Italian road trip! First stop - Florence. Guinea fowl and chocolate pasta anyone?

I have just got back from my adventure in Italy!

I may now be a stone heavier ( I drank and ate sooooooo much) but hey, what a trip!

We flew into Florence and arrived mid day.

Florence was beautiful. There were lots of designer shops and LOTS of tourists but it was still a lovely city to walk around.

After having a little pre evening nap at our hotel  (as you do) we headed out to find a nice restaurant........

It took us a while.

We went on the hunt for one that we had read about on Trip Adviser. We searched for ages, got lost and asked several locals who spoke no English which just made us even more lost.

FINALLY we found it ................and it was closed!!! Very annoying!!

Where to go now?

We had remembered seeing a cool place down one of windy streets so we re-traced our steps and found it!

RESTAURANT GUSTAVINO

It's so exciting discovering a new restaurant, especially when you feel you have found a hidden gem.

We were welcomed in by a very charismatic and friendly waiter who gave us a few seating options. 

The restaurant was pretty full ...always a good sign.

We chose to sit by the open glass kitchen area.

We started off with a glass of Prosecco and asked him to recommend a nice bottle of red for us........

 

 I never usually drink Chianti but as the saying goes - when in Rome! 

I  have been missing out, the wine was BEAUTIFUL and cheap!!! 

Starters!

I went for the grilled octopus with bur rata, crunchy celery and lemon  - DELICIOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I really love octopus it always feels like such a treat when I have it.

Andy had the Foie Gras with apricots which he said was great (i'm not a fan)

For my main course I went for a pasta dish the waiter recommended - homemade black tagliolini with sea urchin and pesto sauce - oh wow I totally cleaned the plate!

 It was gorgeous!!

I was very happy.

Andy went for a bit of a wild card - homemade pici pasta with guinea fowl ragout, parmesan cheese and................ CHOCOLATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well I was very excited to try this!!

I try and encourage Andy to order the really unique dishes, so I get to try them hehehe.

It was very rich but I really loved the strong flavours. Andy was full so I polished the rest off :) YUM.

We were both too full for dessert, rarely happens to me, so the waiter gave us two creamy lemoncello cocktails on the house.
Nice touch, lemoncello is one of my favourites.

A sweet end to our first dinner in Italy!

Well we had to get a silly photo, we were on holiday and a little smashed from the STRONG wine.

The waiter waved us off!  

Having a fun waiter really does bring your meal to life.

Great night!

We headed back to our hotel to get a good nights sleep. 

San Gimignano bound tomorrow yippie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

TBC.........

http://www.gustavino.it/

Disappointment, complaints and my Italian adventure....

I am sorry I have not been able to post anything for a few weeks now.

I was planning to write about a hotel I stayed at recently in The Cotswold's. Andy and I went there for a spa weekend (to escape London).

However the experience was not what I had hoped and due to bad service and lack of customer care we both left feeling disappointed.

I complained to the hotel (to remain anonymous for now) and they dealt with it immediately. They apologised AND offered us a complimentary stay!

Everywhere deserves a second chance so I will be posting all about my stay once we have returned.

I am all for complaining. If you are left feeling unhappy and disappointed with an experience you have paid for then speak up!

Another let down - I  wanted to continue my search for 'The Best Sunday Roast' so I went to a pub, with some friends, that everyone had been talking about.
It had great reviews and the roasts were meant to be huge! As you can imagine I was very excited :)

When we arrived we sat down and ordered a few pints - standard Sunday tradition, the only day I allow myself to sink pints.

After we had looked at the menus and decided what we wanted the waiter came over and told us they had run out of the beef!! Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That was what we all wanted! I mean it's the king of the roasts!

I couldn't possibly write about this place now with no beef roasts! That would be like writing about a candy shop with no sweets!

To be fair it was 3pm so I guess we should have gone earlier but we always eat lunch on Sunday around this time and no where else had run out before.

I ended up going for the chicken, it was good and the portions was huge, but it wasn't beef : (

I will be going back soon to get my beef!! TBC

So, you see it has been tricky to post about anywhere exciting recently.

HOWEVER................... I am off to Italy this week whooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I will be visiting Florence, Tuscany, La Spezia and then finishing up in Ivrea.

Ahhhhh pasta, wine, ice cream, coffee, more wine - I am coming for you :)

I will be taking lots of photos and documenting all my adventures.

I cannot WAIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

'Harvey's Point Hotel' Donegal, IRELAND. Stunning weekend away!

I had never been to Ireland before so you can imagine how excited I was when my friend, Aisling, told me her wedding would be in Ireland!

Great!!

Whooooooooooooooo a weekend away out of London!!!

Flights were only £80 return and me and Andy decided it would be a nice idea to hire a car so we could see as much as possible during our 3 days there.

The wedding was being held in a small town called Donegal at a hotel called 'Harvey's Point'.

WOW, I checked out the website immediately and it looked stunning!

I was so excited!

DONEGAL bound!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We flew from Stansted and it was only one hour, really quick and painless.

When we touched down we collected our little car (Ford Fiesta) and hit the road!

I wish this part had been as easy as our flight!

When we picked the car up the hire company had run out of bloody sat navs so it was back to old school map reading!!

We thought to ourselves - hey this will be a good challenge for us, it can't be that hard............

Andy was driving and I was navigating.

Oh I forgot to mention our flight to London that morning was at 7am, we had to wake up at 4.30am so we had both had about 4 hours sleep!
Not the best recipe for a 2 hour long car journey, in Ireland, with no sat nav.

We got lost.

Apparently it was my fault...........I think differently.

Note to self - ALWAYS GET A SAT NAV.

So 2 hours and 40 mins later, we saw this............

Yessssssssssss we found it!!!!!

Then we saw this .................

Driving up to the hotel was beautiful, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh such a nice reward after our stressful car journey.

The Hotel

The surroundings were just stunning!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Right, we arrived at 11am and the wedding started at 2pm so we had a good 2 hours for a nap. I of course needed an hour to get ready!

We couldn't wait to hit the pillows!

The bell boy took us up to the room..................an executive double.....................

It was huge!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You should have seen the smiles on our faces!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bed time - we needed to re gain energy for a day of drinking ahead, this was an Irish wedding and they can sure drink!!
After our power nap we swanked up and hit the wedding!!

It was such an amazing day in picture-perfect surroundings :)

If you are thinking about going to Ireland for a long weekend away this place is seriously romantic!!!!!!

The view from the cocktail bar.

Whilst we were staying at Harvey's Point we visited Rossnowlough beach, although it was windy the sea was warm!

On our last day we decided to drive to Slieve League Cliffs - the highest sea cliffs in Europe!
Bring it on!!

It was about a 1.5 hour drive but sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo worth it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is what we saw on our way to the cliffs.

So beautiful.

After a steep drive up...........we reached the cliffs!

Wow!! What a view!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It was so peaceful up there we didn't want to leave.

FANTASTIC weekend away from the big smoke!!

If you fancy getting away, consider Donegal! Flights are cheap as chips and the scenery is gorgeous PLUS there are tons of great seafood joints!

http://www.harveyspoint.com/

Boho Mexica - Shoreditch delight!!

On a hot summers evening in London myself and a friend decided to have some drinks and dinner out after work.

I wanted to go somewhere fun in the Shoreditch area so I researched a few places on the internet and Boho Mexica came up.

The reviews were mixed, some of them were moaning about the slow service but the majority had said the food was great.

After being cooked a Venezuelan dinner a few weeks ago by a friend I was craving the flavours again.

The black bean sauce is to die for and I love trying different types of cuisine.

Right Boho Mexica it is!

As we were walking down commercial street trying to find it, we started to hear the lively  Mexican music........the restaurant was opened up onto the street and it looked like a little piece of Mexico had come to London.

Inside it was very busy, luckily I had booked!

The dudes behind the bar were energetically making cocktails and all the customers looked like they were enjoying themselves.

I was so pleased it was just what I wanted and as it was such a hot evening it felt like we were on holiday!

I loved it.

The interior had bags character with cool Latino posters and fun cartoon like drawings on the walls.

We had met earlier and sunk back a few cocktails so we got straight onto a bottle of Tempranillo.......

Hmmmmmmmmmm what to order for a main............

The food you are about to 

enjoy is all made fresh on the premises daily, using the freshest 

ingredients possible; many of which are flown in directly from 

México.

Tia Patty

Executive Chef: Patricia Vivas

I decided to get this with black bean sauce instead of rice and coleslaw.

Pollo a la Morita

Delicious corn fed chicken marinated over night with our 

mix of Mexican chiles, in a tangy tamarind & chile morita sauce.

Served with our Tabasco coleslaw and rice.

£13.95

We asked the waiter what the most popular dish was and he said it was -

Puerco Enchilanchado

Grilled succulent Paillard of pork marinated 

for 24hrs in a mix of chiles.

Served with sweet plantains, rice, 

black bean puree and fresh corn tortillas.

£14.95

So my friend ordered this and we decided to share :)

As the sun went down the waiters lit all the candles in the restaurant and the Mexican tunes got louder. I was thinking this would be a great place to come with a big group over the weekend and get totally carried away drinking LOADS of cocktails and pretending you're on holiday ;)

After indulging in more wine and enjoying the atmosphere, our food arrived!!

All the waiters seemed very laid back, friendly and chilled which suited the overall vibe of the restaurant.

Time to get stuck in.

The black bean sauce was DELICIOUS! It had pieces of chorizo in it and was just heavenly.

I grabbed a corn tortilla, pulled off some chicken and smothered it with the sauce YUM!

I love eating with my fingers, it brings out the kid within.

The pork was amazing, juicy and full of flavour, it worked really well with the sweet plantains and rice - these were flavours I hadn't tried before.

I was in a good place and was really enjoying myself, sharing food is a great way of trying more than one dish!

We ate EVERYTHING and were full........but there is always room for dessert!!!!!!

Again we asked what was the most popular.....

The waiter told us to order

Flan de Rosas con Jamaica y Copa Nevada con Cajeta

Homemade rose water flan & a light Mexican vanilla cream with cajeta.

£6.50

and

Pastel de Tres Leches

Homemade traditional 3 milk Mexican cake covered with meringue.

Deliciously juicy.

£5

Again we shared.

They arrived shortly after.....................

We devoured them within the space of minutes, they were seriously GOOD and I was making all sorts of yummy noises, as you do when you're thoroughly enjoying something!! Oh man I will be ordering them both again, the home made rose water flan was my favourite.

What a fab evening!!

So much fun, new and exciting food and some cooooooooooool Mexican music thrown in.

I am a fan of this place and although the service was fairly laid back and the food is quite pricey the whole feel of the restaurant makes it worth it!

It was buzzing and full of life and that is hard to find!

http://www.bohomexica.co.uk/

Thai Omelettes at Ziloufs - girlie brunch date :)

I was meeting some friends last Saturday for brunch.
As my friend Laura was bringing her ADORABLE baby Jude with her I was trying to find somewhere that was baby friendly and also where we could hang out for a few hours, have some wine and food and just relax and catch up.

Well, I found the perfect place.....

I had walked past this bar/restaurant called Zilouf's a few times. It's located on Upper Street in Angel.

I noticed they served brunch until 2pm on a Saturday (until 3pm on a Sunday) and had some comfy sofas!
It looked really cosy and homely with lots of vintage lamps and a cool, kitch feel.

Check out the funky furniture and fish tank TV

When we all arrived we were so pleased that the largest sofa was free, we quickly claimed it!
There was plenty of space for the pram too. Result.

Time for some wine!

We all ordered white wine spritzers and browsed the brunch menu.............

Thai omelette ??

Hmmmmmm.

I asked the waitress if it was good and she assured me it was delicious.

3 Thai Omelettes then please :)

They arrived shortly after....

Oh YUMMY!!!!!!

Wait, what's that inside.........?

BIG JUICY SCALLOPS - my favourite 

It was soooooooooooooooo gooooooooooooooooood and the sweet chilli sauce was heavenly.
What a fantastic combination and the scallops were perfectly cooked.

Beautiful.

At a bargain price of £8 I was seriously impressed.

It was so filling I couldn't even finish it, and that's very rare!

What a great find!
We sat and chilled there for hours. It was totally packed so we were lucky to have swiped that huge leather couch!

We could have stayed there all day :)

I was so pleased with my new find, I know that sounds a little sad but I get excited about these things!

We have already arranged to go back there next week for more of those incredible omelettes.

I can't wait.

Laura, Frankie, baby Jude and moi :)

http://www.ziloufs.com/