Drake & Morgan: Kings Cross

A couple of weeks ago, we finished work on a Friday night as close to 5.30pm as possible and travelled up from central to Kings Cross. We had a booking at Drake and Morgan for some birthday celebrations! 

I love Friday night dates and when there's a birthday to celebrate as well, dates are even better. The boy didn't know where we were heading and I'd planned cocktails followed by a later supper reservation and was more than a little bit excited to execute my plan! 

Jamie's Italian

On Wednesday evening we got lucky. Pips popped down from Guildford for the evening and we headed to Jamie's in Covent Garden for supper. Pips is currently waitressing in between vet jobs so has managed to ensure a rather amazing staff discount that allowed us to truly explore the menu... 

House of St Barnabas

Let me introduce you to the House of St Barnabus... 

Riddle & Finns

Straight after my graduation ceremony we headed to Riddle & Finns on the Brighton seafront.

Here's to the night

At the end of last week I headed to one of my favourite Brighton restaurants, Bellotta. The Bar Y Tapas opened at the beginning of this year and I have already visited far too many times to count. The food is some of the best I've eaten out in a long time, the service impeccable and the menu choices are really varied. This time it was a girly trip and we started the meal with a good bottle of white and some Pan Tomaca - freshly baked bread, rubbed with garlic, oil and served with fresh tomatoes.

Then it was on to the main affair of the evening. The tapas! The restaurant recommend 3/4 dishes per person which I think is definitely about right. Patatas Bravas - potatoes with sundered tomatoes and garlic mayo - filled the table, followed quickly by seafood baskets of squid, prawns and mussels, mushrooms, white fish and serious amounts of garlicy deliciousness. The girls ordered chorizo, steak and chicken and there was barely a space on the table! Everything was fresh and tasty, the perfect kinda meal to enjoy over a good catch up.

The tapas bar is the first of its kind in the UK and totally beats to offerings of La Tasca, and most of the independents that I've been to for tapas which I often find to be a little greasy. I really wouldn't mind if Bellota opened up a few more branches, preferably in London ready for next year… please?

If you're in Brighton this little place is well worth a visit. If you're heading there at the weekend make sure you book as it does get busy and be sure to sign up online or at the bar for a Belotta card. It gives you 20% off and just makes the whole meal incredibly reasonable - how does £15 a head with wine sound? And now you see why I can't stay away!

You can check out the restaurant here for more details.

GBK

Thursday night was a house date night. We have all been spending far too much time in the library and decided a bit of a treat was in order so we headed to the infamous Gourmet Burger Kitchen for supper. Located in the Brighton North Laines the branch is quirky and the menu, as always, is extensive.

After a few minutes of perusing, and of course sorting out our 30% student discount code we headed to the kiosk to order. The restaurant is styled as an American diner, with the menu printed on the walls. You choose a burger and add your sides which include rosemary fries, chunky chips, grilled corn on the cob, homemade coleslaw and onion rings. While this place isn't the best it's very good and you definitely know what you're going to get!

We ordered and started with the obligatory monkey nuts and Jose ordered one of the biggest Oreo milkshakes I've ever seen and swiftly devoured it, entering a definite milkshake induced coma along the way!

The food arrived quickly and the table was filled with an array of burger combinations, chips, corn and salad, as well as sauces and salts! It was amazing!

After supper, we stepped out into the Laines and a gorgeous scene of Christmas lights. I got far far too excited and very childish at the decorations and couldn't resist a few photos. I think all this library time has just made me too excited for Christmas times: home, log fires, mummy time and food comas!

Doesn't Brighton look gorgeously wintery? 

The perfect way to chill out on a midweek winters evening! And I definitely didn't complain at coming home to watch Parent Trap after, snuggled under blankets in the dark on the sofas! 

<3

Planet India

Last night was a girly night. After days on end in the libs (writing 7000 just cannot be described as fun) we decided that supper was in order. We pre-empted that a weekend in the library would be tricky so we booked a table mid week for 4 at the renowned Planet India on Richmond Parade in Brighton. The day had been a wet one and having sat with soggy feet all day, and then wished I was my niece having been sent a photo of her all cosy in her pram, we knew that we were on to a winner with an Indian!

Planet India does not look like anything special from the outside but preconceptions really can be deceiving. Garish pink, its hard to miss but when you step inside to warmth, good smells and an array of traditional Southern Indian decoration you will not be disappointed.

We were seated quickly at a table in the window and quickly surveyed the huge choice of beer before getting on with the ordering! This place is always packed but the service cannot be faulted. I think the best thing about this restaurant is that you can split your choices - so two curries on one plate, what's not to like! I went for Tarka Dahl and Potato Curry and we ordered some chapatis and cumin rice for the table. The food isn't particularly pretty but it is completely delicious, full of proper flavours and enough spice to make your lips tingle! The chapatis are made with wholemeal flour which is always a bonus and the cumin rice is one of the best I've had. All of the food on the menu is veggie but don't let this put you off; its good traditional Indian food at really reasonable prices and in a great atmosphere - the owner walks around in bare face and his wife doesn't stop smiling. My only advice is book ahead and truly embrace the unusual menu! 

<3

The Mistley Thorn

On Sunday evening, just before I headed back up to uni, mummy took my sisters and I to The Mistley Thorn for a farewell supper. Our local restaurant, just a few minutes walk away from home, the restaurant specialises in fish dishes and does so very well!

The interior is traditional with a mix of furniture and artworks adorning the walls. Staff are attentive and friendly and while the menu isn't regularly updated it is seasonal and there's always several things to choose between.

We began with a good bottle of white, a French Sauvingon which is always a good choice here, and surveyed the menu. It took a while but eventually we all went for fish of some description, apart from my veggie sister Joy who went for a delicious gnocchi dish. By this point the wine was gone and we had to order another bottle - we're good at social drinking okay! - and we tucked into some homemade focaccia and soda bread while we awaited our dishes.

Joy began with a soup which was spicy and fresh simultaneously, while mummy went for smoked salmon, also really good. I was saving myself for my main so just ensured the wine glasses remained topped up!! 

The star of the show was definitely my dish, a fish stew with mussles, prawns and an array of white fish, in a tomato broth with new potatoes in. It was delicious and the chips I ordered on the side were the perfect salty addition for dipping. This was my last meal at home so I was definitely making the most of not cooking for myself!!!

Mummy and Becky went for the mullet with veggies and Joy's gnocchi is below. What I like about this place is that while the dishes are not haute cuisine, everything is tasty and moorish- just the sort of restaurant that is perfect to have on the doorstep! 

Dessert finished the meal perfectly, chocolate yumminess which was rich and indulgent. Classic yet tasty and well presented. I love food and apart from my family a full fridge is one of the things I miss most when at uni so this was the perfect way to say goodbye for the term, or at least until my next visit home to stock up!!

Fig & Olive

I've spent the best part of the last week in London, catching up with friends, going to events, hanging out with my sisters and working at a festival - blog post to come!

On Friday, I went for lunch with a girlfriend from Uni to Fig and Olive on Upper Street in Islington. Conveniently located in the heart of Islington, the restaurant is a light and airy space, decorated in a beautifully modern style. A choice of armchairs and tables and a choice of breakfast, lunch or supper, the restaurant is definitely worth a try for locals and visitors alike. Our route to the restaurant wasn't a direct one. Helen has been looking for a headboard for her bed in the new Uni house for a while now and we saw one outside a gorgeous town house by Highbury Fields so we took a detour via her house with the wrought iron headboad that for some reason was no wanted by its owners. One man's gold is another's rubbish as they say!! We earnt our lunch at least!

Fig & Olive pride themselves on fresh ingredients and I chose an Asparagus and Spinach Risotto which was delicious. Helen went for a Mezze platter which included pitta bread, humous, halloumi and ratatouille. Dishes that were light enough for lunch but filled a hole.

                                                

What's really enticing about the restaurant though is the display on cakes and salads in the window, visible from the street to draw in customers! Chocolate tortes, cakes and gateaux of all shapes and sizes; cheesecake; tarts; pastries adorn the display space and its incredibly hard to choose between them! We shared a chocolate and cream cake which was yummy and didn't last long enough to take a photo of!!

It was lovely to catch up with Helen and great to try somewhere new in London, especially in Islington where I spend most of my time when I'm visiting my sister who's based there.

Visit Fig & Olive's website for more details and to look at sample menus:

http://figolive.co.uk/

West Mersea Oyster Bar

Yesterday, I had the most perfect Sunday.

One of my best friends from school has been living in Sweden for a year and I hadn't seen him for 6 months. I got a lovely surprise when I found out that he was back in Suffolk on Saturday and spent the day pottering with him.

A long walk long walk across the fields in Dedham followed by olives and Aspall cider at my favourite country side pub, The Sun Inn and we ended up spontaneously heading to the West Mersea Oyster Bar for an early supper. 

West Mersea Oyster Bar started in 2006 with Michael Dawson as an expansion to his oyster business. It soon became huge success. On April 1st 2010, Chris Avila & Sel Yuzen took over with an improved menu & much more. Located on the sea front on West Mersea Island, the Oyster Bar serves only fish, as the name suggests but it is the freshest most delicious fish and it is always such a treat to go there!

The venue is literally a shed, with strip lights and wooden tables and benches. The chefs cook in the same room as the customers eat in, standing behind a wooden bar and the best wine is the House, very cheap and very drinkable.

Despite it being a very muddy day, I had been prepared and worn wellies for the walk (at which point it was still gorgeously sunny!) so we started off sitting outside. This is the view...

I wore a silk and lace shirt, leggings, vintage scarf, my favourite cashmere socks that I miss wearing when its actual summer and wellies - country casual!

We have mirrors in the garden so thought I may as well utilise them - the plants aren't going to after all!!

The 'shed'... built on the site of original oyster purification tanks and very much in keeping with the natural landscape.

The interior after a recent re-vamp...

Whenever we visit the restaurant we always order the same: Oysters followed by Lobster. Overt luxury and totally delicious.

Taken from http://westmerseaoysterbar.co.uk/didyouknow.html and totally fascinating:

A rock oyster produces about 100 million babies a year and native about 1 million

An oyster is bisexual - female one year, male the next

Oysters have been around for 200 million years, unchanged

Oysters have two beating hearts

Native oysters can live up to 30 years

Oysters have been cultivated in the creeks of Mersea since Roman times

The mains... Lobster in garlic butter with fat chips and dressed salad - I wish I'd order a whole Lobster rather than a half!

If you're ever in Essex The West Mersea Oyster Bar is so worth a visit. You can get take out in summer and sit on the beach, or at the tables overlooking the water and mud flats outside the restaurant. Or you can take in the very local atmosphere of this increasingly popular secret by booking a table inside.

Contact the restaurant for menus, bookings and more information:

   01206 381600

   West Mersea Oyster Bar
Coast Road
West Mersea
Colchester
Essex
CO5 8LT