I finally got around to visiting the Hilldale location of Bowl of Heaven, which serves acai bowls, smoothies and fresh-squeezed juice. Basically, you’re coming here to get your daily dose of fruits and vegetables in a sweeter, more palatable way.
Acai berries are rich in antioxidents. At Bowl of Heaven, they are frozen and blended with other fruits to make a frozen yogurt-like base for the bowls that are then layered with other ingredients. The bowls come in regular and large sizes, and you should be plenty full after a regular-sized serving.
The Sunset Bowl ($7.50/$9.50) has a blend of pineapple, mango, strawberries, unsweetened coconut milk and MAQ 7 (“a unique blend of nature’s most powerful and exotic superfruits around the world,” according to Bowl of Heaven) and is topped with flax seed granola, shaved coconut, strawberries, kiwis and honey. Obviously, your mouth will experience a breadth of flavors in every bite–for example, the mango brings brightness, and the coconut lingers in your mouth–yet they all harmonize very well.
Meanwhile, you could easily detect the density of the peanut butter bowl ($7.99/$9.99). If you like peanut butter and bananas, the two predominant flavors, you’ll probably enjoy this, but I’m not sure how anyone could eat a large bowl of this. Personally, I would have liked more honey on this bowl, as there were only a few drops of it.
A special bowl for Madison is the UW Badger Bowl ($7.99/$9.99), which is topped with strawberries in a pattern resembling the Union Terrace chairs. For all bowls, you can add “boosts” such as fresh mint or fresh ginger.
Juices include orange juice ($4.99/$6.99) and beet juice ($6.99/$8.99). If you can get past the murky brown color of the Hulk-n-ator ($6.99/$8.99), you may be pleasantly surprised that the lemon and carrots help mask the parsley, kale and spinach flavors. The liquid was thinner than expected, which also made it easier to consume.
If you’re in a hurry, Bowl of Heaven also offers grab-and-go items, such as salads ($5.99) and Paleo treats ($4.50).
Bowl of Heaven is open every day during lunch and dinner times, plus weekday mornings.
Tags: near west, vegetarian
