With more than 12,000 followers on Instagram, a new Japanese cafe on Gloucester Road has acquired quite a following since it opened last Summer. Lonely Mouth had been on my to-visit list for a while so, when last weekend a gap opened up, it was the perfect opportunity to visit.
When we got there at about noon on Saturday, the small cafe was incredibly busy. One of the first things I saw was a sign stating there was a 30-minute wait for food and, seeing myself as an impatient person, I couldn’t help but feel this wasn’t a great start.
In the end, we had to queue for just under 30 minutes to get a table, which was followed by a 15-minute wait to get the food (but we did tell them we had to leave by 1.30pm). The first thing that struck me of this small, cosy cafe is how loud the music was.
I had read that Lonely Mouth put an emphasis on music, but it took me a while to get used to how loud it was. By the end of our brunch, though, I was converted and saw this as another feature making this cafe unique.
Initially, we sat on some stools by the window and, while I was enjoying the view looking out on to Gloucester Road, we took the opportunity to move over to a table when one became available.
The service was warm – and I enjoyed chatting Spanish to our waiter – but disorganised. They were clearly just too busy and struggling to manage that volume of people and orders.
Both my friend and I went for the same drink – an iced matcha latte with ube cream (£6) – and we both agreed this was a delicious, yummy drink. The nutty, creamy ube goes well with the nicely bitter matcha latte.
We decided to share and ordered the Japanese teishoku with spicy plum crispy tofu (£13.4), together with the chazuke with shiozake salted salmon (£15.9). Other appealing breakfast options included the buttery french toast with matcha cream (£11.8).
With all the food arriving at the same time, we started off with the chazuke, which came in a flavoursome miso soup and was topped with a smooth, delicate salmon.
We also loved the Japanese teishoku and all the little sides it came with, with a particular highlight for me being the miso soup with seaweed. The crispy tofu was also cooked to perfection, with a nice kick to it, with the picked ginger being the perfect accompaniment as per usual.
We finished off our meal with the ube cheesecake, which was very indulgent, together with the matcha cheesecake, which had a completely different texture to the ube one.
With our generous meal for two coming to just under £60, this felt like a reasonably priced meal for Bristol’s standards these days. The quality of the food certainly exceeded my expectations and, after my initial scepticism, I have to admit I was quickly converted; a bit chaotic but also outstanding.
I can see why this small cafe, which is certainly a bit different, has already such a following – I can’t wait to come back. I just wish it was a bit closer to BS5.