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Stephanie

Food

The Ivy Chelsea Garden

October 12, 2015

The Ivy Chelsea Garden is a beautiful rose that popped up in a former plot of manure. It’s so different from the bar/restaurant/blackout location that used to be there, I was skeptical. How could something so awesome exist where so many horrendous smells and bad decisions had come from?

Apparently before you get married you need to take every opportunity to drink out of penis straws.

Anyway, The Ivy Chelsea Garden can be a hard reservation to get. Usually I’m pretty over places like that, but one evening I called randomly and they did have space for two at 8. I went with my hilarious friend Michelle the week before my wedding and she brought me these completely appropriate props to have dinner with. We sat out in the garden and it was a bit chilly so the staff brought us blankets along with our menus.

To say the menu is comprehensive is an understatement. It was super hard to choose because they had everything from mushroom on toast to tuna carpaccio and that was just the starters.

I’ve been called The Cheese Monster by a French guy I know, so it’s no surprise I ordered the seasonal roasted cauliflower soup with crumbled Stilton. It was magical and renewed my obsession with soup in general.

For my main, I went with the Chicken Milanese because A) I like breaded anything, B) I love fried eggs, C) When I see the world truffle I am blind to anything else. But believe it or not, this STILL didn’t narrow my choices because there are no fewer than 4 truffle items on the all day menu: Truffle Arancini, truffle and parmesan fries, chicken Milanese and truffled chicken brioche sandwich. This food literally ticked ALL OF THE BOXES IN THE WORLD.

Please forgive the half eaten photo. We were scuba deep on two bottles of wine.

Now, I was still on my wedding diet so that cancelled out the fried rice balls. However, I was having soup, so no need to go overboard on the health factor either which cancelled out the chicken sandwich (it came with salad on salad with no fries). In the interest of full disclosure, I ordered the other two truffle things: Chicken Milanese and the truffle parmesan fries. I was two pounds over my goal weight for my wedding and this was worth it. The Chicken Milanese was pretty good, although I felt they went a little heavy with whatever the white sauce all over the chicken was. Truffle fries were, as always, delicious and the tomato salad was, as always, not as delicious as truffle fries.

To counteract the fries we had the tomato side salad and to counteract that we had this piece of deliciousness!

The chocolate bombe!

People were very friendly, although the service lacked when it came to pouring our wine and bringing the bill, the two most important things in the world! The table next to us INSISTED we came and sat with them for a few minutes which we did mostly because it seemed like such a novel idea popular in the 70s along with swinging parties.

Considering how much food we ate (and drank ALL the wines), the bill wasn’t too bad at £65/person. If you can book in advance I would recommend it, but it’s worth a try to call for cancellations. It’s also become a bit easier to get in now that the summer and the hype has died down.

I can’t wait for The Ivy Kensington Brasserie on High Street Kensington to open! All of the wine and stumbling distance to Bodo’s Scholss!

The Ivy Chelsea Garden

195-197 King’s Road, London, SW3 5ED

www.theivychelseagarden.com

Food

The Good Life Eatery

October 8, 2015

Stephanie

1 Comments

First off, it should be called the F%$king Great Life Eatery because that’s how good the eggs benedict is. I went to meet my friend right before my wedding for a catch up breakfast and my only requirement was healthy. In my world, healthy is any food that doesn’t contain cookies or cake, so our options were pretty open. I’d been dying to go to The Good Life Eatery for a while but heard there were lines and I couldn’t be bothered to fight a yummy mummy after her yoga class with an insatiable need to get her chia seed on.

It was raining, elbows were thrown but eventually I got somewhere near the front of the line and ordered their skinny royale. If I’m honest I expected it to taste like cardboard because that’s how most health food tastes to me. I picked the real bread (gluten free is code word for filled with plastic and shit I can’t pronounce) and we sat at the counter near the doorway, which my friend was passively aggressively guarding with her life.

Imagine my surprise when this plate of deliciousness showed up.

I don’t know what’s skinny about it because this was probably one of the best eggs benedict/royale I have ever had in my entire life. If it will put less junk in my trunk I vote we permanently change the standard recipe to this (eggs, smoked salmon, yogurt and saffron sauce mmmmmmm).

Although they have a vast selection, I didn’t have a smoothie. I’m just not into avocado, vanilla and almond milk mixed together. I’d like to keep my yummy benedict down thankyouverymuch.

Then I went back a few weeks later with another set of girl friends for our first (of hopefully many) breakfast club at noon (One of us had yoga. It obviously wasn’t me). Imagine my horror when I was told that they don’t serve eggs after 11:30am because eggs aren’t for the afternoon. Whoever decided this is missing out on LIFE. Anyway, after the shock wore off I ordered their chicken club which was also delicious, but not to the epic level their royale was.

I was also hung-over as f%$k so I asked the staff if they had anything that would cure it and they pointed me in the direction of a delicious juice called Melrose sunset. The food arrived promptly and we chatted as a weirdo sat at the spare seat at our table and devoured a huge and incredible looking piece of red velvet cake.

I highly recommend The Goof Life Eatery but politely request that you contact me before you go so you can save me a place in line.

The Good Life Eatery

www.goodlifeeatery.com

59 Sloane Avenue

London SW3 3DH UK

Food

Iddu

March 16, 2015

Stephanie

So, award for weirdest name for a restaurant in South Ken goes to… Iddu. This is a fairly new spot on what is becoming a great little street near South Kensington Tube. Before, all that was there was a Fitness First and an overpriced dry cleaners. But, with Iddu’s parent The South Kensington Club opening soon next door, this is set to be a new high traffic area for the Chelsea set in the know.

I stopped by in the morning and the place was crammed. Yummy mummies and coffee meetings were in full swing but the man near the till took the time to speak to me. I was there to make a lunch reservation but apparently there wasn’t one needed. When I asked him to see a lunch menu, he told me there wouldn’t be one until 11am. Iddu is a Sicilian cafe and they decide their menu moments before lunch depending on what’s fresh and available that day.

Fast forward to lunch and things have calmed down. There are empty tables and I finally get to see the much anticipated lunch menu. To be honest it was a bit of a disappointment. I was hoping for some pasta or a fantastic salad and both those things seemed to be lacking. They did have a delicious sounding pesto chicken panini which I added mozzarella to while my friend had the prosciutto on gluten free bread.

On the whole my panini was pretty good. The ingredients were what did it. Grilled chicken, mozzarella, rocket and flavorful pesto on crispy focaccia… mmmm! Simple and it was less than £7 so I felt it was good value for money. Especially since it also came with a small side of salad.

Overall the service was nice, if a little slow. I think this is the place to be for breakfast or coffee so will definitely try it again as it’s still early days.

Iddu
44 Harrington Road, London SW7
020 7589 1991

Food

World’s End Market

March 13, 2015

Stephanie

World’s End Market, despite its name and the feeling of many Chelsea residents is not at the end of the world, just the end of Chelsea. When I first moved to London, I actually lived across the street so walking to Worlds End Market was not only a fond trip down memory lane, it also reminded me there is an amazing Oxfam near by.

When I arrived at the restaurant Wednesday during lunch, it was fairly empty but that just meant I had my choice of seat. So I nestled into the corner near a window and spied the staff kitted out in grey shirts and burgundy braces. The whole place felt a kind of hipster/Hoxton, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing when everything else nearby is so Sloaney.

After two seconds into looking at the menu I knew what I wanted. Buffalo mozzarella with artichoke and pesto to start and the truffle burger as a main. I tend to have menu blackout when I see cheese and truffle so I really couldn’t even tell you what else looked good. But here is a picture of the menu anyway.

My starter arrived just as I noticed the music was sounding a little too W lounge for my tastes, and almost as soon as I thought of it, the music changed to the song from Romeo and Juliet where Claire Danes and Leo start flirting so all was forgiven. I probably would have preferred burrata to mozzarella but it was still fantastic without being too filling.

I asked for my burger to be medium well and that was my bad. It came cooked like a brick. I probably should have stuck with the suggested medium. The burger had a delicious bun and actually only used truffle oil slightly disappointing if I’m honest. But, 80% of taste is smell, right? I found the caramelized onions to be too much and far too sweet with the brioche that it mostly drowned out any truffle or mushroom taste that was left. However, I was pretty stoked that it came with both fries and salad.

That was, until I had a fry. On a scale of 1 – Fresh McDonalds fries I’m going to have to give these a 4. They looked fresh cut but were lip and fairly soggy. The ketchup was essentially marinara sauce. Heinz and crispy fries are an absolute must if you’re going to serve a burger so World’s End Market, get on it.

After my meal I had a little walk around to get a better look at the seafood. Then just about crapped myself when the lobster I was taking a picture of walked towards me. The seafood is fresh, I’ll give them that.

Overall, World’s End Market is a nice addition to a relatively forgotten part of Chelsea. I’m not sure I would go out of my way to dine there again, but if they sort out the fries, I may give them another chance.

What to wear: It’s fairly casual, I had on jeans, Marc Jacobs flats and a white t-shirt.
Address: 459 Kings road, London SW10 0LR
Phone:020 7352 2150
To book: http://www.theworldsendmarket.com

Unsolicited Advice

Why I Asked For Beefaroni For Christmas

December 9, 2013

Stephanie

Around this time last year I was walking home from Balans in Chelsea with my boyfriend after stuffing my face with Eggs Benedict when a woman walking in front of us suddenly collapsed. We ran to help her and insisted on calling an ambulance but she begged us not to. She was shaking and fighting back tears. I thought she might have blood sugar issues so I ran to the corner store and got an orange juice while my boyfriend stayed with her. When I came back, she was still sitting on the sidewalk with her laptop case and after having the juice, she seemed to calm down. That’s when I noticed her trousers were a little frayed and her trainers almost worn through.

We started to talk to her. As it turned out, she hadn’t eaten in a few days. She had been made redundant from her estate agent job several months back and was struggling to feed herself and was staying in hostels when she could get enough money together. She had been in the Brompton library searching for jobs online, but it’s hard to find employment when you don’t have an address.

I burst into tears. I had been made redundant two years before and it took me four months to find another job. I hardly had any savings and it was one of the most stressful times of my life. But I had friends, a boyfriend and a family back home that I knew would help me if I needed it. This woman didn’t have that safety net that I took for granted.

We offered to get her some lunch but she declined. She also refused to take any money from us and actually dug in her bag to find change to pay me for the orange juice. She was proud, which I understood but I managed to distract her and my boyfriend slipped some money into her laptop bag. She did thank us for talking to her, because she hadn’t had a real conversation with anyone in a long time.

She finally convinced us she was OK and got up to walk the rest of the way to her hostel. I went home and cried some more. It kills me to think that there are people out there who don’t get to enjoy food and just look at getting enough nutrition to survive. I know the world isn’t perfect and there isn’t a way to fix everything, so I wanted to think of what I could do that very day. A few weeks earlier my family had asked for a Christmas list and the only thing I could think of putting on there was a £900 pair of Jimmy Choo boots. That’s when I realized I actually didn’t need anything.

Christmas is about giving and people want to give you stuff. I emailed my family and asked them to get me food, my favourites from home: Beefaroni, Kraft Dinner, Chewy Chips Ahoy etc and I would give it to the food bank. It didn’t fly as well as I hoped, mostly because everyone had already got me something.

But this year I hope it’s different. I started earlier and asked that at least 50% of my gift from anyone would be food I could donate to the food bank. Meet me halfway, you know? I don’t like to dictate gift giving, that’s kind of the opposite of what a gift is supposed to be, but I hope they understand how much this means to me and add a can of Beefaroni to my stocking.

I wasn’t going to post this because I figure if you are going to do something, just do it, don’t sit there and write a blog post about it. But then I thought, if even one other person reads this and does the same thing that would make a difference to at least one hungry family in a place that I’ve probably never been to. And that would be awesome.

So, instead of those amazing boots, why not ask for a can of Beefaroni for Christmas?

Also, I’ve been away from the blog for a while but have a really good reason. If you want to know why, you can click here . I’ll be back soon with some more awesome restaurants.

Food

The Diner

June 2, 2013

Stephanie

My boyfriend and I had been looking forward to The Diner since Black and Blue shut down. We were hoping a great new restaurant would open and prayed it was one that didn’t only cater towards tourists, like most restaurants on Gloucester Road. It got to the point that when we saw the sign go up, my boyfriend went and asked the builders outside when it would open.

Then it finally did, and hungover one Saturday we were ready.. only to find it closed. Apparently it hadn’t opened properly yet. Take 2, the boy had golf and my head hurt from a long night before at Brompton Club and Bodos Schloss. So I ventured out on my own.

First visit:

The staff were very nice and sat me at a table near the window. I didn’t really notice the decor or the atmosphere because I was in a corner. But, at the same time that worked for me, as I didn’t feel like being stared at while I inhaled my brunch alone. I obviously ordered the Eggs Benedict and toyed with the possibility of also ordering a corn dog, because I love me some corn dog, but thought that was a bit much.

They were super quick to take my OJ order and brought that straight away but unfortunately took their time coming back to take my food order, so eventually I flagged someone down. She took it, and my food arrived fairly promptly but unfortunately they didn’t bring cutlery. So I waited for that as well. It was pretty delicious but the bacon was a bit chewy for my tastes and the hollandaise was a little too buttery and not quite tangy enough. Also, be careful with the pepper. It’s super fine and in a container with large holes so I basically ended up dumping it all over my meal. I’m a big fan of pepper, but it kind of ruined things for me.

Visit 2:

The very next day my boyfriend wanted to go, so there we found ourselves again. We were sat at at a middle booth so I could admire what they did for decor. My favourite part are the walls which look like they were put together from old gymnasium floors, love it!

I ordered the Eggs Benedict again, but this time asked for extra crispy bacon, which I got and I highly recommend they serve the dish like that as a staple. The hollandaise was also better this time, with the right amount of tang. I also used the pepper more cautiously so all in all, this was a much better Benedict. It was £7.

I wanted a root beer, but was told that the kitchen staff drank the last of it the night before and were in very big trouble. Can’t hold it against them though, root beer is pretty awesome. My boyfriend ordered a cherry coke instead and I drank half of it. It was yummy.

We also ordered the wings which were a bit of a disappointment. They were kind of breaded and deep friend and not spicy. They should work on those, and until they do, I wouldn’t order them.

My boyfriend ordered the Grab burger which was USDA beef. Don’t order any of those burgers on the menu because he said they tasted like a frozen patty. I imagine the other hamburgers are better as it says on the menu that they are hand ground scottish beef which are made daily. Next time we will probably go for that option. He also said the bun was too bready which looking at it I’d have to agree with.

One thing I found distracting was one of the waitresses was wearing booty shorts and a backless t-shirt. She was basically naked and it felt awkward because it was 2 o’clock on a Sunday afternoon and there were children in the restaurant. It would have been more appropriate if it were Saturday night. Her outfit just seemed weird and I feel like staff’s clothing shouldn’t be the stand out thing you remember from a restaurant.

Overall, this is probably one of the better dining choices on that part of Gloucester road (but keeping in mind, it’s competition are a steakhouse and italian place geared towards tourists and a Burger King). I am pretty keen to try other things on the menu, they had a toasted cornbread with eggs that sounded delicious, and of course the hot dogs.

Another suggestion would be to change the shakes a little. I was going to order the oreo one until I read the description and it doesn’t look like there are actually oreos in it, but nutella and chocolate instead. I don’t like nutella. They should make a regular oreo shake and I would eat it every day.

In total we ordered: Margarita (pretty small), Cherry Coke, Orange Juice, Grab Burger, Wings and an Eggs Benedict and it was £35. Service isn’t included which is kind of nice as I find it annoying when restaurants add it automatically. We left £5.70 tip which is more than the usual 12.5% added. Other restaurants, take note.

I would recommend a try if you are in the area, but I wouldn’t necessarily venture out to eat there. They have other locations around London as well.

To book:

Web: www.goodlifediner.com

Address: 105 Gloucester Road, SW7

Phone: 02072447666

Stephanie Wahlstrom

Hey! Cute top! Flattery gets you everywhere, right? Seriously, though, I like what you've got going on over there. Anyway, my name is Stephanie and I am a Canadian writer living in London. I like to eat, travel and make people laugh. The Accidental Socialite is the name of my debut novel and this blog where you'll find tales of my mishaps and far too many references to bacon. Enjoy!