Recently, it was time for another visit to Mildred’s, our favourite veggie spot in London. This time, I decided to try the classic burger: smoked tofu, lentil, piquillo pepper in a focaccia bun with relish, rocket, red onion and tomato with vegan cheese. Vegan cheese! Tofu! Focaccia! I can’t explain the excitement. I also went for a side of sweet potato fries because, well, why wouldn’t you?
Mildred’s Classic Burger
So this was a pretty amazing burger, I can’t deny. It was stuffed with a bounty of peppery rocket which was absolutely perfect against the beautiful basil mayonnaise. I could marry this mayonnaise. I want to eat this mayonnaise at every meal. There was also a perfectly smoky-but-sweet relish which was everything I expect from a burger dressing. There was just enough onion and salad in the bun, rather than the too much or too little I am often complaining about. The burger itself featured whole lentils wrapped in blended soft tofu, all of it cooked to have a crunchy outer shell for a fantastic burger texture.
Mildred’s Classic Burger
Overall it had what I would describe as Italian flavours – the basil, the rocket, the tomato and onion, the pepper. But it was all topped off by what must be considered as a holy grail. The vegan cheese: beautiful, beautiful vegan cheese. We’ve made our own vegan cheese, but that was more like houmous when all was said and done; this is nothing like that. This is a beautiful and almost heartbreaking rendition of Kraft singles cheese – made vegan. The taste, the texture, even the way it moves when you tear it off – all perfect. Scratch what I said about the mayo. I’m marrying this cheese instead.
Mildred’s Classic Burger
The sweet potato fries were creamy and lovely, though some were a bit underdone. I didn’t mind. I smeared them in basil mayo and all was forgiven. I think this must be what the eat in heaven.
On the VegBurge scale, I give this…
Taste – 9.5/10
Price – 7/10
Rest of experience – 9/10
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Vine Post: Tomato chutney, mozzarella, and basil grilled cheese
We’re always on the hunt for a great toasted sandwich. There’s just something about combining gooey, melted cheese with seeded bread and getting all the right flavours together. So when we saw the idea for an Italian themed grilled cheese – combining three classic elements – we just couldn’t resist.
This sandwich is very easy to make, and does not require you to measure ingredients exactly. We used Warburton’s seeded toastie loaf, a very nice tomato chutney that we bought at a local food festival, and some mozzarella. The finishing touch was fresh, home-grown basil. Plucking it right off the plant is always so satisfying! We also coated each side of the bread with a little melted coconut oil to give it that amazing taste and texture that signifies a truly great grilled cheese sandwich.
The end result was gooey, stringy, fun to eat, and bursting with flavour. It’s a bit like eating a Margherita pizza, with far less calories and a really moreish taste. Trust me – you won’t be able to just eat one.
I used to eat at Frankie and Bennys quite often, but it’s been a while since I was back. I went for their veggie burger to remind myself of what it was like! The menu describes it as follows:
“A Mediterranean style combination of red peppers, olives, sundried tomatoes and mozzarella. Served in a toasted sesame seed bun with fresh baby gem lettuce, tomato, red onion, dill pickle and mayo. With house fries and tomato-chilli relish on the side.”
It is priced at £10.75, so it’s one of the more expensive burgers you will come across in this type of restaurant. The ambiance is good most of the time, but it has a tendency to break into the annoying – such as every time someone has a birthday. The lights dim, and “Congratulations” plays, every single time – sometimes four or five times a night during your meal if you go on a busy day. But having said that, there are places with more annoying traditions. Let’s move on to the burger now!
Frankie and Bennys Mediterranean Vegetable Burger
This burger comes with a very tasty fruity relish, which I enjoyed. Actually, I’m always on the lookout for a good burger relish – I may add some reviews later on, after recently picking up some at a local craft fair. This one fit the bill and was one of the highlights of the meal. It was served with a good amount of onion and some nice stringy cheese which melted nicely against the rest. There was a kind of average bun which did not make so much of an impression on me. Unfortunately, I would also have to say that the burger was not so remarkable. It is made with large amounts of olives but not a very strong taste – on the one hand this is good, as I’m not really an olive fan. On the other hand, I expected more flavour. It does need a little something added – as is so often sadly the case, the burger itself is just not anything special. I really want to see more of an effort made in this area by restaurants – plenty of their other dishes are packed with flavour, so this is a disappointment.
It was also served with thin chips, which felt quite cheap and did not add much to the meal. You had the option to change to a thick cut chip if you wanted to pay more, but that hardly seems worth it. There is a lot more that could be done with this meal, particularly for the price at which it is sold.
The Big Easy in Covent Garden has an interesting look right from the entrance. A long corridor leads you into a bar area, where you can wait to be seated with a couple of drinks. The whole building feels a bit like a maze, with more seats around corners and a downstairs area too. The spicy black bean veggie burger is one of just a few vegetarian options. This is perhaps to be expected at a barbecue restaurant however! It costs £10.90, and is described in the menu as follows: “Avocado, Pickle and Chipotle Sour Cream”, “with fresh potato fries and ‘slaw and house pickles”.
The Big Easy
Costing almost as much as the burger was my fabulous hard shake, pictured above. This was the Sailor Strawberry Shortcake, and it was absolutely delicious. It contains Sailor Jerry Spiced Rum, Chase rhubarb liqueur, Becherovka bitters, milk, and strawberry ice cream. It is definitely recommended for those heading there on a late night! We actually came out of the theatre in to this meal, so it was a great end to the night. The cocktail barely even tasted like alcohol, so I imagine you could make your way through a few of these without really noticing it!
The Big Easy Veggie Burger
The burger itself was really good, much better than the description makes it sound. It was topped off with very spicy onions pickled in chilli vinegar, which were somewhat difficult to eat on their own. As a part of the whole, they blended in enough that it was manageable. It did detract from the overall flavour a little, but it was an interesting addition all the same. The buns were made of lovely thick bread, but I was still able to eat the whole thing by holding it in my hands. I didn’t need to cut it up, so it was sized just perfectly if you ask me! The burger itself had a soft but chewy, homemade texture, with lots of black beans giving quite an earthy taste. There was also plenty of salad and sauce included in the bun, though of course I discarded the tomato as always. It was finished off with some nice smooth avocado, the taste of which was mostly lost. However, the texture was fantastic against the burger.
The unfortunate side was that the chips were sub par, with a lot of crispy bits rather than full chips, which was disappointing. I also found the house slaw to be quite vinegary and peppery. I’m not really a fan of slaws normally. A lot of restaurants are adding their own versions now, but I don’t feel they add much. To be honest, I’m getting a little sick of always having it there. It’s definitely not my favourite side and it doesn’t always make sense with the flavours of the burger. In this case, I could have done without it. I also didn’t like the pickle, though I don’t like them in general so no surprise there.
The Big Easy Veggie Burger
The atmosphere in the restaurant is really nice. It’s quite dark, as you can probably tell from these images, but that just serves to make each booth feel intimate and private. There was great music with live blues being played somewhere – for the life of me I could not figure out where! We ended up right round a corner out of the way, so couldn’t see anything. It feels like a great place to be and to be “seen”, too. It was packed full even late in the evening, without any spare tables or room at the bar. You can tell that this is a very popular venue at the moment. That just adds to the atmosphere and makes you want to be there all the more.
I’ve been to TGI Fridays a couple of times, although the last time was a while ago. I don’t know whether they have changed their menu recently, but I certainly remember having a much better meal the first time I went. Whether the food has changed, or whether it was the fault of the particular chefs, I’m not sure – but I expected a bit more from this burger, or “sandwich” as they call it, than I got. To start with, it was brought out first with the wrong fries, and out of a table of eight there were four mistakes when they brought the food out, with another plate arriving very late. Three out of eight is not a good start.
TGI Fridays – Veggie Sandwich
My burger was topped with a slice of cheap looking singles cheese which melted onto the burger and bun, rendering them quite difficult to separate when it came to putting sauce between them. There was also a massive and watery tomato which I took out as soon as it arrived, and a small amount of red onion under the burger with some cheesy relish. This relish was also served on the plate as a dip for the sweet potato fries that I opted for, and it was a spicy cheesy dip containing small pieces of jalapenos to add spice. The burger itself was made up of kidney beans and sweet corn as far as I could see, with a mushy cheesy texture which did not do it any favours. There was a fried, greasy texture and flavouring to the outside with some crunchy bits around the edges where it had overcooked – not quite the standard that I would normally hold burgers up to.
TGI Fridays – Veggie Sandwich
It was held inside a rich brioche bun which had been lightly fried on the inside, one of the better parts of the meal in all, although it was almost too rich to be put with the burger. I had chosen to order the really nice sweet potato fries with crispy seasoning on the outside, which went fine with the spicy dip or on their own. The burger as a whole was quite thin but filling enough, especially after a starter – even if we did share that between several of us. It is one of the cheaper vegetarian options on the menu, so I am not sure that I would appreciate getting the same sort of quality at a higher price. As it was, I don’t think I would relish the idea of going there and buying one again. This was unfortunate as I did not have bad memories previously – next time I will likely eat something different, if I do go there again.
The Gourmet Burger Kitchen has been on my wishlist ever since I started this blog, and we had the chance to try it out recently. I went for the Californian, which costs £8.75 and is described on the menu as follows: “Homemade & pan-fried bean patty, mature cheddar, avocado, smoked chilli mayo, crispy onions, relish, salad.” I also went for the sweet potato fries, and shared a side of onion rings. Along with this I ordered the peanut butter milkshake.
Gourmet Burger Kitchen Californian
The décor is quite “in” at the moment with that rusty chic kind of look – everything is very bare, and various bits of furniture are made out of recycled materials. It certainly adds to the atmosphere, although on top of that they then have a self service policy which doesn’t sit very well. Be prepared to stand in line to order your food, and to fetch your own condiments (if you can find them). It seems a bit odd in a restaurant which is presented in a more slick way, and personally I did not like it. However, the plates were presented nicely – the burger sits on its own, while any sides are placed on a platter for you along with special seasoning.
Gourmet Burger Kitchen Californian
The burger is topped off with a heap of soft, creamy avocado, which is served at a very nice temperature making it just right to eat with the rest of the food. This adds a great note of texture and taste to the whole package, and is certainly very welcome. The burger itself appears to be made up of kidney beans, sweet potato, red pepper, and breadcrumbs, from what I could see and taste while eating it. The texture is fine and the breadcrumbs have just the right amount of crunch to them, so this scores well for me. There was some heat in the chilli mayo which did come through with each bite, although it was not too overpowering. At first I could not taste the relish much at all, but when I tried it on its own and as I got further through the burger, I discover that it was very sweet and smoky. This I think was my favourite dressing to come with any part of the meal, as it was very tasty.
There were two slices of cheese and one large leaf in the bun, which was just enough, and the leaf itself was very fresh. The onion inside the bun was also nicely done, very crispy and adding a good level of texture to the overall piece. The bread of the bun was firm yet light, and seeded.
Gourmet Burger Kitchen Californian
The meal was enjoyable, except for one small thing which really cast a shadow over all of it. I quite often order milkshakes when I’m eating at a burger place, and more often than not I’ll go for a peanut butter one as I normally love them. This was not the case here. What I ended up drinking was a disgusting unmixed, unsweetened milkshake, with lumps of peanut butter coating the bottom of the shaker which I ended up lifting up with the bottom of my straw in chunks. It was just horrible and made me feel sick for a couple of days afterwards. I haven’t been able to eat unsweetened peanut butter since then, either. I should really have complained at the time but stupidly did not – I sincerely hope that this was nothing more than a badly mixed example and that the milkshakes are normally served properly. I won’t be trying it again to verify, as it was just one of the worst things I have ever drunk in my life – and unfortunately that brought the whole of the experience down.
Recently I went to Smith & Western in Tunbridge Wells, one of a handful of branches around the area. Of course I had to try their Prairie Meat Free Burger, and here I bring you the results! It costs £11.25 (although you can add extra toppings at a higher price), and is served with house relish as well as your choice of potato product – I went for the curly fries. Strangely, it is served open – although this does make sense as it means that you can put in your relish or other condiments more easily. This is how it was served – I then took out the tomato, added relish, and mayonnaise to the inside of the bun:
Smith and Western Prairie Meat Free Burger
Then I constructed it back into being one burger – this is of course the downside of them serving it open, particularly if you do not want to add any relish or so on. The burger itself was made from a very red coloured soya, which is quite bouncy to chew and has what I think is a slightly tomato-y taste (although this could be my mind playing tricks on me because of the colour, which reminded me of some tomato-flavoured quorn burgers I’ve had before). As you can see it is served with a really good amount of salad, all of which seemed very fresh – I’m very pleased to see that, and it’s something that I wish a lot more restaurants and pubs would pay attention to. For some reason, salad in burgers tends to be a little underwhelming.
The chewy texture of the burger was actually quite pleasing, although it was strange at first – it felt almost as if my teeth were going to rebound off it and crack my jaw at one point, but of course no injuries were forthcoming. The bun used was very soft and seeded, and it certainly added to my enjoyment of the burger as a whole. The relish was a little underwhelming in this case – it’s just a very generic, tomato based relish, with nothing special to write home about. I wouldn’t say this was the best burger I’ve ever had, but I did really enjoy it and I would eat it again – although the price is perhaps a bit steep when compared to some other burgers which I have rated higher.
Finally in terms of the meal itself, the curly fries were nice, if generic – they are definitely the same as you would find in most pubs and restaurants in the country rather than being made in house, so you know they will taste just fine. I also had a milkshake, which was tasty as expected. We finished the meal with a huge sharing sundae which we were utterly unable to finish (having been reasonably full after eating the burger anyway – it is a full meal, and when ordering, you should take this into consideration!). It was, however, delicious.
The décor of the restaurant is quite interesting – it is done up to put you in mind of an Old West town, and has plenty of amusing features which really tap in to this. If it’s your birthday, you get a free cowboy hat of your choice (and if you do not choose a glittery one, boy or girl, then frankly you have disappointed me). It has a good atmosphere, but on the night that we went it was very busy and the servers were only seen very rarely in our area, which was just off from the main seating area. Still, everyone enjoyed the meal, and there were some other menu items I personally witnessed which were delicious (tower of mini donuts with chocolate dip and sprinkles, anyone?)
If you are looking for a veggie burger that tastes great, doesn’t cost the earth, and is available easily, then it doesn’t get much better than the Wetherspoons veggie burger. Up until recently this was actually my very favourite veggie burger to have, though a recent change has meant that it has fallen a notch in my estimations – more on that later. It is still a meal that I very much enjoy, however, and so this is going to be a positive review from the outset.
When you order the burger, what you will find is a plate half filled with chips, which are nice and soft on the inside with a bit of crunch to them on the inside. You also get a drink with your meal included in the price, and the burger itself sits inside a soft seeded bun with lettuce, tomato, and red onion underneath. Normally the salad part will be quite underwhelming as they don’t seem to put much in, and on occasion you will find that the burger bun is burnt. It’s worth complaining on these occasions as normally the manager will be quite happy to offer you something free or a refund, once they take a look at the bun and see for themselves. This will of course depend on which particular Wetherspoons you go into, however.
Wetherspoons Veggie Burger
Previously, there had also been a pot of burger relish which was served along with the meal, and this was the thing which really tied it all together. Through careful experimentation I had found that you can get the maximum deliciousness by spreading burger relish evenly over the top of the burger with your knife, and then putting a bit of mayonnaise on the bottom with the salad (though I always asked to have it without the tomato, as I’m not a fan). You then had enough relish left over to have some over the chips as well. This was a thoroughly enjoyable and delicious meal every single time, and stood me in good stead for lunch breaks from work, weekend shopping breaks, and many an evening spent with friends.
Now, however, they have simply removed the relish from the plate, without updating the menu or mentioning anything different. It was not mentioned on the menu as part of the meal before, so they have not technically done anything wrong here, but it still leaves a bit of a bad taste in my mouth, so to speak. By taking it off unannounced they have not changed the rest of the meal, so there is now just less food on the plate. I almost had a row with a very untrained waitress the first time it happened (she tried to tell me it had been off the menu for a long time and that the whole menu had been changed, after running to the kitchen several times to find out what to say, despite the fact that at first she agreed with me when I said the relish was missing).
Wetherspoons Veggie Burger
Still, onto the burger as it is now, as I do still enjoy it. There are some really great flavours going on with every bite – things like lentils really come to the surface as well as plenty of vegetables, and the crunchy breadcrumbs on the outside have both a great taste and texture. It all fits beautifully with the taste and texture of the bun, and is also a good partner to the chips. It is a good filling meal for a low price, so even if it was just an alright burger it will still be a good option – but it is without a doubt the tastiest burger that I’ve found available in such an easy way. Just about every UK town has a Wetherspoons, so even when you’re visiting somewhere new it’s easy to find a veggie burger!
I could go on about this one all day, so I’ll give it a rest shortly. I’m still experimenting with how to make the burger tastier again now that the relish isn’t included; ketchup on the top of the burger is alright, but it’s still no substitute for the real thing. I’d be very interested in either a source or a recipe for the relish that they used to use, so if that’s something that anyone can point me in the direction of, I’d like to hear it (and will share results later, of course!). The Mexican Veggie Burger is also a way to get some exciting flavours back, but costs more and has more calories, as you can see in my review.
Finally, on the VegBurge scale, I give this…
Taste – 9.5/10 – Previous version 10/10
Price – 9/10
Rest of experience – 7/10
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