Meraki Soulfood Kitchen

One of my go to places, never had a bad experience with food or service. Great atmosphere and the staff is lovely. Chocolate protein pancakes is a must. Would recommend to everyone to check out this place!

Have you hear of Meraki?
Well, I hadn’t until a few weeks ago! And I AM SO HAPPY I DID BECAUSE THESE GUYS, WOW!

I actually visited it first in a spontaneous little trip to try a new place and support a cafe during the difficult times of COVID and I couldn’t have been more pleased with all my experience that obviously I had to visit again!

Meraki Whole Food Kitchen has actually opened its doors to bring good quality food that is basically a paradise for the health based foodies that enjoy wholesome, filling and high quality foods. They reinforce the idea that health-conscious doesn’t have to mean only boring or taste-less food and they have a menu packed with food that will make your mouth drooling and dream for more and more!

They provide both vegan and gluten free options as most cafes do these days and they have not just a few options but the actual staff is very kind and happy to accommodate any dietary requirements!

They are located at Southport, Gold Coast and the place is not in a Main Street but quite admirable and eye catching due to the plants around it. It seems like you’re entering a house and once you do take a step in, you can see that the walls and painted with some incredible drawing! And it gets better! Actually once you step indoors, they have the most incredible design of a women and flowers in what it seems to be a pot/vase and the ambience is so enjoyable to hang around.

They surprisingly tick all the boxes and on the right you can find the barista station with a huge coffee machine as well as the usual cakes on display. The options looked really good both in terms of flavours and the actual size and servings of each treat.

From their menu, here’s what I tried of my two trips:

Classic Acai Bowl - with a base of acai of Amazionia and blended with berries and coconut water, it’s a recipe for success! The looks are absolutely stunning, and it’s impossible not to fall in love with it and staaaaaaare 😍 the acai itself was perfectly blended with great consistency, impeccable taste and good portion! It came with fresh fruit such as strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, banana and passion fruit which I absolutely love and admire the effort of using fresh versus frozen fruit. They are quite generous too with portions and that is obviously always welcomed. The granola is quite enjoyable too and serving is again big - not the best granola I have ever tried (but I have tried so many that it would be hard to beat my top ones!). It was sweet but not overly sweet and I really loved the rice puffs/popcorn that it had! Quite different and interesting! I wish it had a bit more crunchiness time it but like I said, it did pair quite nicely and it was very much appropriate in every category, ticking the boxes. The second time I visited the bowl wasn’t as great in terms of taste and presentation was also worse than the previous one. Either way, I think it is still a great bowl for the price and I would recommend it!

Banana Date Pancakes - A MUST. Seriously these banana pancakes, topped with date caramel, coyo ice cream, with strawberries and caramelised banana are just insane! The actual serving of the pancakes is only two but I have to be honest and say that the pancakes are very thick and they actually come with chunks of dates and banana inside! I think it’s quite a good portion considering that although I think that one pancake more wouldn’t hurt and would be appropriate! When it comes to the ice cream this was actually the first time that I have ever seen ice cream presented in stripes! Seriously not only they didn’t melt as easily as a scoop but the whole dish is obviously beautiful and it stands out from other pancakes that I’ve had had in the past. That amount is just right for those two pancakes and I really enjoyed the banana camera caramelised on top - seriously so good! - along with the other fruit - possibly one of the best banana pancakes I’ve ever had! 👌 and definitely better than the acai (which is hard for me to say!). I would choose this over the acai if you’re looking for just one meal 🤗


Smashed Avocado - my friend that the classic smashed avocado that looked again beautiful presented! It came on two pieces of rye toast, that in my opinion were quite small in length but definitely tall and appreciated by my friend. And it was filling! With smashed avo nicely decorating the place and two poached eggs on top it was a great egg porn fiesta indeed! 😂 it also came with some asparagus and little baby cherry tomatoes which were really cute! 😂 And I think that it is always a classic that you can’t go wrong and I would make just a friendly suggestion to take this to the next level and be different to the cafes around the area - instead of just a smashed avocado, how about making a pea avocado mash? I’ve had that in the past and WOW, it sure makes a difference! I would also recommend some hummus for a little extra notch! 🤗

Salted Caramel Smoothie - absolutely perfection! If there is one thing that I wish for these guys, would be the option to use this smoothie in a smoothie bowl! This was a blend of banana, dates, Himalayan salt, coconut ice cream on coconut milk and the final result was beautiful! The presentation was great with what it seemed a swirl of cinnamon inside the glass and it came with a slice of banana of top and some sprinkled rose coconut shreds! What a treat! 🤗 taste is undesirable and consistency was just right - that coconut icecream does the trick indeed! 👏 like I said, this is a 10/10 and I wish I could have it more!

Moroccan Chicken Salad -my friend had this meal and I had to say that what came to my attention was how colourful and how diverse the salad looked. The quantity of chicken is not massive and it comes on top of a nourishing salad with chicken and some other veggies that brings the actual rainbow to your plate. I wish they could do a vegan option instead of this because I think people would benefit from it more and have the flexibility of customising this meal to their own preference and picking either salmon chicken or a vegan option to add to the beautiful Moroccan salad! My friend enjoyed it!

Mediterranean Omelette - for a more high protein meal my friend also wanted to try the omelette and I have to say that it doesn’t look too big but I’m sure it has plenty of eggs! It was nicely folded in half with some other garnishing around it and two pieces of bread. I personally wish that the bread wouldn’t be with butter on top and instead I would make a friendly suggestion to toast it! Otherwise my friend was quite happy with his meal and it definitely reminded him of a continental breakfast!

Cute little cafe with surprisingly good options!

Nice food with healthy options which I love nice friendly service and love they have the nutrition value on there menu. Definitely be back to eat here again.