Bloomsbury Street Bar & Restaurant

I met up with my lovely friend Miss H for a catch up over dinner and wine. I had booked yet another offer on Toptable - the Bloomsbury Street Bar & Restaurant in (yes, you guessed it) Bloomsbury. This is a hotel restaurant and is part of the newly refurbished Radisson Edwardian Bloomsbury Street hotel (ex. Marlborough).

The restaurant is dimly lit with dark furniture, very cosy and intimate (the photos are a bit dark, wish the iphone came with a flash!). We had 50% off the a la carte menu which is a great deal. We had quite some difficulty picking since everything sounded delicious but in the end i had the "Pear, blue cashel and swiss chard tart served with rocket salad" which was very nice. My friend picked an even better dish, "Fillet of mackerel and rhubarb served in filo pastry with chive crème fraiche". This is apprently the most popular dish on the menu and i have to say that it was lovely.

We both went for the "Halibut on a bed of tagliatelle served with girolles" together with a side of beans & shallots and some mash. Again, a very good dish. I wish we could have had dessert too but we were too full to even think about dessert! 2 courses each with sides and a bottle of wine and water came to £60 incl service which is a bargain for the food we had and i would happily go back again if the 50% off deal comes back!

Macaron class at L'atelier des chefs

I was lucky enough to be given a voucher for a 2 hour cooking class at L'atelier des chefs (http://www.atelierdeschefs.co.uk/) and i booked in for a French Macaron class for last Saturday. The shop/school is very centrally located in Wigmore st and first impressions were very good. It was 12 of us in the class and together learned how to make macarons and various fillings. We all got to make a couple of trays of macaron's each and i have to say that my piping was pretty much spot on.. i even impressed myself! I only took one photo which is of my macarons ready to go into the oven. Yes, i know some of them are blue like the smurfs - one of my dear class mates went a bit overboard with the blue color!!

The biggest tip of the day is to let the macaron's sit on the tray for around 15 min before putting them in the oven.. you basically let them form a "skin" on the surface which then prevents them from cracking in the oven!

I really enjoyed the class and would go for another class. My only criticism is that you have to divide some of the work up between you so you don't get to be totally hands on with each step.

Beauberry House in Dulwich

We went to Beauberry House (http://www.beauberryhouse.co.uk/)last Friday to celebrate a friend's birthday. It is like a little mini mansion and looks very grand on arrival. Had a drink in the bar and then sat down for dinner. I expected it to be a more of a british menu but to my surprise they had a very mixed British/Asian menu with a bit of a asian fusion style going on.

I personally love asian food so i picked the "Trout spring roll with roasted sesame oil and soya sauce" to start which arrived looking very stylish on the plate and also tasted very good. I followed that with their bestseller, "Caramelised black cod with miso and black sesame sushi rice", which again was lovely and looked the part. Too full to have dessert but the menu did look good :-)
I would happily come back to Beauberry House in the summertime.. and especially on a Toptable offer - we had 50% off the a la carte which was very good value for money.

Vetro at the Montcalm hotel in London

Went to have dinner and a catch up with my friend Mrs T on Tuesday. We booked a 50% off the a la carte menu (on http://www.toptable.com/) at Vetro which is inside the newly refurbished Montcalm hotel http://www.montcalm.co.uk/

We started off in the bar for a drink before heading to the restaurant. First impressions were good -very stylish everywhere. The restaurant is modern Italian and we had a really interesting selection of little breadsticks served immediatley.

I opted for "Salad of beetroot, bitter leaves, chestnuts and gorgonzola dressing" which was OK but not very exciting whilst my friend went for the "Goat’s cheese and red pepper tart with red onion marmalade" which was the better choice.

I followed that with "Pan fried pork medallions with parmesan risotto, thyme and Pancetta" which was nicely cooked and my friend went carb free with the "Pan fried cod fillet with Jerusalem artichokes,sautéed spinach and garlic" .. which was probably a good idea since the desserts looked really good!





I had a really good "Fig and frangipane tart, lemon mascarpone". I was a little bit concerned that the lemon mascarpone would be to tangy but it was perfect - no complaints.. i think this was my favorite dish out of the meal. The other dessert was a Cannoli, "Chocolate, pistachio and candied fruit cream encased in pastry". My friend said it was OK but has had much better.





Our dinner with a bottle of wine (also including 2 cocktails in the bar prior to dinner) came to £55 per head incl service which is very good on the Toptable deal. I would however not go back if paying full price.

Paris in February

Went to Paris for the weekend.. not a good place to go to if you are on a diet - that is for sure :-) Went to "La Grande Epicerie" http://www.lagrandeepicerie.fr/ which is a foodie's paradise. Picked up some plastic syringes for food and also some plastic pippetts to be used for some original canapees.. updates to follow with pictures :-)

Highly recommend the salted caramel macaroons that are sold here.. amazing (better than
laduree!)

Also went to Monjul http://www.monjul.com/ in the Marais for lunch. They only have a set menu for lunch which is a shame since i was looking forward to the a la carte that they serve in the evening but the set menu was very good and inventive. Starting with a lentil soup with bread on the side that was brioche stuffed with saucisson then sliced.





























Followed by a bouillabaisse that was de-constructed with the all the elements separate on the plate. Still tasted great.






We also managed to have an amazing dinner at L'absinthe.. highly recommend this restaurant.. amazing food and very French.. absolutely packed all evening so reservations are a must. We had some stunning food like truffled egg, lobster macaroni cheese and of course steak! I totally forgot to take photos so you have to take my word for it. See website here: http://www.restaurantabsinthe.com/





Had a Sunday brunch at Cafe Charlot that was utterly charming.. had a very tasty Croque madame with a good helping of salad. Just what you need before walking around Paris!


http://www.parismarais.com/pleasure-and-leisure/cafe-charlot/index.htm