Mimis Cafe

Mimis Cafe

11275 West Broad St, RICHMOND, VA

Casual American Dining at this cottage-look Cafe with the French Theme, California inspired items and a sprinkle of 'Asian' items in the menu with a promise of good service! Ever since the farm land was sold and multi-storied buildings with restaurants and shops started coming up in this area, we have had a game of 'guess-what-game-at-this-cottage' construction! Globe shaped lights, slightly uneasy looking atop the lamp post outside. The parking was a squeeze. The area is still under construction and the roads inside West Broad Village are single lane and not very easy.

The service was friendly and attentive. The decor above tried to be French but was American-French! :-) We hesitated inside the door for a couple of minutes before a server came up and took us to our table with a smile. There was no 'host' or 'hostess' in the front. Scrawled on the blackboard that their portions are enough for the table! That helped us decide on the items to order. There was a kids menu but it looked like fast food fare and our youngster ignored it.

Decided on the appetizer menu, not disappointed. Mimis Trio: The beer batter was light and crispy and left the flavours intact! We loved the artichoke dip. Instead of chicken tenders we got grilled mozzarella fries. It came with a good marinara sauce, ranch  and a hot sauce. Have never personally taken to any of the 'hot sauces' served here. The bottled brands have always had the predominant taste of vinegar and somehow a 'raw' flavour of the chillies.

Our youngster ordered the Mediterranean Chicken Fettucine, so Moi decided against the tempting Chicken Pot Pie. Good but was not spicy enough for our taste, so we both decided to share and could not finish it! [The main issue when we visit American restaurants! And  we are  on the wimpy end of the usual NRI- heat spectrum!]The marinara sauce from our appetizer was good with this dish.

One  good thing about this Cafe was that one can order 'individual size' portions which were perfect for us!The dessert was Mimi's Bread Pudding in a Whiskey Sauce: good but moi has never taken to the 'eggy' smell in dishes, especially desserts like flan's, custards, brownie's, bread pudding's... It is best savoured in tiny portions with a complete full stop! This one was light and the portion was  just enough for spoon samples and hence not overpowering!

The Raspberry Mousse was light,  with just the right flavour of raspberries; the Triple Choclate Brownie proved to be too rich for our youngster who had 'whined it' despite warnings of the outcome!