Happy Easter!

Still looking for something to do on Easter? 

Don't have any kids?  

I found the list below on londonist.com and thought I'd share...

Grown-up stuff
The Old Vic Tunnels bunker will be transformed into a Holiday Camp, complete with meadow, boating pond, deck chairs, bouncy castle, music etc on Thursday 5 and Friday 6 April from 7pm, activities start from 8pm (tickets £15).

Brodie’s Bunny Bash beer festival features 40 beers at the King William IV pub, Leyton from Friday 6 April to Monday 9 April.

Like cocktails with your chocolate? Try the Monkey Shoulder Chocolate Trail at 63 Broadwick Street from Friday 6 to Monday 9 April, midday till 7pm (free to attend, drinks to buy).

The Queen Elizabeth Hall roof garden opens for the summer and the Real Food Market is at Southbank Square all Easter weekend. Plus, E4 Udderbelly Festival begins in the upturned purple cow tent on Friday 6 April.

The Passion of Jesus will be performed in Trafalgar Square on Good Friday 6 April at noon and 3.15pm (free).

Take a seasonal chocolate and coffeehouse tour of London from 11.30am Saturday 8 April. Read our review of an earlier Coffeehouse Tour with Dr Matthew Green (£15+bkg — includes free shots of Olympian hot chocolate, 18th-century perfume, and champagne).

Watch the Goat Race at Spitalfields City Farm on Saturday 7 April from 1.30pm (book tickets now, adults £5.50, kids 50p).

Or there’s the Boat Race on the Thames from 2.15pm.

Artesian Bar at The Langham

The Artesian Bar was on my "fancy" list of bars that I wanted to check out over my birthday, but we never made it...  So after dinner at Paramount we strolled on over to Artesian to have a night cap...

The place is gorgeous.  The bar is soo pretty.  The staff seems to be nice.  The bathrooms are huge, super clean, and pretty.  The flowers throughout were gorgeous.  I give the Langham hotel and their bar "Artesian" two thumbs up.

Our drinks: I had a cocktail called the Russian Spring Punch and it was out of this world delicious.  If it wasn't terribly expensive I think it could be habit forming.  Mike had a martini which is usually his drink of choice.

crappy picture, but that bar is too gorgeous not to share...

heaven in a glass... Russian Spring Punch

Paramount and Bar 23

This is blog post #501 and we're still in London!   

Now for the fun stuff...  Over the weekend I took the mister to Paramount (closest tub station: Tottenham Court Road) for dinner and also for drinks at their Bar 23.  This place has amazing views, a total 360 of London.  We arrived at 630pm so we could get a daytime view and also later during dinner to have the night time view from up there.  On the right side of the bar you can see from Battersea to Wimbley on the left side you can see the roof of the British Museum which is pretty cool, the London Skyline, Tower Bridge all the way over to London Eye.

The highlights:

The best view of course!

The Liberty Cocktail!! I can not brag on this drink enough. It was delicious!

I'm totally going back to the bar for drinks.

The low lights:

The food was not that great, average at best.  Presentation was superb, but not taste.  I wouldn't eat here again.

Service wasn't that great either.  I told the waitress that I had a nut allergy early on and then when I got my salad it had hazelnuts when it was brought to her attention she said that I needed to tell her that in the beginning... ummm, we did... but whatever... 

 It was also disappointing that my cheese souffle` was overcooked. At a place like that you don't expect such delicate items to leave the kitchen that overcooked.  I was starving so I didn't send it back (shame on me), but nonetheless, shame on them.

A tad pricey...

Now for some pictures to help paint a picture of what you can expect if you ever check this place out:

View from our bar seats

Paramount - Bar 23 cocktails

The dome to the left is the roof of the British Museum

overcooked Cheese Souffle`

red pepper fritters... they were ok, I wouldn't order them again.

Ravioli was just ok, their morel was way too sweet, I think they had soaked them in something they shouldn't have.  Entree portion size was small.

This did not look good to me, but Mike said it was ok. 

The view from our dinner table

Night time view from our dinner table

Scream!

I recently found this out and could not be more excited!  Just had to share!

Tate Modern is to hold a major exhibition reassessing the work of Norwegian painter Edvard Munch.

Edvard Munch: The Modern Eye will look at the artist’s pictorial work in the 20th century and his interest in photography, film and the rebirth of stage production.

Munch (1863–1944) is often presented as a 19th-century painter, a Symbolist or a pre-Expressionist. However this exhibition will show him as a 20th-century artist initially inspired by Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, and thoroughly representing the spirit of his age.

Around 60 paintings and 50 photographs will be featured, including a selection of the artist’s signature paintings as well as his own lesser-known photographic and filmic work. The show will also illustrate how Munch engaged with the current affairs of the day, and how he was inspired by scenes he had observed in the street or incidents reported in the press or on the radio. He frequently worked outdoors to capture scenes of everyday life.

Visitors will see how Munch often repeated a single motif over a long period of time in order to re-work it. There will be versions of his most celebrated works such as The Sick Child 1885–1927.

Munch adopted photography in the early years of the 20th century and his photographic activities largely involved self-portraiture, which he obsessively restaged and reworked. In the 1930s he developed an eye disease and made poignant works which charted the effects of his degenerating sight. 

The exhibition includes his last work which was a self-portrait.

Tate Modern is open daily 10am–6pm (10pm Fri and Sat), admission free.

Edvard Munch: The Modern Eye is on show daily from 27 June to 14 October, 10am–5pm, (9pm Fri and Sat), admission £14, concessions £12.20.

Tel: +44 20 7887 8888
Website: www.tate.org.uk

Sanderson Hotel Mad Hatter Afternoon Tea

I had Mad Hatter Afternoon Tea here today and would totally go back.

Let me show you why:

Mad Hatter Afternoon Tea

 

Meat Liquor

Meat Liquor, a new very casual burger place in London.  It's located just off Oxford Street and closest tube is Bond Street.  It's a diner style burger and is very tasty.  I've had better burgers in London, but they weren't diner style and not in an atmosphere like Meat Liquor.

Meat Liquor: 74 Welbeck Street - London - W1G

I'm also a big fan that they have fried pickles and delicious blue cheese dressing.  They also have the best chicken wings in London.  So if you haven't been yet I recommend a visit, but go for lunch and go right when they open so that you don't have to wait in line.  Apparently, if you go during prime time you will be spending at least in hour waiting in line...

http://www.meatliquor.com/

Just so you know, their bacon is not like American bacon or English back bacon, it's been put through the grinder, made into a flat patty and then grilled, it wasn't bad, but I didn't like it enough to waste the calories so I pulled it off my burger...

Tips: Don't expect to meet your friends in line... they strongly enforce no cutting line...
The staff isn't terribly warm and friendly either, they weren't bad, but they weren't great either.  This place definitely has some kinks to work out, but when it comes to the food they know what they are doing.

CLOSED SUNDAYS AND MONDAYS

Next up: Oslo, Norway!!

Enjoy!

Kensington Creperie

I've been trying to tick away at my "eat there list" so this weekend we hit a few places.  One of them was Kensington Creperie near South Kensington station.  It's a very casual place that is known for it's crepes and milkshakes, but also serves salads, waffles, etc...

http://www.kensingtoncreperie.com/pages/about.html

I had read about their Strawberry Cream crepe (£6.55), but instead of getting the white Belgium Chocolate that it is suppose to come with I opted for milk chocolate.  It was huge, I only ate half, but it was very good. I'd order it again.  I had it with just a black coffee (£1.50) and it was pretty decent.  I really want to go back and try their waffle.

Mike ordered a Greek salad (he doesn't like crepes (what a weirdo) ), he ate it all and said it was good.  I didn't try it, but it was quite large and looked very fresh. (£7.95)

The staff were nice and the service was quick.  I give this place a thumbs up.

Hollywood is coming to Victoria and Albert Museum

The V&A’s major autumn exhibition is Hollywood Costume, bringing together more than 100 iconic costumes designed for famous and unforgettable characters from Hollywood movies of the last 100 years.

The exhibition will display cinema costumes that have never before left the private and archival collections in California. Most of these clothes have never been publicly displayed and have never been seen beyond the secure walls of the studio archives.

Visitors will be able to view the costumes worn by the characters of Indiana Jones, Scarlett O’Hara, Jack Sparrow, Holly Golightly, Darth Vader and Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz.

This exhibition, which opens in October, will help visitors understand the costume designer’s process in the creation of character from script to screen including the changing social and technological context in which the designers have worked over the last century.

Three galleries will plot the evolution of costume design from Charlie Chaplin through the Golden Age of Hollywood to the cutting edge design for Avatar (2009,) and John Carter of Mars (2012).

The first gallery (Act 1) will show the process of designing a character from script to screen. The second (Act 2) will examine the key collaborative role of the costume designer within the creative team, and the third (Act 3, Finale) will celebrate the most beloved characters in the history of Hollywood and the silver screen.

The V&A is open daily 10am–5.45pm (10pm Fridays), admission free.

Hollywood Costume runs from 20 October to 27 January 2013, admission £14 adults, £11 seniors, £9 students, £23 family ticket (online booking prices, plus £1 handling charge per transaction).

Victoria and Albert Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 2RL Tel: +44 20 7942 2000
Website: www.vam.ac.uk

Centonove in Notting Hill

I've been trying to find new dinner places in Notting Hill to eat at to cut back on bus/tube fares and also just the traveling times to/from...  Not to mention, after all... that's where we live... 

The latest place we tried was a cute cozy little Italian place with a very nice staff (which is hard to come by in London) called Centonove

We started with bruschetta. Verdict: Tasty! "garlic-y", but we love garlic...
Our mains: Pasta's... This place is known for their pizza's, but since they had homemade pasta's available so we went pasta...
Mine: Carbonara. Verdict: ok, it was boring, should have ordered something else.
The Misters: Homemade Ravioli with a Tuscan sausage sauce and it was Delicious - I kept eating his. The portion was HUGE!
Dessert: Tiramisu: Verdict: very good and would order again. It came in a very cute pastry shell. I wished they'd use a little more lady finger and a little less cream though...
Coffee's: Ordered one Americano and it was perfect.  Good quality and well made!

How were the prices?  Pretty decent for Notting Hill/London area.


Will we go back? Yes.

Golden Spider Silk

Sunday after lunch at Tom's Kitchen, we strolled over the V&A Museum because I really wanted to see the new "Golden Spider Silk" exhibit.  It's a shawl and a cape made of spider silk by over one million female golden orb weaver spiders caught in the highlands of Madagascar.  It took over 4 years to make the shawl and thousands and thousands of hours to make the cape.  If you click on the link above you can watch the video of how it was made.  It's pretty cool stuff. 

http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/g/golden-spider-silk/

http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/g/golden-spider-silk/

http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/g/golden-spider-silk/

http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/g/golden-spider-silk/

http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/g/golden-spider-silk/

http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/g/golden-spider-silk/

Happy Birthday

My actual birthday started out with a 10:15 breakfast at The Wolseley, I was so excited to take the mister there for breakfast.  We sat, we ordered and then it happened, the food arrived and it wasn't perfect (sad face here).  My blueberry pancakes were beautiful, tasted good, but arrived room temperature and not warm like they should have been.  The mister's scrambled eggs were absolutely gross...runny, cold, and definitely not fresh, most definitely instant (barf!) When asked how his TINY fruit salad tasted, he replied "like ass"...  Total bummer.  The side of bacon was tasty thank goodness and so was my flat white.  It was my birthday so we didn't complain like we should have (insert regret here)... however, after a few days I just couldn't accept the food quality and emailed them, I'm still waiting on a response and will keep you posted on what they say.   Next up, was the Crazy Coffin collection that I've already posted about a few days ago.  After the coffins, we strolled through Covent Garden and then believe it or not I had scheduled a "birthday nap", a two hour snooze on the couch was perfect!!

After the snooze, we prepped for Part II.... off to Sartori in Soho for pizza (Yum!)  It was the first time I had been there and the pizza was so good.  I had the bufalina (it was huge) and a rocket salad... the mister a bowl of pasta and grilled vegetables.  We were very pleased with everything and would totally go back.  They even surprised me with a birthday tiramisu and it was delicious!  We wanted to eat it all, but had to stop ourselves.
The service here is pretty good, especially for London.  I recommend reservations and to make sure you note on them that you want to be on the main floor and not in the basement area.  The basement area is very drab and not a place to want to eat a meal.

Sartori Bufalina pizza... not a great picture, but oh so tasty!

Tasty Tiramisu at Sartori

After Sartori, we strolled over to Chinatown where we were looking for a "special door".  We found it and entered the Experimental Cocktail Club, we checked our coats and were seated at a very tight little table on the first floor.  It was a small cozy place that felt perfect for a special birthday/date night.  The mister ordered a cocktail called The Stockholm Syndrome £11 and I ordered The Classic Rip-off £12.  My tiny cocktail was delicious and pretty strong.  The mister really liked his cocktail, but when I tasted it I thought it tasted like a lamb kebab (seriously! ha!)  The 2nd floor of the cocktail bar is pretty cool too.  The only thing that isn't cool about this place is the doorman outside who thinks he's too cool for school, but I guess that's just suppose to be another bit of the allure of this place...who knows...  I highly recommend reservations at this place to avoid any conflict with the silly doorman. 

I had planned on visiting one more fancy bar on my birthday, but was pooped and called it a night...

Sunday, we woke up and had lunch at Tom's Kitchen with a great friend and his wife who were in town for a few days.  Not only was lunch absolutely delicious, but catching up with old friends was a perfect end to a great weekend.


I had a fantastic birthday!  I had so much fun with the Mister all weekend long! He was a real trooper to put up with me dragging him around all weekend.

Pictures of lunch at Tom's Kitchen:

http://www.tomskitchen.co.uk/

http://www.tomskitchen.co.uk/

http://www.tomskitchen.co.uk/

http://www.tomskitchen.co.uk/

Lunch with great friends

We also ordered the macaroni and cheese with truffle as a starter and it was DELICIOUS!!  I can not wait to go back to Tom's to try the items I saw on tables on the way out!

Coburg Bar

My birthday weekend celebration: Friday Part 2: The Coburg Bar

After our 2 hour stay at Milk and Honey we strolled over to The Connaught Bar where we just walked through to get a feel for the place (which was happening and would totally go back for a drink) on our way to the Coburg Bar where we were quickly given a window seat which I always love, a very extensive drink menu where the prices ranged from £13 - £4,000 (yes, that is not a typo), and the most delicious homemade crisps (I ate 3 bowls of them, I couldn't stop myself) and many bowls of olives.  It took me a while to finally order something, but I finally ordered a whiskey sour.  This whiskey sour was pure perfection!  One of, if not the best whiskey sour that I have ever had and it should be for £16 (holy sh!t) The mister ordered 2 vodka martini's.  After 3 of the most expensive drinks that we've ever had we paid our £48 tab and took a taxi home.

The Coburg Bar has been on my "fancy drink" list for quite some time.  It's really laid back, wonderful decor simply beautiful, love their specially scented candles, and the vibe is happening in a small scale way.  The service was great and the people watching was some of the best I've had in a while.

This place is perfect for a date night or special occasion!

*No pictures to share, sorry... not really a place where you want to be seen snapping like a tourist. You'd definitely stand out.

Stay tuned for details on what we did for my actual birthday! lol!

Would you like a coffin with that?

Yep, you read it correctly, coffin, sooo without me even realizing it the last two years for my birthday I have "on purpose" surrounded myself with death even though my birthday is suppose to be about the day I was born and celebrating my life... anyways... not sure how this happened...

Last year I took my second verger lead tour of Westminster Abbey (a must!) if you don't already know (and you should) Westminster Abbey is jam packed with thousands of very important dead people...

This year I took the Mister to see the "Crazy Coffins" at the Royal Festival Hall near Waterloo/London Eye area... the "Death Festival" was going on, but I just wanted to see the "Crazy Coffins".  It was pretty wild to think real people had these made on purpose, but whatever floats your boat, you only live or in this case die once (or so I believe)

I'm not going to go into detail about all the coffins because I actually didn't read all the stories. After all, it was my birthday and I didn't want to completely depress the sh!t out of myself.

All the coffins were either made in Ghana by the famous Paa Joe Workshop or Crazy Coffins in Nottingham, UK.

The exhibit ended yesterday so if you missed it, don't you worry because I took a picture of every one of them ENJOY! :

Royal Festival Hall @ SouthBank Centre

Mercedes

This is for a lady who wants to be buried in the fetal position

This is for a lady who thinks she's from "Viking Stock"

bargain coffin... made of cardboard...

this was a bit creepy to watch ...

A kite? really?

Looked pretty uncomfortable, but I guess if you are dead you are not going to care...

A train...

This was probably my favorite one

The plane was for a pilot, he wanted to be buried in a plane that was especially made for him. When it's time the wings and tail with come off so that it'll fit in his pre-paid plot.

This was for an 11 year and I will not share the story.

yep, that's a skier.