Last Updated on February 23, 2025
A Plant-Based Food Fest in Soho
For carnivores like me, moving gradually towards a flexitarian lifestyle is part of my own contribution to living a more sustainable lifestyle. While I don’t want to give up meat altogether, I’m increasingly happy to cook vegan and vegetarian dishes at home and I’ve enjoyed a few excellent meals in some of London’s plant-based restaurants. Although we’ve reviewed Mildreds in Covent Garden, we’ve never visited the Soho branch so I was delighted to have the chance to try a taster of their Vietnamese menu along with dishes from their a la carte menu. The Lexington Street branch, rambling over several floors of an old townhouse, is just around the corner from the original restaurant in Greek Street where Mildred started in 1988. It’s full of atmosphere and on the evening we went, was packed to the brim with hungry diners.
Of course, Veganuary itself may impact on the popularity of places like Mildreds. It’s a movement that started in the UK in 2015, with around 12,800 original participants. By last year, that number had grown to nearly 630,000 people, all signed up to try vegan in January. With places like Mildreds to eat, I’m not surprised. Their philosophy, to celebrate internationally inspired plant-based food using fresh, vibrant and flavoursome ingredients is one which fits perfectly into the multicultural food scene of Soho and their pricing is affordable – you’ll pay under £10 for small plates and around £15 for large plates and ‘buns’, around £10-£12 for cocktails and between £20 and £50 for wine by the bottle. All the wine is offered by the glass and carafe too and there’s an excellent choice of non-alcoholic drinks and cocktails.
The Vietnamese-inspired dishes and mocktails are to celebrate the Vietnamese lunar new year, the festival of têt. If you happen to be taking part in Dry January then there are three special options – a Ha Long Bay Spritz, Kumquat Iced Tea and a low ABV cocktail, Lost Paradise, made with Koko Kanu, cacao blanc, coconut juice, lime, agave and soda. We’d arranged to review Mildreds before going on to the Soho Theatre to see a late-night comedy show and both of us felt the need for something a little stronger. My companion ordered the Smoky beet bandido with mezcal, beetroot and hibiscus shrub, lime, and pimento ginger beer. Robustly heady and earthy, it was the perfect way to warm up on a cold, damp January night. My pear and bergamot spritz with sapling vodka, elderflower, bergamot and pear soda was light and fragrant and wouldn’t be out of place by the poolside in summer. It was a delicious aperitif though and a good complement to our first starter.
We shared a plate of tempeh rice cracker cups from the Vietnamese menu. Made using a base of rice crackers that were lined with baby gem lettuce filled with sesame tempeh, carrot pickles with a small jug of mirabelle plum Nước chấm and peanuts for extra flavour, these were mouthfuls of deliciousness. I loved the idea too – the rice cracker cups added just the right texture to elevate the dish while tempeh, an Indonesian ingredient that is similar to tofu but made by fermenting whole soya beans, added protein and a meaty texture.
Just in case we were in danger of being too healthy, we added in Roman artichoke with ajo blanco and migas – a light battered artichoke with the most delicious sauce.
My companion’s ‘big’ plate (read VERY, VERY generous) of fennel sausage and mash with braised cabbage, onion jam and red wine jus looked totally convincing to this carnivore and the fennel sausage really didn’t ‘miss’ the meat. It’s the kind of classic plateful I’d normally put together with good game sausages – but the fragrant fennel sausages were perfectly balanced with the red wine jus and onion jam.
The show-stopping dish of the evening was the Kiri Hodi, a Sri Lankan coconut milk curry with curry leaf, sweet potato and green bean sabzi, pineapple achar, cashew coconut sev, pea basmati and mint mango chutney.
We probably didn’t need dessert, but it’s hard to resist a menu that includes ginger sticky toffee pudding and crème brûlée. My companion was genuinely astonished by the crème brûlée – made without cream or eggs and said she thought it was indistinguishable from the classic dish. Beautifully presented, it really didn’t disappoint.
The sticky toffee pudding with cinnamon apples and nutmeg cream was equally delicious, the pudding itself light and fluffy with a delicious sticky caramel sauce.
We rounded off the meal with coffee before heading out for our late-night theatre event. And, both of us resolved to go again. We loved the enthusiasm of the whole team for what they were serving. It was a genuinely friendly place where nothing seemed too much trouble and where the food appeared magically just at the right moment. I’m also beginning to wonder if you are more likely to experience exemplary vegan food at a restaurant that serves nothing but that. The last two vegan restaurants I’ve tried have both been great quality (the last one was powerplant at Selina in Camden) – but if I dare pick a vegan option in my favourite omnivore places, I’m often disappointed. Is it that your palate changes through the evening if you are not eating meat? Or just that the chefs in an entirely vegan restaurant know better how to manage ingredients that an omnivore may not use regularly (tempeh, Ajo Blanco, jackfruit and coconut cream for example). It’s probably a bit of both – and I’d love to see one of those collaborative pop-ups with chefs from places like Mildreds working in traditional kitchens for Veganuary. Next year perhaps?
45 Lexington Street,
London W1F 9AN
0207 494 1634
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