Come Dine With Me

On Saturday night I went round to Jo and Rich's for dinner. They invited Jon and Rach as well to say thanks for New Years Eve the weekend before. It was so fancy full on 3 course meal!

Canapes smoked salmon, creme fraiche on a pancake

Fishcake and salad

Fried rice with avocado and chorizo

Fried rice with mixed veg - green beans, peppers, peas

Chicken, steak, onions and pepper kebab

Lemon tart, mini fruit tartlet and vanilla ice cream

The food was really good. Never had avocado with rice but heard Rich going on about it cos he eats it all the time and was dying to try it. It works! Fried rice with avocado and chorizo. I loved it! It was all home made apart from the fish cake and dessert but M&S finest can't go wrong there! It was really posh did look like restaurant food the way they presented it. Jon is dying to get them to do Come Dine With Me with him. I definitely won't be taking part in the cooking part but will happily help eat!

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The Refinery

Last night I went to The Refinery - Kitchen, Bar with Holly. It's on the corner of Hope Street & Myrtle Street in town opposite the Philharmonic Hall. A nice little place that serves food, cocktails & live music. They do breakfast, lunch & dinner. They're part of Bistro Jacques, The Hub Alehouse & Kitchen on Hanover Street & others around the city. People were dressed both casual & dressed up for a night out. It was nice & cosy since we were in there for hours.

I haven't seen Holly since my belated birthday meal at the end of August, as she's left me for Nottingham again. It was really lovely to catch up as I probably won't see her now till next month when we finally see Bastille!

We got the pre-theatre offer - 1 small plate & 1 big plate £13.50

I got the Beef short rib, fennel seed BBQ sauce & crispy onion rings. 

Superfood salad: Baby spinach, edamame beans, cherry vine tomatoes, tendertem broccoli, avocado, toasted pumpkin seeds, lemon & olive dressing with teriyaki salmon.

The rib meat was really nice & soft, the sauce was also good. Wasn't really a fan of the onion rings, didn't taste like onions. The salad I enjoyed but didn't my salmon was gonna look like that. I thought it was gonna be chunks of salmon, the reason I chose to go here was after seeing their instagram of the teriyaki salmon salad. This photo here doesn't look like that...

Holly got the Soup of the day which was tomato & basil with artisan bread.

She also got the Superfood salad that I got but with grilled chicken.

Food was good but it came so quick. I know the soup is already there but as soon as she took our order it was already at our table! Same with the salad not much cooking or preparation but that came straight after they'd taken our plates from our starters! If we didn't stay to talk & have a drink we would've been out of there within half an hour we got our food so quick! I've never been anywhere where the service has been that quick. 

I must look like I go out for these meals I blog about on my own as I always forget to take photos of myself & whoever I'm with. Priority is to take a photo of the food before anyone put their cutlery in it! But I promise you I was with Holly last night who might've been a little tipsy as she got a large glass of red wine & was on the Bailey's while I was designated driver so was on the orange juice.

I'd recommend The Refinery but maybe tell them your want a break after your starter so your main doesn't come flying out straight after it!

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Dinner Date

Kelly's home for the weekend so we went for dinner at Jalons on Allerton Road. It was nice to catch up considering the 3 of us still live in the same city we haven't seen each other since the last time we seen Kelly or at least as a group. (I see Danielle in work & seen Hannah once.)

We got the 2 course Sunday meal for £10.95. A starter & a main which was a challenge for us to decide what to get. Quite stressful, too much choice couldn't decide between fish or a roast! We all kinda had a rough idea of what we wanted then the girl came to take our order & Danielle randomly decided to get the sea bass we started laughing. The girl must've thought we were really immature but trying to be grown up in a nice 'sophisticated' restaurant.

Slowly braised baby back ribs

in our own bbq sauce

Creamy wild mushroom

Served on a crispy crostini with pesto dressing

Crispy chicken fillets seasoned in sea salt & cracked black pepper

with a sweet chilli dip

Sunday Chicken Roast

Garlic and ginger grilled sea bass

rested on Asian salad with honey and soy dressing

Pan fried chilli salmon

Served with slow roasted Mediterranean vegetables

It was nice but my starter was so much bigger than what I expected (why was I give a bowl for ribs??) & so full after the roast. I wish I did get the fish now but I didn't want us all to order the same thing! I wouldn't mind going again & get the fish next time.

Been a busy lately with college & work. Also on Wednesday I started the Advanced presenting course which is run by Bauer Academy at Radio City. 6 week course running every Wednesday so I go straight to town after college when I finish at 4:30. 

The best view of the city

College is going well I'm qualified to give gym inductions! Have exams not this coming week but the week after. Physiology & anatomy and principles of exercises, health & fitness. Kinda stressing about I'd even though it's multiple choice on the computer it's harder than you think even when the answer is there in front of you! So hopefully I pass them both first time and we get to move on to Level 3 Personal Trainer!

Also Julaayy turned 3 years old yesterday! It has gone so quick, crazy how I was in my second year of uni at the time & it's been over a year since I graduated! Still many more years & blogposts to come...

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