Masan diet meal restaurant with smoked duck protein bowl: Why Starve

These days I've been eating a lot of greasy food, so I thought I should have at least one clean meal. While looking for somewhere in Masan to eat a solid salad or protein meal, I ended up at Why Starve Diet Changwon Metro Centum Branch.

To cut to the conclusion first: I went in expecting diet food and walked out thinking "wait, why is this so good? why is there so much of it?" hahaha

Where is Why Starve Diet Changwon Metro Centum Branch, and what are the hours?

Why Starve Diet Changwon Metro Centum Branch is located at 130 Yongma-ro, 1-dong 101-ho, Masanhoewon-gu, Changwon, Gyeongnam, South Korea. It's open daily from 10:00 to 21:00, and there's basement parking in the building, so it's easy to get to by car too.

Beyond salads, there's a whole range of protein-forward menu items like poke, protein boxes, and protein rice bowls, so even while on a diet, there was fun in choosing what to order.

What the Masan shop looks like inside and out

The exterior of Why Starve Diet Changwon Metro Centum Branch is a color that makes me think of oranges 🍊 The interior is also clean and pleasant. The stylish mix of white tones and orange had me looking forward to the taste of the food even before I ate 😛

Please refer to the country-of-origin labels!

The menu at Why Starve Diet and what we ordered

Here's the menu board.

You can order at the kiosk or the counter!

What I ordered was

• ✔️ Smoked duck protein rice bowl ₩10,900
• ✔️ Salmon light protein box ₩11,900

That's what I got.

Smoked duck protein bowl, 10,900 won: how big is the portion?

The smoked duck protein rice bowl is ₩10,900, and with the smoked duck option it's 861kcal / 39.9g protein. My first thought when I got it: "is this really diet food? this is a LOT" hahahaha

Since it's called a 'protein bowl,' I'd pictured a small bowl with a few pieces of meat on top...

But it had smoked duck, egg strips (jidan), oat rice, broccoli, and more all mixed in together, so every spoonful had a different combination of ingredients to enjoy. It's made with oat rice, so I could eat it without feeling guilty.

Mixing the egg strips, meat, and sauce together, it felt less like eating 'health food' and more like eating a hearty, satisfying rice bowl.

What comes in the salmon light protein box, 11,900 won

And here's the salmon light protein box I ordered alongside it. This one is 226kcal / 27g protein!!

It comes with 100g of salmon steak along with chickpeas, lettuce, green beans, broccoli, bell peppers, olives, onion flakes, and more. If the protein rice bowl feels like a hearty full meal, the salmon light is, true to its name, more on the light and clean salad side.

What I liked about this one was that the salmon pieces were big.

With every bite you really get that salmon texture, and with the soft salmon paired with crunchy vegetables, even though it's a salad, it didn't feel like just eating greens.

Above all, the salmon itself was tasty and the ingredients felt fresh, so I ate it up cleanly and happily.

It wasn't just a mountain of lettuce — with chickpeas, broccoli, bell peppers, olives, and other ingredients all mixed in, the texture kept changing bite to bite, so it never felt monotonous.

Honest verdict: which Why Starve Diet menu should you pick?

Why Starve Diet wasn't a place where 'diet food' meant small portions and bland flavors. On a day you want to eat a bit lighter, go for the salmon light; on a day you want a proper rice meal along with your protein, go for the protein rice bowl.

I liked that the portions were generous for the price and the taste was there too. In Masan, on a day when I think "I want to eat healthy today but I don't want to just eat greens," I think I'll come back to this place haha 🤍

Dangni's rating: ⭐ 4.6 / 5