Lemon Garden
“If life gives you lemons...start a franchise?”
Started in 2018, Lemon Garden is your typical modern brunch place. Bright colours, fruits and smoothies, bowls and - of course - pancakes in all shapes and forms. While the latter are never vegan, nor are vegan options available, Lemon Garden still offers a range of vegan options to try out. Considering it’s a popular place for Sunday brunches, it seems to have something going for it, right?
It was a typical Sunday afternoon. Not too hungry for a big meal, but kinda snacky. The perfect time to visit a place such as Lemon Garden. With it’s location right at Rosenlundskanalen, near the fish church, it kinda blends into the buildings, but the crowd sitting in front of it gives it away.
The menu itself presents itself quite clear from the get-go. Pancakes are not vegan. Smoothies and bowls can be made vegan. And most other things can be made vegan as well. Sounds generally promising enough. As it turns out later, this basically just happens by taking away non-vegan ingredients such as yoghurt, eggs or anything else without any plant-based substitute. That’s one way to do it, but it’s not really welcoming. Also, considering the price stays the same anyways.
However, we went for the Avocado De Luxe, a sourdough sandwich with avocado topping, as well as two smoothies. The waiting time was very short, despite the stressed person at the counter warning for a long time. It as 10-15 minutes tops, during a rush, so really no biggie.
The plating is quite nice, the bread as thicc as half a loaf, and the Avocado on top looks quite shy in comparison. On top of that, there are chili flakes, some lettuce and radish. While the chili flakes are a nice touch, they kinda mask that the avocado is not the freshest anymore. Same goes for the other vegetables on top. Everything is dried out, low quality and just in a way sad. The bread makes up for it, but for a place that focuses on such sandwiches, this is quite unacceptable.
When it comes to the smoothies, they claim it’s made with only fruits, but upon tasting you can directly feel that they add fruit juices to them. Possibly to make them stand out more in taste. Personally, I feel that makes them less of a smoothie and more of a fruit juice. They are quite nice overall though, but I prefer a less intrusive tasting smoothie.
All in all a rather underwhelming experience. The main takeaway for me is that vegans are not really welcomed, but adjusted to, and that’s a bummer in itself.
Price:
Sandwich: 119 SEK
Smoothie: 75 SEK
The Verdict
With it’s funky colours and wide range of fruits and vegetables you might think Lemon Garden is a bit more welcoming to vegans, but disappointment sets in rather fast. Menu items can be adjusted by taking away non-vegan ingredients such as eggs or yoghurt, but are not substituted. Pancakes are never vegan, and hence the menu is much smaller from the get go and there are no plant-based alternatives. But the biggest issue is the quality of the ingredients. Dried out, old vegetables on top of questionable avocado. Also, the smoothies have clearly added fruit juices to make them “pop”, and while that’s alright, it doesn’t fit my taste for a smoothie.
It might be just an off day in terms of ingredient quality, but considering it was a Sunday and expected to be crowded, that’s not a good look. As a vegan, I think there are better options for brunch that are more welcoming and possibly have better quality ingredients.
3/5 Leaves
Pro
Nice atmosphere
Large variety on the menu
Con
Quality of the ingredients is mixed to bad
Added juice to the smoothie makes it overly sweet
Vegans are rather adapted to than really thought of
Location
Rosenlundsgatan 4
Opening Hours
Mo-Fr: 14:00 - 22:00
Sa: 10:00 - 22:45
Su: 10:00 - 22:00
