Tag: reviews

Restaurant Reviews

Le Pisani – Axminster

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For this weeks “Travel Tuesdays” – we are doing another stay cation restaurnat review.

Location: Axminster.

I was in this little town for a hen do – we had a meal out. This Restaurant was 10 mins from our Spa resrot and offered plenty of options. It is Italian overall, with plenty of pastas and pizza available. All substantial portions so do be sure you are hungry.

I had fish and ratatouille – what can I say I was not feeling huge amount of carbs that day. Very strange for me I have to say. Although this was served with a small portion of chips. Who could say no…

This meal was really tasty, the lemon as alays added that acidity that can be needed with these meals. It was well seasoned and I demolished it pretty quickly. This place as it is local, is more accustomed to smaller groups and families, so a hen do turning up was not to their perference. Therefore we ordered in advance to help out.

Axminster itself is a small town, easy to walk up and down in a morning, you couldn’t spend all day here, however there are plenty of walks in thesurrounding areas. Lyme Regis (see my post) is only 20 mins or so drive from here. So worth a visit to the coast and if you are looking for that stone walled typical English rural town. It is a nice visit, this place would be a good place for a late lunch before heading home for the evening.

Until next time.

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Spitalfields Market

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Spitalfields in a covered marketing in central London. Found at: 16 Commercial St, Spitalfields, London E1 6EW. It has been on the same spot for 350 years – impressive right. Who knows when it will re open but wanted to make sure this travel tuesday it was on your radar.

With a whole range of stalls – it is worth going for a walk around even if you are not looking for anything. I found some lovely unique earrings which were like branches. So there are a whole range of different local businesses and local vendors – there are some chain shops in the permanent fixtures around the outside of the market – but that is not why we come to markets right!

There are two reasons I come to Spitalfields – the food and the books. The food is amazing. I could spend all day there eating sweet treats and lunches from all over the world. There is a whole section of the market kept just for the food stalls with old school benches and table to sit at and enjoy your food. There is a whole range of options, from asian, italian, middle eastern through to some of the more ‘traditional’ options. The sweet treats are a must… just be careful with how many to try and get home – they might now survive.

As I said the other reason I go to Spitalfields is the book stall – I love this book stall! There are the traditional reads to some different ones and all at affordbale prices. Around £3-4 a book – always end up buying a few. The choice is endless as you can see from the image above, there are a range of topics and it stretches across all of the stall, there are shelves behind and the owner is just sat on a stall on the outskirts of the stall. Generally they prefer to take cash (this might change) however it is a great place to pick up a new read or something you have always wanted to try.

Until next time 🙂

Restaurant Reviews

London grind – Review

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After a very special (and different) VE Day – 75th Anniversary. It is a day to be proud to be British and celebrate those things that make us so. One things about London and Great Britain that people like and want to try here is British Breakfast – who wouldn’t. A plate of yummy goodness to start your weekend or week!

I want to share one of my favourite breakfasts in London. It is a cute place off London bridge a stones throw from London Bridge station. It is marble tables with a selection of high tables, a counter and lower tables. It is tight fit there is not a huge about of space in this place. But it is open, airey, and chic.

They do a range from healthy to not so healthy breakfasts, mimosas and coffees – their fresh orange juice is to die for! Mine went way too quickly. Take a look at the Menu it is hard to choose! Let’s be honest.

The food is delicious – I have eaten here a few times with friends, family and solo. The breakfast is definitely a favourite – beware if you are ordering the breakfast burrito is it a substantial meal.

Hope this has given you some inspo for your weekend breakfasts, and future adventures. Until next time.

Restaurant Reviews

Knead – review

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This is a Sunday Morning type place!

Location: Kloof Street, Cape Town.

This place is always busy when it comes to a morning, it sells to go coffee and pastries for those just passing through. I am pleased to say I had a sit down with a few friends and a good breakfast.

A simple flat white – everyone needs a coffee on a morning. Below is a Tumeric Latte, this was an experience. It was spicy but in a warming sense. My friend who ordered it enjoyed but I am not sure it was to my taste… So many different things in a drink makes you wonder if it is worth it.

Believe it or not this is a Tumeric Latte!

Now believe it or not, this is an omelette. It was an omelette and a half. With toast with a pesto type sauce and some grilled tomatoes. This filled me up for the entire day. Bacon and sausages inside this.

The menu has some soft drinks on it as well. I had an iced tea but it had a flavouring in it as well. It was on the sugary side however it was extremely refreshing.

My entire experience at this place was lovely, I thoroughly enjoyed it. The service was okay, the food delicious and the surroundings were spacious. It is the perfect place for a lazy brunch with friends. You can even sit outside and watch the world go by if that is what you feel like.

Until next time my friends

Restaurant Reviews

Roundhouse – Review

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Location: Wandsworth – a short walk from Clapham Junction.

You walk into this place, and it is immediately warm. There is a bar in the centre of everything, table scattered around. Table and chairs are mismatch but all wooden based.

It is dimly lit but it has a lovely atmosphere. A lovely place for an evening meal. The menu has a lovely range on it. I went with the Jerk Chicken see the image below.

 

This was delicious. Plenty of sauce, spicy but not too much. I only had a lemonade to accompany but it was great. It was nice to have a bit of salad alongside.

This was my desert – chocolate fondant and there was no coulis and therefore we got Raspberry Sorbet. That with vanilla ice cream, it was mouth watering. The fondant didn’t melt as I had expected it was sold like a mousse type thing. It had a solid base. It was rich and did not last long I can tell you.

The service was as I preferred – attentive but not harassing. They were not too pushy but willing to help with every query we had.

Enjoy my review and the food should you visit.

Until next time.

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Sea Kayaking

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Yes that is Lions Head above those clouds. Yes that is me in the Blue Kayak.

So my friend and I went Sea Kayaking with Kaskazi. It was R400 for a couple of hours. I really great experience. The office is in a shell garage in Sea Point. There are lockers on site for your stuff. They recommend not taking anything you.

So you get a small briefing before hitting the boats. You climb in and adjust the pedals at the back or the footrest at the front. The person in the back is in charge of direction and the one in the front is in charge of the power.

The morning I did this you can see it was a little cloudy and misty – made for an interesting experience. It was eerie when you lose all aspect of where you are paddling to just into the middle of the sea.

On these experiences you can sometimes see some wildlife, we spotted a seal for a short time and there were some dolphins in the vicinity but they were elusive to us. So we were paddling up and down along Sea Point and back to Granger Bay and the Waterfront trying to keep an eye on the wall as well as maybe finding some animals.

The guides and the staff at Kaskazi were great, I would highly recommend this experience. It was something completely different and amazing. I thoroughly enjoyed this. My arms not so much I was very very tired! Definitely want to do it again in the sunshine.

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Spier

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Spier – probably one of the most well known places in South Africa to try and drink wine. It is about 45 minutes outside of the city. It is grey drive, mostly on main road, but I promise you, when you arrive you don’t even know the road is there.

It is green beyond belief! Such wide open spaces it is a beautiful winery. You can stay there as well, there are plenty of things to do, places to eat and things to try. It is a whole experience at Spier. I am getting ahead of myself – lets concentrate on the main reason… the wine.

So I stopped here for a wine tasting. R40 for 7 different wines, I had 2 sparkling, 1 rose, 2 white and 2 red. It really did show the complexity of wine making in those wines and how perfect these people are at it. All of them were enjoyable and drinkable more to the point. There is something there for every taste. You can have a chocolate and wine tasting, cheese and wine, or just different levels of tasting depending on your feelings. I saw many many tables here with groups of people or even with children.

I ordered a 6 bottle mixed case to be send home for delivery when I get home. Which was super easy and very convenient. I am so pleased I was able to do that. So if you are interested just talk to the host you are working with and they will be able to walk you through the process.

The grounds of Spier are stunning, so please do not just do the wine tasting and leave, enjoy it. Walk around, and just get a feeling for the place. There is a small stream that you can walk along as you can see from the below photo.

Lunch – now this place has 4 different restaurants from a farm to table place, a steakhouse or even just a run of the mile restaurant whatever you are feeling they will have it. I went to the farm to table place and I order a roast beef sandwich and got a cake too. Both were amazing, the roast beef came with rocket, caramelised onions and vegetable crisps on the side. What more could you want. You can even rent a picnic set with your lunch and have a picnic on the lawns. Wine is a must naturally. I took a bottle home to enjoy at a different time.

Spier for me was a must coming to Cape Town. I hope it is for you too. The wine tours are good to do a number of wines and even better when you don’t have to drive yourself right, however experiencing one by yourself is a wonderful experience in itself.

Restaurant Reviews, Uncategorized

Pelicans Harbour cafe – review

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Location: Cape Agulhas, Struisbaai Harbour.

This little cafe, has a big reputation, one of the most recommended places in the area. I was staying 10/15 mins from here at the Backpackers – another review following for this place. A lovely walk down the beach.

You can see a working harbour whilst enjoying your lunch and beyond the restaurant there is even a small beach which is nice and quiet.

There is large menu and large area for seating, there is good range of food from burgers to salads and fresh seafood. It is all moderately priced as well.

I ordered Hake and Rice – beautifully seasoned and grilled of course. Highly recommended – lovely setting and amazing food.

There are stingrays in this harbour, so keep your eyes out if you are in the area. There are a beaches beyond the harbour as well. It is a lovely area to spend an few hours relaxing.


Restaurant Reviews

Van Hunks – Review

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Location: Corner of Kloof and Union Street.

This seems like quite a large place for this part of town. The outside of the restaurant is a lot larger than the inside. Covered in greenery and above the street, you can get a good view point of the street and be above prying eyes. It is a quiet spot.

During the week there is a deal on for lunch at this place, there are a few other mid week deals as well. This one is 2 lunch option for R100 – can’t go wrong really. There was enough on the menu to chose from for lunch as well: salads, pita breads, fish and chips and sandwiches. It seemed more of a evening place for drinks and light food as opposed to a proper restaurant, but it is pleasant enough place for an easy conversation over lunch.

I had a Chicken Tikka Marsala and Pineapple pita with salad alongside. The tikka marsala was spicier than I was used to, but was lovely and tasty none the less. The pita was soaked with it, so I ended up leaving it. The salad was light which was nice, no dressing but coriander gave it a nice taste to it.

This is a lovely little place for a light quiet lunch on the outskirts of the busy city.

Restaurant Reviews

The Lawns at Roundhouse

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So Lawns at the Roundhouse, the restaurant at actually called Salsify. It is quite posh however the lawns is a more relaxed atmosphere as you can see from the images. There are two bars outside. The grass is astro-turf at the top, plenty of seating and usually the wind is still here.

Outside there is a small menu consisting of burgers and pizzas mainly. I would advice keep to the pizzas, they are divine. They are simple, thin and delicious. Some have slightly more challenging flavours but all delicious. One with walnuts and figs it the mutts nuts!

The wine choice is extensive too. The view I am sure you can agree it stunning, sitting here with a lovely glass of wine after a nice meal, light but filling. It is just perfect. I can only imagine the quality of the food inside the restaurant.

There was no fault in the service. Always happy to refill glasses and bottles. It was a wonderful experience, the sun going down with the tablecloth in full view. The wind was up a little this evening but, not too cold. A truly lovely experience, table cloth included.