Temple Natura Café Garden

Temple Natura Café Garden sits in Sa Calatrava, the old quarter east of the cathedral, behind an unremarkable façade on Carrer del Temple. From the street you would never guess. Only behind the house does a garden open up, with an old mandarin tree standing over it — the house calls it its century-old mandarino, and it is the reason almost every table here sits in shade. The kitchen describes itself as artisanal, vegan and vegetarian, and it brings two lines together: Mediterranean produce from the surrounding area, bought in season, and the aromas and spices of Colombian cooking. The menu states that arc outright — from the Andes to the Majorcan Tramuntana. If that sounds like a phrase, start with the starters: the guacamole arrives with patacones, arepas and hogao, and the sides include fried yuca and tostones. The house is run by Alejandro Jaramillo. His family lives above the restaurant, his brother runs the herbal and organic shop next door. Temple Natura is therefore less a restaurant with a garden attached than a property in which shop, kitchen and courtyard belong together. What Temple Natura puts on the table The centre of the main courses is homemade seitan. It appears as the Focaccia Especial Temple — slices in a port wine and rosemary reduction with vegan mayonnaise, mixed greens, tomato and caramelised onion — and as Escalopines de Seitán with tomato and apple chutney. Alongside them are a carbonara with vegan egg, a satay with basmati rice and grilled vegetables, a gluten-free wrap with courgette and mushrooms in the same port wine and rosemary reduction, and an aubergine parmigiana with homemade tomato and mozzarella. The Colombian hand shows most clearly among the starters. Next to the guacamole you find vegan nachos with chilli, melted vegan cheese, avocado and jalapeños, a hummus served with focaccia and roasted cherry tomatoes, and a hot vegasada — the plant-based answer to sobrassada — with fresh mint and agave. Anyone wanting to eat Majorcan will also find a platter of locally produced cheese. The homemade burgers and the nachos are the dishes named most often in Palma when Temple Natura comes up. For dessert there is a cocoa brownie with nuts, a carrot cake with vegan almond cream, and ice cream and sorbets. A lot of what you drink is made in the house: lemonade, kombucha, chicha, ginger soda, plus coffee with plant-based milk, chai and matcha. The wine list carries organically grown Majorcan wines, among them one from the native Callet grape. Vegan, vegetarian — and what the difference means here The house calls itself a vegan restaurant, yet its own philosophy speaks of vegan and vegetarian cooking. That is exactly how the menu reads. Meat and fish appear nowhere, and where a classic calls for them the plant version is named outright: the no-chicken in the Caesar salad, the vegan nuggets on the children's menu, the seitan in the focaccia and the escalopines. A large part of the menu is marked as vegan — vegan cheese, vegan mayonnaise, vegan egg, vegan almond cream, plant-based milk in the coffee. Fully vegan, however, the house is not. Parmesan is in the Caesar salad, the spinach salad and the escalopines, mozzarella in the parmigiana, and the cheese platter is dairy cheese of local production. If you eat strictly vegan you will get a long way here, but you do need to watch the labelling. Meat-free with an unusually broad vegan range describes it more precisely than the shorter label. More than a restaurant The property also holds a herbal and organic shop, run by Alejandro Jaramillo's brother, and a room for courses and exhibitions. The programme includes pilates and yoga, plus salsa and bachata classes. On some evenings DJs play quiet sets that do not drown out the garden. Booking runs through the house's own reservation system, and for the evenings with music the house explicitly asks guests to secure a table in advance.