January (and Feb) Adventures

The start to the new year has been rather exciting to say the least and rather a lot has happened. Below are some of the highlights:

My birthday is in January and this means that the family has to spoil me! So, with this in mind, I ended up being taken to lunch at the Charlotte Street Hotel and dinner at Chai Ki.

The Charlotte Street Hotel has an amazing set menu which is not only very reasonable, but also is far too difficult to choose from just because everything sounds just so yummy.

Look at how good it all looks!

The Hotel's restaurant is also such a lovely environment - light and bright with colourful walls and, most importantly, delicious cocktails.


Chai Ki in Canary Wharf  has a very different vibe to the Charlotte Street Hotel. It serves modern Indian food which I love and so I was quite excited to try new dishes outside of the usual dishes I'd order.

We tried a pear and tandoori chicken salad, grilled aubergine steaks and a number of different curries. Safe to say, the plates were essentially licked clean!

I was also rather spoilt by the boyfriend too!

Once all of the birthday celebrations were out of the way, it was back to normal life.

One day, my Mum came to visit me and so we headed to Sticks'n''Sushi in Wimbledon for a light (but tasty) lunch.

Sticks'n'Sushi is a successful restaurant group which started in Denmark and is well known for having some of the best Japanese food around! Therefore, I was somewhat excited to try what they had on offer.

We were not disappointed! We shared some beef tataki and dug into two large salads.

Not only was everything delicious, all the food just looks beautiful!

Finally, some good friends took us to try out the roof bar at Selfridges - Forest on the Roof.

After speeding up in the express lift, you step out into a tunnel of fairy lights and tangled branches before walking into a magical grotto of a bar.

Happily for us, the cocktails were equally magical!

All in all, it's been a lovely start to the year - bring on the rest of it!

Fit for a Queen: Darbaar

Last week, I was lucky enough to be invited to the opening of Darbaar, a new Indian Restaurant in the heart of the city aiming to give you the royal experience. Darbaar's is the brainchild of Abdul Yaseen, who was part of the founding team of the Cinnamon Club and went on to become head chef of the well renowned Cinnamon Kitchen. However, now it seems he has branched out on his own to create another pretty spectacular dining experience. The whole concept is based around the idea of food you can share and is inspired by the decadence of Royal Indian Court banquets. Understandably then, my sister and I were rather excited as we walked up the red carpet (past a rather fetching elephant) and into the restaurant for the first time.

We were greeted by sunset cocktails and trays of canapés which, in anyone's books, can never be a bad thing. Lu and I, never to be shy around food, dug straight in and went to explore the (rather large) restaurant. The decor was sleek but beautiful - we both especially loved the dramatic light fittings over head!

In the main restaurant area, there was a long bar from which you could see straight into the kitchen which included an open clay oven! I loved being able to watch the chefs dash around preparing the dishes. However, as you'd expect, the real stars of the show were the platters of treats circulating around.

 Now, I am by no means an expert when it comes to Indian food, so I have to admit I was not exactly 100% sure what I was putting into my mouth, but to quote one of the few remaining memories of English GCSE, "a rose by any other name would smell as sweet". The food was delicious, who cares what it was called?!

 After having eaten perhaps slightly more than our fair share of canapés (including some deliciously creamy prawn cups, sizzling lamb and delicate pastry filled...things) we realised we had made a near fatal mistake. Main courses were coming out and we were running out of room.

Around came pretty little silver buckets filled with rice and delicious curries, along with a variety of other dishes. If Abdul aimed to create food to share, on one hand he definitely managed it ("Lu, try this, it's amazing!) but on the other he had failed miserably ("No, get your own, this is ALL MINE!").

 We were also lucky enough to meet Abdul Yaseen himself. Even better, he came armed with a tray of flavorsome carrot cakes! My sister and I waxed lyrical at him about his food while he laughed at our enthusiasm for the Indian deserts. Lulu and I had a wonderful evening at Darbaar. The food was excellent and the cocktails good fun (did I mention there were bursting blue bubbles hidden at the bottom of one?!). All I can say is that I'm excited to return!

Brunch at Brawn on Columbia Road

Last Sunday, my sister and I went to see our godfather for brunch. Our godfather, Justin, is rather good at spoiling us and even better at finding good places for food, so we knew we were in for a fun day!

We walked to Columbia Road Flower Market and were set a challenge. We each had twenty pounds and had to purchase flowers to make an arrangement each- I knew I had a short rectangular vase to fill and Lu had a tall one, so we off we went!

I battled my way through the crowds and perused the stalls. It was peony season and so they were piled high with fluffy pink blooms, along with just about every type of flower you can imagine! I umm-ed and ahhh-ed over what to pick before I noticed a stall stuffed with sweet peas in beautiful pastel colours. After a little bit of bartering, I walked away with five bunches in pale purple and white. The smell of them drifted through the air as a I walked away in search of the next element of my bouquet!

Then, I came across some rather unusual thistles. Before long, they were wrapped up in brown paper and added to my bunch.

I met Lu at the end of the stalls and after a quick pose in an art instillation, armed with our flowers (she'd gone for roses, canna lilies and normal lilies), we met Justin in Brawn, a restaurant that just has one set menu.

One of the great things about Brawn was that the kitchen was totally open and we could see everything going on as the chefs prepared our food. Before long, (as Lu and I subtly bigged up our flower choices,) a number of dishes to share left the kitchen and arrived at the table.

Look how tasty they look!

We happily tucked in as we chatted away.

Then out came the mains.

Needless to say, it didn't last long!

Once all the food had vanished, it was back to the house for some very competitive flower arranging. Now, flower arranging is definitely not something I've ever spent much time doing before and it was surprising difficult to put our vases together. But, some time later, we stood back and admired our creations.

Justin said he couldn't pick between our two bouquets, but I secretly knew mine was definitely better..!

Eventually it was time for us to leave. We'd had a lovely day with our wonderful godfather who always knows the best way to occupy us. I mean, who could ever say no to food and flowers?!

The Modern Pantry

On beautiful sunny days in the capital,  there is nothing better than sitting down for a spot of brunch. Luckily for me, I'm not the only person who thinks that and so, on Saturday, the troops rallied around and we headed to The Modern Pantry in Clerkenwell for a catch up and some excellent food.

I'd never been before, but my two friends Frankie and Rebecca had recommended it and so I was rather excited to see what it was like.

After pouring over the pretty extensive menu, we eventually managed to settle on our orders. 

The moment our dishes arrived, I started getting food envy. Not because mine didn't look great (it really did!) but because everything else looked equally tasty... 

I'd gone for a passionfruit and turmeric smoothy (a brilliant combination as it turns out!) with coconut and cassava waffles, served with a pineapple and thyme salsa, salted peanut brittle and a coconut yoghurt. Cassava, as I later found out, is a root vegetable which if not prepared right, produces cyanide! Luckily however, I managed to survive long enough to enjoy my dish- the combination of flavours was unusual but definitely worked!  

Once we'd polished off our food, we moved on to drinks... Gin iced tea to be precise! 

The menu was full of interesting foods, some of which I hadn't even heard of before which just made me wish I could have had a chance to sample everything. I know sooner or later I will be returning to The Modern Pantry, even if it's just to find out what a tamarillo tastes like!