An Australian restaurant has opened its first store in New York and Americans are lining up around the block to try it.
The Australian-owned Fishbowl chain has 46 stores in New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria and has now set up shop in New York under the name ThisBowl.
New Yorkers are waiting up to half an hour to get their hands on one of the healthy takeaway’s tasty Asian fusion salad bowls, with many saying they’re “worth it”, and that’s infuriating Australians.
Australians have complained about not being able to get a foot in the door due to the queues, as well as the eye-watering price of $17 USD or $25 AUD per plate.
Others have questioned whether the style of food ThisBowl serves is really an Australian invention, but the owner was quick to allay any concerns.
Scroll down to watch the video
Americans are obsessed with Australian-owned takeaway chain Fishbowl, which opened in New York under the name ThisBowl. Customers line up around the block to enjoy a salad bowl.
Australians have complained about not being able to get a foot in the door because of the queues and the eye-watering price of $17 USD or $25 AUD per plate.
Ruby, an Australian woman living in New York, wanted a taste of home, so she visited the ThisBowl store, but was disappointed to find a line out the door.
‘It’s huge here and everyone keeps talking about it and I think it’s OURS. “New York, you have all your own shit, leave me to Fishbowl,” she ranted.
Australian expat Simona had similar thoughts.
“Nothing could have prepared me for the amount of rage I felt over the past week watching Americans post TikToks about trying Fishbowl, aka ThisBowl, for the first time in New York,” he said.
”I bought mine with avocado, I highly recommend it guys, it’s very fresh.’ We know. We invented it, it’s ours.’
Australians living in New York claim Fishbowl as their own, but criticism hasn’t stopped Americans from praising the tasty Asian fusion salad bowls.
Many questioned Simona’s claim that poke salad bowls were an Australian “invention”.
‘I’m Australian but Fishbowl isn’t even Australian. Poke bowls are Hawaiian,” one woman noted.
‘Your food is in our city, how about we share it?’ another hit back.
‘When I passed by I thought it would be a normal experience and the line was 160 people long. “I’ll go to Sydney to look for him,” said a third.
‘I mean… It’s the same as a poke bowl,’ a fourth wrote and someone replied: ‘What’s the Fishbowl poke like? They’re more like salads than poke.
Fishbowl co-founder Nic Pestalozzi responded to criticism that they had stolen another culture’s food to news.com.au.
“First of all, we are not poke nor do we pretend to be, poke is from Hawaii and is a very different style of food than the salads we serve,” he said.
One New York foodie called ThisBowl “the most viral lunch spot” in the city and another called it an “explosion of flavor in my mouth.”
‘We serve salads, they are full of vegetables and a variety of proteins. Poke is all about raw fish, it’s cool, but it’s not what we do.”
But the criticism hasn’t stopped Americans from trying to rate ThisBowl.
One New York foodie called ThisBowl “the most viral lunch spot” in the city and loved the “bowls overflowing with fresh vegetables, warm sushi rice, miso eggplant with raw salmon, all bursting with shades of homemade dressings”.
“People are right to call this one of the best options for lunch and even quick dinners because we are going to crave their dishes and can’t wait to check out their entire menu, it’s definitely worth it,” they said.
Another said they were hesitant to try ThisBowl due to the price, which typically costs between $13 and $18 in Australia, but said the generous portion made it worth it.
‘RUN DON’T WALK. I swear to God the explosion of flavor in my mouth,” she wrote.
