RESTAURANT REVIEW: MALLOW, CANARY WHARF

FROM HEAVENLY FRENCH TOAST TO A HEARTY FULL ENGLISH: THIS PLANT-BASED RESTAURANT WILL MAKE ALL YOUR VEGAN BRUNCH DREAMS COME TRUE

By Clara Günthner

Photo credit: Girl Dinner Magazine

I don’t go out for breakfast much because, as a vegan, more often than not, I end up overpaying for mediocre avocado on toast (sourdough if I’m lucky) or soggy tofu scramble with no resemblance to the real thing. 

But when I recently stumbled upon a video of a glorious-looking brunch at one of my favourite vegan restaurants in London, I knew I had to give breakfast another chance.  

The fully plant-based, sustainably-minded restaurant, Mallow, opened its first location in Borough Market in 2021 and a second one in Canary Wharf in 2023. I’ve had dinner at both and their eclectic menus, extensive wine lists, and dishes inspired by flavours from around the world made for a first-class dinner experience each time. 

I return to the Canary Wharf location, for breakfast this time, about a year after they opened the restaurant and am struck by how clean and inviting the place still looks. If I didn’t know better, I’d think they were newly opened. From the bar to the outside seating area to the toilets – everything is top-notch. 

Photo credit: Girl Dinner Magazine

Photo credit: Girl Dinner Magazine

Mallow is located in Wood Wharf, one of Canary Wharf’s newest neighbourhoods, where everything (still) looks and feels sleek and perfect: the wooden path along the canal with its minimalist benches, the well-kept green spaces, the view onto yachts and skyscrapers. It’s giving idyllic Manhattan.

The restaurant gives off the same vibes but is much more fun to look at. The interior is modern but eclectic: wooden floors and speckled tiles, marble tables, velvet chairs with floral patterns, colourful walls and ceilings, dried flowers, vases and other decorative objects on shelves, and many, many plants. It’s a lot on the eye but it all comes together in a somewhat eccentric but beautiful dining space. 

Now, on to the food. 

I’m here for one thing, and one thing only: the churro brioche French toast. Or, to be precise, a vanilla anglaise soaked brioche with cinnamon sugar, chocolate sauce, salted caramel ice cream and vanilla cream.

I love my sugar and I love my desserts and when they come disguised as breakfast, I love them even more. So expectations are high.

And this sweet, sweet French toast does not disappoint. It comes beautifully arranged between two generous swirls of chocolate sauce and is topped with a scoop of ice cream and an edible flower. A jug of vanilla cream is served on the side just in case sugary bread, chocolate and ice cream aren’t a rich enough breakfast for you. Of course, I don’t let anything go to waste…

The brioche is warm and thick and has the slightest crunch to it but is still beautifully soft and fluffy on the inside. No dry bits here!

The chocolate sauce is rich with a mild, pleasant bitterness that cuts through the cinnamon sugar and caramel ice cream and makes the dessert – I mean, breakfast! – go down like butter. I eat the whole thing with ease and am very close to licking the plate. 

The churro brioche French toast has passed the vibe check.

Photo credit: Girl Dinner Magazine

Photo credit: Girl Dinner Magazine

But I wouldn’t be taking my responsibility as breakfast tester seriously if I didn’t also try some savoury bits, so I kindly help my partner with his full English breakfast, including organic tofu scramble, Cumberland sausage, potato mille feuille, roast mushrooms and tomatoes, house baked beans, and focaccia with harissa butter.  

The stand-out for me is the vegan sausage, which has a very authentic bite and is super well-seasoned, closely followed by the potato mille feuille, a deliciously crunchy, layered potato cube that could also be described as a bougie hashbrown. 

The tofu scramble is nicely cooked and seasoned but overpowered by lots of red pepper, which is a pairing that doesn’t quite make sense to me. The house baked beans are a good balance of smoky, hearty and only slightly sweet, while the roasted mushrooms and tomatoes are just that – they neither bother nor excite me.  

What does excite me is the harissa butter – delicious on a slice of warm focaccia bread – and the lemon pepper fries, which, I forgot to mention, we also ordered. They come with homemade aioli and smoky ketchup but also go well with the harissa butter in case you were wondering.

Photo credit: Girl Dinner Magazine

Photo credit: Girl Dinner Magazine

As with my previous visits to Mallow, this breakfast experience is the full package. Both the sweet and savoury dishes are all around delicious and filling, the juices are fresh, the coffee is on point, the space is beautiful, and our waiter is the real deal: friendly, attentive, funny and knowledgeable – what else can you wish for?

I only really take time to explore the full menu after finishing my food and find that there are lots of other dishes that tickle me: the morello cherry pancakes with pistachio quinoa and vanilla cream, the kimchi croque with gochugaru bechamel, or the masala tomato tofu scramble with black tea chickpea chole and turmeric milk buns. 

I don’t know what it all means but I do know I want it and I’m tempted to order more…but behave myself. 

It’s fair to say that Mallow has reinstalled my belief in a good breakfast out and I will be back for another round of brunch soon.

Mallow, Canary Wharf, 12 Park Drive, London E14 9ZW