Recently, a new restaurant has opened up in downtown Lawrence. A month ago, next to Climb Lawrence, Highlander Cafe opened under the same owners as the rock climbing gym. Walking in, Highlander’s small-restaurant atmosphere has an upbeat, hippie vibe. With couches and tabletop games, it serves as a nice place to relax and enjoy a bite of vegan food. Highlander has some delicious dishes, but it is also uneven. The two dishes we ordered were the Jackfruit Birria Tacos and pita with hummus. The pita bread was stale and dry, and the thick hummus was better with the cucumber it came with. However, the jackfruit tacos made up for it. The jackfruit tacos were cooked well enough to be virtually indistinguishable from regular meat. The jackfruit had a neutral flavor and could take on the taste of the spicy habanero birria. However, the tacos did come with a portion of mediocre guacamole with only two chips. Highlander has good food on its menu, but one can not rely on any individual dish being good.

For our last course at Highlander, we got two quarter-pound cookies which proved to be quite good. They were a little stale and had clearly been sitting in the display area for a while. Nonetheless, the crunch added to the experience. However, we must disclose that we received the two free cookies in return for a positive Google review.

Highlander’s healthy, vegan food compliments the health-focused rock climbing gym next to it; both of which are good additions to downtown Lawrence. Regardless of its shortcomings, Highlander’s well-crafted and delicious food is a sign for all vegan-skeptics to give veganism a try.