Tom H.'s Profile

I like the Twickenham Pizza Express more than any other I've visited purely because of it's incredibly friendly, polite and accommodating staff.

You're welcomed in by a waitress or manager that seem genuinely happy that you're here and any request you have is dealt with immediately and quickly, even when busy.

A role model in the Pizza Express chain.

I came here one day last week to get out of the office and have something quick to eat and was delighted to see that it's been refurbished from it's previously dark looking state.

The first thing you notice is the massive garage door style alcoves plastered with street art from Ben Eine (the artist who did that piece which David Cameron gave to Barack Obama). As well as the alcoves, there's some other artwork on the walls and the friendly waitress said that there's some more pieces coming soon.

You're looking at around £10 - £12 for a main meal, which isn't terribly cheap, but you're effectively situated in the middle of an awesome street art gallery. I learned also that they re-design the whole bar with a different artist every 6 months. Very cool, I'll be back here.

This post is also on my bloggy blog

So it's the World Cup final and me and a few mates are wondering round looking for a bar with a big screen. We checked out a few places in the area but they were all to packed, had crap screens or were just too expensive.

Then we tried The Grand Union, a pub that fancies itself as a bit of a swanky (ish) cocktail bar. You know the type I mean, with antique furniture set amoungst a modern black interior and barmen that can't resist winking at your girlfriend, despite you standing right there in front of him.

We found a spot on some comfy sofas with a large screen in front of us. We still had a while for the game to start so we ordered some very tasty sounding food and drinks.

I was too hungover to drink alcohol so I ordered a pint of diet coke and the designated driver of our group ordered a half pint of the same. The barmaid served the half pint to my friend first which she took back to the group. I was pretty sure it weak and that the post mix syrup was running out but she'd already taken it back to the table.

So I watched the barmaid go on to pour my pint of diet coke, assuming that she'd notice the syrup was gone and go and change it first. I was right, she noticed but her inexperience led her to ask her more senior colleague (the type that winks a your girlfriend despite you being stood right there).

Out of earshot, but still within my sight, he brazenly told her to just fill up the remaining half a glass with regular coke (a drink that I had not ordered). I watched from the other end of the bar as she did what she was told and then brought my half soda, half coke concoction.

"That's not what I ordered" I said.

"Yes it is, you ordered a pint of diet coke" she replied (with attitude)

"Yes I know, I ordered a pint of diet coke. I did not order half a pint of soda that's topped up with regular coke"

"Well I've poured it now" she stated, as if I would suddenly chang my mind and decide that I'd like half a pint of soda topped up with regular coke.

"I can see that. Could I have a pint of diet coke please?" trying to refrain from calling her and her colleague a fucktard.

"I'll get my manager" she said.

After a further few minutes explaining to the manager what had just happened he very reluctantly gave me a bottle of diet coke, as the post mix had run out (duh!). He then tried to charge me £2 for it, when I knew (from my designated driver friend) that a half pint of post mix costs £1.60.

I had to verbally wrestle him into submission but eventually I got the bloody drink for £1.60, which I should have been given for free after standing there for close to 15 minutes. I didn't care about the 40p, but I refused to be mugged over by these idiots.

(Jesus this is a long review!)

Our food arrived shortly after the match started and I was shocked to find that my chicken burger must have been made with pigmy chickens. It was absolutely miniscule! And the rest of the groups food wasn't any better either. The designated driver of the group had a salad with more oil than leaves. It was more like an oil soup with a few leaves floating round in it. She ate roughly none of it, like the rest of us with our meals.

In all, this place has the potential to be pretty decent but has been completely let down by the utter fucktardedness of it's bar and kitchen staff, particularly Mr. Wink-a-lot.

This review is also on my Bloggy Blog

As I finished work last night I was instructed by my girlfriend's mother to meet her in Richmond to help carry a large sofa. She was running late with the hire van so my girlfriend (an expert sofa carrying co-ordinator) and I popped into the Orange Tree pub.

We've lived near this pub for years, and know a little about it's background and some history from the famous Orange Tree Theatre next door, but we've never once visited it. So this was our chance to try it out for the first time.

Walking through their front patio area into the bar, you can't help but notice the extraordinary amount of businessey looking people. They've evidently just finished work and stand there laughing politely at their unfunny bosses whilst trying to sneak another drink onto their bar tab.

The businessey type people isn't necessarily a bad thing, it just means that you get a slight 'what are you doing in my local' look as you walk in.

Anyway we ordered and I noticed a fun looking competition on the wall behind the bar. It took a few sips of my Bulmers to get the answer and when I got it I had to enter, especially as they're on twitter.

Overall, The Orange Tree seems like a really nice pub. It's quite large with an outdoor area and a cellar for basement jazz (we could hear them sound checking and it sounded great). Above all, I'm impressed that they use Twitter and that they seem to use it well.

My review is currently only 3 stars as I haven' had the chance to fully experience this pub (drink, food, atmosphere, music, etc). It's also on my bloggy blog too.

Reckon you know the answer to the riddle?

I had a very tasty Chocoloate Yuforia with Marshmallows and Popping Candy (don't tell Weight Watchers!). My girlfriend came with me who had a Chocolate one with White Chocolate and Raspberries, which also received numerous 'mmm' sounds and a slightly crazy obsessed look in her eye.

Added to the friendly staff, that were up for a bit of banter at the counter, I'd strongly recommend trying these out. I was a skeptic that thought frozen yogurt would taste like a Frube or something, but it's not. Yuforia's frozen yogurt is pretty much identical to ice cream, except with a huge range of tasty toppings to choose from. They obviously taste best when you're sat in the sunshine but if it's not such a great day, their solid oak seating is real nice to chill on and watch the world go by.

Yuforia are on Twitter too: @yuforia

Okay so today I was at home sitting around with a hangover and feeling really, REALLY bored. After ringing round roughly everyone I know, and getting knocked down by each of them, I decided enough was enough and I'd go to the pub.

I am now in the pub, using their free Wi-Fi, after having what can only be described as a wicked-awesome burger. It really was, it was bloody beautiful. A masterpiece of culinary engineering you might say.

I am so stuffed right now that I feel sick at the thought of more food, yet I think I could probably attempt another go at one of those bad boy burgers. In fact, I'm salivating.

I guess I had better start to describe it then. For a start, it was definitely home made, and it had that scruffy look about it that said "Hey there, I'm not your ordinary perfectly shaped burger, I'm full of flavour and the chef probably said pucker whilst making me".

As standard, when a burger arrives before your eyes, you lift the bun lid and inspect what's going on. I did just that and immediately noticed that there was no cheese! I asked for cheese god damn it and they'd gone and bloody forgotten it... or so I thought.

In fact, the cheese WAS there, they'd hidden it INSIDE the burger! As I sat there, bun in hand, I thought to myself "this is revolutionary, the cheese is INSIDE the burger". Needless to say, I devoured it along with the mediocre side of wedges.

As you might expect, I'd recommend the burger. The rest of the place is good too though, the bar area is light and airy with a high ceiling and there's a nice looking family friendly beer garden too. The only things that stopped this place getting full marks was the oily soggy wedges (would have preferred proper chips) and the slow Wi-Fi. Even the dirty stinking slut-bag chav, recommending that I go on YouPorn, didn't sway this review (although 'she' did put me off my food. Slightly).

It was my sisters 10th birthday recently and after browsing Hamleys for an incredibly exciting 30 minutes I realized that I had absolutely no idea what to get her. Of course I saw loads of stuff I wanted for myself!

So on my way back to the office to resume my day of e-mails and overdosing on Earl Grey tea I stopped by Candy Cakes in Kingly Court to pick her up some cupcakes.

I don't think they're as good as the ones from the Humming Bird Bakery or Gourmet Cupcakes but seeing as I wasn't going to eat them, and because I was short on time, I go them anyway.

At about £3 each I'm not quite sure why I bothered. For the £10 I spent I should probably have bought shit loads of cake mix and made some with her. Damn that's not a bad idea, she'd have probably enjoyed the sister/brother bonding more too.

There's an idea for you cup cake shops... Invite people to your shop to bake and decorate their own cakes on their birthday for a small fee.

Okay so it's just a Pret-A-Manger, right? We've all been to one before. Some of us like them and some of us hate them because they're a massive chain. Well this one is not really any different I guess.

I wouldn't normally review a chain like this because it's much more fun to seek out the little places with unique features, character and some personality. I guess my reasoning for reviewing this one is so you know that it's got a decent amount of comfy seats.

Sometimes walking around looking for somewhere with comfy seats is a right pain in the arse but now you know that if you want to park your butt comfortably and people watch through the big windows, this is an okay (but not by all means best) place to do it.

Hmm... I see a 'Park Your Arse' or 'People Watching' Yelp list coming on...

Oh actually I should mention that there's no toilets in this place, so don't park your arse for tooooo long.

On my visit to Burton last week we decided to head to the Coopers Tavern on Cross Street. Unfortunately they only serve food on Sundays so order any of their tasty sounding home cooked dishes.

So instead we ordered platters for our group of 12 from The Granary Canvas about 10 minutes away. The landlady was quite happy for us to do this and there were a few other tables of people eating take out food too.

The staff at the Granary Canvas were incredibly friendly and we had no problems with pre-ordering food over the phone and paying over the phone. The prices were good and the portion sizes were very big and having it all delivered to the pub for us was great too.

What an awesome place!

I came here with a group of 15 for a lovely dinner in the great hall before splitting up to explore the castle (including the kings bedroom and dungeon) in search of ghosts!

The castle offers stunning views and you can also look down onto Burton-Upon-Trent at all the factories and breweries around the town.

I think this place is a really nice spot for functions and events and I'll be sure to return if I'm in the area again in the future.