Frutas Prohibidas opened in 2016 in Conde Duque, between Malasaña and Plaza de España, and is run by Javier Redondo Carbajo and Erika Reyes Bautista with a team of about ten. Everything on the menu is vegan, and most of its customers are not. The menu is built so that nobody at a mixed table has to settle for a side dish. Brunch is served all day and there are no bookings: when the room is full, a virtual queue sends a text message when a table is free. Dogs are welcome, and there is no minimum spend for coffee and cake.
Almost everything is made in its own obrador. The brioche for the Benedicts, the sandos and the burger buns is mixed and baked daily. The cakes, cheesecakes and cookies are made on site. The plant-based egg is made from scratch, yolk and white separately, so that it poaches like an egg. The seitan chicken and pulled pork, the smoked mushroom bacon, the pea and soy beef, the cashew cheddar, the nut parmesan, the hollandaise and the other sauces, the fruit syrups and the açaí granola are all house-made. The Benedict del Génesis is the signature dish. Each receipt comes with a Sustainability Account that estimates the carbon, water and land saved by the plant-based version of each dish.
Frutas Prohibidas has served specialty coffee since 2016. The house coffee is Blend Amazonia, a Brazil and Colombia blend grown at 1,400 metres and processed natural semi-washed, with notes of chocolate, praline and citrus. The decaf is a sugar cane decaf from Colombia grown at 1,900 metres, with notes of chocolate, caramel and tamarind. The drinks list runs from espresso and cortado to flat white, cappuccino, latte and iced latte, beside matcha, golden, blue and red velvet lattes. All the milk is plant-based, soy, oat or almond, at no extra charge.
Photograph: Frutas Prohibidas