Konnubio, Florence | Food

I'm a bit sorry for the picture quality in this post, sometimes the lighting just isn't my friend and there isn't a massive amount I can do about it. Today I'm going to introduce you to a restaurant which at first glance you wouldn't necessarily associate with Italian cuisine but the second after you taste it, you just know. The restaurant is called Konnubio, it's very interesting because not only do they do a range of meats and fishes they also have a variety of vegan options and do offer even gluten free foods as well which I found incredibly impressive. The thing that melted my heart a little was actually that they had an English version of the menu, sometimes it's just nice to see words that are familiar. 

The restaurant was actually an old converted leather shop, Florence is known very well for it's leather but I thought that was a little interesting fact about the restaurant. I must admit when I was looking at the prices I though that they were a little steep for just a main course but I wasn't even expecting it to arrive as it did. At first I was really torn between having the Lamb or the Calf Cheek but because I've never hard calf cheek before I went with that option. The cornmeal mush was interesting, again it was something I've never hard before and cornmeal is basically like a flour that is made from dried maize, it was a looser texture than standard mashed potatoes but was very appealing anyway. We all ordered a side dishes of just roasted potatoes which you can see in the picture. We didn't order starters but still kinda got one anyway, as with most restaurants they provided us with bread and there was a wide variety of different breads and tiny little buns, I particularly liked these tiny little rolls that had raisin in them, but the bread itself wasn't sweet. Then we each were given these tiny little bread balls which you can see pictured. Well I had no idea what to expect, I mean I didn't even now whether it would be warm or not, but when I cut into it with my knife there was like a meat paste inside, bloody delicious which was also infused with herbs. I still have no idea what it actually was. 

When my main arrived I couldn't wait to tuck in, as you can see it was beautifully presented. The calf cheek was probably the most tender meat I have ever eaten in my life, you barely even needed a knife to cut it because it literally fell apart. The cornmeal mush was a nice accompaniment to the meat but I wouldn't say it tasted amazing, it was nice but the real show stopper was the meat of course. As I mentioned I also got a little side dish of potatoes and they were gorgeous, they were roasted with rosemary and had some olive oil over them, really really tasty I pretty much ate the whole dish. Another thing that arrived which you can just about see in the back of the picture was a little square of fried polenta, which melted cheese on top something I wasn't expecting at all to come with my dish. That was pretty tasty but the cheese was very strong, I couldn't eat it all. 

The evening was then finished off in a very traditionally Italian way by each of us having a little shot of limoncello, delicious. We split the bill 6 ways and it only came to 30.50 EUR each which I think is bloody fantastic considering we had wine etc. I think if you want to try out something a little different than "stereotypical" Italian food then you should check out Konnubio. 

What is your favourite type cuisine?

The Fable, Holborn | Food

You may have noticed that my blog has taken more of a foodie turn lately, my lifestyle posts involve food a lot more. As any blog grows, I always think it's interesting to see how they develop and it appears that I actually really enjoy writing about food. With my lifestyle change this mean I appreciate different foods a lot more and do consider it a treat. Let me know if you enjoy reading my food posts. 

The other week some colleagues and myself went out for lunch to celebrate a work pal passing probation, we work in Holborn and one of my favourite restaurants to visit is The Fable. I love the decor more than anything, they even had a table that is surrounded by books which one day I will have dinner at. I just love the way everything looks in the restaurant, I've been there a few times and there is like 3 different floors and I have tried several different dishes but I must admit this one has to be one of my favourite. 

I just had to have a glass of prosecco to celebrate of course, though I don't really need an excuse to have a glass. This prosecco was super light and refreshing not acidic at all which is always a good thing, I find with other restaurants the prosecco can be a little sharp but this really wasn't.  Moving onto the food, I just need to take a moment to say YUM! I opted for the Duck Flatbread, the menu is pretty big but I didn't want to go for a burger or anything like that, I wanted something that would be a little lighter and was looking at the flatbreads. When it arrived at the table I was surprised about how large it actually was and it was packed with so much more than what I thought it would be. It had a big chucks of crispy duck topped with peppers, onions, cucumber, spring onion a bit of celery and a perfect amount of hoisin suace on the base which a few sesame seeds sprinkled over the top. 

I'm not the biggest fan of cucumber so I must admit I moved it to the side but the rest I pretty much inhaled, you could get chips or a side dish with this flatbread but personally I wouldn't say it was necessary to do so. The duck was beautifully cooked and had a crispy edge to it but it wasn't too crispy, It wasn't shredded too thinly so you actually were able to taste the chunks of duck with everything. The menu doesn't specifiy that there are onions and peppers with the dish but I was so happy there was. The flatbread on it's own cost £9.95 which I think is an incredibly good price. 

Have you been to The Fable? 

Las Iguanas Review | Food

Today I thought I would talk about a restaurant I've been to a few times before but I really like the food so I thought I would share it with you guys. Firstly I'd just like to apologise for the awful picture quality the lighting was a nightmare and I think I need to start taking my actual camera out with me. Also, if you are reading this thinking "I thought she had a wheat intolerance" this post has been in my drafts for quite sometime, I can no longer eat some of this delicious food. 

Las Iguanas is a South American style restaurant with Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Indian influences. I'd say there are elements of foods that are similar to Mexican cuisine. Me and my gorgeous friend Vernia visited the one in Westfield Stratford though there are loads dotted around London so you can easily find one if you did want to check it out. 

When we were waiting to be seated the waitress asked whether we wanted a different menus for vegan/gluten free etc which I actually thought was a really nice touch because everyone has different tastes and it's nice that they acknowledge this. We just had the standard menu thought because me and my dear love a bit of meat *ahem*. Much to my delight it was happy hour until 10 which meant 2 for 1 on cocktails and a select of non alcoholic coolers, very yummy indeed. I had the Strawberry Red, I mean you know I love a red fruit cocktail. 

We opted for the sharing tapas dishes, I bloody love tapas. Las Iguanas do either 3 dishes for £14.40 or 5 dishes for £24 which I think its a really good price when split between two or three of you. We went for the 5 dishes mainly because I was very hungry and I do like to try a variety of different things. You can see in the pictures above what arrived but I'll break it down a little clearer. Nachos, nachos are such a good addition to everything! I could have nachos all day long but we got them with Shredded Beef in Chipotle sauce which was very yummy. We then went for the Pato Taquito which is Duck and Caramlised Onions in a flour tortilla with a side of cranberry sauce, I really like duck so actually these were very nice. Not spicy but incredibly flavoursome. We also had Empanadas and these were probably my favourite dish actually, they are two crispy filled pasties with lamb, onions and peppers. My mouth is watering just thinking about these little things! This also came with the cranberry sauce which actually complimented them quite well. With two more options to fill we went for the Albondigas which essentially were meatballs, I'd say these would be a miss for me. They were fine but just minty lamb meatballs. For the final dish we went with spicy chicken Quesadillas which also had onions and peppers in and they were bloody lovely. 

I know what you're thinking this was a lot of food but for £12 each I think it's an utter bargain. We did go a little naughty and get dessert and I opted for the Caramel Cake which was delicious, I was expecting this to be quite heavy and sickly, but oh my god! It wasn't at all, it was light and fluffy. 

In total the entire bill came to around the £50 mark, considering that was for 4 drink, 5 tapas dishes and two desserts I think that is a fantastic price. The staff were efficient, friendly and the food was amazing, what's not to love?

Have you been to Las Iguanas?

Lupita Mexican Restaurant | Lifestyle

A couple of weeks ago I tried out a Mexican restaurant call Lupita, which is a Mexican street food style restaurant much like Wahaca. I love Mexican food, there is always a really great variety of flavours. 

I have to start off with the cocktails, I had a Strawberry Maragrita which was absolutely divine, incredibly tasty and it was the kind of cocktail where you could taste the alcohol but it wasn't overpowering at all. 

Moving onto the actual food, for starters we had nachos - naturally, I mean I love nachos whether I'm in a Mexican restaurant or not. This was served with guacamole which I'm not really a fan of, créme fraiche, salsa guajillo which was pretty hot actually, and crumbled Queso Fresco. Nachos are always a great little starter but we also got Queso Fundido, which is small chopped up pieces of chorizo in melted cheese served with 3 tortillas. I was expecting quite a lot for this starter because I love cheese and I love chorizo however I found that there was just too much cheese, I would have preferred less cheese and more chorizo but it was still pretty tasty.

For my main meal I had the Campechano tacos, which are two small tacos topped with pieces of steak, chorizo and pork chicharron which essentially is a lighter version of a pork scratching or fried pork rind. These were really yummy, fantastic flavours and I like that you only get two tacos because it's just enough to enjoy it but not feel massively bloated and full after it. I can't quite remember how much everything came to but it was fairly reasonable.

The service was fantastic there, everyone was incredibly friendly but the really interesting thing is that on each table there was an electronic device with 3 little buttons, which when pressed would get the attention of the waiter/waitress by sending an alert to a device on their wrist. Really impressive.  

I really enjoyed my visit to Lupita, have you ever been before?

Hush Brasserie, Holborn | Lifestyle

A couple of weeks ago my director took us our for a team lunch which of course you know I'm happy about. I work near Holborn so we decided to go to Hush Brasserie, which I have actually been to before but I always love the food there. It's one of those places that you wouldn't immediately think to go to, it's not a massive chain and I have in the past, completely walked past it. However if you do walk past one in  Holborn or St. Pauls then you must stop in, even if it's just for some nibbles and cocktails. 

They have a massive wine list, but because it was a work lunch I opted for the Chardonnay and Peach Spritzer, well actually I had two of them because they were just so delicious. I find that the prices at Hush are fairly reasonable for their spritzers at £4.95 a glass. 

For my lunch, I decided to go for the butterfly chicken, which has a red pepper relish and topped with rocket, with spicy sweet potato mash for a side dish. The butterfly chicken is literally just that, so I would recommend ordering a side dish. They also have fries made with truffle oil and Parmesan cheese which are bloody gorgeous. Admittedly, the butterfly chicken was spread quite thinly, but it was delicious, the red pepper relish was the real winner though. I love peppers and this relish had a really nice tang to it, as well as being a little sweet. Moving onto the spicy sweet potato mash, I must admit I never used to be a fan of sweet potato. But when I tried the fries I fell in love so it's kind of opened my eyes a little more. Plus I've adopted a healthier lifestyle which means white potato is something I never reach for now so this is a great alternative. I really loved the mash, it was a perfect side dish to the chicken and the pepper relish. I liked that the mash wasn't too spicy but it had a bit of a kick. I didn't eat it all, it was quite a hearty portion. The pesto worked quite well with the meal too.

Overall I think my meal came to around £29 which I don't think is a bad price because the quality of the food is really great. My colleagues had various different things, from steak, to salmon to lobster roll, truffle mash, a really great range of food. 

Have you been to Hush Brasserie?

Wahaca Restaurant | Review

Last week I went to a restaurant  called Wahaca in Soho, which is a Mexican restaurant influenced by Mexcian Market foods. I went along with my work colleague, Tineal, and a couple of clients but it was incredibly informal, consider it a gathering of pals. 

I've never been before, it was actually a suggestion based on someone else but it had a really good feel about it. We had booked the table in advanced, me and Tineal were running late but when we arrived the lady was so lovely and told us to go downstairs to meet the rest and they'll get the table ready. There was a very relaxed but nice vibe about the restaurant.

It was quite quirky and interesting loads of things to look at and a bloody massive menu. Our waiter was a guy called Fede and he explained perfectly the different dishes and gave advice on what we should order, he was great. 

We of course had to start with cocktails, I tried the passion fruit Cosmo which was gorgeous!! Really tasty but you couldn't really taste any alcohol which is always a bonus. I also tried the watermelon version too!

For dinner I went with a couple of tapas style dishes, I chose the Chipotle Chicken Quesadilla and the Steak Taco which had cheese, guacamole and salsa on

The food was lovely, we didn't have to wait too long and it was so flavoursome. I've been to some Mexican restaurants before and they have been a little bland but these dishes were packed with flavour. My favourite was easily the Chipotle Chicken Quesadillas. Two of the girls also tried Cactus Tacos which were apparently really nice. The prices varied depending on what you were ordering, most of the tapas style dishes were around the £5 mark, which I think is a fairly standard price and the cocktails were about £7. 

Overall we had such a great experience there I would definitely go again. 

Me and Tineal have a bit of a sweet tooth and when I say "a bit" I mean "a huge", on the way back to the train station we stumbled across a Gelato shop called Snowflake. I don't even know where to start with all the amazing flavours they had, from coffee to chocolate to mango to strawberry, I really struggled to choose. It really reminded me of one of those gelato places you get on holiday where all the different tubs are out for you to see and perfectly on display. After a long while of staring lovingly at each, I finally decided on Praline. 

Easily the best ice cream in London! 

Have you been to Wahacha or have you tried Snowflake gelato?