Eatery Hopping: Vegan Brunch at Milgi, Cardiff
Hello and happy (unbelievably belated) new year! It feels like we have been in January for about five hundred years, but also feels like 2018 is still completely brand new, which I know really do not go together very well (okay, at all) but still. Time is weird and confusing and ultimately made up.
I'm sitting here with Rachel Brathen's (@yoga_girl on insta) podcast playing in the background, an ailing vase of beautiful sunshiney flowers on my right and a plantpot of some anonymous and lovely flower that is frankly on death's door on my left. If anyone has any tips on how to combat my inherent inability to keep plants alive, that would be more than a little bit useful.
Anyway, it's a happy Sunday and it's time to blog! The past couple of weekends, I've popped along to Milgi in Cardiff for an assortment of delicious things, the first of which was brunch. It was one of the best breakfasts I have ever had in my life.
Milgi describe their food as "everyday plant based eating" - they're not all vegan, but they are all veggie and have a lot of vegan or easily veganisable options.
I was a smidge concerned when we arrived and my booking had seemingly completely disappeared from the bookings book (is that what it's called?), but there was only one other group in the place so we were in no danger of being turned away.
- interlude: listening to podcasts and thinking about writing don't really blend, so I'm now on Spotify's 'calm vibes' playlist instead -
We started off our brunch with some drinks, freshly blended/juiced for us there and then. (I know, because the blender was noisy with only two bunches of people in the restaurant.) I had the orange juice which contains orange, carrot, ginger, turmeric and lemon and was absolutely exquisite. My lovely Plus One had the earth smoothie of banana, cacao, peanut butter, sprouted protein powder, and almond milk. All about those #gains. The smoothie was crazy thick so if you're only a little bit hungry, it could quite happily be a small breakfast all on its own.
We both agreed the juice was our preferred to go with brunch food, but the smoothie was very excellent also. If you're having food, go for a juice for refreshingness, but if not then the smoothies are tip top.
And lo, after much deliberation on what to order, our food arrived! Here we have the vegan Milgi breakfast, comprising a mushroom patty (basically a veggie burger), dahl, fresh tomato salsa, portobello mushroom, sweet potato wedges, refried beans underneath everything, and sourdough toast.
This breakfast was both enormous and fantastic, and it's incredibly difficult to choose a best bit. I'm leaning towards either the mushroom patty/burger thing or the dahl, both of which are coincidentally only included in the vegan breakfast as replacements for non-vegan stuff in the regular veggie breakfast. The whole combination was just completely fab, and much more interesting and inventive than the usual lineup which was a welcome change.
The other dish to make the cut was the Indian breakfast, and boy am I glad it did. It was a selection of dahl, paratha and tamarind chutney plus some more fresh tomato salsa, so quite simple and not overly bits-and-pieces ish, but every component was divine. Plus One even picked the tamarind chutney as his favourite part of the entire brunch, and we found out from our lovely waitress that it is literally just tamarind and dates, so has instantly jumped onto my 'to make' list.
I make dahl all the time as my go-to easy, lazy meal when I don't have anything or can't think what to make because I can pretty much guarantee I will always have lentils and spices, but this was totally different to any dahl I ever make and I enjoyed it very much indeed. I've also made paratha bread too, but I think this one was potentially deep-fried as it was quite oily and had that deep-fried crunch. Again, delicious.
It was a pretty hefty meal, but we valiantly persevered through the considerable portion sizes for the sake of the tastiness, and here we have the aftermath. Every mouthful was very much enjoyed.
As for an overall view, I was extremely impressed. Eating at Milgi in the past, I've enjoyed my food but I haven't been exactly blown away, but this totally changed my view. Also, I feel like quite often you pay for either quality or portion size, but the breakfast menu is fab quality food and loads of it so you don't compromise on either front. I'd say the breakfast menu is better value for money than the evening menu, as the prices are incredibly reasonable and the food itself is equally tasty. Having had such a good experience, I fully intend to become a regular here for brekkies as it is sooo dayum GOOD. Thank you Milgi for having us!
*Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored post, however Milgi offered us this meal free of charge in return for an honest blog review; all photos and opinions are mine (and Plus One's) and entirely unbiased.
*As always, all images are click-to-enlarge!
*All photos in this post are mine. If you wish to use any, please ask my permission and credit me!*
I'm sitting here with Rachel Brathen's (@yoga_girl on insta) podcast playing in the background, an ailing vase of beautiful sunshiney flowers on my right and a plantpot of some anonymous and lovely flower that is frankly on death's door on my left. If anyone has any tips on how to combat my inherent inability to keep plants alive, that would be more than a little bit useful.
Anyway, it's a happy Sunday and it's time to blog! The past couple of weekends, I've popped along to Milgi in Cardiff for an assortment of delicious things, the first of which was brunch. It was one of the best breakfasts I have ever had in my life.
Milgi describe their food as "everyday plant based eating" - they're not all vegan, but they are all veggie and have a lot of vegan or easily veganisable options.
I was a smidge concerned when we arrived and my booking had seemingly completely disappeared from the bookings book (is that what it's called?), but there was only one other group in the place so we were in no danger of being turned away.
- interlude: listening to podcasts and thinking about writing don't really blend, so I'm now on Spotify's 'calm vibes' playlist instead -
We started off our brunch with some drinks, freshly blended/juiced for us there and then. (I know, because the blender was noisy with only two bunches of people in the restaurant.) I had the orange juice which contains orange, carrot, ginger, turmeric and lemon and was absolutely exquisite. My lovely Plus One had the earth smoothie of banana, cacao, peanut butter, sprouted protein powder, and almond milk. All about those #gains. The smoothie was crazy thick so if you're only a little bit hungry, it could quite happily be a small breakfast all on its own.
We both agreed the juice was our preferred to go with brunch food, but the smoothie was very excellent also. If you're having food, go for a juice for refreshingness, but if not then the smoothies are tip top.
And lo, after much deliberation on what to order, our food arrived! Here we have the vegan Milgi breakfast, comprising a mushroom patty (basically a veggie burger), dahl, fresh tomato salsa, portobello mushroom, sweet potato wedges, refried beans underneath everything, and sourdough toast.
This breakfast was both enormous and fantastic, and it's incredibly difficult to choose a best bit. I'm leaning towards either the mushroom patty/burger thing or the dahl, both of which are coincidentally only included in the vegan breakfast as replacements for non-vegan stuff in the regular veggie breakfast. The whole combination was just completely fab, and much more interesting and inventive than the usual lineup which was a welcome change.
The other dish to make the cut was the Indian breakfast, and boy am I glad it did. It was a selection of dahl, paratha and tamarind chutney plus some more fresh tomato salsa, so quite simple and not overly bits-and-pieces ish, but every component was divine. Plus One even picked the tamarind chutney as his favourite part of the entire brunch, and we found out from our lovely waitress that it is literally just tamarind and dates, so has instantly jumped onto my 'to make' list.
I make dahl all the time as my go-to easy, lazy meal when I don't have anything or can't think what to make because I can pretty much guarantee I will always have lentils and spices, but this was totally different to any dahl I ever make and I enjoyed it very much indeed. I've also made paratha bread too, but I think this one was potentially deep-fried as it was quite oily and had that deep-fried crunch. Again, delicious.
It was a pretty hefty meal, but we valiantly persevered through the considerable portion sizes for the sake of the tastiness, and here we have the aftermath. Every mouthful was very much enjoyed.
As for an overall view, I was extremely impressed. Eating at Milgi in the past, I've enjoyed my food but I haven't been exactly blown away, but this totally changed my view. Also, I feel like quite often you pay for either quality or portion size, but the breakfast menu is fab quality food and loads of it so you don't compromise on either front. I'd say the breakfast menu is better value for money than the evening menu, as the prices are incredibly reasonable and the food itself is equally tasty. Having had such a good experience, I fully intend to become a regular here for brekkies as it is sooo dayum GOOD. Thank you Milgi for having us!
*Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored post, however Milgi offered us this meal free of charge in return for an honest blog review; all photos and opinions are mine (and Plus One's) and entirely unbiased.
*As always, all images are click-to-enlarge!
*All photos in this post are mine. If you wish to use any, please ask my permission and credit me!*
That all looks delicious and sounds so scrummy. Would it be given that extra zing with a bit of crispy bacon or two - for us non-vegans?
ReplyDeleteGlad you agree - it certainly was all delicious and scrummy! And no, it doesn't need anything else at all; the dishes are perfect exactly as they are!
DeleteCan confirm the tamarind chutney was mind blowing
ReplyDeleteA bowl of tamarind chutney and a spoon is all we need (also this has reminded me I wanted to try making it!!)
Delete