The Refinery

Went to The Refinery for dinner last night as Kelly and Josh were home for the weekend with Danielle, Matt and Hannah. I went to The Refinery years ago with Holly when we got the pre-theatre deal which they still do now.

They were fully booked till 7pm which actually worked well for me as I ended doing some extra work filming and finished in time to meet up with them. It was pretty busy when we got there. We ordered our drinks - Josh had a nightmare as he wanted draft and they said it would be a 20 minute so went for a bottle and said they didn't have any so third time lucky he eventually went for a whiskey sour. He could have waited the 20 minutes for the draft as they completely forgot about our drinks and our food came before it. We had to ask where our drinks were. Food service is good in there which was the same as when I went last time.

I went for the Lemon & Ginger Pan-fried Seabass, Crushed New Potatoes, Spring Onion, Choy Sum, Soy and Sesame Dressing - £15.95

Didn't expect to get a whole fish with 2 pieces as you usually only get the 1. It was nice but was quite salty like when I went to Bloom a few weeks ago - the salt wasn't mixed in evenly. I did prefer this to what I had in Bloom. 

Danielle and Matt got Roasted Turmeric Cauliflower, Burnt Onion Purée, Crispy Kale, Salsa Verde Dressing (ve) - £4.95

I tried it and it was just soggy over done cauliflower on a plate with some crispy kale with no purée. It was like when we went to Yum Cha and got the broccoli in garlic and chilli. Fully gloried on the menu and a rip off.

The Refinery is nice for dinner with good portion sizes. Just need to work on the drinks service for those sat having dinner. After we went across the road to the Philharmonic Pub for a drink. I've never been before and there is a lot of hype over the men's toilets as they're grade 1 listed. Me and Kelly went and had a look at them after getting Josh to check it was clear and safe to do so. I didn't really know what I was meant to be appreciating but they did look fancier than the ladies... The pub is nice and cosy especially in the winter and has different rooms you can sit in to have a good catch up.

I guess it's one of them things if you go to the pub you have to visit the men's toilets. You can ask a member of staff to check the toilets are safe to go in if you don't have any guys with you to do that for you. 

It was nice to have dinner in town which is not what I do often as I couldn't tell you the last time I had dinner in time I tend to stay local and go out for brunch/lunch. The Quarter was the first choice but they were fully booked so that will be an option again for next time.

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London 2021

 

Last post from my birthday weekend trip to London - August Bank Holiday. Mixture of photos from the Saturday and Sunday.

Saturday

On the Saturday when I met up with Holly at Euston Station we walked to our hotel which was in Holborn opposite Lincoln's Inn Fields to check in and had a walk around Lincoln's Inn which is Holly's Barristers Inn. (She's explained to me a million times but I still don't fully understand what it is other than it's a fancy club post club she's a member of)

Our hotel room was nice and was £40 each for the night.

Then we went on a walk towards Harrods via Oxford Street

Next theatre trip to London need to see Harry Potter and Cursed Child - tickets are even more like goldust.

There was a lion trail around London called Tusk Lion Trail which is to support African wildlife. It ran from 10th August - 24th September. You could download a map online and follow the trail around the city to find all different designed lions. The trail was actually worldwide in other cities around the world -  Bristol, Edinburgh, The Hamptons - USA, Wellington - New Zealand, Nairobi - Kenya and Sydney - Australia. The lions are going to auction in November to raise money to protect wildlife and the people that care for them in Africa.

We then walked to Buckingham Palace.

Then we went for dinner at Sticks n Sushi before seeing Hamilton.

Sunday

Sunday morning we walked to Covent Garden to have brunch at Avobar. It was dead as no where was open yet.

It was swamped with people when we were around later on. No way we could have got a photo by the tiger there was that many people. 

We then walked to Somerset House

Somerset House

Somerset House the building is amazing does actually look like a palace. There are galleries inside but it was weird as each room we walked into there was nothing there to see. You could just wander round some parts of the building. There was one exhibition that you had to pay to go in for that had people but the other ones there was no-one else around it was weird. We didn't know what was going on.

The Royal Court of Justice

You see this on TV when there's a big case going on and looks very very fancy!

After we went back to Covent Garden to do The Harry Potter Photographic Exhibition. I wanted cookies or some ice cream so ended up going Chinatown. I ended up going back to Bake the one that did the matcha soft serve in a bubble waffle cone but instead got a Taiyaki fish. The one I had in Toronto Canada was defo stale as this was nice and crunchy.

This was £4

Holly got a vegan ice cream from Udderlicious

And that was my weekend in London! It was tiring, sushi and ice cream filled. I was missing some sweet American waffles but I'll get my waffle fix soon. Hoping to visit London again before the end of the year but nothing planned or booked yet.

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The Dark Kitchen

 

Went to The Dark Kitchen on Allerton Road for dinner with Holly last night. It's a new restaurant and bar that changes the menu every 3 months. Currently they have Hello Sushi and Lucha Libre - Japanese food and Mexican street food. Hello Sushi has been there from the start so not sure if this ever changes but Lucha Libre only came on the menu last week. There did used to be Lucha Libre restaurant in town next to the Fact Cinema that I've been to a few times. 

We got there just before 6pm - we hadn't booked and it wasn't busy when we got there. They had to check if they had a table for us and they had one but said we could have it 8pm which was fine for us.

Holly went for Lucha and sushi where as I went all sushi.

Sushi Plate (2 people to share) - 2 x prawn maki, 2 x katsu cali, 2 x tuna nigiri, 2 x salmon nigiri, 2 x char sui maki served with picked ginger and fennel - £16.95

I got the platter to myself as I didn't know what to get and it works out the same really - you don't even get that much so to share between 2 you would definitely need to order other bits. I swapped the spicy tuna cali for salmon nigiri.

The sushi looks better than it was. Definitely not the best sushi I've had. I think they were going for more presentation over taste. It's presented nice but taste wasn't the best.

Holly got:

Pilbil Tacos - 3 soft corn tacos topped with slow cooked pulled pil bil pork served with pickled red onions and coriander - £5.95

Spinach & Mushroom Quesadilla Vegan - Cheese filled toasted tortillas filled with spinach & mushrooms - £5.95

Char Sui Cali Maki Roll (4 pieces) - £5.95

The vegan cheese looked and tasted like glue - Holly was so sad that she got the vegan cheese as she can't really eat normal cheese as it gives her stomach pains. She said she rather have took the pain than eat vegan cheese.

I got churros with Biscoff sauce

Holly got the TDK Vegan Sundae - Chocolate and vanilla ice cream, with melted chocolate, strawberries, Biscoff biscuit and churros

The churros were good with the Biscoff dipping sauce that was definitely my favourite thing.
The idea of having a changing menu is good but when you're choosing presentation over taste it doesn't work. I know people eat with their eyes but it's still what you're actually eating and not what you're being presented. The point of food is to eat and not look at it. If you're after sushi I wouldn't recommend coming here but if you're wanting Lucha Libre - Mexican street then this is the place for you.

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