Rachella S.'s Profile

Hmm-

I'm not impressed, but sadly, so far it's the best Japanese-esque food I've had in London. Perhaps I need to try some more places.

There's a wide range of vegetarian options but the food is a bit bland. Also--and this is the reason I haven't been back-- the food made my dining companion ill.

First of all I have to say that I have difficult hair. It's stick straight and shows every scissor cut.. There's a lot of it but it still manages to be flyaway.

I heard about Hair by Fairy from coworkers who always go there at lunch so I thought I'd try it. What could I lose for £13? After all, hair always grows back. I was in and out with time left over to eat lunch. That is the good news.

The bad news is my haircut looked like it had been attacked with the garden shears. My hair is difficult to cut, and it was a bargain basement cut so I thought: "Oh well, I should have known better." Six months passed and my hair became longer and flatter and uglier by the day.

I gave in and  went back to Hair by Fairy. This time my hair turned out great--v. glamourous!  No one at work noticed, though.

I hate to sound like an incontinent senior, but I have to say this.

This huge Primark has no toilets. What's up with that? Isn't there some sort of law in the UK that states "Any retail establishment that takes up a city block, must provide facilities for its shoppers?"  I guess not.

The problem is, there's no public toilets close by either. Shame on you London.

If you must buy the disposable clothes sold at Primark, don't do as I did and drink a Diet Coke before venturing in. The result will put an end to your shopping for the day.

I just had nachos here and had to update based on the nachos alone. I still love the Salisbury. However, the nachos are awful, bagged corn chips accompanied by some sort of bechamel sauce with chilies in it and a few pots of other condiments from jars, or worse yet, tins. I've posted a photo so you can see for yourself.  If you're eating here, order something else.

Since "planned engineering works" put the kabosh on my Easter weekend plans, I was very happy that the Geffrye was open on Easter Sunday.

It's a great little voyeuristic museum showing the living rooms of the middling classes. Starting in the 1600s, nearly every era is represented except the 40's--hmm, no surprise there.

Currently (until 31 August 2009), there's an exhibit called Ethelburgha Tower. Photographer Mark Cowper took a photo of the living room of every apartment in the Battersea tower block he lives in.

Forty six of the photos are on display. This is true voyeurism, and I love it. It's the same room over and over again, but completely different. Unlike the life-sized dioramas upstairs, we get to see real decour by real Londoners, not just the middling classes. Apparently, Cowper did not even allow the residents to clean their rooms before he took the photos.

Everything works in this small, French Aladdin's cave of a sweet shop, the golden walls, the lovely macaroons, and the beautiful little boxes to take them away in.

I was debating whether to give this three or four stars. I gave it three with a nod to authenticity. The macaroons are lovely but they are made in London so they can't be 100 per cent like the ones made in Paris. That's like expecting Mexican food in London to be the same as it is in East LA, or in Mexico. The water is different, so the food is different. It's as simple as that.

Liberty is my favourite department store in London. When you step into this Mock Tudor building you can't help but feel the layers of history held within the walls. I'm not talking Disneyland. This is the real thing. For those who are oblivious at first, the memorials carved in the stairwell honoring the Liberty employees who died in WWI & WWII bring it home.

It has a well-selected range of high-end fashion, from avant guarde Japanese designers such as Yohji Yamamoto, to conservative classics like Calvin Klein Collection. However, to compare it to Barney's is to do Barney's and Liberty a disservice. The main difference is that some things sold at Liberty are not available anywhere else, plus there's an intimacy that Barney's does not have.

Liberty was founded in the 1800s to sell objects from Japan and the Far East, then went on to design Art Nouveau fabrics and was a leading force in the Aesthetic movement. It hasn't strayed too far from those roots.

You can still buy Liberty print fabrics for clothing and upholstery, Liberty print dress shirts for men and women are gorgeous and difficult, if not impossible to buy anywhere else. Gift items are well-honed at all price ranges and antique furniture is well accessorised with Liberty prints.

I love Liberty prints. Hankies, tote bags, anything remotely naff with a Liberty print on it, I own it. I get lots of compliments from librarians and well-heeled Grans who happen to spot me blowing my nose or using a Liberty bag as a briefcase. Now I have a purse from the new collection, I get compliments from a whole new group of people.

I can't speak about the food here, since I've never tried it but the sangria is great, as it should be at £18 a jug.

The atmosphere is cosy, if a bit dark, and it's a good place to meet up with a group- did I mention jugs of sangria?  

One thing I've noticed, though: Every time I go here that's a group of women with ironed hair and lots of makeup. Could this be a hairdresser bar?

So hip it hurts

Granted the range of names displayed is phenomenal and expertly honed, and I agree with all the reviewers who said it was like an art gallery. However, the place is neither fun, nor tongue-in-cheek.

Each boutique has the look and feel of an art student's tableau. It's as if the owners are saying, "We were not the cool kids in school so you're going to have to suffer because now we're the cool kids in society." It's a bit like the White Cube for fashion, in a word, pretentious.

Perhaps I don't like it because I'm not among the 1 per cent of shoppers this emporium is aimed at. But I am a shopper. In fact, i love shopping. I like Fred Segal in LA, Modern Apparel Company in San Francisco, Liberty and Laden showroom in London, even Tati in Paris, but I do not like the Dover Street Market.

I'm a big fan of wardrobe refashion but even shoppers who are not will like this store.

Oxfam does a good job of separating out donated items to improve our shopping experiences. Oxfam bookshops are a good example of this. This Oxfam boutique has gone one step further, not only selling clothes worthy of a fancy consignment shop. It also stocks refashioned items by fashion  students and the occasional designer.

The best thing about this shop, though, is the way everything is presented. The manager knows a thing or two about merchandising. The store looks just as stylish as the other boutiques in the neighborhood. Purses and accessories are displayed artfully in glass cases. Clothes are categorised by type, size and colour. Most importantly, there's a dressing room.