Mildred’s (Soho)

Very much a cafe feel with paper napkins, service was mixed – attentive on occasion, not so interested and staff hard to flag down on other occasions.  It is noisy, popular and generally there is a good buzz felt throughout the slightly tight space available to all, adding to the communal atmosphere.

Not knowing how often I would be in and out of here I probably ordered too much for one person to sample as much as possible, starting with the watermelon, tomato, chilli, mint and yuzu dressing salad.  The tomatoes on this were absolutely flat, but there was a good kick from the chilli, softened by the Asian watermelon.  Sadly the shiso leaf and yuzu were a bit lost and these were the bits that I would say were the prizes in the dish.

Gyoza dumplings with sweet chilli and soy dip were pretty dissapointing.  The outer dumplings were chewy to the point of rubbery and could have been more evenly cooked to be at a higher grade.  The fillings were also not very strong in flavour and the only reprise came from the dip.  A vegetarian burger was had as the main and this was quite a handful as the burger itself needed careful handling as was prone to falling apart very easily.  Smoked tofu, piquillo pepper and lentil formed the crumbly interior.  However, aside from being messy to eat, the chipotle ketchup was spicy and barbecued and the basil mayo was good to have.

Overall, a little disappointing but will do the job of filling up for a reasonable price if you are in need of a quick vegetarian hit.