Christmas lights in London

I love Christmas and I love London, therefore I was super excited to get into the festive spirit and go and see the Christmas lights.

We got the train into Baker Street and then walked down Marylebone HighStreet looking in awe at all the posh shops and restaurants (wishing we could afford to visit!!). The lights here were simple, and cute. However we did get to visit the Conran Shop, which is one of my favourites stores on this high street simply because it sells such random things! We went straight upstairs to the Christmas Market which was a selection of cute huts with Christmassy bits and bobs inside and also real Christmas trees. The highlight was the snowman sitting at the Christmas dinner table!

Marylebone High Street ends up at the top of St Christophers Place, which is the cutest little street with lots of unique restaurants and shops, ending with a nice square with restaurants such as Carluccio's on it and Apostrophe.

After going down a narrow alleyway you end up on busy Oxford Street. Its hard to get a good picture as its so busy, but we headed towards Selfridges where we went to the Christmas Emporium on the top floor which was amazing!

Next we wandered down to New Bond Street and saw their lights which was super cute and like feathers, then ending up on Regents Street. The lights this year are sponsored by the new Night At The Museum film.

Just of Regents Street is Carnaby Street which had some cool headphone lights this year. Just off Carnaby Street is a little square called Kingly Court which has some unique, boutique stores and restaurants.

We then walked back to Baker Street stopping off at Langham Place church and the BBC Headquarters. These have been recently renovated and looked amazing. I would love to go for a tour of the BBC one day.

How amazing is London at Christmas. Next I need to visit South Bank and all the lights along the Thames! xoxo

MasterChef Restaurant & Bar

Unfortunately my first foodie post on returning from America, is not a positive one!

I bought my mum for her birthday tickets to the MasterChef Restaurant & Bar. Tickets flew like hot cakes for this, and they even extended the restaurant for a week due to popular demand. I was only able to get Brunch tickets as they lunch and dinner ones were gone!

I was excited to visit the restaurant, which is advertised as 'MasterChef champions and finalists from the last ten years will lead the kitchen and be appearing in front of your eyes'. Additionally the website states that 'you are invited to meet the champions, eat their dishes and experience MasterChef first hand' 

However this was not the case. The chef's were not present, we could not meet them, and they didn't even cook our food. 

The menu

Leading swiftly onto the food itself, which was a complete let down. We were served yoghurt and granola. Well I can't imagine the chefs made the yoghurt by hand. We were also served a bowl of fruit. Cannot imagine the chefs sliced the fruit either.

Fruit and Granola 

We were then offered a choice of scrambled eggs and salmon on a toasted muffin, or buttermilk pancakes with maple bacon.

Pancakes with bacon and (lots of...!?!) maple syrup

I went for the pancakes. There was not enough maple syrup for the pancakes, and the bacon was too fatty. The quality of the ingredients was awful. My mum had the scrambled eggs and salmon and said that the salmon was awful.

Such a shame to be writing such a negative blog post about the MasterChef Pop-Up as I was so excited to go, and more importantly super excited to meet the chefs and watch them cook. However even if the chefs were actually cooking the 'open kitchen' wasn't even open at all,  merely a small window! 

I would have much preferred to have spent the money on a brunch elsewhere, where the experience and food would've been 10 times better and probably half the price. 

Trying to make a laugh of the awful situation!

So now I am home and to cheer myself up I think I will bake something tasty! Most probably a scrummy post to follow!

Chin up! xoxo

Bag - Kate Spade $368
Leggings - Miss Selfridge £25
Top - Abercombie Kids $12
Leather Jacket - Warehouse
Necklace - Topshop £12.50

Rainy Adventures in London

Yesterday I had a foodie day in London looking at the latest trends and sampling lots of delicious food followed by an evening up The Shard.

First stop was Selfridges food hall. I love Selfridges food hall there is so much there and many different products that you would not find in your standard supermarket.

My favourite was the bakery counters, Lola's had a counter in the food hall and also Selfridges had their own counter. We bought a selection of 'Cronuts' from here. I have never tried a Cronut and was excited to try this new craze. For those who do not know what a Cronut is, its a mixture of a croissant and a doughnut and has been brought over from America - of course!! ;)

We sampled the mini Salted Caramel, Vanilla and Red Velvet. These were just fried croissant with flavoured icing. My favourite was the Salted Caramel as it was the most moist and had the most flavour. We also tried a large Banana Cronut. This had banana cream filling in the middle. I am not a fan of banana flavoured things, but this was amazing. The banana flavour was so subtle and  very tasty!

We then headed to Covent Garden and Soho, we had a nosy in Hummingbird Bakery. We wanted to stay for a cupcake and a drink but there was no seating free. Instead we went next door to L'Eto Caffe. I have always wondered past L'Eto and looked at their cakes but never been in. I think that inside was a bit of a let down and nothing special. However the lemon meringue pie that I had was quite nice, but nothing special!

In the evening we went up The Shard. We had booked tickets in advance so despite the rain had to go up. The view at 8pm was not great, we could hardly see anything as the rain was covering the view and there was a lot of mist. We had chosen to go up at 8pm as sunset was meant to be at 8.59. However with the awful weather did not see the sunset, which is very upsetting!

When the lights came on after sunset the view improved slightly, however I would love to be able to go back up when the sun is shining and I can actually see the beautiful sights and landmarks on London! I personally think they should offer half price return tickets or something when you go up in bad weather, as I feel it was a waste of £50.

However my highlight of the trip up The Shard was the lift. You woosh from floor 1-33 in literally seconds. Then from floor 33 to 68 just as quick. I was very impressed with the speed, and hate to admit this may have been the best part of the experience- which is a shame!

Here are a couple of pics from the day!

View From the Shard

Lola's Cupcakes

Candy Kittens - Selfridges

Selfridges

Lola's Cupcakes

Selfridges

The View from The Shard

The View from the Shard

Hummingbird Bakery

Selfridges

Selfie with Tower Bridge!!

Selfridges

L'Eto Caffe

L'Eto Caffe

Tower Bridge

London Eye

Love xoxo

Afternoon tea at BRGR

This afternoon myself and a friend went for afternoon tea at BRGR. We were recommended by a colleague at work so decided to give it a try. BRGR is situated at the top of Wardour Street near Oxford Street in central London. The premises are very small, which I liked. The decor was simple and sophisticated with massive windows to people watch from! 

This is not your usual afternoon tea and is more American/burger style!

On arrival we were given some sort of iced tea, I am not a tea drinker but this was delicious, especially as the weather was glorious and hot, it was what we needed!

The afternoon tea also came with prosecco, but we did not fancy drinking alcohol. The waitress offered us a soft drink instead but we asked if we could have a milkshake instead. As the milkshakes are pretty expensive she said no, but that we could have one to share! 
We were a bit dubious about this, but decided to give it a go! We didn't need to worry, as the milkshake was massive, and perfect for two. We chose the Oreo milkshake and were so glad we did, it was thick and creamy and simply delicious!


We did not know what to expect  the food to look like, however when it arrived it was pretty cool! The rectangular metal tray arrived covered in checkered paper with three mini burgers and a portion of chips. A separate section had been created for the sweets.

Before!

After - completely clean plate!!

The three burgers were, chicken, beef and lobster. The beef burger had a gherkin in it and a tasty sauce. The chicken had been chargrilled, which was lovely, and had lettuce in it and served with flavoured mayo. Finally the lobster burger, had cold lobster in it which was also mixed with mayo. I am not a great fan of fish, however I surprised myself and enjoyed the whole lobster burger. However my favourite of the three burgers was definitely the beef one. The chips were delicious, perfectly salted and with skin on - amazing! 

The dessert consisted of a mini brownie, mini doughnut, strawberry and white cheesecake and a vanilla milkshake. The cheesecake was a standard cheesecake, not overwhelming and as it had been sat out whilst we ate the burgers had gone a bit warm. I was not a great fan of the vanilla milkshake and felt it tasted just like milk, we were glad we had opted for the Oreo milkshake as well. The chocolate brownie was moist and gooey - perfect. However the doughnut stole the show, and we could've eaten at least 2 more! It was very sugary, fluffy and so very tasty! 

The bill came in a cute box, it was £17 per person which I think is very reasonable for the amount of food we were served!

Time to settle the bill! 

I would recommend this afternoon tea for anyone wanting to try afternoon tea with a difference, make sure you opt for the Oreo milkshake! 

Happy doughnuts! xoxo

Camden Passage and Upper Street - Islington

Today I had a day off work, so myself and mum decided to venture into London for a 'foodie' day. We headed to Islington after the area was recommend in 'A Foodies Guide to London' by Cara Frost-Sharratt. 

Islington is an area that I have never really visited or heard of as a place to go, however it is very up and coming. Upper Street is the main high street full of many boutiques, cute shops and an awful lot of restaurants, cafes, delis, bakeries etc! The closest tube is Angel on the Northern Line.

We first headed to Camden Passage, which is a little street off Upper Street, famous for its antiques. 

Unfortunately we chose the totally wrong day to visit and because it was a Monday most of the places were shut. (The antiques market is on a Wednesday and Sunday.) However you still got a feel for the place and a couple of the restaurants were open and I still managed to take some pictures! Places that caught my attention included The Breakfast Club, Issy's Milky Way and Fredericks. 

Next we wandered up the high street heading north away from Angel station. There are so many restaurants along the street, some places even have more than one restaurant on the same street! 
Some restaurants I will definitely be visiting were: Pasha Restaurant which specialises in Turkish food, it had a lunch deal for 2 courses for £8.95 and looked delicious. Desperadoes a Mexican restaurant also caught my attention of somwhere I would like to go back and visit as I love Mexican food! Lastly Ottolenghi looked delicious and had a queue out the door for people wanting to takeaway or eat in. The cakes and sweet treats in the window also looked divine!

Ottolenghi

We were not feeling like a large lunch so visited Euphorium Bakery which was recommended in the above book! Now there are two of these on Upper Street, one at number 79 and one at number 202! I had a sausage roll and a hot chocolate and my mum ate salmon and spinach brioche with a latte. I cannot say I was totally amazed by this place but there was a nice atmosphere and it was good to visit for a quick bite to eat! I also enjoyed sitting by the window people watching and seeing the many red buses go by! I will definitely explore elsewhere when returning to Upper Street as there is so many other places to choose from!

Where have you recently discovered to visit? xoxo