Le Pain Quotidien, South Bank

Not gonna be too many words on this post, mainly because the pictures speak for themselves, you probably have a fair idea of what the items ordered taste like, and also because the waiting staff who served us was rude, smug and made us feel like we didn’t deserve to be there so the whole meal kind left a stale taste in my mouth.

Enjoyable, salty, as good as it could be.

Betty Bought Some Better Butter – Love the way the butter is presented (I love geometric-shaped food)

As much I as do find the food here enjoyable, and the setting usually quite relaxing, I find the smugness of some of the waiting staff (obviously not all of them) quite insulting. Anyhow, lots of other similar restaurants in London, so I guess if I don’t like it there, there’s always somewhere else to go to!

Flat White, 17 Berwick St, Soho, London W1F 0PT

Despite having more hours' sleep than usual, and having quite a relaxed night watching American dramas the night before, the husband and I both had a bit of a headache the following day. Puzzled, we guzzled some water but when that didn't make it better, the only conclusion was this:

"We are coffee addicts"

Now that's not really surprising for me as I've been having coffee on a daily basis for the last 6 or 7 years. I am usually OK on weekends without it. However, the husband did not have coffee for 28 years, as he hated the taste of instant coffee and it never occurred to him that good coffee can actually be, well, quite good.

However, peer pressure at the office finally brought him to a small, independent coffee stall near Marylebone where he tried a flat white, and has been speaking lovingly of the coffee man and beans ever since.

To get rid of the headache, we decided to get some mean beans from Flat White on Berwick Street in Soho. The husband had heard rave reviews of the place from a few friends, and having previously been there once for a quick takeaway cuppa, we decided to try it out again.

The interior of the cafe is befitting of the trendy Soho area at which it is located. Although rather dim inside (a pet peeve of mine due to my rubbish photography skills), the decor is chic and quirky (I am assuming this is what the owners wanted to achieve - otherwise I apologise for using these stereotypical words for describing your cafe).

The walls are decorated with photos of cameras from all decades (and are for sale too), while the seats are comfortable and cosy, even if they are situated quite close to one another. It is quite a small cafe though, so that's understandable.

They do serve food, but we've never tried the food here since we only ever get here around 4pm, but I've seen people eating and the stuff looks good. There's something about staring unashamedly in a hungry sort of way at someone who's eating that makes them eat that little bit quicker.

The waiting staff are always very, very happy so if you need proof that coffee makes a person happy, just spend some time here. They chat, they laugh, they make coffee. What more do you want?

We were there around 4pm (again) and the place was nearly full of very chic-looking people drinking their coffee in a very cool, relaxed way. Sticking out like a cocoa bean among coffee beans, we proceeded to find a comfy booth to park our bums.

The husband brought back a lovely little flat white, complete with milky swirly decoration, much to my delight. Bubble tea was pushed aside (well, it was finished anyway) and we both ooh-ed and aah-ed at it for a bit. It was lovely. Very smooth, velvety and we finished it all too quickly.



So we ordered another coffee, preferring to have something cold instead. The iced coffee was nice, and just as smooth as the Flat White, but with less milk. Overall, I prefer the Flat White as it just felt ... fuller.

We like this place very much, and it's definitely one of those places we'd go out of our way for to get to. Compared to other cafes, this one serves superior coffee, with great service, and comfy seats, right in the middle of Soho so it definitely gets our vote.

Phone number: 020 7734 0370
Website: www.flatwhite.com

P/S: Would like to wish a very Happy B'day to Chocky Wocky (@speroine) - may good food always come your way!

New York Eats – Cafe Metro

OK – so there are many locations for this cafe, and I, being the bright spark that I am, didn’t take note of which one we went to, so here’s the website and you can maybe try to figure out which one it was …



Nothing like a picture of a happy guy waving behind a food counter.



So anyhow, we stopped by this cafe for a quick brunch before shopping. Not that we could do much shopping anyway as the GBP was kinda trailing behind the USD in all sort of disappointing ways at the time (and still seems to be). Since we couldn't afford shopping for clothes, we could at least try to shop for food.

I mean, you have to do what you have to do for the economy.



Helpfully enough, these 2 bleary-eyed jet-lagged tourists had not just picture menus, but ACTUAL food items on display to assist with the ever arduous task of food ordering.

(Lighting kinda sucks because this was at the counter where there wasn't much natural light, but fear not, sunshine on food is on its way.)



So, as they say, start as you mean to go on, and since we meant to go on as eggs and bacon with a generous drizzle (downpour) of maple/pancake syrup, that was what we ordered.



Because you can never get enough of a good bacon and egg picture, here it is again.



When it drizzles (syrup), it pours (lots of syrup). Keep 'em coming. No, it's not completely empty in the carton yet ... go on, come on, quickly now.



And this is what 1,500 calories looks like (plus minus a few hundred calories). No joke. I may not know the exact amount of calories on this thing, but it was roughly around that mark because they mentioned it on the menu and I went Moly Macaroni, how much?!?!

Thing is, if you order this you shouldn't really be talking calories malories, so let's not. Besides, we're on holiday, and calories don't count, or even exist, on holiday.



Each piece of French toast was fluffy like cotton candy upon clouds, and when bit into, squelched out a lovely sweet little burst of syrup. What's not to like?

Bacon? Check - yummerz
Egg? Check - always a favourite no matter how it's cooked



Resistance is futile. One bite of this amazing syrup-fluff is enough to make you want more.

Cheesecake - when you haven't had enough for brunch

So, when in New York, how could we not try the New York Cheesecake. I don't know enough about this variety of cake to know if this is the real thing or not, but it sure tasted good.



Like, if you're really full, and can't eat anymore, but yet make the effort to have some cheesecake, and it still tastes good, you know it's a good piece of cake.

So, even though I am not sure which Cafe Metro we went to, or in fact, where it was in New York, the food we had at this one satisfied all our brunch cravings that day. The food was good, the place was comfy, and most importantly, they had a window with good lighting so I could take as many pics as I wanted.

Cafe De Hong Kong, 47 Charing Cross Road London WC2H 0AN (directly across from Leicester Square Station)

No pics of the restaurant, I’m afraid, because I was too busy figuring out what to order, and forgot that I needed the pics for the blog.

Also, I’ve not been blogging for a while because the only place we ate at in the last week or so was Asakusa. Again! Seems we kinda like it, and we actually tried something new from there, so I might blog about that soon.

Anyway, today, JC and myself decided to have a girly day – something we’d not done before. Not in London anyway. The fiance is away on his stag do so after I’d done all the ironing / laundry / vacuuming / cooking / anything else I could find to do, I went into town and met up with JC at Selfridges.

Blink Bar, to be precise. Because we needed to trim those brows!

For £17, the very friendly ladies threaded those stray hairs from the brow, and despite the slightly disturbing ripping sound of brows coming off brow, it was quite an enjoyable (and slightly therapeutic) experience which I’d highly recommend to those of you with brows requiring trimming.

Flushed from the excitement of having brows to be proud of, we headed off to the Foodhall and bought hundreds and hundres of grams of Jelly Bellies, and Pick’n’Mix chocolate. Then, with the aim of eating as much as possible within the few hours we were there, we headed off to Chinatown for some nosh. What nosh though, was the question? As we usually depended on the guys to finish almost all the food we ordered, it was strange trying to figure out how much the 2 of us could actually consume. Having done some thorough analysis, it was determined that we’d be quite rubbish at eating lots, and so, we decided to have little of little, and where better to have it than at Cafe de Hong Kong – HK-style street food to be nibbled between us.

And because I only remembered that I had to blog about something when the food arrived, I don’t have any pics of the place, the menu, etc. Anyhow, this is the fishball and turnip in curry, which was about £5. The curry sauce, while being slightly watery, was nice and had a good amount of spice to it.

The turnip was basically boiled mooli, and there’s not much I can say about mooli that hasn’t been said before. The fishballs kinda tasted like the frozen ones I buy (to be eaten with instant noodles), meaning, they were slightly hard when I bit into them without much chewiness usually associated with fishballs.

Like I’m such an expert on fishballs.

We also shared the grilled chicken with black pepper sauce, and potatoes and vegetables on the side (£8). Much better than what we expected from this restaurant. To be honest, I kinda thought it was gonna be some reheated style chicken, but when it came, the juicy, tender piece of chicken accompanied by the flavoursome sauce, served all smartly on the plate, left me very impressed.

The potatoes too, were done very well. I can’t say for sure if it’s prepared fresh by the restaurant, or if it’s cooked from frozen, because again, I wasn’t expecting a Chinese cafe to be coming out with such tasty roasted potatoes, but hey, it just goes to show that I’m either easily impressed, or easily fooled.

This is one of my non-Chinese orders, which I hardly get to eat when dining out with other friends because no one else likes it, but JC does so I took the opportunity to get my fingers on these sesame prawn toasts (£3).

I must admit, I wasn’t expecting anything as good as this. I thought that the waiter would bring round a plate of pitiful looking flat toast which had been deep fried, and I would have been satisfied with that, but when the waiter put this impressive looking plate on the table, I was almost gobsmacked for a second. Almost.

Not only was each piece generously filled with chewy fish paste (maybe prawn?), the sesame covering was even, and crispy. It didn’t taste too greasy to me, and I enjoyed each mouthful of the toast dipped in the curry sauce from the first dish.

Fried chicken wings (£4) to share, another dish which was perfect for the girly chats and people-watching. The chicken wings were big ones (they seem to be getting smaller and smaller at some restaurants these days), and deep fried with a blend of spices – didn’t feel too greasy, and I enjoyed the crispy skin with juicy meat beneath.

All in all, I had an immensely fun day with JC. Who knew eyebrow threading could be so much fun!

Bar du Musee, Greenwich, London

Most museums have coffee houses attached to them, sort of like a revenue generator and a place for bored, non-cultural types to have a chat, a coffee and a nap. There is a Maritime museum in Greenwich, but this doesn’t quite explain why Bar du Musee is French.

The only thing French about Greenwich is the fries from McDonald’s (not sure if Cafe Rouge counts as French?).

If you’ve never been to Greenwich, I suggest you make a trip here. Obviously, if you’re not from around the same region, district, country, continent, ignore that suggestion. Some people describe it as a mini-Bath or a medium-York.

If you don’t know what Bath or York looks like, then, possibly the entire paragraph above was pretty much useless to you.

When it’s bright and warm in Greenwich, there are tourists about everywhere. Students from Europe come for school trips, chic types hang out at the chic type boutiques (all one-off chic non-mass produced type attire) and poodles come out in full force.

One sunny day, we decided to check this place out. Having had gone past it many times previously, peering in curiously wondering what on earth was in there, we decided that enough was enough. French or English, croissant or iced-buns, we’d try it out.

Inviting until you try to figure out which of the doors went to the cafe, the restaurant of the tea room.

The first thing you see when you are in the cafe is this chandelier. There are 3 of them in there, confirming the fact that you will be paying more for your tea here than you pay for an average meal elsewhere. Nevertheless, let’s not be biased before we’ve even looked below the chandelier.

Below the chandelier is the price board, confirming for a fact that you will be paying more for your tea here than for an average meal elsewhere (because I am a cheapskate and eat at cheap places).

Once in the restaurant, you look around at what the other tables are having, and immediately wonder why you just couldn’t be generous enough to fork out that little bit more for a nice meal here.

Instead, we just ordered a cup of tea and a lemonade, and because it looked so good, a piece of raspberry cheesecake. This just goes to show that standards are ever still so low, and the pocket strings are possible tighter than before (freebies?).

Look, wouldn’t we have had liked to enjoy a meal here? Indeed we would have. Instead, we sipped our tea and Coke slowly, savouring the lovely ambience.

I’m not sure if this was actually the raspberry cheesecake we ordered but it sure didn’t look like any cheesecake I’d had before. It sure smelled like raspberry, but texture-wise, it was more like a mousse-y spongey cake.

Would I come back to this restaurant? Well, considering the fact that we didn’t actually have a meal in here, I wouldn’t say I’d eaten here, but I’d sure like to try the restaurant out. Great ambience for sure.

Google Maps to here!

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