Vegan Junkies — Restaurant in Lisbon

I've been passing this place for a while now and as I am now mostly vegetarian thought I'd check it out for lunch on a lazy day.

There is a little seating area outside which was unfortunately full on a sunny Autumn day so I dived inside into the rather dark, uninviting interior and having ready a lot of hype about the Beyond Meat range of products thought I'd order the Beyond Meat vegan burger and put them to the test. A nice healthy, daily juice was also ordered to wash it all down.

I grabbed a seat and started to read to the sounds of Golden Age hip hop played at loud volume. Now I like Golden Age hip hop and work with music but listening to it in the middle of the day at a volume more suited to a busy bar on a Friday night was just too much as all I wanted to do was relax with some food at lunch rather than dance on the tables. It wasn't terribly off putting as I liked the tunes but just very badly judged volume.

So, fairly quickly, along came my burger with some great looking chips. Being English I like a good chip and I have to say that the fries here are probably the best in Lisbon. They are a nice thickness and with a great crunch, suggesting that they are at least double fried, just the way they should be.

Onto the burger. The bun wasn't great being a soft regular seeded roll that wasn't toasted so it offered no bite and got soggy rather quickly. There was lots of badly chopped, iceberg lettuce which is fine, but iceberg is not my favourite or the most original of lettuces. A few slices of red onion and a nice homemade relish provided the rest of the base for the burger and some plastic looking vegan cheese that seemed designed to replicate the sort of mass produced plastic cheese used in most cheaper burger restaurants topped it off.

I have to say the burger was quite a revelation but that is more to do with the supplier than any cooking genius, it was surprisingly meaty textured and tasty. I'm not quite sure how I feel about that, even as a meat eater. Surely the whole point of giving up meat is to avoid it not replicate it? But that is a separate question not really for a review.

So overall the actual Beyond Meat burger was great but let down by the rest of the filling and a very average bun. For €12.50, which is the price of a good quality organic hamburger in most of the noveau burger joints it also seemed decidedly overpriced. The chips are amazing and set the standard in Lisbon for all to follow.

The biggest dissapointment was the juice. The juice arrived in a mid sized glass filled with ice (that old trick) but even then, before the ice melted I thought the mango was mixed with something else as I was just getting a small taste of mango, then I realised it had just been watered down. I did notice in the reviews that someone else had said the juice was very watered down as well.

The food here is just OK, nothing special and for the prices they are charging the food should be...

We stumbled upon this place and sat on the bench outside facing the street—which I highly recommend, as it’s a great spot to watch the world go by.

I especially loved the menu design, styled like a vinyl record sleeve—very original. The selection was excellent, and I had a hard time deciding.

I went with the burger on a dark bun, served with fries and garlic sauce. The food arrived surprisingly quickly, which I didn’t expect—but I’ve since learned that’s more common in vegan restaurants.

The garlic sauce was the best I’ve ever had. I love it when garlic takes center stage, and that was definitely the case here—it complemented the meal perfectly.

The burger’s texture and flavor were incredible. The smashed patty did fall apart a bit, but it was my first time trying a vegan smashed burger, and I can absolutely recommend it.

The staff was super friendly and seemed genuinely happy to be working there.

Highly recommended if you’re looking for quality food away from the typical...

Ok, so typically we go nuts over vegan comfort food - the more carby, burger-ish, French fried, the better! Vegan Junkies, at least for delivery, was a swing & a miss. We were staying in close proximity to the restaurant on an inclement night & decided on getting some take away. The food was delivered quickly via Uber eats but just fell very flat. The So Fresh So Clean burger was probably the best item out of everything we ordered & was standard fare for vegan burgers. The fries were pretty great but the actual serving size we received was literally half of what it should have been. The vegan mushroom shawarma was inedible & the flavors & textures simply didn’t match up whatsoever. The onion rings for delivery, slathered as they were inedible as well. I suspect eating at this restaurant where you’re receiving the food fresh from the kitchen would be significantly better & when we return to Lisbon for more food tourism we will...