I have been wanting to go to Mildred’s for ages! It’s one of the oldest and most talked about veggie restaurants in London so I finally just scheduled it into my diary and even convinced the carnivore crew ( hubby, sister, and her man) to come.
It’s in Soho which is great as it means you can wander through Carnaby St and all the surrounding gems that make up the area. If only it wasn’t raining, I would have made a day out of it.
In short, my verdict – LOVED IT! As there was four of us, I was able to taste a bit of all the dishes we ordered. The thing I love most about a vegetarian restaurant is that each dish appeals to me. I don’t have to immediately cull the top X choices and just make a decision from a minor few (which actually does make decision making easier), but I can read into each item. My choice at Mildred’s was particularly difficult. But I surprisingly didn’t have a wealth of questions or possible amendments for the waitress as they all sounded awesome.
We ordered four starters between us and passed the plates around - kind of like our own tasting plate! We shared the buffalo mozzarella, slow roasted vine tomatoes with fresh basil, the gyoza dumplings with mirin and soy dipping sauce, the panfried cherry tomato, halloumi and wilted spinach dressed with balsamic, and the hummous and babaganoush with chilli oil and chargrilled flat bread. All amazing, but fave was probably the halloumi. No, the gyozas…no…the buffalo mozza which was fab. Ah geez it was all great!
The halloumi in the front with the gyoza dumplings at the back
I then had the burrito filled with black turtle beans, corn and red pepper topped with tomato lime salsa, guacamole, smoked cheddar and sour cream served with leaf salad. I did ask for it without the sour cream but they forgot and I was too hungry to get them to re-do it, so just scraped it off. It was yum! I hate it when burritos are filled with rice, so this was super. It was pretty massive (as were all the dishes), but luckily had two hungry guys to take care of leftovers!
Veggie Burrito
My sister Tinks loved her sunblushed tomato and buffalo mozzarella risotto cake which was served with wilted spinach, green beans and a grape mustard cream sauce with a crispy coating, while the guys approved of the burger and mushroom and ale pie.
Sunblushed tomato and buffalo mozzarella risotto cake
As full as I was, I couldn’t go past the raspberry chocolate truffle with poppyseed tuille. It was amazing! Such a rich, dark chocolate stack which oozed raspberry goodness! You may have heard me rave about the marriage of dark chocolate and raspberry before, but for good reason - it’s fantastic! The tart raspberry-ness cuts through the dark chocolate perfectly, I just love it!
Raspberry chocolate truffle with poppyseed tuille
Chris loved his white chocolate and pistachio cheesecake, and Mick’s ice cream selection was a neapolitan bowl but would have been better with the shot of hot fudge which never arrived.
When restaurants focus solely on vegetarian food, the dishes are usually created around the vegetables ‘star’ of the show. I think Mildred’s does this really well and I hope I can make it down there one more time before I leave London. Our only gripe was the attitude of the staff which was a tad on the rude side and not as attentive and friendly as we would have expected from such a homely place.
We shared a nice bottle of the pale rose – Le campuget, syrah grenache which was nice and light, and also a side of sweet potato wedges and the bill came to £30 each which is pretty good value for all that.
Mrs Marengo’s shop a few doors down caters for all takeaway orders during the day with a similar menus and is worth a visit to ogle all the cakes on display. The sample of lemon and pistachio slice was incredibly moist. I will definitely have to re-visit, who am I kidding?!
You can find them at 45 Lexington Street, London , W1F 9AN and they are open noon to 11pm Monday to Saturday.
