Dinner at Spuntino!

The best friends are always those that even though at times in your life you may be miles apart from one another, even though you may not speak for weeks - when you do it's like you just saw each other yesterday. This is the relationship I am lucky enough to have with many of my school friends and last night I saw Sophie for a big catch up, drinks and dinner at Spuntino in Soho. 

Cocktails and Tacos!

Remember a little while ago I visited the downstairs restaurant at La Bodega Negra? If not you can read it here. It's okay I understand you don't all have wonderful memories. 

This afternoon Juliana, Marcus and I decided to go for a little post-lecture Mexican and cocktail afternoon to relieve our boredom from the previous two hours, and where better to do so than La Bodega Negra cafe?

Pizza Pilgrims, Soho

In my last post I promised you pizza. So pizza you shall have.

This particular pizza was lovingly mastered and baked at Pizza Pilgrims on Dean Street in Soho. Although I'm sure you would never have guessed this from the title of the post...

I think it's time for an ice cream!

I had the best sorbet of my life yesterday afternoon and so I would like to share this experience with you all.

First let me introduce you to my lovely new friend Julianna, she's from Colorado and we study at uni together, second let me introduce you to her cousin Emit who is currently over in London visiting on his year off. And lastly let me introduce you to Snowflake, a gelato bar that will potentially change your life forever.

After delicious dim sum in Chinatown...

Disgustingly good grilled cheese

I've had a really great last two weeks. 

I've been lucky enough to be doing a work placement at a company called freuds whom i've wanted to work for since I was about 16 and it's been wonderful. 

Today one of the guys in the department i've been working with, received an email about this quirky little pop-up sandwich shop, aptly named F.A.T, in Soho just down the road... So naturally we both decided this was going to be our lunch time destination.  

As the clock turned 1 we headed out, into the surprisingly freezing cold London weather, in search of our grilled cheese sandwiches. 

The pop up shop is situated at the front of SHARPS Barbers on Windmill Street. 

A British Goodbye

So once again Charly Cox is featuring on my little space on the internet, however this time the occasion had a rather sad undertone.

How do you say goodbye for someone for 6 months?

We had to get our thinking caps on and come up with an inventive way of surprising Ella (you haven't met her yet, but you will have done by the end of this post) and saying goodbye before she leaves us for life on the other side of the world.

So we started to think... What's very British but something very Ella...?

We decided afternoon tea was a must, but we needed a little twist.

That's when we stumbled across BRGR.co.

It's never too early to celebrate your birthday

As you may know if you know me or if you follow me on Twitter I get far too overexcited about my birthday, I always have done and I probably always will do. 

I've never quite understood people that don't look forward to celebrating their birthday, after all it's just an incredibly good excuse to eat cake and be spoilt for a day, nothing too strenuous about that. 

So last night I was taken to start my birthday celebrations in Soho, London. 

I wasn't told where we were going until the taxi pulled up outside the bright blue glass front that Yauatcha sits behind. Being a massive lover of dim sum this couldn't have been a more perfect choice. 

And what better way to start the evening than with a drink, you would have thought this bright pink, incredibly feminine, cocktail would have been chosen by me, however it was actually chosen by my  boyfriend, worringly enough.

I had dinner at a sex shop

Okay it wasn't literally a sex shop, but I genuinely thought I was walking into one last night when we arrived at where my dad had booked our family dinner. And after being greeted by a skimpily dressed mannequin in the doorway I was just waiting for the maitre d to say to my dad 'sorry Sir your in the wrong place.' Luckily my dad had actually got the right address and saved both mine and my sister's embarrassment when we we shown downstairs to where the bar and restaurant are located. 

La Bodega Negra is situated in the heart of Soho, London in a converted sex shop. However unlike most restaurants it doesn't have the name written outside, simply neon lights with the words 'Girls Girls Girls', 'Adult Video' and 'Peep Show' lit up in the window. Hence my initial confusion. Bodega Negra, serves a Mexican style cuisine, more refined than your standard tacos and fajitas. 

It's tricky to describe exactly what the decor is like inside. Imagine a dimly lit, vaulted space, with every wall and detail being a piece of artwork in itself. The most incredible detail in the restaurant is what has been named the 'puppet room' and it was designed by the Shoreditch set designer - Eden. The walls are lined with the city landscaped cut out of cardboard with dolls dotted around and wooden chairs hanging from the ceiling. There's always something new to spot, including an upended grand piano. 

 The only complaint I have is that I couldn't take any really good photos due to the fact it was incredibly dark, until our waiter very kindly went and got a torch so I could at least share with you some of the delicious food, but I suppose this means you will all just have to go and check it out for yourselves. 

Onto the best part.. The food. Which was quite simply amazing. I love a good mexican and this is definitely up there with some of the best Mexican food i've eaten. 

The menu is ideally designed for sharing, not that i'm a huge fan of sharing my food but if there's enough of it I suppose this is a good way to taste a bit of everything. To start you have a huge choice, we decided to order guacamole with sesame tostados, lamb and crab tacos, prawn ceviche and some quesadillas. All of which I would highly recommend. Especially the guacamole. I love guacamole. 

For main courses both my sister and I wanted the chicken which was done with spicy chimichurri, asparagus and roast potatoes, but I was difficult and asked for it with coriander and lime rice. Oh and another side of guacamole, I told you I liked it. 

My parents went for the steak and lamb both of which looked just as yummy. 

When at a mexican restaurant you can't finish the meal with anything other than Churros. And churros with melted chilli chocolate for dipping are an exceptional end to a meal. 

Definitely worth a visit to Bodega Negra, they have amazing food and there's a really quirky atmosphere in the restaurant, certainly very different to anywhere i've eaten at before and I will without a doubt be returning.