"4* by the absolute skin of your nose, and here 's why. The aesthetic is pleasing, a contemporary city quiet street cafe kind of vibe, exactly the kind of place you 'd expect to get a good coffee and brunch. And that 's exactly why we went in. Ordered the vegan breakfast and a large latte. The thing with vegetarian vegan options is, any decent place worth its salt knows that the key to this is taste, quality of produce and presentation. We non meat eaters have (rightly) come to expect some love to be put into our food. So it comes out, and its standard fare, what you 'd expect, BUT, the problem is the avocado toast. I can 't get past it. I 've lost sleep over it. I have eaten, dining out and at home, my fair share of this ubiquitous food stuff. It was a slice of anaemic white 'toast ' that was just a nasty bleached flour slice from the Sunblest cheap white family loaf range (or similar), then a thin smearing of blended avocado on it spread like Stork margarine. It had no panache, no flare, like where 's the decent bread?, shouldn 't it have something unique about it? Isn 't it the law that its thick sliced wholemeal super-seeded, hand made, home baked bread of the gods when avocado is going on it? Where 's the (Maldons) sea salted butter? Where 's the rocket? where 's absolutely anything to make it the pretentious ironic centrepiece of the plate that we have all come to know and love? It looks like an animal made it. If you are going to kill the planet serving it flying those bad boys in from around the globe, at least do it in style huh. Maybe that 's the point? Maybe its an attempt to insult the intelligence of the provincial frequenters of this place? Honestly, it looked like either the chef has never eaten it or never made it before, possibly both, but it looked both resented and misunderstood. It was RUBBISH. Give it some flare! Also, the beans.... you know the term 'bean counter ' is mostly for accountancy type office jobs? You don 't need to employ an actual bean counter in the kitchen at the Masons. There was no more than a large tablespoon full in that bowl. Nothing even had any garnish on, not a single sprig of parsley in sight. No offer of any condiment sauces either. The saving grace was the sausage. The sausage was a decent vegetarian one. Sometimes they are mealy and dry and not good. This one wasn 't that. I enjoyed the sausage. Everyone else 's food looked good, and all plates were empty, and the conversation was easy and well mannered, lucky for you, it 's scraped you the extra star. The general consensus was the large lattes were also standard size. Not large. You are not cheap enough to not be held to account for presentation. That said, the plants on sale are not extortionately priced."
