Mini Bites: The Ivy, Covent Garden

It's taken me quite a long time to jot down my thoughts on the Ivy, mainly because even up until now, I don't have much of an opinion. For many years, I had wondered what lay behind those stained glass windows, of what had attracted all those "celebrities" in the past, of what gave it that mystique. It's veil of secrecy definitely piqued my interest and when the suggestion to visit for a "work team lunch" was mooted, I nodded in agreement.

I was kind of excited. After all these years, I finally got to see what lay behind those multi-coloured windows. Once inside, I found a room buzzing with atmosphere, filled with those who had clearly frequented the Ivy for many years alogside those who clearly hadn't. The stained glass adds much colour to a classic look, I was genuinely beginning to be swept up in it all.

Pollen Street Social - A flying visit

By the time you would have read this write up, you would probably have read everything you ever wanted to know about Pollen Street Social. After all, it appears to be the new Dinner, the must visit location in the capital. People went crazy when the phonelines opened (myself included), all scrabbling for a reservation, and much like Dinner, I was really pleased to have got a table a few weeks into their opening.

Damn and blast. As luck would have it, my long and luxurious with some of the lovely folk of twitter was cut short by work. Scheduling our anniversary party on the same night as our reservation, a party where all our customers were invited, it would have to be an eat and run mission.

San Francisco: A brief retrospective (Day 1 and 2)

A street in Monopoli, Puglia

In all honesty, there isn't much point writing about my recent trip to Puglia from a food standpoint. Most of it was spent mucking about with friends at our Trullo and eating some lovingly prepared food by Lizzie and Helen using an array ingredients garnered from the local markets. Bar an amusing incident with some massive pizzas, and an excursion to the seaside where we ate some wonderfully fresh seafood, all of our eating was done in the security of our Trullo. You can check out pictures from the trip here or read about the food we ate on Helens blog here.

What it did make me think about was the fact that I hadn't covered any of the places I had visited on my recent trip to San Francisco. After my trips to Melbourne and Bali last year, where I never got round to detailing some of the places I visited, I definitely couldn't let San Francisco go down the same route. So here it is, a round up of 5 days of eating and drinking and a tip of my hat to Ben and especially Lara who kept me company, drank with me, and more importantly, organised the whole damn lot for me!

Mini Bites: Pepe, Covent Garden

I have just got back from holiday, a lovely week sunning myself in the South of Italy, only to find myself wrenched back to normal life, staring out the window from my 6th floor office, into nothing but miles of grey clouds. I know what will cheer me up, some Italian food will surely do the trick.

Mini Bites: Princess Garden, Mayfair

One of the goals that I once aspired to is to eat as much dim sum in my life as is physically possibly. Fattening but ultimately quite rewarding, I am sure you will agree. Hopefully, after these endeavours, I would be in a position to learn the intricacies of the perfect dim sum brunch, but mainly to have some amazing eats, and to be fair, I'm not doing too badly.

Mini bites: Taro, Soho

Covent Garden is a pretty great area to work, but I am often at a loss when it comes to lunch options. Decent sandwich options are few and far between and you would be hard pushed to find a good feed in and around the fiver mark. It's so bad that I have even started making my own lunch (cue exclamations of shock)