We had the pleasure of visiting Westfield Marion Shopping Centre over the weekend to try out some of the dining options available at their Fresh Food Mall, which has been open for just over six months.

“We are excited to welcome shoppers to the new Fresh Food Mall and Eatery which showcases a variety of top quality Adelaide produce. This new space comes with much anticipation, we can reveal the precinct has an industrial feel and will accommodate several ‘pop ups’, meaning shoppers can expect something new on every visit,” says Westfield SA Regional Manager, Malcolm Creswell.

The mall, located near the Sturt Road side entrance of the shopping centre, boasts fourteen new and returning specialty retailers including Panacea, Vietnam Quan, Lau Peking, Hokopo, Warong, The Cheesemonger, and The Yoghurt Shop, just to name a few.

After scouting out all the eateries available, we can honestly say we were just excited to eat to our hearts’ content! Here are our thoughts on some of the places in the Fresh Food Mall:

Panacea

After the popularity of the Mediterranean-inspired Panacea on Halifax Street in the CBD, the owners decided to open another store at Westfield Marion! Panacea’s philosophy follows the notion that nourishing, simple food is the best medicine, and this couldn’t be any truer.

While offering familiar dishes such as pizzas and burgers, Panacea also serves up interesting and unique takes on food, encouraging diners to dip their toes in a brand-new culture, such as with their burrito bowl, and signature paella. Catering to all dietaries, Panacea has plenty to offer vegetarians, and coeliacs with gluten-free bases for their pizzas as well as specialty desserts from Sweet Lola.

What’s more, Panacea Marion also hosts monthly cooking classes in their picturesque courtyard where Head Chef, Sam Clarkson, shows the audience all the tricks of the trade on how to make his delicious paella!

Our favourites of the day were their classic Margherita pizza and their surprisingly fluffy and melt-in-your-mouth Buttermilk and Ricotta Hotcakes (we’re still daydreaming about them now!).

Hokopo

This Asian fusion store offers a wide variety of meals without breaking the bank. While providing simple food like burgers, rolls and salads, Hokopo also goes above and beyond, serving up delicious Udon Noodles, Ramen, Poké Bowls, and Bibimbap, ensuring there’s something to please everyone!

Not only were servings generous and plentiful, everything (especially the udon noodles) tasted absolutely delicious and, not to mention, looked colourful and amazing too!

Warong

‘Authentic Asian food’ is Warong’s tagline and, just taking one look at their menu, definitely makes us believers! Though they advertise themselves as Malaysian, Singaporean and Indonesian street-food vendors, Warong has so much more to offer than just plain old street-food.

With a huge variety of different style rice, noodles, soup, grilled meats, and curries available, Warong really sets the expectations high. Their Vegetarian Fried Flat Rice Noodles dish was well-seasoned and had plenty of veggies, while the meat in their Beef Rendang Curry was perfectly marinated.

Unfortunately, we didn’t get to try everything (as we literally could not fit any more food in our stomachs!) so we’ll definitely be back to for their rice and egg noodles!

Vietnam Quan

Specialising in Northern Vietnamese food, Vietnam Quan does the traditional dishes well, but also adds a modern touch.

With an almost jaw-dropping array of food on their menu to select from, we were definitely spoilt for choice! We ended up deciding on their crackling pork Banh Mi (because we can’t go to a Vietnamese place without having Banh Mi!), their Marinated Pork Chops with rice, and their Grilled Minced Pork Belly served with vermicelli noodles and veggies.

First of all, the Banh Mi was the most well-presented we’d ever seen, with the filling nicely displayed in the bread roll and colour contrasting to perfection! It was delicious too (gone in two minutes flat!). The Marinated Pork and Grilled Minced Pork Belly also met expectations, and there was plenty on the plate too!

In conclusion, we absolutely loved our experience exploring the Westfield Marion Fresh Food Mall. After trying so many dishes from such different eateries, we felt like we had just got off the plane from a trip around the world!

Westfield Marion is open 9am-5:30pm Monday-Wednesday and Friday, 9am-9pm Thursday, 9am-5pm Saturday, and 11am-5pm Sunday. Thanks so much to Westfield Marion as well as the eateries for having us in for lunch. We will definitely be back again soon!

Words by Geena Ho

WHERE: 297 Diagonal Rd, Oaklands Park