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

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!

Purl

When looking for the perfect birthday spot, a place called "Purl" kept popping up... after visiting endless places the weekend prior I decided to go all in on a place that I had never been too.  Yep, going solely off recommendations and the internet.  Risky!

The smoking martini at Purl

I booked my little birthday "cave" from 7pm- close and loved the place.  I arrived and thought hmmm, this place is cool, good pick!  It's got a cozy little rustic yet fancy vibe to the place. No one is allowed to stand and everyone is pretty much restricted to their own reserved area, no mingling at this bar.  Each area, in our case a "cave" has it's own waitress, in fact, at one point I think they increased us to two waitresses.

My birthday cave... the first ones to arrive...

How are the cocktails at Purl?  Expensive!  Holy Sh!t! after all you are in London...
Since it was my birthday I decided to be super fancy and drink champagne, let me tell you at £12 a glass that gets expensive.  It'll take me a very long time to shake off that tab. The Mister's martini (the drink arrived smoking by the way, seriously! check out the picture above) was £11.... Pretty much all the cocktails ranged from £10-13, beer £5-9ish, wine £7-9ish....

Do they serve food? Yes, but it's very limited.
-Cheese Board £10 - Tasty, but it was mostly definitely not a good thing to eat with a zillion glasses of champagne...
-Meat Board £10 - I think it was tasty, everyone was eating it. I didn't have any though.
-Olives £4 we went through 2 big cups of these - I didn't eat these either. I don't like olives.
-Nuts and Crisps £4 - a tiny portion which was weird because it came in this big box...see pic below...

The food at Purl... and no those tiny glasses are water glasses... not shot glasses...

Where is Purl located?  In Marylebone at 50/54 Blanford Street - Very close to Oxford Street - Bond Street, Marble Arch, Baker Street Tube stations...

How was this place for a crowd? It has it's up's and down's.
-Our "cave" was at full capacity at 12 people. 9 is a comfortable number maybe 10, 12 was crowded.  They actually came to me and asked if we were having any more people arrive because if so they were going to have to turn them away because no more were allowed in our area.
-Since everyone arrived at different times and they put all the drinks on the same bill, it makes bill time a tad tricky and then since drinks are involved you may have a couple people leave without paying (on accident, of course)... it's not a biggie... just a tad awkward and tricky.  I think having a smaller group would probably be best in this case.  So if you are on a tight budget and plan to stay longer than one/two drinks worth this may not be the place for you.

Happy Birthday!

Did we have a great time at Purl? Heck yeah!