Sherene J.'s Profile

Right, so we were there on Wine Wednesday and much to the reader's shock perhaps, I inform that I did not partake in any wine whatsoever. A balmy summer day called for chilly, light drinks like Pimms and beers, of which they seemed to have a varied and excellent selection. Belgian beers, best-of from Leeds, Cornwall and what not, enough to keep one happy at the bar.

It's a nice enough hangout in an area choc-a-bloc with several options... we liked the comfy sofas at the back where we got some respite from the sun and the heat outside. I'll probably stop by the place sometime again. Or not. It's just one of those places, you know, which isn't distinctive enough to stand out in one's memory for long but isn't bad either. Perhaps, I should reserve my judgment until I've eaten there...

Because of said sucker-tendency when it comes to Thai food, I was close to giving 4-stars to this place but unfortunately for the restaurant, our table was served by a rather pushy waitress who seemed to be badgering us into ordering starter platters which we were not keen on. It was a large bunch of us but we wanted to order only two platters because several members of the group were vegetarians and had identified their own starters to order but the waitress kept insisting we should order three. We stuck our ground and got two platters and found them more than adequate!

The restaurant is a fair trek from the tube stop, a good way of building an appetite. Food was served in adequate portions, dare I say, even enough in an individual portion to share across two if one is too full from starters and such. Flavours were rich and spicy and prices are good. Beware though, once the starters, wine, beer, mains and desserts are done, the prices could really start adding up, so it could even be worth considering the set menu but I can't speak for that considering I haven't ordered it myself.

Good Thai food, is all I can say. Nothing to blow my mind but good enough for me to stop by again if I'm in the area.

I'm a sucker for Thai food and this place is rather reasonably priced for its location. I had the Drunken Duck dish with coconut rice and tasted some green curry from the boyfriend's mains. Green curries in London never seems to live up to my expectations and Thailand experiences so I'll set that aside but the Drunken Duck was dashing. It was a long meal with a large group and the staff was quite patient and quick - they even settled up the bill twice for the sake of a batch of people leaving earlier than others.

It's a quirkily designed and noisy place good for groups rather than quiet intimate dinners. The portion sizes are good and the menu has sufficient variety to cater to varied tastes. In the opinion of my spice-weathered palate, some of the dishes could do with being hotter but that doesn't take away from the fact that the food's tasty.

The desserts menu at this place is extensive and varied. The presentations of various ice-creams in their natural look is quite delightful, for instance, the coconut ice-cream in a coconut shell and the pineapple icecream in a scooped out pineapple. Mind that the coconut ice-cream is quite rich and can only be had if shared across three and the pineapple icecream comes in a hearty portion and is best shared between two. For those who desist from sharing, go for the coffee dessert which comes in a single person serving.

Why the four stars, you ask? Good value for money.

Clearly this place is less crowded through dinner hours but at lunch hour, the City crowd flocks here in herds. Despite the several warnings about the place informing everyone of a long wait, I found the service adequately efficient and quick. Not a place where the wait staff will linger for a chat about the items on the menu, I reckon, but one hardly looks for that sort of an experience for lunch, yes?

This place offers both Korean and Japanese but the one time I visited, I decided to go for a Japanese starter, the prawn gyoza which was nice but nothing to write home about, really. For mains, I went for the Korean bibimpap, a stone hotpot which keeps the food cooking even as you eat it. I had ordered the ribeye steak bibimpap and amazingly enough, the meat to the table came thinly sliced and very raw. The staff then mixed the various ingredients in the pot (rice,  mushroom, courgette, spring onion, carrot, egg, sesame seeds and chilli sauce, served with miso soup and kimchi) with the steak at our table and I could see the meat cooking to a tender texture right in front of my eyes.

I thought it rather a fancy and exotic meal for lunch and I was well-pleased with the food. The portion sizes are not large and between a starter and a main, I found it just right but I suspect it might fall short of the expectations of someone expecting larger lunches for the price range. That said, the flavours are delightful and fresh and if you're a fan of Asian food like I am, I'd say it's worth a visit. I look forward to re-visiting the place sometime for dinner for a more leisurely-paced meal.

I had bought a discounted voucher for a hair treatment, cut and blowdry at this salon from http://Likebees.com, with great trepidation, because I'm wary of hairdressers in general and even more so without the benefit of a word of mouth recommendation.

Why am I wary of hairdressers, you ask? Here's why... I have frighteningly curly coarse hair which is a joy to look at but a nightmare to maintain. To say that it has a personality of its own is more than an understatement. I have been at the receiving end of much ire from several hairdressers who make me feel like shit for having hair that's difficult to handle, which merely pisses me off because quite frankly, if I didn't need their help fixing it, I wouldn't be paying them now, would I?

I loved, loved, loved this salon...they absolutely pampered my hair and gave me some very useful advice to deal with the unusual levels of frizz and volume. Yohan, my hair stylist, was exceedingly patient with my hair and me and left me feeling fabulous about my curls :) The name of the person who blow-dryed my hair escapes me now but he was awesome too, left me looking like a sun goddess with stunningly defined curls which stayed for much longer than one would imagine salon styling to remain.

I highly recommend this salon. It doesn't hurt that it is located centrally while being easily accessible from the City. The ambiance and decor is calming, minimalist and most stylish. Go forth and pamper your hair.

I'm in the midst of decking up my pad, a wee place I bought recently and I really wanted to get quality stuff without burning a hole in my wallet and without going the easy route of picking everything up at IKEA or Argos. The recent clearance sale at John Lewis was an absolute delight. Picked up a great guest bed+mattress set, powerful vacuum cleaner, duvet cover set, pillows and what not. Very impressed with the home delivery arrangement, no costs for anything above 30quid and you can even track the progress of the shipment! For large items like the guest bed, you can even choose the slot for delivery at no cost. We got some fantastic advice from the staff in store on mattress purchasing (although they ran out of the one we wanted so we couldn't buy it here :/). I really appreciated the fact that they gave us lots of time and room to think carefully about major purchases, rather than employing the tired old hard-selling tactics. For this one reason alone, I'm a huge fan!

Great are the perils of harbouring mighty expectations! Disappointment is but guaranteed. Anticipation is the death of all goodness in restaurants, I deem hereforth.

Alright, enough with wielding my poetic licence then.

I had been looking forward to checking out the Souk Medina for the longest of times. On several occasions, I had lovingly browsed through their well-done website and planned and plotted on what I would like to savour when I'm there (yes, I can be quite pathetic like that, sometimes :P) but several plans at the venue fell through, much to my consternation.

I /finally/ made it to the venue quite unexpectedly at an acquaintance's birthday do, without much of an appetite to speak of. I would have preferred to just have a quick drink and dash, and come back for a proper meal to savour the much-promised goodness of their menu. But the seating arrangement is such that to seat yourself, you have to inconvenience everyone and sidle up the edges and I decided to be polite and have a quick bite. However, the way the set menus work is thus - if everyone orders the set menu, there is a free flow of food to the table, but if people hmm and haw and go for ala carte, the table might face impositions on the free flow. Call it peer pressure or whatever you will, I ordered the set menu after all.

It might have been that I felt a degree of coercion or that I didn't have much of an appetite. Or it could have been the brisk treatment by the waiter who did not seem keen to elucidate the various options available to guests. But I wasn't pleased. The food was probably not bad at all, but it didn't overwhelm me positively enough for me to overlook the general lackadaisical service. The only thing that stands out in my mind from that meal was this succulent lamb dish flavoured with whole plums - I liked, despite the grouchy mood I'd fallen into.

For the moment, I shall reserve my judgment on the food and rate this place on the service which deserves no more than the 2 measly stars I shall spare.

There were 7 of us in the group, and after settling down into the comfortable low seating alcove, we ordered a bottle of wine (good) and some Eritrean beer (alright). The mood lighting gave lovely atmosphere to the place, the photos of food prepared us for what was to come and the decor did not overwhelm - it seemed like a place one could get used to coming back to again and again. None of the unnecessary exotification of the unknown.

The platter options were for groups of four and we decided to indulge some and get 2 platters, despite the over-ordering it involved. One was the vegetarian option and the other one was non-vegetarian - both were superb. They were served in large communal dishes with a hand-woven basket top, and the way the food is presented, along with the way it is eaten with one's fingers, makes for a very nice, warm meal amongst friends.

Both platters came with starters of injera rolled in the fiery red sauce (non-veg) or a green sauce (veg) - a mere indication of the deliciousness to follow.

The platters were amazing - the spices were redolent and the flavours indulgent. The meat was tender and even the veggies felt unusually delectable. The flat bread, Injera, is a perfect accompaniment to the sauces in these dishes and, to South Indians, very reminiscent of the rice-based appams. Highly recommend the platters for those who don't know what to go for, because they seem to provide a wide range of choices.

We were too full to consider dessert but it was someone's birthday and some standard dessert was had, not bad but nothing distinctive enough to remember.

This place is owned and run by a family and the staff are friendly and courteous at all times. The birthday din they created for my friend was memorable too :)

Point to note - as expected, the food was in generous portions and despite our best attempts to stuff ourselves silly, there was a LOT of food left over. When the staff offered to pack the food for us, everyone else looked sheepish and declined. I shamelessly took the food home and had an amazing meal on THREE more occasions, people! And as the waiter had told me, the bread soaked overnight in the sauces turns out to be even more tasty the following day - yum!

Unrelated note: I'm shocked at the ignorance amongst people about Eritrea! Having this meal was a revelation of several of my friends' sheer ignorance...someone I know from South Africa didn't know of this country on his own continent!

Hmm, I do believe people are being a tad harsh to Maxwells, but then again, that could be explained by the fact that I only pay half-price at this establishment, thanks to my TasteLondon card, so my expectations are only halfway theirs.

The place has little character, lots of crowds and decent food. What I found note-worthy during 1 of my several visits was their commendable service for a particularly crowded place. I had asked for my steak medium and I was nearly through my meal when I noticed a splash of red not quite common for a medium steak. When I brought it to the attention of the staff, the manager came by to offer me a new meal. Considering I was nearly through, I wasn't very keen so he sent the two of us a very nice cocktail each, which was good enough to be dessert, really.

I see myself going back there on those 'whatever' evenings when I just want to get myself a burger or a steak.

This is a smaller branch of Belgo's and seems to be more of a drinking establishment than a restaurant. Not the most ideal place to go to in large groups - expect to be split across a couple of tables if you do.

Just one thing to keep in mind when you eat at this place - order mussels, lots of it, relish the sauces and order some good fruit beer to top it all off. Nothing too hard to remember, eh?

Both my visits to this branch involved a kilo of mussells each, soaked and doused in Thai Green sauce and complemented by sweet beers such as mango and strawberry beer. Conversation came to a grinding halt both times as hungry friends dug into individual shells to pick out the tender flesh, drink off the sauce as it messily dripped off the shells and discarded the empty shells, only to go again. It is not an easy process, and you do feel like you've earned your meal by the time you make your way through it. But it's well worth the effort. The frites served with the mussels are mostly of the 'meh' variety, better than McD's fries but that's not saying much. I would have preferred a side of bread to soak up the sauces at the bottom of the dish after all the mussels are cleared out. The prices are alright for a centrally located food joint serving up atypical dishes - I expect I'll go again. It's a good spot on Sundays for a quiet-ish lunch.