Lonely Mouth review: We enjoy a balanced Japanese breakfast at Bristol's new Japanese listening café

The venue specialises in Japanese Soul food and is inspired by Japanese Listening Bars, a place with high-fidelity audio, records and audio files whilst customers enjoy some good food and drinks with some good tunes.

The café, which opened at the former site of Burra, has a small outdoor section and plenty of indoor seating, including some more intimate corners, and is dog friendly.

Their menu includes balanced Japanese breakfasts, sandwiches, Buttery French Toast with Matcha Cream, Seasonal Berry Maceration and Maple Syrup, and drinks like coffees, teas and specialty drinks which are written on the chalk board by the till. They also serve a delicious selection of cake which are carefully placed on a glass cabinet by the till.

We decided to order a Japanese Streaky Bacon Breakfast (£12.98), a Sakara (£6) - fresh strawberries with milk and match - with oat milk from the specialty drinks menu and upon recommendation, an Oreo Cookie Pie Slice (£4.75) for dessert.

With the outdoor seating taken, I decided to sit on the bar table next to the glass window wall, where the breakfast was brought to the table 10 minutes later.

The dish was beautifully set across a wooden tray and came with bowls of bacon, rice, miso soup, silken tofu and house made pickles as well as the choices of chopsticks, a fork, a knife and a ramen spoon.

The bacon was fresh, not dry, slightly chewy and crispy whilst the rice was fluffy and flavourful. The tofu was surprisingly bursting with flavour, with a slight spicy kick. It was soft, refreshing and crumbled easily so I had to switch from chopsticks to the fork for the last bites on the bowl.

As for the miso, it came with seaweed and small blocks of tofu which were also tasty and had a different texture to the silken tofu. Overall, whilst slightly salty, the soup was heart-warming and flavourful.

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The pickles were soft, crunchy and refreshing, but I found the pickled mushrooms to be a bit too strong and the kimchi too spicy for my liking. Overall, the breakfast had generous servings, was balanced and filling and I had to leave some of the rice to have space for the pie.

Unfortunately I had to chase up the Oreo Cookie pie and drink, which they had forgotten about. However, it was one of the first opening days and it had gotten quite busy since I arrived, so it was understandable and they brought the cake and drink arrived soon after.

The Sakara was very aesthetically pleasing and the slight bitterness of the match combined well with the contrasting sweetness of the strawberries. Overall it was light and refreshing, however, the straw was struggling a bit.

As for the pie, it was surprisingly creamy. The dense pie had a cookie dough outer layer and some crunchy cookie bits weaved in the chocolate cream which had a strong cocoa taste. It’s the perfect choice for chocolate lovers, especially fans of dark chocolate.

Overall, the meal was very filling, and the staff were generally fast and friendly and would check on you regularly after the food was brought to the table. It was not surprising how it was so popular having just opened this week.

Lonely mouth, 401 Gloucester Road, Horfield, Bristol BS7 8TS. Open Tuesday to Sunday from 8am to 5pm.