The Breakfast Club | London Bridge

An American Breakfast is one of life's many pleasures. The pancakes, the bacon, the maple syrup...ahh gaaad its good. Its currently 10:43pm and I'm SO full from the lasagne I made for tea and I could still stuff my face with a plate of pancakes! I think that says its all.

But backtracking, myself and my sister Katie took a trip to the recently opened branch of The Breakfast Club in London Bridge for brunch a few weeks back! The decor of every Breakfast Club is always really cute and quirky, but this branch really made me feel like I was back in an American Diner. Crazy fried egg lampshade to boot!

We went for a pitcher of Iced Tea, and huge breakfast's; it had to be done! I opted for the classic All-American, while Katie went for the veggie version. I won't lie, I don't know how anyone can resist the bacon in the Breakfast club; vegetarian or not! haha

Aside from the wondrous bacon and pancakes, the sausage is genuinely one of the best I've ever eaten and the potatoes are SO DAMN GOOD. I also never realised how well potatoes and maple syrup went together! After my very first trip to The Breakfast Club a few years back I became an absolute maple syrup convert.

This has essentially turned into a page of gushing over breakfast foods....and I'm quite okay with that! Breakfast Club if you're reading, I'm more than willing to be employed as an official taste tester!! ;)

Let me know if you're also a pancake lover! :)

Aimée
Xxxx

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Maddy's Fish Bar.

Yesterday evening after work I had planned to spend some serious time writing up new posts and getting my blogging mojo officially on. However, when I got back to the flat the boys were mixing up a vat of Pimms and were formulating plans for us all to finally head over to Maddy's Fish Bar. So, I took the executive decision that living in the moment should always come first, and hey its new content right?

Maddy's Fish Bar is on New Cross Road and quite literally opposite our flat. It opened up a few months ago and we've been meaning to go ever since. Isn't it funny how the closer you are to something the longer it takes you to get there?

Anyway, it was definitely worth the wait! I opted for the classic, Haddock and Chips. The Fish was really well cooked, and the batter was infused with Dill which was a really nice addition. I had tartare sauce on the side, which definitely tasted homemade - always a win! The dish also came with a Cabbage Slaw which we all noted had a definite Japanese influence. It complimented the fish really well though and was a much nicer addition than a regular 'slaw side. The Chips were also super tasty, and were just the right ratio of crispy and fluffy.

Because I was clearly not full enough after that, I had Ice Cream. Don't judge...

If Salted Caramel is on the menu I can't really ignore it. Its becoming a problem really! They also had Cornflake Ice Cream which Will and Bastien tried - it was strange, like a thick breakfast shake... I'm not selling it well, but it really was nice! Very much an acquired taste I'd imagine though.

Finally, we had a few beers in the bar next door and I had the very brilliantly named:

Yep. Wu Gang Chops The Tree. Brilliantly named if you ask me, and it was really tasty! For some reason Fish and Chips always brings out the beer drinker in me!

If you're in the South East London area definitely give Maddy's a try. Not only is it really good food, but its Fish and Chips in London that actually won't break the bank! Crazy I know.

Aimée
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Date Night: Ping Pong

After stating that Craig and myself were going to establish a weekly date night, we have royally failed. I won't lie to you. We seem to have been ridiculously busy for the past month or so and have only managed to have date number two this week! Oops!

This time around it wasn't a fancy pop-up, but a favourite haunt. Ping Pong is known for its amazing dim sum, cocktails and chinese tea. They have quite a few locations around London, but last week we visited the St. Paul's spot!

As you may be able to tell by the quantity of food in the pictures, we totally gorged ourselves! I have to say though, in defence - dim sum is quite small...!

I might also add that dim sum definitely doesn't photograph well, so even if you're thinking 'that literally all looks disgusting' please do try it! It definitely tastes 100xtimes better than it looks.

Myself and Craig both loveee seafood, so we chose literally everything with prawns, scallop and crab in, but they do have a pretty varied menu. My favourite had to be the brilliantly named "crispy prawn ball". Also, how cool was my flaming passion fruit cocktail?! I won't lie though, it was ratherrrr alcoholic!

We finished off the evening with a glass of wine overlooking the Thames. All in all, it was a delightful evening! Hopefully our next date night won't be too far apart this time!

Aimée
Xxxx

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Date Night at The Pearl

Myself and Craig have noticed in recent months that all too often we were spending our evenings sat in watching TV. Which don't get me wrong, I do enjoy! But, we started to feel like we weren't doing anything exciting as a couple anymore. Step forward 'Date Night Thursday'! We've decided from now on every Thursday we're going to do something interesting together whether its going for a meal, to an exhibition or seeing a show! Just something new and together.

So, with that in mind last night we went along to the (semi-permanent?!) pop-up restaurant The Pearl in The Dolls House overlooking Hoxton Square. The idea behind the restaurant is British cuisine 'tapas' style and they recommend you have art least 2-3 dishes each. Naturally, we took their advice ;)

The food was literally so so good! First up we had 'breads and butters' which consisted of one slice of soda bread and one slice of black pudding bread with truffle butter and marmite butter. I won't lie, I don't like black pudding, but oh my was that bread amazing! We're now both trying to find a recipe! We also started with gin infused pickled onions - oh yes!

Next up we had some veggie dishes - asparagus with hollandaise sauce and a beetroot, walnut and westcombe cheese salad. Both were literally delicious! It was so nice having the small dishes too, made the experience of dinner so much more interesting.

We actually didn't choose any meat dishes as there wasn't anything we particularly wanted, but the fish dish we chose was my favourite! Scallops and crayfish in an amazing butternut squash puree. Oh my. I could have eaten that dish double the size!

Originally we hadn't actually ordered a pudding, but it is me and I do love a good dessert so we tried 'eggs and soldiers' from the menu. This came out as two shortbread fingers, with what looked like actual eggs! In reality it was a mango caramel yummyness - I'm using the term yummyness because I genuinely don't know what it was aside from tasting so so good! It was really smooth and creamy and not sickly at all which was quite surprising!

It was a delightful date night, made all the better by the brilliant service and really cool atmosphere throughout the Dolls House. If you're around Hoxton its definitely worth a visit, if not purely for the fact that the man on the door is always dressed as a cowboy. I'll say no more.

Aimée
Xxxx

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Lunch at Joe's Southern Kitchen

As previously documented on this blog I am a real foodie and I enjoy nothing more than finding a new eatery to be wined and dined in. Myself and Craig often go out for food and really enjoy exploring new hot spots. With this in mind, I wanted to add a few foodie reviews here and there into the blog, with the first being Joe's Southern Kitchen.

Me and Craig went to Joe's Southern Kitchen a few weeks ago on a rather rainy day for lunch. The restaurant is on King Street in Covent Garden and we've often found ourselves walking past and peering inside! As the name would suggest it is a real Southern restaurant, with fried chicken first on the menu! I loved the decor inside, it had a real rustic vibe to it! There was also seats upstairs on a balcony which would give you a great view of the restaurant. I didn't originally plan to review the restaurant and I didn't have my big camera with me, so apologies for the slightly rubbish pictures!

After much deliberation on the massive menu we both opted for the 'Blue Plate Special' which was crazy cheap for how much food we got! I couldn't finish my plate at all! With the special we got fried chicken, fries with chicken salt and BBQ pulled pork beans. Craig also had a glass of wine, while I tried the Lemongrass Lemonade. All that for 10 quid each! Madness!! As sides I got Cornbread Muffins and Craig had classic Mac'n'Cheese.

First of all, the fries were amazing!! They were probably the highlight for me actually, they were just so damn tasty!! The BBQ pulled pork beans were super tasty, but there was way too much of it! The actual chicken however, I liked but didn't love. I can't quite put my finger on what I didn't like, but Craig loved it so I definitely wouldn't let my opinion sway you! The mac'n'cheese was sooo yummy though! One of the best I've had! My cornbread muffins were yummy too, buttt we totally didn't need the sides! The meal was filling enough!

All in all, it is a really lovely restaurant with some seriously good food on the menu! I'd love to go back and try one of their buns, or their famed 'beer can chicken'. They also had an amazing array of cocktails, but as it was lunch time I wasn't sure whether it was acceptable to test a few out... Definitely next time though!!

Aimée
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