive, however this place is not for someone with nut allergies as myself. The hot options such as the curries are prepared with cashew nut paste, and many of the salads have nuts or peanuts. So I was thought OK it is a vegan place, I have seen this before. However the one thing I could not understand is why the smoothies cannot be make nut free? They all have cashew milk and the lady who works there told me they already get them like that and she could not make me one with no milk in it. Pre made smoothies??? At a healthy vegan place???
However that’s why I bring my boyfriend everywhere with me, so I can vicariously «eat» through him. He enjoyed his food of Turkish «meatballs» on brown rice and said he would go back. The portions look generous and it filled him up.

What a disappointment! After reading the great reviews, and seeing the photos my fellow Unilocalers posted, I was really taken aback at what I saw at 6:30 on a Tuesday night. It was like a tale of two cities, and I was in the wrong state.
There were three salad bowls on display. AND, they were VERY tired looking. There were not any hot meals offered. The display case was almost bare.
Maybe they’re better at lunch… I don’t know. I did not indulge in any dining here, as I lost my appetite when I walked in.
PS. I was advised by staff that they now close at 7pm, and let their offerings go until finished, without replenishment or updating.

I have to say, I am quite the carnivore and yet Revive never fails to impress me! Located conveniently in the heart of the city, Revive is a great place to come for a quick, fresh and nourishing lunch.
The place is usually packed at the peak lunch hours so there is a line, albeit only a short waiting time. What I really enjoy about Revive is that their hot meals change daily and the salad bar changes weekly, which keeps it interesting — you are pretty much guaranteed a different meal with each visit.
On this occasion, I ordered the Not Chicken Alfredo with Tofu on Brown Rice ($ 13). All hot meals come with your choice of salad from the salad bar, and I opted for the Mediterranean Potato Salad. I really wish it would have been bigger, because it was so good! I found the meal perhaps on the bland side and commanding a shake of salt and pepper. Despite being tofu, it was very much ‘meat’ tasting. I think Revive’s concept is not to ‘fool’ people with ‘fake meat’, but to provide us with equally, if not more delicious, vegetarian and vegan alternatives.
Wonderful food and brilliant service, and all at an affordable price. You definitely do not need to be a vegan or a vegetarian to enjoy Revive!

Reveive has become my new favourite lunch place in the city. The line is usually quite long it moves really fast and you get served in no time. I love how the hot meals change everyday and the weeks menu is available to view in the window as well as online. They also have monthly discount vouchers online and student discount emails (usually about $ 5 off, score!). I have my favourite hot meals which I keep an eye out for, the cannelloni and filo wraps are fantastic. The salads are also delicious. For a healthy and quick lunch you can’t go past revive.

I’ve been a huge fan of Revive ever since my uni days. while everyone else was buying slop from the university food court or Subway (which were pretty much our only options within a five minute vicinity) Revive is pretty much your go-​to if you’re looking for a healthy and affordable alternative to a rat-​meat pie and Red Bull from some mediocre café which would easily set you back $ 10 within the CBD. I think it’s actually pretty sad that there are only a very few number of places like Revive within the whole of Auckland, it says so much about our priorities. Health is wealth people!
I recently had a read of both their cookbooks. most of the recipes are very simple and I think it would be useful for people who are interested in vegetarianism or are looking for great salad recipes. However I feel like a majority of the recipes are made for a certain palette. that is to say, a Western palette. Especially most of the more ‘ethnic’/‘exotic’ salads are very mild and all start to taste the same. of generic curry powder. I’ve noticed this in the salads that I’ve bought too, especially if something is labelled as ‘Moroccan’ or ‘Indian’ or the like I expect a wonderful heady mixture of herbs and spices and instead I just get curry powder over and over again. I wouldn’t say any of the origin-​specific recipes are very authentic.
Anyways. I do really like Revive so I’m going to continue buying my lunch here and I’m glad Revive is doing so well.

I’ve got pretty mixed feelings about Revive: one one hand, I like going into a place and knowing that I can order some food that isn’t going to be full of dodgy looking pieces of weird meat offcuts; on the other hand, whilst the food here is always OK, I’ve never really been wowed by it. I guess it’s a solid three stars for me: it’s totally reliable, and fine, but there’s not much of a wow factor. I always feel like everything needs a bit more kick — maybe they just need to be a bit more generous with herbs or chili or the like. It’s also good for them that they don’t open weekends, but not so good if you’re a nearby resident and are feeling a bit lazy and not like cooking!
I also desperately wish that they had smoothies that I like: the combinations always inevitably have one ingredient that I don’t get along with, but that’s more my problem than theirs!

One rainy, winter day I went into Revive and tried a hotpot and it was delicious and filling.
Revive focuses on providing healthy food options and has a whole salad bar with about 9 choices, which change often. All options are vegetarian and if you think salads are boring, you can’t have tried anything from Revive yet.
Revive have published two cookbooks which retail for $ 30 each. I have only used the first book so far, but there are some really good recipes in there (lots from the actual café) so I recommend taking a look at that. Purchase in store or from their website.
Also if you sign up to their mailing list on their website, each week you receive an email that contains a recipe, some cooking or health tips, and maybe even a voucher.

Revive is one of those places you eat at and your body says; «why thank you Katie, you’ve just done a good thing». I must admit my body is no stranger to the less healthy variety of fast food because I find it very hard to trade tastiness for healthiness. The good thing about Revive is there isn’t too much of a trade off. Inevitably there are some salads that are nicer than others but it’s reasonably priced and the medium salad is definitely enough to fill me up with even a little extra to spare.

Try to head to Revive at an awkward time of day — the queues between 12 – 2 are usually out the door. It’s worth the wait though. Once you get inside you can choose from a huge range of salads (and it’s not just boring greens, it’s Thai noodle salad, it’s chickpea-​based deliciousness, it’s Israeli couscous…) plus there are usually two hot options if you want something even heartier. It’s all vegetarian and based on the Revive principle of avoiding the use of sugar as a sweetener (they use honey or dates instead) and generally making things that are wholesome and nutritious.
I’ve never eaten a meal I didn’t enjoy there and I’m addicted to the smoothies. If that isn’t enough, you can pick up their generous discount vouchers on the back of your bus ticket or online, and they have two cookbooks out with low-​fuss, never-​fail recipes that have become essential in my cooking repertoire (although I am sorely tempted to rip out the page that preaches about getting in touch with god — yes, Revive is Christian-​run).