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mac and cheese

Food

Oblix at the Shard

July 22, 2016

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

NAC

April 27, 2016

Stephanie

1 Comments

First off NAC, love you long time but can we just talk about the cocktails? I ordered the Popcorn Sazerac and it tasted like popcorn, like vodka tastes like mashed potatoes. I was also so distracted by the word popcorn that I ordered it without reading the entire list of ingredients. For future reference, a ‘dash of absinthe’ is enough to have you at a nightclub 3 hours later describing the women as Instagram models and the men as Gollum.

Anyway, I was surprised hadn’t heard of NAC – or North Audley Cantine- before my friend Michelle decided to have her birthday dinner there. They apparently have a speak easy downstairs, although when I went to the bathroom all I found was an empty popcorn maker. The restaurant has a scene-y atmosphere and decent food; perfect for a party.

The only main we ordered: grilled cajun chicken,

We ordered several small plates to share because we were a bunch of girls wearing tight dresses. Full disclosure? I was really hungry when I got home and crushed the hubs leftover Thai. My favourite dish on the menu was probably the crispy squid. I really wanted the burrata but they had run out. Mayjah sad face.

Crispy squid (and yes, that’s how much aioli it comes with).

I also really liked the truffle mac and cheese (obvi), but there wasn’t actually any mac. i.e macaroni. The pasta they used was Mezze Maniche Rigate (ya, I had to look that up) and it was far too big for the small pot the mac and cheese came in. There was probably 4 or 5 pieces of pasta in the whole thing, which is a pain in the balls to split between girls. Four bites of truffle mac and cheese IS NEVER ENOUGH.

Truffle and cheese with a tiny bit of pasta.

The other fan favourite amongst the group was the torched cauliflower. Cauliflower is the new everything right now: cauliflower rice, cauliflower pizza crust and my friend Michelle told me that restaurants in New York are now serving cauliflower steak for vegans. What we had was super tasty, but I would have liked some kind of sauce to go with it.

Brains… I mean cauliflower.

The tuna was also fantastic and I would recommend it as a main meal if you aren’t that hungry, as it comes with avocado and quinoa. That’s what I actually wanted my meal to be, start with the burrata and the tuna as my main. But, alas, it wasn’t meant to be. I know , I know. I need to get over it. Cheese shouldn’t control my life this way…. But it does.

Said tuna.

What to wear: I was dressed like a classy late 90s call girl in honour of the late, great Prince. But you can dress like a normal person if you want.

NAC

41 North Audley Street

Mayfair

London

W1K 6ZP

http://www.naclondon.co.uk

Food

Goat

November 2, 2015

Stephanie

Goat has a special place in my heart because it’s where I met my husband. Back then, however it was a dive-y pub called The Goat and Boots. Goat, as it stands now was refurbished a few years ago and has become a neighborhood favorite.

It was a lazy Saturday when we went ad Chelsea was playing. Goat was one of the few places not full of rowdy blue jerseys so we went to have a bite. I’ve eaten there several times before and my favorite thing on the menu for a light bite is the black quinoa salad. The portion size is actually quite decent for the starter, which means I usually pair it with something less healthy, like the truffle mac and cheese.

The mac and cheese, however, is a fairly small portion. We were a fairly large group drinking and eating so we shared everything and this didn’t go very far. So we added the antipasti platter and calamari.

Antipasti was really good, particularly the fried artichokes. The calamari was very small and came with legs, which I hate, although the fried courgette was a nice touch.

One of the great things about Goat is the secret speakeasy. I’ve been there for drinks on several occasions and because the space is fairly small, it’s perfect for intimate private parties. However, ladies beware. They place candles in very dangerous places and my friend’s hair started on fire as she stood near a shelf that had a poorly placed candle at head height. When we spoke to the manager about it, he didn’t seem to think having a candle there was a big deal because it had only happened twice before. Listen, if a girl sets her hair on fire once because you have a candle burning in a bad spot, that’s one time too many. Sort it out.

Great for: quick bite and then head upstairs. It’s one of the only pubs in the area still open until 1.

Watch out for: Candles and drunk Chelsea supporters on the street.

Goat

333 Fulham Road, SW10 9QL

www.goatchelsea.com

020 7352 1384

Food

Dirty Bones

October 19, 2015

Stephanie

Dirty Bones is f&*king glorious. Let me add a small caveat to that statement: I was (conservative estimate) 8 drinks in by the time I got there.

I hope when I die my heaven is dirty bones except that I don’t get morbidly obese from eating it every day for every meal. But if I’m honest I hope heaven is also me giving like, -7 f&*ks about what I look like.

We were there for a private party in the back and my (genius) friend decided to have it 90s themed. My husband beat me to the ordering but started strong with chicken wings and the Dirty Dog. I don’t like to eat meat off bones because it makes me feel like a cave man, but considering how fast they went, I’m sure the wings were delicious. The hot dog… well, it’s going into my top 5. There were crispy shallots and two different kinds of pork. TWO. Crispy bacon, which is the only way to have it, and pulled pork.

We were still hungry so I went big and ordered the Yankee Dog, the Mac Daddy and the Dirty Fries, because you know what? I don’t go half way down a rabbit hole.

The Mac Daddy has mac and cheese on it (enough said) and I almost bit my husband’s finger off for the last bite of the Yankee Dog. Like I said before, this place is f&*king glorious. I gained at least 12 lbs eating here but cool with it because IT WAS DECLICIOUS.

I also had more drinks. This is an actual conversation with the bartender:

Me: 70% of me wants to order an interesting cocktail from you but the other 30% of me is a skinny bitch and wants a vodka soda.

Bartender: I like the 30% of you.

Bringing me food in the state I was in was like feeding a pack of hungry dogs. The staff were really nice and super accommodating. As soon as I lose the weight I put on, I’m going back to start this vicious cycle again.

Dirty Bones (Kensington)

20 Kensington Church Street, London, W8 4EP

www.dirty-bones.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!