Afternoon Tea at The Rubens

January 23, 2013July 26, 20163 Comments

At the weekend, my friends and I went to London for afternoon tea at The Rubens At The Palace!

My friend had bought some vouchers so it ended up costing us £16.50 per person, which was pretty reasonable.

The room we ate in was beautiful, and although our table was pretty low, it made it easier to take photos!

I wore my Hush leopard print scarf, and a wine coloured skater dress from ASOS (saw it on The Lilac Pages and fell in love, it’s such a great shape!).

Our sandwiches were delicious – the chicken bun was particularly good, with flaked almonds giving it a great texture. There wasn’t really enough cream to go around on the scones, and the jam was weirdly runny, but to be honest, we enjoyed the scones anyway. They were light inside but slightly crisp on the outside, which was tasty indeed!

The cakes were slightly hit or miss – I had a try of everything except the banoffee cupcake, and some of them were very good, but the layer cake was a tiny bit stale… But, hey – there was plenty of tea! I much preferred the Assam to the English blend they had, which is uncharacteristic. Usually I’m completely the opposite of a tea connoisseur.

The great thing about The Rubens is that it’s so close to Buckingham Palace, so we popped on over when we’d had our fill (and yes, we were stuffed at the end!).

All in all, I wouldn’t pick The Rubens over the other places I’ve been for afternoon tea in London (hey, The Ritz is pretty darn snazzy, y’hear?) but it was lovely to try somewhere new. The voucher price (through Virgin) was decent enough for four people, although the current deal isn’t too much of a saving on their listed price!

(Psst, don’t forget, UK readers can enter my competition to win 12 share bags of Popchips here!)

7 Downton Abbey Themed Tearooms (theflyingfugu.com)
5 Award winning places to go for afternoon tea (visitwales.co.uk)

Bath Christmas Market

December 12, 2012December 12, 2012Leave a comment

On Saturday, I went with my folks to Bath Christmas Market – a mix of festive fun and crowd craziness, as we battled the hordes of people to get a glimpse of the wares on offer. I didn’t actually buy much except a present for my uncle and aunt, and a few cups to match a set I got from Anthropologie… To be honest, the amount of people there made the whole thing really claustrophobic, so I don’t think I’d be going back at Christmas next year. Still Bath is a lovely place to visit when it’s not rammed to the gils with tourists like me, so I’d still recommend a visit, just make it off-peak!

Here are some of my favourite sights at the market!

Restaurant Review: Graze, Brighton

November 25, 2012July 26, 2016Leave a comment

I love me a fancy restaurant, and the last time I visited Brighton (way back in April), I decided to book a table at Graze, a place I’d heard some pretty good things about! Their lunch time tasting menu is actually really reasonable for a restaurant of their quality, so I was really excited to visit – and I wasn’t disappointed at all!

Before we even began on our starters, we were brought some delicious soup shots, and some bread with different kinds of butter (you guys know how much I love bread and butter!). This was a really nice touch, because the different flavoured butters really added a different dimension to this restaurant table staple. My favourite was the one flavoured with a hint of lemon.

Now, the menu above isn’t actually the one we picked from, as they had changed the starters and puddings and forgotten to swap the new menu in (we were the first customers of the day!). So, for my starter, I had pigeon salad, which was very nice indeed.

The salad and the peas were delicious, and the meat was smoky and gamey without being overpowering – and cooked to perfection!

The Mr. had a gorgeous wild garlic risotto, and loved every scrap of it – it was really tasty, and inspired me to try a similar dish when I got some wild garlic in my Riverford veg box (although it didn’t come out as bright green as this did!).

My main was the gorgeous braised pork belly, and it was velvety and delicious on its bed of celariac puree – I never thought of preparing celariac like this, but it was so smooth and creamy I might have to give it a try!

Totally unexpectedly, before our pudding we were treated to a palette cleanser!

For pudding, I had a really light and refreshing pineapple dish with Malibu ice-cream – the pineapple was cut so finely that it actually gave it a really interesting texture, much different to the usual chunky cut pineapple I usually eat.

The Mr. had a selection of ice creams and sorbets, which were all delicious, especially the ice cream – which I suspect was cardamom, but we never actually found out…

I was really surprised to be offered so many tasty and thoughtful extras with such a reasonably priced set menu, and I wasn’t disappointed by a single course. I came away feeling satisfied, but not full, and as though I had had a really excellent meal – sadly, not something you can say after every restaurant visit, especially not at this price…

Graze is currently taking bookings for their Christmas parties, and it looks as though the cheaper lunch tasting menu has been replaced with a more expensive dinner tasting menu, but you can also try their new British menu, or pop in for a Sunday roast!

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Dining at WestQuay: Wagamama, choccies, and samples galore!

November 23, 20121 Comment

Today I popped down to WestQuay for the launch of their revamped upstairs dining section, and a look at their cooking demonstrations – and to try some samples, of course! Earlier in the day, celebrity chef Aldo Zilli was on hand for some demos, but I caught the later cooking displays from the team at Wagamama, who made some delicious Asian-inspired dishes.

The team put together a variety of dishes, and being a greedy pig I got to try all of them!

This is the goma wakame salad, which is a new dish on the autumn menu this year – a nice, refreshing dish with a toasted sesame seed oil and vinegar dressing.

Chilli squid, which is one of their starters – delicious, crispy and spicy!

The squid is seasoned with sea salt and shichimi, which is a Japanese red chilli. It was served with a vinegar-based chilli, garlic and coriander dipping sauce.

I really liked this dish! Nom!

This was chicken and prawn cha han, which is usually served with miso soup and pickles (incidentally, my favourite Japanese breakfast!). It’s not usually the kind of thing I order in restaurants because it’s not really exotic, and seems a little plain, but I really enjoyed this – it was very savoury and the special Wagamama dressing they poured on really gave the rice a great flavour. I also loved the addition of the prawns and the egg.

This was the chicken and prawn Wagamama pad Thai, made with rice noodles, chicken, prawns, egg, beansprouts, garlic, ginger and chillies. I was surprised by the addition of mint, but it was actually a really nice addition that gave it a fresh taste.

There were also some samples from other companies at WestQuay, who all got a chance to come and give a little pitch about their products before we got a taste.

This lovely lady was from Hotel Chocolat, and dispensed samples of Raspberry Smoothie, a delicious milk chocolate truffle with a raspberry creme filling (made with real raspberries!).

It was actually really delicious – I don’t usually go for fruit-filled chocolates, but this wasn’t too sweet or artificial tasting at all. Well, of course it wasn’t, it was made with real fruit!

These two girls were from Harry Ramsden’s and hilariously, neither of them liked fish… A good advert for the diversity of the menu, I guess?

Either way, Sara was happy because they gave out free chips (and she’s allergic to fish, so I guess proves Harry Ramsden’s really is more than just battered cod!).

We also took a wander upstairs to check out the new Dining area, and I have to say, I was really impressed with its makeover!

Maybe it’s just because I love the Christmas decorations, but it looks really good up there! Actually, it’s not just the deccies, the furnishings and design is much nicer than it was before – very contemporary and in keeping with the newer, higher end brands that have set up shop now.

Even older brands have had a new look, and Cafe Giardino looks great in its new home under the stairs – making way for Ed’s Easy Diner in its place (which still hasn’t opened yet!).

We’re so cosmopolitan now we even have a Mexican place, Tortilla.

My husband will be pretty happy about that! They even do margaritas (not that I’ll be having any of those – tequila and I don’t get on!).

All in all, I was really impressed with the new look and brands at WestQuay – I never usually eat in the food hall but this will definitely tempt me back – although what it’ll look like on a Saturday at lunch time, I dread to think! But for now, with the Christmas decorations and cool new tables and chairs, it looks pretty inviting, don’t you think?

Happy birthday to me!

October 2, 2012November 10, 2012Leave a comment

It’s my 30th birthday today, and yesterday my husband took me to Heston’s restaurant in London, Dinner By Heston! It’s located in an extremely posh hotel – but that was fine by me, because I was wearing my extremely posh outfit, so I felt more than prepared to meet the challenge! Heston actually says there should be no dress code to enjoy his food – which is a nice sentiment, but generally it feels good to wear something that feels appropriate to the price tag, which in this case was fairly astronomical.

The dining room is fairly cozy and not too intimidating – you can see right into the kitchen, which is a great touch! You can even see the pineapples for one of the puddings turning on a spit (although, not really in this photo. Clever me).

In this pretty awful photo you can see that the lights are actually formed of jelly moulds, which is another neat nod to the culinary arts. The dark wood floors, leather chairs and panelled walls create a very masculine atmosphere, like an old boys’ club or something, which suited the very traditional and ‘meaty’ menu on offer. Before you start, though, you’re given some exceptionally crusty bread to nibble on!

Delicious – I sometimes reckon all I’d need for a great meal would be a loaf of good bread and some butter – but of course, I always find a way of complicating even that, ha… This is the sort of menu on offer. Sounds intriguing, no?

This is what the Mr. had – Rice and Flesh – and very delicious it was too! Although, very filling, because he really couldn’t eat much else after this!

This was mine: Salamugundy. Very tender and subtle, and not too filling. This part was important, because… This was our main! A giant steak served with chips! Very delicious – I am a huge carnivore, so I was pretty pleased. I’d already tried the triple cooked chips at The Hind’s Head, and these weren’t really much different – crispy and moreish. The sauces were great, although the mushroom ketchup was served cold (as I expected), but in a small saucepan…?

Here’s a better look at that meaty bone! Droooool. I have to say, though, the meal ended on a bit of a downer for me. I picked the Brown Bread Ice-Cream, as I’ve had that before at home and really liked it. The malted yeast syrup totally spoiled the dish for me, though, and I saw someone else eating the same thing making similar faces…

It looked pretty enough, though! There was also a pretty little chocolate pudding to finish off with.

I definitely enjoyed my trip to Dinner, and the food was amazing. If you’re a fan of Heston, you’ll definitely enjoy eating at his latest restaurant. I’m going to be a bit controversial here, though, and say that if you’re not going for the set menu, you can definitely get the same quality food elsewhere for the same or lower prices. That said, the set menu is a bit of a bargain, at £36 a head for weekday lunches. However, there are only two choices for each course, which you might find limiting…

The one remaining Heston restaurant I’d like to visit is, of course, The Fat Duck. However, I’m fairly sure this is off the menu (ha) until we win on the scratchcards or something… I guess I’d have to buy some first though!

Courtyard Deli, Falmouth

September 5, 2012September 5, 2012Leave a comment

One of my favourite places when I went to Cornwall this year was the Courtyard Deli in Falmouth. A hidden gem, this gorgeous deli provided me with two of my favourite meals on holiday. (Who am I kidding, I didn’t eat anything that wasn’t amazing on holiday this year!). One was a lovely picnic, which I’ll discuss in a later post, and the other was a lovely tapas meal that we enjoyed on our final evening.

The deli is off the main road in Falmouth, but is easy enough to spot thanks to this cool little sign. Once you turn up the narrow alleyway, you’ll be greeted by a pretty sight:

Inside, it’s just as beautiful, because there are shelves stacked with all manner of amazingly gorgeous foodstuffs. Check out those delicious bowls of juicy olives! I promise, I did not steal any of them…

The Deli does tapas three nights a week, and it was incredibly quiet when we went on the Friday night – so quiet we were the only ones there for most of the time. Usually, this would be a sign of bad food, but I am pleased to report that this was certainly not the case! They definitely deserve to have people knocking the door down to get in, so if you’re local to the area, make sure to plan a visit, you won’t be disappointed!

As my husband is a massive carnivore, we decided to start off with a meat sharing platter. To be honest, I thought this would be a little bit boring – I do love cured meats, but it’s very simple to make something like that yourself, and to be honest, I wasn’t expecting much. So, I was pretty pleased when it arrived, and was utterly delicious! The potatoes were waxy and fresh, and the chorizo was a real standout – juicy, tender, salty and crisp. I’d never enjoyed chorizo as much as I enjoyed this simple, fried offering, and I’m a pretty big chorizo fan anyway! I also had some garlic prawns, because I made a pledge to myself I would eat seafood every day while in Cornwall. I love seafood but my husband hates it, so I never really get to eat it that often. Hooray for holidays! Om nom nom – this was halloumi cheese and strawberries – a weird combo that tasted oh so right! The salty, squeaky cheese went perfectly with the soft, sweet strawberries. I’ll have to try this at home!

We also had a pretty standard bread platter (although, no white bread? Strange…), and I enjoyed a deliciously sweet blush cider.

I would definitely recommend a visit to the Courtyard Deli – friendly staff, great food – what else do you need?!

My Holiday to Cornwall: or, How To Put On A Stone in a Week

August 29, 2012Leave a comment

So, I went to Cornwall for the first time in my life about two weeks ago. I had a blast, visited some amazing places, ate some amazing food, but in the process I destroyed my bank balance and my waistline! The next month is going to involve some serious recovery…

Speculoos: Manna from the Heavens

July 12, 2012August 29, 2012Leave a comment

I’d heard of speculoos before – they’re not very well-known here, but chances are you’ve had one. They’re those delicious, cinnamonny little Lotus biscuits you sometimes get with your tea or coffee in a cafe. They’re called caramelised biscuits here, but speculoos is another word for them – and they’re also known as Dutch Windmill biscuits in the US, Australia and New Zealand. I adore them, so of course, I make sure never to buy any, because I will devour the whole lot in an incredibly short amount of time.

Imagine my delight when I found out you can make a spread out of them.

Is there anything more deliciously dangerous than a spread made out of biscuits? I don’t want to know about it if there is.

I discovered this in Le Pain Quotidien, and promptly horded the jar, before eating a whole bread basket spread with the stuff. It was glorious! Then, I bought my own jar!

I wish I was joking when I say this, but I had eaten the whole jar in a week. And by that, I mean working week. My only regret is that there’s none left. IT WAS DELICIOUS!

Hind’s Head

June 23, 2012July 26, 2016Leave a comment

What better place to go after a good day of racing than The Hind’s Head in Bray? The Hind’s Head is Heston Blumenthal’s pub, so when I realised how close it is to Ascot, I suggested a trip there! Luckily, we were able to get a reservation, and arrived a little early to wander over the road and check out The Fat Duck, Heston’s more famous restaurant.

It looks incredibly unassuming from the outside! You can’t peer in through the windows, which is great news for the diners, but not as fun for us gawking tourists.

This sign doesn’t really give much away…

But this one doesn’t need a lot of fancy detective work to figure out!

Here is the famous Fat Duck sign, and in the background is The Hind’s Head!

The first thing we did went we got in was order a drink from the amazing menu while we waited for our table to be ready.

They were hugely expensive, but I spent my returned stake money on the strawberry sweetshop, and I don’t regret a thing!

Delicious! I would also have really like to have tried out some of the historical punches… but, a girl’s gotta eat, too.

We supped our drinks, and by this point had removed our hats – not really pub wear, even in Bray!

This was the menu:

It was hard to decide against the steak, but I already know what steak tastes like, and wanted to try something different! For starters, it was scotch eggs all round:

I had to try these as everyone was raving about them, and they were delicious (and cheap, too *ahem*…). The quail’s egg in the centre was still runny, and the pork was incredibly rich. The coating was deliciously crisp. There was certainly more than enough, even though the portion was small.

For my main, I had the steak and kidney pie (with triple fried chips, because. Chips). It was tender, delicious, and very, very rich and savoury. Yes, I know I decided against the steak because it was a familiar thing, and so is steak and kidney pie, but I wanted to see what Heston would do with the traditional recipe.

I HAD to have the chips with it, mostly because I’d heard so much raving about them…

Needless to say, they were great – crispy to the point of being crunchy!

Rachel and Lorraine both had the mushroom macaroni with ‘slow cooked hen’s egg’. I was pretty jealous because it was delicious! The slow-cooked part for the hen’s egg put me off – I definitely wasn’t expecting it to be soft. But the deep, meaty, mushroom flavour of the macaroni, and the gorgeous runny yolk was a match made in heaven!

Lorraine tried one of the specialities for her dessert – the quaking pudding!

It came with a little piece of card explaining the history of the pudding, which was very light – like a hot panna cotta. The caramelised banana was a great touch.

My pudding was called ‘English strawberries, soup and sorbet’, and I partly ordered it because I had no idea what it was going to be!

It was a nice mix of strawberry syrup, white soft cheese, sorbet, and the fresh strawberries. A refreshing end to the meal! Actually, no – it wasn’t quite the end, because I ordered a coffee afterwards! It came with an incredibly strong-tasting block of jelly – I think it was passionfruit, but I’m not sure…

One bite was enough, it flooded your mouth with flavour. Delicious!

All in all, our trip was very enjoyable. The food was very rich and full of flavour. It was expensive, but it was worth it for the novelty value! If I went again, it would be to share the experience with other friends and family, because the food, although fantastic, is not fantastic enough for me to justify the price again, nor the journey. But I would still recommend it to anyone who wants to try Heston’s food without shelling out Fat Duck prices.

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Foodie trip: Fortnum & Mason

March 1, 2012February 29, 20121 Comment

I have to say, I’m a huge stickler for anything ‘British’. I’m a definite patriot, and there’s nothing more I love to do than indulge in quintessentially British experiences, like cream teas, picnics, visiting castles, and the like. I’m like a tourist in my own country, sometimes!

One of my favourite foodie places in London is Fortnum and Mason. If you’re not familiar with it, it’s like a foodie department store in Piccadilly, full to the brim with tourist-trap style products like biscuits in a tin, and the like. Because it has links going way back to the Royal family, and has a Royal warrant, the place is completely decked out to celebrate the Jubilee this year, with commemorative merchandise all over the place, including tea caddies, biscuit tins, and china. It’s the final day of February as I write this, and I’ve just realised I’ve been to F&M twice this year already – time to cut back and give another foodie destination a try, right?

Anyway, here’s a snap of the window display, featuring the aforementioned Jubilee products, all decked out in F&M blue (also pretty similar to Tiffany blue, am I right? Gotta love that hue!). I am coveting the tea cup and saucer set, but let’s just say they’re a bit beyond my price range…

Here’s a view down the staircase of the beautiful heraldic animals on display in the shop at the moment. There was also a really cool display of crafts from people who the queen had given grants too, including a couple of beautiful displays of millinery.

Do you see the detailing on these food-inspired hats? Gorgeous! I’m in the market for a hat for Ascot this year, but sadly – out of my price range again!

The real reason for my visit was to go to The Parlour with my husband. I’d been last year for my birthday, but it was a girls’ weekend and he stayed at home. Always good to have another reason to go back, right?

If this isn’t reason enough to go back, I don’t know what is! This is their banoffee ‘cocktail ice cream sundae’, which is listed in their menu as “sliced banana, drizzled with Coole Swan Irish Cream liqueur, scoops of smooth banana, toffee and Amedei chocolate ice creams, whipped cream, toffee sauce and with malt”. Delicious, is all I can say!

I also had tea, mostly because I just love their teapots. I actually found one on sale there this time – I’ll be buying extra lottery tickets so I can get one for the kitchen, I think… Hey, silver goes with everything, it’s an investment.

Needless to say, this was not a ‘fitness’ trip – although, the scales today say that eating a giant ice cream sundae, drinking a vanilla bean milkshake, plus downing coffees all day, snaffling a macaroon in a cafe, demolishing a bento box from the Japan Centre, and having okonomiyaki for lunch at Hyper Japan (and following it up with chocolate covered strawberries) had no ill effects. Well, it helps that I’ve been exercising like a fiend I suppose!

Food, Fashion and Fitness

Style, beauty, health and recipes

Category: Foodie Trip

Afternoon Tea at The Rubens

Bath Christmas Market

Restaurant Review: Graze, Brighton

Dining at WestQuay: Wagamama, choccies, and samples galore!

Happy birthday to me!

Courtyard Deli, Falmouth

My Holiday to Cornwall: or, How To Put On A Stone in a Week

Speculoos: Manna from the Heavens

Hind’s Head

Foodie trip: Fortnum & Mason

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