Sydney acai bowl shops denies copying rival's 'uniquely crafted' menu

It's a summer treat, popular among the health conscious.

But there's a war brewing over acai bowls, with one seller accused of copying a rival.

The new menu at Matteo Dominici's artisan gelato shop Mister Gelato on Sydney's Northern Beaches is raising eyebrows.

At the beginning of the year Matteo started offering acai bowls made from the super fruit acai berry puree topped with seasonal fruit.

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He says almost instantly he was accused of stealing a "lovingly crafted" menu from a rival.

Just 100 metres up the road, the accusers, Blessed Bowls, took to social media to claim Mr Gelato directly copied and pasted its uniquely crafted menu.

Blessed Bowls' menu offers treats like brownie acai, Snickers and Biscoff.

At Mr Gelato's you can order the same brownie, Snickers and Biscoff acai for $1 cheaper, along with identical offerings of coconut soft serve.

But Matteo claims it's not a copy, it's just the popular flavours and how you make them.

"OK but that's the only way to do the acai original, the only way to do the Snickers, brownie acai, Biscoff acai is to recreate the flavour that's how you're going to put it.

"I (don't) really care what they say, people love you or some people they don't love you.

"Everyone (is) doing acai and I don't think I'm stealing nothing from anyone."

Lawyer Richard Mitry said Blessed Bowls' decision to take the feud to social media opens a can of worms for both dessert spots.

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The issue here is whether or not the menu and the way it's written and the words that are used and how it's set out are copying the original work of somebody else," Mitry said.

"It's an extreme step to go on social media to protect your business, in this case by doing so you're potentially attacking another person's business and say that other person has potentially broken the law.

"That could lead to a whole new issue, which is the issue of defamation."

Blessed Bowls declined to comment on camera, but owner Ella sent A Current Affair an email stating the following:

"We have no problem with healthy competition but this is completely different in that he has literally just copied our menu and has tried to put himself off as selling our products," the email read.

"We see this as a very serious offence."

But Matteo believes all is fair in love and acai war - and he won't be changing a thing.

"No, we won't change the menu. We keep it as it is because I don't think it's copied, we do more acai than everyone else, we do a lot of acai bowls," he said.

Watch the full video in the player above.