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Food

Oree

January 18, 2017

1 Comments

Want to go to a cute little boulangerie/café in France? Go no further than Oree. This little slice of crack for sugar addicts, such as myself, popped up on Fulham road mid 2016 and has been busy since. Serving fresh baked everything at a reasonable price, it’s now my one stop shop for fresh bread and desserts galore.

Surrounded by C-Press Juice and Lomax gym, Oree knows their audience and caters for intolerances and the healthy eating habits of the Chelsea set. However, you do need to walk past their delicious display of treats in order to get to the café. You win some you lose some.

They have eggs benedict on the menu, so I obviously ordered that. What I wasn’t expecting was how amazing it was. They use Japanese Mie instead of the traditional English muffin and what a fantastic addition. Instead of traditional ham, they use Iberian cured ham, which I didn’t love but I can see why some people would.

To balance it out (and honestly, to fit in a little) I also ordered a green juice, which, although green, didn’t taste like grass. Yay!

I have picked up dessert for dinner parties several times here and can vouch for pretty much everything (New Years diet starts now!). My personal favorites are the lemon tart and the mille feuille but I have also eaten the giant gold cake profiterole thingy and it didn’t disappoint.

What to wear: I showed up post gym in lululemon and a ponytail, but most people are parisian chic in minimal makeup and oversized sweaters.

Oree

275-277 Fulham Road

Chelsea, London, SW10 9PZ

0203 813 972

Food

Blakes Hotel

January 5, 2017

Stephanie

Chelsea is back and it’s all thanks to Blakes Hotel. The newly refurbished dining room is the new place to be along with the underground (literally) bar that you would never know was there unless someone told you. You’re welcome.

The art deco look is all part of the hotel’s boutique feel. It’s dark, sexy and there’s even a room you can stay in that Mickey Rourke trashed and Blakes has preserved so you can feel like a Hollywood insider. Downstairs is exclusive but not up themselves, they don’t do lines and chatter is spreading. This is the new Chiltern.

Armed with a great atmosphere and an amazing menu, Blakes restaurant is a Mediterranean inspired party in your mouth. We went with a pregnant friend of ours and they were totally accommodating. The staff are attentive and so confident in the dishes they recommend that our waiter offered to pay for my meal if I didn’t like it.

We started off with a complimentary artichoke dish with truffle mayo that was incredible. I’ve had artichoke once before and I thought I hated it. Turns out, I just hadn’t had it done right.

We shared several starters because it was difficult to choose just one. The burrata was fresh and served with a variety of tomatoes.

However, my favorite bite of the night had to be the truffle ravioli. Simple, yet so delicious. Screw summer, truffle season is my favorite time of the year.

I chose the main recommended by our waiter because he was so confident and declared it was the best thing on the menu (plus, as I said before, it was free if I didn’t like it). The Charcoal Grilled Pulma Belltoa Iberico, which is a fancy way of saying it’s a great pork steak, came with a generous side of kale and pardon peppers. Tender and filling, it was the second best thing I had after the truffle pasta, because, truffle.

The rest of my party were all equally pleased with their selections which included the Lobster Paccheri Pasta and the Sole.

I will tell you where this is on one condition, do not clog up all their reservations – and you will need one. They don’t do clipboards so don’t show up unless you book ahead or you’ll be disappointed. This is my new local and I don’t want to have to wait to get a table.

Blakes

33 Roland Gardens

London

SW7 3PF

What to wear: Giltteratti is everywhere, so dress accordingly if you want to fit in.

Who you’ll see: A celeb nobody is paying attention to because everyone there is chill.

Food

Sexy Fish London

November 8, 2016

Stephanie

Sexy Fish. Not two things you usually associate with each other, but when you have a look at the amazing interior, I can see why they chose the name. I’m not usually into hype and there’s been no shortage for Sexy Fish but the Japanese restaurant pretty much lives up to it.

And yes, I know it’s annoying to have to book a month ahead of time. I actually had a reservation when Sexy Fish first opened but had to cancel. However, this Saturday, we just walked right in and sat at one of the high tables near the bar for lunch. TIP! You can also go by 6pm during the week before all the hedge funds let out and try to get a seat at the bar and you’d probably do well.

Anyway, the atmosphere and service were fantastic. This restaurant has style. From the paper fish lighting, to the art deco feel and the oldies music playing, walking into Sexy Fish immediately made me forget all the passive aggressive honking going on outside.

We ordered a range of food from their menu and, although primarily a Japanese fish restaurant, there are items on the menu for picky eaters including chicken salad and sticky pork ribs.

BEWARE: this restaurant is not cheap. In fact, it’s really expensive, but we knew that going in. So, now that that’s out of the way, onto the food!

We started with the Wagyu and Truffle Gunkan which, at £7/piece, you really need to savor. It was absolutely delicious though and easily my favorite dish we had.

The Yellowtail Sashimi was good but unremarkable, as was the sushi. Great quality fish, but there wasn’t anything that special about it.

The prawn gyoza was crazy hot. Might want to let it sit for a few minutes before you tuck in or risk burning off all of your taste buds.

The salt and pepper squid was pretty good. I loved the sauce, but the lime it was served with was super dry.

I highly recommend the beef skewers. They came with some asparagus and were very tender. Had we known that, we may not have ordered the extra asparagus, which was tasty, but essentially just grilled asparagus.

If cost isn’t an issue, I recommend giving Sexy Fish a shot. The food is tasty, although some of it isn’t necessarily anything special. That opinion may be clouded by the fact that we have so many amazing Japanese restaurants in London (you can check out my review of Roka here).

What to wear: Something chic, although I showed up in jeans and flats after a Friday night out and they still let me in.

What you’ll see: Lots of mermaid boobs, and if you go at the right time, a celebutante pretending to eat.

Sexy Fish

1-4 Berkeley Square,
Mayfair, London
W1J 6BR

020 37642000

www.sexyfish.com

Food

Oblix at the Shard

July 22, 2016

Stephanie

Forget the London Eye, the best place to enjoy London skyscape is Oblix Restaurant in the Shard. Not only do you get phenomenal views (see the magic below) you can drink alcohol out of a rocket ship. What more could you want in life?

I booked Oblix last minute as my Mother In Law was going out of town and we wanted a nice dinner together. Because I booked it so late, we were only able to get at 6:30 reservation in the lounge. They still serve the full menu, so it’s not a huge issue, but I will say, I snuck over to the restaurant side and I think the sunset is nicer.

Sunset view from the lounge

Oblix at The Shard is an American style restaurant without being a diner. It’s actually exactly what you would expect from a high end chain in the US. Attentive servers, mac and cheese and a vast choice of interesting cocktails. However, it’s not well signed. The entrance is to the right of the Shagri-La hotel lobby (n.b avoid having a drink at the Shangri-La before hand. It takes forever, is expensive and doesn’t taste good) and you will have to have your bag screened for security.

Kiss The Rainbow glowing cocktail

After taking the quickest elevator in the world, we were met with a dark, minimalist concrete hallway. Upon entering the Oblix lounge, I noticed the average age of the patrons was fairly high, but that could have been because we were eating during the grandparents sitting.

The menu was fish heavy, but I didn’t mind. For a starter I had the crispy chili squid which was tasty, but didn’t come with a dip. My MIL had the Caesar salad to start (with dressing on the side) and I dipped the squid into her spare dressing and it was surprisingly good.

My main was the salmon with salsa serde. The salmon was ok. Nothing too special, and I feel like salmon is hard to mess up. The salsa verde came on the side and was actually pesto and way better than I thought it would be with the salmon (I had very low expectations).

The best dish we had was the side of mac and cheese. At any American restaurant, always order this. If there is one thing Americans do exceptionally well, and that is able to cross the pond, it’s mac and cheese.

I saw a woman walking around with a graffiti cup and decided I wanted to drink whatever was in that so I pointed at her when ordering. Turns out it was called a Crossfire Hurricane and absolutely delicious (ask your server about the stories behind the cocktails).

I wasn’t about to go to a restaurant that served drinks in rocket ships and not order that either, so we finished with more drinks and waited for the sunset while they made our dessert. Side note: The drinks aren’t as expensive as you would expect for a bar with this view (£12.50 each).

The Forgotten Cosmonaut

Dessert was the chocolate brownie Sunday and it was really good as well as huge. Easily big enough for 3 people to share. I avoided the New York cheesecake because it’s baked and in my humble opinion, only no-bake cheesecake is the real deal.

All in our dinner was three hours. We waited a really long time for our main (close to an hour) but in the end, we had such an amazing view of the sunset, so we didn’t mind. Had it been a typically horrible London day, we may not have been so forgiving.

What to wear: The website and hold message say the dress is ‘smart’ and ask that you not wear sports clothes or beach wear. So if you plan on going for a quick dip in the Thames beforehand, you’re out of luck.

Oblix

Level 32

The Shard

31 St. Thomas Street

London SE1 9RY

020 7268 6700

www.oblixrestaurant.com

Food

Smack Lobster Roll

June 28, 2016

Stephanie

I have walked by Smack several times and several times I’ve been with someone who wasn’t as into eating their weight in lobster rolls as I was. Then finally! The fates were looking favorably upon me in a moment when I walk by alone and I was famished.

It was linner (lunch and dinner. It’s not a thing, I checked on twitter, but I’m making it a thing) and my original destination, although only a block away was too far. So, I ducked into Smack and out of the rain. Created by the wonderful magicians at Burger and Lobster (you can read my review of them here) Smack is everything you want in a lobster roll without having to wait. However, a tad pricey at £12/pop + £3 for sweet potato fries (obviously), it’s still less than Burger and Lobster.

I put my order in for a California Lobster roll (lettuce, cucumber, tomato, avocado mayo, with lime and chives) and it was as delicious as it sounds. Smack also has the original Burger and Lobster recipe (try this first if you’ve never had one, if only to have a bar to judge everything else in your life against) as well as a Seven Samurai Japanese inspired lobster roll.

There were also salads on the menu, but seriously, if you go into Smack and order a salad instead of a toasty buttery brioche roll full of delicious lobster, you need to start examining your life chooses. I was also tempted by their brisket roll offerings, at £8 each, but I had an event later than evening and didn’t want to have to explain my food baby.

I added sweet potato fries, or as I like to call them, diet fries, because they were the only carb based side, strong choice Smack. I know waxing lyrical about sweet potato fries is such a basic bitch thing to do, on par with ordering a flat bread appetizer and just below taking pictures of pumpkin spiced lattes whilst wearing Uggs. You know what, judge all you want, sweet potato fries are delicious and they are fried to within an inch of their life.

You can take your spoils away or eat on one of the many benches available, either way you are in for a treat.

Come one, come all or order online! And Smack, can you add a few more options, please? I vaguely remember seeing that you once offered a Mexican lobster roll, although that could have been another one of my food dreams.

What to wear: I was between meetings and wearing a business casual dress. I saw a guy walk in with a newspaper pirate hat though, so I think anything goes.

Smack

58 Dean Street London W1D 6AL

smacklobster.com

Food

Farmacy

May 23, 2016

Stephanie

1 Comments

Brunch! The most basic habitat of a basic girl. Unsurprisingly, I love finding new brunch places, so when my friend invited me to Farmacy (not to be confused with Damien Hirst’s Notting Hill restaurant, Pharmacy, which closed in 2003) in Notting Hill on Sunday, I was intrigued. Is it brunch at a former pharmacy location, clever marketing for farm fresh food, or are we just going to go get the morning after pill and a green juice?

Turns out, it was just a good name. This tasty vegetarian spot on the corner of Westbourne Grove opened in late April. I do wonder why they haven’t branded themselves as fully vegan as there’s only one item on the menu that isn’t, and it’s only because it contains an optional egg. Normally, I roll my eyes at vegan places or those that proclaim themselves to be, gluten, dairy and meat free because, not only does it have the potential to bring the most annoying people in the world together, what do they serve? Usually, very expensive carrot sticks. However, I was pleased to see Farmacy has plenty of (still expensive) options and it was all very flavourful.

We ordered a bunch of stuff to share, which I recommend in order to try the large variety they offer. Farmacy has everything from pasta and pizza to ‘earth bowls’ (think quinoa and veggies) and ‘syringes’ containing cannabis oil, which I sadly didn’t try. But, I’m glad the pharmaceutical theme found it’s way into the menu without being creepy.

Opened by Camilla Al-Fayad, the daughter of former Harrods owner Mohamed Al–Fayed, Farmacy is, according to their web site, “not just another food and beverage play. It’s a game changing lifestyle brand. A positive lifestyle choice which connects people to source, self and community through healthy and holistic eating”. I don’t know what that means, but they have plant-based burgers and nachos that are ‘healthy’. Even the coffee came with a vegan twist, only offered with almond milk and coconut sugar. Because everything coconut is healthy, right?

Many of the ingredients had quotes around them, which made me wonder what was actually in it. Not enough to ask, mind you. I didn’t want to be the ravenous carnivore at the table and offend anyone. Although, delicious, it did make me think twice while digging into the ‘sour cream’ on my nachos.

The nachos were really tasty, if a little sparse to share and low on toppings. Insiders tip: dip the remaining tortilla chips in a side of hummus.

The hummus! No exaggeration, it was probably the best I’ve ever had. It came plain, so, had we not ordered the mixed potato sticks (more on that on a second), I’m not entirely sure how we were supposed to eat it.

So, what made me giggle the most was ordering the mixed potato sticks with aoli. I knew some quinoa and beetroot wasn’t going to fill me up, so I was looking for a heavy carb fix and the mixed potato sticks was my contribution to the group order. Then it arrived….

Chips. I’d ordered chips. Sniffing out the only unhealthy thing on the menu is pretty much the most me thing I could have done at a healthy vegan restaurant. They were good.

We ordered 3 earth bowls: the green eggs bowl (which actually came with a single egg) reminded me of Dr Seuss which is why I suggested it. It contained kale, broccoli, avocado and a poached egg. From my understanding, they ran out of eggs as I heard someone else was unable to order it so I’m not sure if it was supposed to come with just one.

The middle east bowl (above) was probably my favourite. The baba ganoush was fantastic, although I’m not sure exactly what an ‘activated seed’ is.

Which also brings me to the ‘activated quinoa’ in the macro bowl. I couldn’t tell the difference between the macro bowl quinoa and the green eggs bowl quinoa, which was apparently not activated.

What to wear: I came from Yoga (that basic lyfe) so my hair looked like ass and I was wearing ripped jeans. But to be fair, a lot of people in there looked like they’d come straight from yoga.

I’m definitely going to make my way back to this place. Be warned though, it’s quite pricy (£20/girl for brunch with no booze) and there is a bit of a wait list. We put our names down and went to have a juice for 40 minutes while we waited, so I recommend making a reservation. It’s surprisingly good for a veggie/vegan haunt. If they can figure out eggs benedict like The Good Life Eatery has (more about that here) and combine that with the nacho offering, Farmacy would be my new favourite healthy brunch place!

Farmacy

74 Westbourne Grove

London

W2 5SH

020 7221 0705

farmacylondon.com

Food

Crazy Homies

May 9, 2016

Stephanie

Crazy Homies has the best nachos in London. While other establishments try to pass off nacho flavoured Doritos covered in half melted cheese as the real deal, Crazy Homies actually makes their tortilla chips by hand, daily. I’ve been several times before, but I recently went on Cinco de Mayo, which I think is some kind of Mexican holiday celebrating them getting rid of the French. I use it as an excuse to eat an uncomfortable amount of nachos and tacos washed down with at least three too many margaritas.

The first Thursday of every month at Crazy Homies is special. DJ Wheelie Bags comes in and spins classics such as La Bamba, Tequila and Ring Of Fire, whilst handing out awesome prizes.

I got this spiderman and after two trips down the wall he looked like this. Things escalate quickly when tequila is involved.

This Thursday was particularly special because it fell on Cinco De Mayo. A perfect storm that required the perfect outfit, which meant I had to get this skirt from Zara when I saw it that day. It was a sign! Unfortunately, as I left the house to meet friends, the zipper burst open. Some might see that as a sign to maybe NOT to eat my weight in tacos, but I just pinned that sucker up and exchanged it for a new one on my way to the restaurant. I’m no quitter.

There are several reasons why I’m not a model, but this photo is illustrative of the main reason. It’s really hard for me to look like a normal human being if I know there is a camera nearby.

We were a large group of seven crammed into a table that was probably meant for two, but that didn’t matter. Crazy Homies is not a white linen tablecloth kind of place. It feels dive-y, in the best way possible. If you want space, relative quiet and adequate lighting but zero vibe, go to Wahaca. Crazy Homies if for the purists. The whole place makes you feel like you smoked some pot before you came, again, in the best possible way.

I recommend starting off with the fresh tortilla chips and sauces, AKA Totopos. The guacamole is great, but they don’t give you enough (really, you can never have enough guac) and the salsas range from mild to burn off your uvula. Get your mind out of the gutter, your uvula isn’t where you think it is. Helpful hint: watch out for the stuff that resembles BBQ sauce unless you’re a masochist.

There are eight options for margaritas on the menu, but I’m sure if you had a concoction in mind, they’d make it for you. I had 5 anejo margs and was hung-over AF the next day. Choose your poison carefully because these things are delish.

Because we were such a big group, we just blanket ordered the pulled pork nachos, chicken quesadillas and then every taco they had

Eat the nachos as soon as they come. Because everything is fresh, the juices can make the tortilla chips soggy if you wait too long.

The Mahi Mahi fish taco.

Tacos come with two options, tacos (soft tortilla) or toastadas fried tortilla. Hard shells are my favourite but the Crazy Homies ones are fried flat which makes eating them a massive pain. Soft are the style du jour and the norm in the US as well.

The shrimp and the chicken tacos were my favourite. The added mango on the shrimp taco make it taste light and really fresh.Crazy Homies is the closest to American style Mexican food you can get in London. Embrace the cramped quarters and quirky atmosphere, add a few margaritas and you will have a fantastic time.

What to wear: Something you don’t mind spilling guacamole on and wear your hair down for an opportunity to wear one of the many sombreros floating around.

Crazy Homies

125 Westbourne Park Road

Notting Hill, London

W2 5QL

020 7727 6771

www.crazyhomies.com

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!