Farm Girl, an Australian café mini chain, is known for its colourful interiors and uber-healthy menu (think bee pollen and acai bowls). True to form, the lattes at this Chelsea branch come in every shade: pastel pink, light blue, matcha green, turmeric yellow and charcoal black to name a few. My rosewater latte was a regular latte with ‘rosewater-infused’ milk. It didn’t really taste like rosewater, but it was a good coffee, and it came beautifully scattered with rose petals, so if I’d put it on Instagram it definitely would have guaranteed me a few likes. The activated charcoal ‘black latte’ with cashew milk, though? It didn’t look pretty, and it tasted like soil.
Brunch was fine, but not great. My coconut ‘BLT’ – they really should have called it a ‘CLT’ – came with loads of tangy guacamole and a swirl of smooth cashew cream, but the flakes of smoked coconut ‘flesh’ tasted nothing like bacon, so if you were vegan and expecting fake meat (or even something smoky, as the menu suggests), you’d be sorely disappointed. As for the blossom and cashew salad, it was just green papaya noodles with a little almond dressing – and far too light to be considered a meal. Nice veggie sarnie though.
Farm Girl is obviously capitalising on the #wellness trend, so I was also surprised at how scrappy the interiors were. I drank my beautiful latte at a scratched plastic table beneath a glass roof that was covered with dirt. Farm Girl is fine for a simple brunch (eggs on toast) and a standard coffee if you’re already in the neighbourhood – it’s definitely not one to travel for.