Last Updated on January 16, 2025
Mildred’s brings its Plant-Based Cuisine to Covent Garden
Mildred’s has now set up shop in the heart of Covent Garden, St Martin’s Lane. Since first opening in Soho in 1988, Mildreds has pioneered the plant-based scene in London with its fresh, vibrant and innovative dishes.
Open for breakfast, lunch, dinner and weekend brunch, Mildreds offers a modern and relaxed dining experience. The new St Martin’s Lane location has been designed with a fresh, bold colour palette, contemporary lighting and one-of-a-kind modern and abstract art throughout. We took a seat next to the window which featured a variety of window plants, and while the atmosphere was relaxing, the restaurant was quite busy considering it was a weekday evening.
Mildred’s offers an array of small plates, mains, burgers and desserts. Head of Food Development for Mildreds, Sarah Wasserman said, “We continuously strive to create innovative and adventurous dishes at Mildreds to showcase the amazing flavours and variety of a plant-based way of life. I have always been inspired by international cuisines and have used many different influences when designing the new Spring menu.”
The drinks on offer also had quite the range, featuring a variety of white, red, orange, pink and sparkling wines by the glass, carafe or bottle, starting at £6.6 per glass. There is also an extensive cocktail menu as well as a range of beers and ciders on offer. Catering to the tee-total and health conscious crowd, a selection of soft drinks, juices, homemade ice tea blends, smoothies and hot drinks were also available. However, what caught my eye were the two mocktails on offer which me and my companion had.
The forest bellini mocktail was a delicious concoction of real kombucha dragon flush, forest berries shrub and skeleton leaf. I felt very refined sipping it from the bellini glass. The spiced match colada was an interesting mix of matcha, pineapple, coconut cream, lemon juice and cardamom which gives a ‘I’m on holiday’ feel. Both mocktails feel like it was given the same creative level of attention as a cocktail and is not just a quick variation of tea, fruit and syrup. It’s very refreshing to be able to find decent mocktails in the West End area for less than a tenner each.
For starters, we ordered the spinach gyoza with black bean chilli oil, edamame and tamari dip as well as the aubergine tiganites with pomegranate beetroot ezme and dill tzatziki. Both dishes were delicious and didn’t feel like anything was being compromised by it being plant-based. The fusion of various cuisines worked well and tasted ‘fresh’.
For the main, I had the soul bowl which contains goji carrot quinoa, kale, sesame mushrooms, pumpkin seeds, avocado and cashew butter. This is one of their healthy option dishes and a great option for people who are trying to avoid high glycemic index foods. However, there are also other more indulgent bowl options on offer, like the bokkeumbap and the kiri hodi. My companion ordered the ruben burger from the vegan burger section which we were less impressed with.
The creme brulee with forest berry compote and coconut tuille was a treat for dessert considering that it is egg-free and gelatin-free. As someone who indulged copiously in the non-vegan version last Christmas, I can tell that this version is less creamy than the original but it is a very good mimic of the original dish in terms of flavour. Eating every spoonful with the compote and coconut tuille was quite the indulgence.
The faux-retro fudge cake is a chocolate hazelnut cake with vanilla ice cream and it tasted delicious. For an eggless cake, it was baked to a good standard. However, for something that would count as a ‘fudge’ cake, I would have expected it to be moister. The density of the cake was pretty good though, so I’m quite certain that the lack of moisture is down to the fact that it was eggless.
To round out the sweetness, I also had a wild rooibos tea and my companion had a matcha latte which complemented the desserts well.
If you want to have an affordable but delicious plant-based meal in the heart of Covent Garden, Mildred’s is definitely the place to go.
Mildred’s Covent Garden
79 St Martin’s Lane
London
WC2N 4AA
Looking for more plant-based restaurants? We also recommend Mallow in Borough
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