Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Belle... eats?

Hello lovely blog. It has once again been a very long time, even though I promised it wouldn't. I have had a very busy few months finishing up my college portfolio, working like a (slightly) busy beaver and enjoying living in London, which is so damn exciting right now. And I'm only talking about the food.


I think its easy to forget how lucky we are to live in such an amazingly diverse city where you can dine out every night on a completely different kind of cuisine and never get bored. Especially when you're constantly being bombarded by deals from boring, homogeneous chain restaurants begging for business. This year I've been trying to make more of an effort to get out of my comfort zone in all aspects of my life, including where I eat. I do understand that some times its all too easy to give in to another night at Nandos because at least you know what you're getting instead of spending money on food that could turn out to be worse but I am so bored to tears that my friend Harriet and I have come up with "The List". The list is essentially every place we want to go and eat in London but have either not gotten around to it or not been able to afford it. Its ever growing, it started off as being three or four restaurants a few weeks ago and this is it currently:


Arbutus - Frith Street, Soho
Ida - Kilburn Lane, Queens Park
Mishkins - Covent Garden
Dock kitchen - Ladbroke Grove, North Kensington
Polpetto - Soho
Dishoom - St Martins Lane
Meat Market - Covent Garden Piazza
La Gavroche - 
Barbecoa - New Change, St Pauls
Nobu - Park Lane
Burger and lobster - Mayfair
Big Easy - Kings Road
Pomelo- Kensal Rise
Cinnamon Soho - Kingly Street
Lucky Chip - Seabright Arms, off Hackney Road
Hawksmoor - Seven Dials
10 Greek St - Soho
Pitt cue - Newburgh Street, Carnaby
Ceviche - Frith St
Tramshed - Rivington St, Shoreditch
La Bodega Negra - Moor St, Soho
Slide Bar - lucky chip in soho - opening soon
Princi - Wardour St, Soho
Villaindry - Great Portland St
Santo - Portobello Road
Shrimpys - Kings Cross
Bistrotque - Bethnal Green
Ottolenghi - Notting Hill
Jamie Oliver's 15 - Old Street
Spit and Roast - Eat Street/Street Feast
Mother Flipper - East Street/Street Feast

I am going through a phase where I hear about a place I want to eat every day and don't do anything about it so the plan is that my friend and I try and eat at two of these places a month, or if its a particularly expensive place just once, and I'll write about them here. 

Neither of us are restaurant critics, we are just two women in our twenties who know what we like and want to experience new culinary marvels. As you can see from the list the places we want to visit are varied and in different areas of London, both street food and stuffy institutes that I've only ever dreamt of affording. I am by no means a food snob, some of the best food I've eaten recently has been while stood on the street with a beer in one hand and a slice of pizza or a burger in the other.

At the moment there are 31 places on this list, I have eaten at 1 of them already (The Big Easy), so this should take around 18 months! 

Here we go!