Located within the Adelaide Botanic Gardens, Evergreen Café is an outdoor café targeting families, tourists, and the elderly.

Their menu consists of a moderate variety of products with many dietary options that seem slightly overpriced, though this overpricing is most likely due to it being a tourist spot as it is in Adelaide’s botanic gardens. I unfortunately did not get the opportunity to try any of their products, so I had to judge based on what I observed.

The customer experience is pretty good with friendly staff and quick service. The café is set up so you order at one side of the café and then collect at the other side. I visited the café at not a very busy time, so that could have contributed to the speed of the service.

The environment and ambience of Evergreen Café is certainly the highlight, as it has a view of the botanic gardens and is completely outdoor. The layout includes three seating areas, one placed within a Mediterranean garden, and two on the deck with shelter. This layout allows for an accessible alternative to the deck seating as the deck features stairs and no ramps. Because the café is outdoor, the seating is not that comfortable with plastic chairs, and the experience is slightly weather dependent as the only cover from the elements is a glass roof on the deck.

The café uses the same technology as many other cafes utilise across Adelaide, EFTPOS, coffee machines, and social media. They post every couple of months on Instagram and Facebook.

Looking at sustainability and ethics, Evergreen Café seemingly does well. They use compostable and recyclable cups and straws for takeaway drinks and majorly depends on natural lighting for all seating areas, making the café most likely have little energy use.

Evergreen Café’s innovation is another strength. Their food menu is heavily inspired by the gardens, as well as the architecture. The architecture uses greens and woods, plant decals, and lily pad inspired glass shelters.

For improvements, I would add an indoor seating option, heating and cooling, or simply blinds to the shelter, so the experience can become less weather dependent. I would also extend the drink menu as I’m sure a lot of garden visitors would enjoy walking around the gardens with a good drink, yet I think that is of less priority.

Overall, I think Evergreen Café’s strengths lie in environment and ambience, innovation, and sustainability and ethics. I personally value quiet outdoor spaces with good scenery a lot, therefore I would rate this café four out of five stars.