The Health Shack opened for the first time on Saturday and it looks like they had a busy first day of trading.

I popped in late Saturday afternoon to find a manager and workforce with the look of people that have worked hard and thoroughly enjoyed it.

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The premise of The Health Shack is fairly simple. You choose your protein, your base and then you load up on side portions to your heart’s content. A medium box in this style comes in at £5.50.

I went for halloumi but you’ve got all the usual meat options. My base was egg noodles over the rice and cous cous alternatives and I filled that up with apple slaw, jalapenos and houmous.

Fortunately the staff are all mega friendly and explained the whole process but once you’ve done it once you’re fine. They, too, are still learning on the job but that’s fine too. The only minor criticism you might have  at this point is that a number of the side options were already exhausted.

In terms of quantity, you’re not getting a great amount of food for £5.50 when you look at the equivalent portions you might get elsewhere in Preston. On the other hand, a sensible portion probably goes hand-in-hand with being healthy in the first place.

The halloumi is done well. It’s very easy to turn halloumi into a rubbery failure but there’s none of that here. It’s exactly what you’d be looking for with a great smokey flavour. The egg noodles are fine but, as they’re cool, I’d probably be looking to try another base on my next visit.

The apple slaw that comes on the side is fantastic. The manager told me excitedly how they make it from scratch every day to ensure that none of the fat that plagues coleslaw goes into it. And, on my part, mixing apple slaw with halloumi was a genius move if entirely accidental.

The problem still persists in terms of value for money and they probably need to look at upping the portion size one way or another. £5.50 isn’t too dear for lunch if you’re treating yourself but you need to be coming away with a little more.

But overall, a positive start for The Health Shack and with a few tweaks it’s easy to see them making a success of it.

Food: 8/10
Atmosphere: 6/10
Service: 7/10
Value: 4/10
Overall: 25/40

Our food reviewers pay for themselves and aren’t invited by the venue, if we are we will always say in the review.