Michaelia "holy schnikes" K.'s Profile

Work ordered in lunch for us and got Hannah's Bretzel, and I have to say, I'm a huge fan now! I got the Sergio Special, which is Madrange ham, Gruyere, avocado, jalepenos and mango chutney on the bretzel baguette. It was mazers, to say the least!  Put mango chutney on anything and I'm sold.   Also got some of the banana/apple bread and I couldn't have scarfed it down faster.  

A tad on the expensive side, but a nice splurge once in a while!

Venetian tapas?? What?? I've never heard of 'em, but I gave them a chance.  This seems like one of those places foodies recommend. We went on a Wednesday night and even then it was still busy. We got there about 8ish and it was an hour and a bit wait.  No worries though as they had a good selection of wines :)

We finally were seated and we ordered LOTS (waiting makes me hungrier). I don't remember everything, but remembered the fried polenta was AMAZING, as was the risotto.

I'm no food critic or even a foodie, but I just wasn't bowled over by anything, nor would I think to immediately recommend this place to anyone.

I'd never had Pho before, and I'm glad I finally tried it! It was delicious. I had the chicken rice noodles and some summer rolls and I was pleasantly surprised.  Yeah there's a lil slurpin action, but I wasn't put off by it.

It boasts "Healthy Vietnamese Street Food", at a cheap price (£4.90), and I think it's a great little lunch spot.

Fuelled by tasty half-pitchers of margaritas, I mowed down my chicken burrito especiale. And I had no regrets. NO REGRETS!  This is some of the better Mexican (ok Tex-Mex) I've had here.

And you know, I really liked the dressing on salad. It had a little kick to it.

Also, our waitress was a sweetheart. (Didn't hurt that she was American. I like to think we got that leeeetttle bit extra customer service because of it.)

A little random fact I found out about this place: it was part of the setting in Sliding Doors!

We got starters of black and green olives, and stuffed peppers. I'm not sure what they were stuffed with exactly, but it had a little extra 'zing!'.

On a recent goat cheese kick, I had the Cantodina pizza. It was delicious! It was smothered with the stuff, and also cherry tomatoes. It was as big as your face, so if I hadn't already stuffed my face with Halloween candy, I probably could've polished it off.  

It was a little bit empty for a Friday lunchtime, but the waiters were friendly enough and the place had a nice vibe to it.

Being an American transplant in London, I've been dying to go to a pumpkin patch since the weather started turning cooler, the leaves started falling and out popped the scarves. Carving pumpkins is my favourite thing to do round Halloween time. (That along with watching Hocus Pocus on about a bagillion times!) I did a quick google search for pumpkin picking, and from http://pumpkinpatchesa..., I was pointed in the direction of Crockford Bridge Farms.

From the website, it looked pretty sweet! It was more than just pick your own, including a restaurant, coffee shop, ice cream, aquarium, and farm shop.

Sadly, I had fooled myself into thinking I might have the same experience back at home: hay rides, hot apple cider, pumpkin pie and cake, rows and rows of pumpkins in a patch, maybe a corn maze. Yeah, not really. They did have a TeePee though, which I found kinda odd. And they certainly had enough tall corn to do a maze!

It was more like a garden centre than anything. I can't really describe it accurately because I've never been to a place like it before. They had loads of fish tanks, complete with angel fish to puffer fish.  They also sold fireworks for Guy Fawkes Night, with names like Big Mama's and Devil's Crotch (or something of that variety). And they had a huge horse-sized unicorn and camel stuffed animals. The farm shop bit had the pumpkins, and along with it various jams, cakes, and fresh produce. It even had an American section with the likes of Stove Top and Skippy peanut butter in it.

As for the pumpkins, instead of being out  in the field where they might get "stem rot", they were packed into giant wooden crates to pick from.

I can't say the trip was all for naught though, as I did get super excited about picking out my pumpkin! I even bought a pumpkin carving kit to go with it. I guess the whole Halloween in the UK thing might never catch on. At least the ride to and from was pretty scenery.

I didn't come here for the hotel, just for a post-work Friday night drink. Or 3!

This place is swank. I haven't been to a lot of 'swank' places, but I can tell a lot of the normal clientele and lodgers aren't strapped for cash.  It's probably not somewhere I'll continually frequent (mostly because of the prices), but it's a nice spot for special occasions!

The drink menu was amazing! Plus any place that makes a cocktail out of Passoa is good in my book. I went for the Raspberry & Lychee bellini, and for £12.50 a pop, they were the best bellinis I've had (well they better be!!) I also really appreciated the side of oddly coated peanuts. Tasty!

I think it's entirely possible I've never left a restaurant feeling as full after a meal as I did here!

I loaded up on big-as-your-face giant prawn crackers with chili sauce, edamame with a gorgeous spiced salt on it, Bo La Lot (which unfortunately looked like lil doggy poos but tasted excellent), and Hanoi-style short ribs. And that was just starters!

Between 4 of us, we split our mains of three flavored chicken, baked sea bass, Sichuan-spiced duck breast, and peppered beef fillet. I honestly have a hard time picking a favourite! If I had to choose, I'd pick the duck. It wasn't greasy at all, which duck can sometimes be.  We also got sides of coconut rice, the yummiest I've had in a long time.

Oh, I got ahead of myself. We went on a busy Friday night, so we had to wait for a table. In the meantime, we went up to the bar which was on the 4th floor. It was awesome! I'm really digging places with more than 1 floor. As Teresa L. said, it's a converted townhouse, which makes for a very interesting restaurant. I even loved the women's bathroom!

I haven't had so much fun in ages! ... !! We went on a Friday night where there was a great gig going on (my amazing detective skills let me deduce it was Isaac Rose - http://twitter.com/isa...) doing great covers of Stevie Wonder, Rolling Stones and many more.

It was hard not to get pulled into all the excitement, with loads of people dancing - even on the top 3rd floor overlooking the stage! Granted a lot of my entertainment came from some wildly drunk people, but hey that's just part of the package, right?  Even I couldn't stop my own butt dancing and getting down! And I would've kept doing it if Cinderella here didn't have a tube to catch.

I had been drinking wine earlier in the evening, and didn't fancy a day out of commission so I had to forego the famed mint juleps unfortunately :(  But since this place is only a hop, jump and skip away from my work, as well as having happy hour EVERY DAY 12 - 7 (more detective skills - cough the website cough -), I assuredly will be back!

Hand on my heart, I'd never had proper dim sum before! I had had the odd dumpling from a chinese takeaway, but never as a meal solely on its own. Even though my friend who isn't really a fan of dim sum described it as 'soggy little parcels of shit' and 'smelling of feet', I was still interested in trying it!

On a Friday night we were struck with hunger, so we called Dim T to make a reservation. The guy asked when, and when we told him 15 or 20 minutes, he seriously laughed at first. For a moment I was confused because does that mean it's not full at all, they have an overabundance of tables, or does that mean we had no hope in hell? Turns out it was bustling in there. Jokes on him though, as we did manage to score a table 20 minutes later!

We started with spicy edamame (which seemed to be flavoured with a General Tsao kinda sauce) which was DELICIOUS. I was positively groping those things. After an order of spring rolls (a little on the oily side, but pay no mind) I ordered spicy chicken and cashew chicken coriander, but I sampled spicy beef and chicken wasabi mushroom. OMG! Now granted I was in a semi-drunk state (tipsy, if you will), I am now a huge fan! They were a little difficult to eat at first, but I ended up just stabbing them.

I popped to the loo (they passed inspection), and when I came back was presented with a weird looking sea urchin in the bottom of a glass mug. Okay really it was a jasmine flower! It came with a pot of honey which you stick a teaspoon or two into to sweet it up. Despite the odd petal in my mouth, it was a wonderful flavour.

Last but not least were our fortune cookies. They were friggin mini-scrolls, how awesome! I learned you have to eat your cookie before you read your fortune. Mine had something to do with success, or something.

I had a great dim sum experience. It was a in a very fine establishment indeed as well! Lovely decor and atmosphere, along with good food.