Enjoy a $3 dahl at your local community cafe: Wholefoods Monash

Monash cafe and restaurant Wholefoods has been serving up a $3 dahl and rice special since 1977. 

Open to the public, this cosy cafeteria-style cafe is on the upper level of the Monash University Campus Centre. A banner hangs above the kitchen: “Food for people not profit”, and for a rainy Monday afternoon, the place is packed. 

Staff member and Monash University student Aine Townsend says Wholefoods is run by a student collective, who vote on menu items and what the prices should be in monthly meetings. 

“It’s a pretty important part of the student culture on campus. I came in [as a newly transferred student] and applied to volunteer because I thought it would be a great way to meet people, especially coming out of Covid when we’d just been locked inside,” Aine told the Eastern Melburnian.

Now, Aine comes into the cafe on her days off “just to hang out”. 

Wholefoods offers some of the cheapest food on campus, serving up vegetarian lasagne slices for a reasonable $9, and a coffee that will only set you back $3.50. The most popular dish remains a $3 dahl and rice combo. 

This is a cafe that would have no qualms about you sitting in a corner, maybe next to the old grand piano, with your plate of lasagna and reading all day long.