I enjoyed a very colourful, girly brunch recently at one of London’s popular brunch places recently – the pretty and floral Feya. Here’s a selection of what I order with my friend – some of them were a little out of my comfort zone (like the smoothie bowl and the acai and smoothie drink) but it was overally very well enjoyed!
Have you been here? What do you think of this restaurant?
Is it that time of the year already? Its nearly the end of 2018 and I’ve been busy sampling seasonal menus, exploring the bright lights in London and generally making the most of what is left of the year before I relax in the holidays!
This is a chocolatey dessert menu I was able to try at French restaurant Aubaine recently, which involved a very chocolate hot chocolate plus a chocolate log to enjoy! I opted for the creamy Javara hot chocolate, while my friend went for the ‘blond’ and more sweeter Dulcey hot chocolate. We’re both chocoholics so it was ideal for us!
Hubby and I recently tried out gourmet steakhouse Elvet Steakhouse located in East London. I was quite excited to try their food as I have heard nothing but high praise, and I am partial to a good steak!
Starters – Nano burgers and chicken satays:
The nano burgers were tiny little sliders, which tasted gorgeous – I would happily have eaten several of these in one go! The chicken satays were nice and tender, which came in roasted peppers and a savoury tangy sauce.
Mains / sides – Argentinian Black Angus Fillet with rustic chips and coleslaw, Argentinian Black Angus Sirloin with crushed potatoes:
Both of the steaks were beautifully done, not overcooked and very tender. The fillet was slightly more tender as it had no fat, but the sirloin has a slightly more juicy taste to it – both were excellent. The rustic chips were a yummy side but I was less of a fan of the crushed potatoes, which felt a bit too heavy!
Dessert – Alcohol-free tiramisu, caramel cheesecake
The restaurant kindly bought these out as we were about to leave, and I was glad they did! The tiramisu was creamy and smooth, with just a hint of coffee flavour, and the cheesecake was beautifully smooth with an added sharpness from the berries.
Drinks – Passionate Lady, Berrylicious, Mango Bellini and Bubblegum mojito
Out of the 4 drinks we had, the bubblegum mojito was both of our favourite – it tasted pleasantly fruity without being too sweet. The Berrylicious was a nice flavoured sweet drink, and the Passionate Lady had a really nice lassi feel to it. The Mango Bellini was nice but could have had a slightly fruitier taste to it, but tasted fresh so this is a plus.
Despite the vast amount of halal restaurants in London, I have found it difficult to find a decent halal steak place who know what they’re doing with their meats. The owner explained how he sources his halal meat directly from Argentina and learned the process of drying, adding flavours and how to cook the meat properly, and this is reflected in the food. Having said that, be warned, the prices are slightly pricier than east London restaurants tend to be, which may put people off!
I’ve been hearing (and seeing) a lot about the Coppa Club beautiful cabanas (especially after they had some very cosy igloos in the wintertime for customers!), and took the chance to go there recently with a couple of friends to try some lunch there on a warm day. The restaurant is situated next to Tower Hill, and has a perfect view of the River Thames and its various buildings, so unsurprisingly, it was extremely busy and most of the tables were taken!
We didn’t get to spend long in the cabanas as they were all booked up, but the staff did let us sit in one for a short while, until we were moved to our proper table. The hanging flowers looked beautiful, and made us feel like we were in a secret garden – a really lovely atmosphere.
As for the food, we ordered some light lunch – a salmon and cress toast, a watermelon salad and a fruity trifle with some mocktail drinks. The food was not bad, but I did think it was slightly pricey for what we got – I imagine this is due to the prime location of the restaurant. The salmon was pretty standard, but the dessert was nice – the only thing I was a little disappointed with were the drinks, which didn’t have anything special about them.
I’ve been meaning to go Coppa Club for a while now since they’ve had the cabanas, and it was lovely to sit and enjoy the view. However I will say that it was very, very busy which definitely affected the customer service – we asked the staff several times for a few things and they just never came back to us, or said they would speak to the manager and then didn’t give us an answer. One of the things we wanted was to change our tables, as we were seated in a very uncomfortable spot under a very hot sun, but despite asking for over 45 mins if we could change, we never got another table and eventually just left after we ate. For me, this affected the experience pretty negatively, which made me feel like the hype wasn’t enough for the quality of food and customer service you get.
One of the things which is on the rise is beautiful looking food, flat-lays and pretty restaurants, especially with food bloggers and Instagram making everything look so appealing. My experience here has warned me not to always believe the hype – it may look pretty in the pictures but sometimes it might not be as amazing as it looks!
My sisters and all recently went (although all of us at different times!) to the Halal Gems Street Eat Food Festival at Spitalsfield Market in London, which was an a pretty iconic event in that it brought more attention to diverse halal food, for Muslims and non-Muslims.
I’ve been to food festivals before, and even halal food festivals, but this one was an interesting one to go to because of how much publicity it got, and the different vendors who would be at the event. One of the things we liked was that there was a lot of fusion cuisines, and a chance to try food from places I’d been meaning to visit but hadn’t got around to (either because the restuarants were a little far away or I jsut never got the time!)
I managed to try a slow-pulled smoked brisket burger from Meat & Shake, haloumi fries from Oli Baba’s and a mango soda from Square Root London and finished off with my friend’s tumeric-and-brownies ice cream sandwich from Blu Top – all of which I really liked. The food was a little pricey for a food festival for me, and the queues were huge (although luckily I came early so didn’t have to wait as long), not to mention some foods selling out so not everyone got a chance to try it! I was disappointed that I wasn’t able to make the most of the different dishes because I got full pretty quickly, and the fact that I couldn’t spend too much, as some of the food was a little expensive.
I think this was aimed at a lot of younger families and working professionals, and certainly we saw a lot of these at the event – people who had come for lunch, after work or even just with their families.
I think it’s a really nice way to bring halal food to the fore and raise awareness, and we saw a lot of non-Muslims enjoying the festival as well. We also managed to make the most of the games available – although I will admit, we managed to get distracted from these by the shops and markets nearby and ended up shopping instead!
I recently visited the famous Dominique Ansel bakery in London with a friend, which is famous for the Cronut, as well as a lot of other baked delicacies. We got a little over-excited and ordered a bunch of treats, all of which we had fun tasting – the cookie shot (a cup made of cookie filled with milk), the peanut-butter creamy cake, the Frozen S’more (a marshmallow-ice cream combination), mini Madeleines fresh and hot from the oven and a yummy hot chocolate with a marshmallow flower which opened up from the heat of the drink.
As I’m sure you can imagine, we were stuffed after all of this, and had to walk around the streets to burn it off a little, but it was worth it! If you’re around the area, I’d recommend this place to sit and try (although it can get very busy so there may be some waiting time!), and it’s not super-cheap (although not overly-expensive either) – sometime to try at least once!
I recently met up with a very old friend for brunch, after a very long time (ten years!) and celebrated at the beautiful restaurant Bourne & Hollingsworth. They don’t have a halal menu unfortunately, but there’s plenty of vegetarian and vegan options, and I really enjoyed my order at this restaurant.
One of the things I loved about this B&H was the floral vibe it had going on – it really reminded me of Rudyard Kiplings stories which I used to read when I was younger, which gave a really lovely atmosphere. I also loved the fact that the company’s business cards are basically a sketch of the restaurant, such a cute idea!
There’s also outdoor seating too, it was a little chilly for us so we opted for the indoors, but it’s opposite a park and feels very peaceful and quiet to sit outside too.
So let’s get to the food, I ordered a poached eggs hollandaise, while my friend ordered the savoury courgette pancake. I LOVED my meal, it was light, fluffy and the sauce was amazing, while my friend’s pancakes were pretty tasty and full of flavour.
And of course, we couldn’t leave without dessert – we both opted for chocolatey brownies in hot sauce, which finished off the meal nicely.
The restaurant gets pretty busy (which we found when we had to book to reserve a table!) but the atmosphere is quite chilled out, and I love that there’s small details everywhere in the decor to create the look of the restaurant – a piano for the front desk, a vintage bathtub in the bathrooms, tiles walls in the private dining area – there’s something appealing for your eyes most places you look.
I really enjoyed having brunch at this restaurant, and would love to come back again. I can imagine that it’s perfect for a light meal, and somewhere to sit and feel like you’ve been transported to another era.
I’ve seen a huge rise of the gourmet burger restaurant in the past couple of years, and I’m sure that the fact that there are a lot of halal restaurants make them even popular. I’ve been to quite a few halal (and vegetarian!) gourmet burger places, and am starting to get the hang of what makes a decent ‘gourmet’ burger, as well as what separates them from the standard ones you get in a normal chicken-and-chips shop down the road.
Hubby and I recently went to Habaneros, a gourmet burger chain in West London, which was a little out of our way, but having heard it was one to go to, we decided to give it a shot.
One of the things which makes a restaurant memorable for me is not just the food, but the atmosphere and the care taken in in the decor – it makes the place something more attractive for me to come back to. The decor in the place was pretty funky, lots of wall art, subtle lighting spaces for sit. Although the diner isn’t huge, there’s space to sit and eat and it gets pretty busy at lunch-times and after work!
This is what I ordered, a classic Habanero burger with cheesy fries, while my husband went for a spicy Samurai burger and fries. I liked that both burgers were big enough to be filling, but not too massive. As much as I like getting my money’s worth when it comes to food, I prefer quality and not overloading – I have been to some gourmet burger joints in the past where I’ve had to cut up my burger to eat it in portions!
The Habanero burger isn’t particularly spicy but is very juicy, the meat is tender enough to taste great but has a nice grilled taste to it, and blends well with the sauces and salad. I was slightly disappointed with the cheesy fries as I thought the cheese would be melted cheese on top of the chips, and this was more of a cheesy sauce, but they tasted okay and we did eat them all!
Hubby’s Samurai burger was surprisingly more chilli than mine – I think this was mainly due ot the sauce in the burger, but it was a lovely sweet-and-chilli taste which I liked.
I liked that this is a very reasonably priced place to go – burgers cost about £5.95 each and they are made pretty quickly – perfect for any rush-hours too. I’ve already been back to this place to get another burger, although I will admit, as an east-Londoner it is a little far!
My friends and I managed to get a table at the constantly-booked Dalloway’s Terrace restaurant, which took us about a month to get, but was worth it for the visual experience and the ambience. The restaurant is known for it’s pretty decor and looks lovely at night – which was the first thing my friends and I noticed as soon as we got to the restaurant.
The decor which was up was mainly lights and lanterns, painted pine-cones and white trees and rushes, which made for a very intimate feel to the restaurant. The seating is centred around the trees and the lights and it feels pretty surreal to sit in the middle of it because it feels a little like being in a fairy-like enchanted woods (without the cold, there were heaters everywhere!)
The food itself is a little limited in terms of halal, but we were re-assured that the chicken in this restaurant is halal. There is a mix of cuisine, with mainly English and a dash of Meditarranean and Asian. We all opted for some fondues and also chose a meal each as well – I picked a miso cod on a bed of quinoa, with spinach leaves in cream (and we also got chips for everyone to share, becuase why not!)
My friends also picked a mix of food – one went for a mixed sea-grill, another went for bruschetta, while my other friend was in the mood for dessert and went for fruit-tarts and a hot chocolate! The food was presented quite nicely, and I personally liked the dish I picked – it was tender, juicy and had a good mix of sweet and savoury. I think our favourite thing was the fondues though – we ordered a cheese one with fruit, and another white chocolate fondue with strawberry which really completed the night (not to mention fighting over and stealing each other’s fruit from the fondue pot!)
The bright lights have been taken down from Dalloway’s Terrace now (which will be back at the end of the year at Christmas time) but it’s still worth a visit when the restaurant re-opens in May with their springy green decor. I really enjoyed myself at this restaurant and would love to try afternoon tea in the summer at this place – I’m sure it will be just as fun an experience!
Have you been to this restaurant? What dish did you like best?
I was recently invited to a Blogger’s Meet at Sweet, Mile End, a trendy dessert place in Mile End who wanted us try their desserts to review whether we would enjoy the food. I was pretty please to be invited, as I would be going with with some bloggers I know (either in real life or online!) and it was a great opportunity to hang out, gossip, eat great food and relax.
You can see the other blogger’s reviews here: Hijabi in London; Yasmins Intro; The London Haloodie – be sure to check their blogs out!
Sweet is mainly a dessert restaurant, which provides a wide range of milkshakes, mocktails, cakes, waffles, crepes and cookie doughs – as well as their signature ‘Alto-Shakes’, which are crazily-extravagant milkshakes topped with icing, cakes, syrup, more toppings and chocolate!
We were lucky enough to try a range of desserts and drinks and we each decided to try a few different things so we can mix-and-match and share our treats. Funnily enough we all had very different tastes – I’m a huge cheesecake and chocolate fan, while the others loved the idea of a waffle, milk shake or the salty desserts. You can see below some of the things we ordered – don’t they look amazing? They actually tasted yummy, the desserts were presented amazingly on each dish and tasted great, balancing salty flavours with sweet, rich flavours with sharp and tangy.
Having tried a lot of options, I loved a lot of these desserts, but my favourite was the Ferrero Rocher chocolate cheesecake (I’m a sucker for cheesecakes!) and the fruity mocktails, although I did like the sound of the ‘gulab jamun’ and ‘gajar ka halwa’ ice cream! I also really liked the mocktails – perfectly fruity and not too icy cold.
I also liked the decor in this restaurant, which was very London-centric with the pencil-drawing art on the walls, mixed with muted colourful lights and a soft atmosphere – a great place to sit and unwind after work.
I had fun at this restaurant and it was great to meet like-minded bloggers (sharing blogger problems like the art of taking ten thousand photos of food pictures to get the right angle!)
Dessert places in London are becoming pretty popular and it’s not surprising, they’re the ideal places for hangouts and who can resist a good dessert? The other thing I loved about this place was that it’s fully halal, so there’s no worries for Muslims in east London looking for a sweet treat after dinner in this area. I’m sure I’ll be dropping by in Sweet again – let me know if you’ve been and what you think of it!
The Harlequin Tea Set 