Floral Cabanas at Coppa Club

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!

EVALUATION:
HALAL : NO
VEGETARIAN & VEGAN OPTIONS AVAILABLE: YES
PRICE : £10 UPWARDS FOR light lunch, £15-30 FOR LUNCH
RATING OUT OF 10: 4
LOCATION: 3 Three Quays Walk, Lower Thames St, London EC3R 6AH

Bright Lights at Dalloway’s Terrace

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!)

Cheese Fondue

Bruschetta

Miso Cod, Spinach in Cream and Sea Food Grill Mix

White chocolate fondue

Hot chocolate and gingerbread

Fruit tart

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?

Foodie Review: Sweet, Mile End

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!

Happy National Chocolate Week!

This could quite possibly be my favourite national celebration of the year (except for my birthday, which should be a national holiday) – it’s National Chocolate Week!

I’ll be helping the country celebrate and doing my part by buying a few luxury chocolate (or a thousand) and pondering the benefits of chocolate (i.e. nuff’ serotonin = happiness) while I curl up with my latest book.

In other news, here’s a peek of the Cake and Bake show my sister and I went to last week, a little chocolate Morphe-type man! Isn’t it cute?

KitKat Chocolatory, London

I’ve heard about this a few days ago – KitKat is opening a chocolatory (very much like the popular ones in Japanese) in London – specifically, east London at Westfield Stratford! So when the store opened today, I popped down at the first chance (i.e. lunch time) to take a look for myself – and loved what I saw!

The store is located at The Street, Westfield Stratford and is a lovely, bright pop-up shop where you can customise your own bespoke KitKat – from flavours, colours and toppings and even box design – on a computerized screen which is brought to life by a group of chocolatiers, all while you watch.

I really like the idea of a bespoke KitKat (you get to design an eight-fingered bar, so at least it’s big enough!) which I think really appeals to Londoners who like something a little creative. And of course, seeing lots of melted, sumptuous chocolate always makes me feel happy too.

You can watch a mini clip of how the KitKats are made below – sorry for the grainy quality!

If the bespoke KitKat is too pricey (or takes too long!) for you, there are also various ‘Special Edition’ flavours – new flavours are introduced every week, I’m told.

Here are some of this week’s flavours, don’t they look beautiful – almost too pretty to eat!

Chilli & Mint

Caramel and Sea Salt

Black Forest Gateaux

Popcorn, Toffee and Sea Salt

I think that this a really interesting concept brought over from Japan – I’ve always been fascinated with the quirky flavours from Japan like matcha, lavender, cheesecake and there’s even a potato flavour! (not sure I’d try that one though). I’ve already posted a few of these pictures on my social media and the viewers are loving the idea – although be warned the KitKats are slightly pricey for £7 to design your own bar.

The pop-up KitKat bar is open for the next 5 weeks until mid-November – pop down if you’re around! You can also see more pictures here of the opening today – what do you think of this?

Carnaby Street Eat

I was lucky enough to be around central London last weekend with a friend, so that we could make the most of the annual Carnaby Street Eat – a mini food festival perfect for foodies like us!

I love hearing about events like this around London, especially since it’s such a diverse, busy place with plenty happening (like my favourite event from this year, Lumiere London) – and the the best thing is that a lot of these are free (if you hear about them in time and know where to find them!) and usually involve wandering around discovering London!

My friend and I headed down to Carnaby Street and found plenty of food stalls, which was perfect with the summer weather and the beautiful surroundings. I didn’t take as many pictures as I wanted to, but here’s a few pictures from my Snapchat app!

One of the things I love about Carnaby Street is the decor – there’s plenty of colour all year around and the shops regularly have funky decor to match. Carnaby Street had some added decor around the street, with plenty of food trucks, DJ decks for music and even a long strip of (false!) grass patch for people to sit and relax in.

The food, of course looked amazing – most of them were from restaurants and bars nearby, so it was nice to see that you can sample food from new places. Unfortunately not a lot of these places had halal food, but there were a few vegetarian options, and we did manage to find an Indian restaurant selling burgers! As well as savoury food, there were plenty of desserts – rainbow meringues, cupcakes and biscuits, as well as free lemonade and ice-cream sandwiches being handed out.

My friend and I managed to find a spot on the grass to sit and relax (and also manage to snag a huge floor cushion to sit and relax in!) and we enjoyed the beautiful sun and sights. We also stopped for desserts and plenty of drinks!

 

I like that there were things around all of Carnaby Street to catch your eye and add a little colour – from silly signboards and beautifully decorated walls to foosball table games and deckchairs – something for everyone. It’s not often an event like this comes to London, and it was great to see everyone come out to enjoy themselves.

We had a great time at Carnaby Street Eat, and manage to catch a little suntan as well – although I don’t think my tan lasted too long! I’ll be keeping an eye out for more events like this in London, especially as summer as finally arrived and there’s plenty of sun to enjoy!

Afternoon Tea at the Sky Bar

It’s been a while since I’ve had a proper afternoon tea, so when my friends suggested a tea at lunchtime in the middle of work today, I didn’t resist for a moment. We’re lucky enough to work locally to Westfield Stratford in east London, which has a variety of restaurants and shops for us to indulge in every now and then (not everyday otherwise we’d all be bankrupt!)

So off we skiddled along to Sky Bar, which I never knew existed until I walked in, a beautiful balcony restaurant overlooking the random skyscrapers, train stations and restaurants of east London while having a lovely tea. The best part about this is that there was a 50% off deal going on as well, so it was cheap and guilt-less indulgence too!

I always love beautiful decor when visiting a new restaurant, and this place fit tickled my imagination nicely – a huge ceiling with cool wooden floors and metal decoration, beautiful lanterns and quirky paintings at the entrance.

Onto the good stuff, the food – I think the picture below sums up how pretty this tea was. I wasn’t expecting a lot for what we paid, and was pleasantly surprised by how nicely put together everything was. Teapots with fresh roses, jugs of tea and milk, plates of scones, jams, sandwiches and tea, lemonade water (for people like me who aren’t tea drinkers!) and beautifully made desserts.

We loved how well presented each plate of food was – between three of us we couldn’t finish this three-tier of sandwiches and cakes, and we had great fun swapping different flavoured macarons and cupcakes (by swapping, ‘sampling’ each other’s cakes!). My husband always says having afternoon tea is a bit of a girly thing, and that there are never enough sandwiches for his liking – personally I think afternoon tea is for everyone but I did love how girly and vintage-themed the flowers and crockery were. I also loved that there was a good mix of food for everyone, lemon cake, brownies, rich cupcakes, macarons, scones and three different fillings of sandwiches.

I also love how full the table looked by the time all of the food arrive – I never like paying a lot of money for an afternoon tea experience which makes you feel as if you didn’t really get much. Half of the tea can sometimes be the visual experience and the beautiful decor to match beautiful food, which in this case certainly worked well together. My favourite thing was a little cute case with a single macaron with an ‘eat me’ label on it! Sadly enough I wasn’t allowed to take the little case home (I did eat the macaron inside though, it was an almond-flavoured one), but it did give me ideas for future tea parties…!

All in all this was a lovely afternoon (even if we did have to go back to work after a long lunch!) and a perfect way to end the working week, and begin the bank holiday weekend!

Cupcake Fridays and Colouring Pens

With a chocolate cupcake, some drawing pens and some chick-flicky reading material. Yup, all ready for a wild Friday night (with a movie!)

A mess of cookies…

When you have so many cookies on the table you can balance a platter of cheese on them. Here’s some sugary goodness to start off the week!

Pyschedelic Cupcakes

I love when someone gets creative with a cupcake and makes it into something funky, kind of like what we used to try to make as kids (add hundreds of toppings and colours then refuse to eat the results). This is a lot more pretty than anything I made as a kid though, and of course it tasted even better.

So here’s another rainbow post this weekend, something to brighten up the Bank Holiday weekend (despite all the rain!)