All posts filed under: UK

Malmaison London – hotel and brasserie

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Malmaison hotels ‘dare to be different’, or so they claim. I was intrigued before my stay and wanted to see how. Upon entering the dimly lit and darkly coloured reception area, I got the gist of what was to come. A rude painting hangs above the stairs that go down to the brasserie and the black and red decor sets the scene. I was pleasantly surprised to see a huge kingside bed, plasma screen TV, CD and DVD player in the room. The hotel staff had even left two bars of Flake ‘allure’ on the bed. The bathroom was sleek but there were no stand out features – except of course the toiletries that you are encouraged to use and take home with you. The fact that they provide you with a bottle of massage oil tells you a little bit about the ways in which the hotel group ‘dares’ to be different. We arrived at the brasserie for dinner and perused the menu. Due to the location (Farringdon), I imagine that the biggest customers …

Riverford Oraganic Farm trip

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Veg boxes delivered to your door. Some people love them, others think they’re a bit of a waste of money. I’m going on various conversations that I’ve had with people over the last couple of years. Yes – that’s how long I’ve been ‘thinking’ about getting one but I hadn’t managed to get around to it. Until now. Until I took a visit to Riverford Organic Farm in Devon. I was invited on a press trip along with a group of bloggers and journalists. The email landed in my inbox entitled ’24 hours of wild garlic’ and before I even opened the email, I knew that whatever greatness lay inside the body of the email was going to appeal to me. And it sure did. The email was aptly titled, we were to leave London at 7pm on Friday evening and return at 8pm on Saturday evening. OK, so maybe we were away for 25 hours but I’ll blame that on the delayed train. The lovely ladies at Story PR provided us with an astounding …

The Fox & Anchor dinner and hotel stay

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I was invited to stay at The Fox & Anchor pub/hotel in Clerkenwell recently so on Friday, my boyfriend and I packed our bags and headed to this city boozer come boutique hotel for a meal, followed by an overnight stay. We arrived at the pub at 6.30pm and leaned over the bar to let the staff know that we had a room booked. They grabbed the key and told us how to get to our room. We wrestled past the Friday night city punters enjoying their end of the working week drinks and unlocked the door to walk upstairs. Our key told us that we were staying in ‘St. Bart’s’, which actually stands for St Bartholomew’s – one of London’s oldest churches. All six rooms above the Fox & Anchor pub have a name, rather than a number and we had the pleasure of being surrounded by Smithfield, Charterhouse, St Paul’s, Barbican and The Market Suite. I believe that all rooms are pretty similar, each comes with a king sized bed (with a picture …

Peter’s Yard, Edinburgh

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I have a real craving for cinnamon at the moment, much to the amusement of my workmates and it has reminded me of a breakfast that I had when I was in Edinburgh a couple of weekends ago. One of my workmates lived in Edinburgh during her uni years and sent a few recommendations before we embarked on our 3 day trip. One of those suggestions was Peter’s Yard. So naturally, we decided to head there for breakfast. It ended up being a pretty late one and we didn’t want to eat too much as we had a hefty lunch planned at Petit Paris. We opted for a delicious Cinnamon bun and a lovely pot of tea to go with it. My friends ordered a flat white and cappuccino, which looked too delightful not to capture on film! The cafe itself was buzzing and full with very, very cool looking couples, yummy mummies and university students. The high ceilings made it feel very light, airy and modern (very Scandinavian). The food looked fresh, the salads …

The Kitchin, Edinburgh

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‘Would you ever move out of London?’ I asked my friend as we left Edinburgh airport in our taxi. Her reply? Of course not. We’re spoiled in London. There is a comfort of knowing that there is always something to do, even if you don’t actually want to be doing anything. Then of course there are the restaurants, there are loads of greats. When we go on holiday (this was our first one together), we actively seek the best places to eat. No surprise then that both of us were quite rightly excited about dining at The Kitchin for lunch. We were greeted by a familiar face at reception, a girl that used to work with us in London. Having lived in London all of her life, she decided she wanted to break away and embark on new foodie adventures. One may think that Edinburgh isn’t the obvious choice but read on and you’ll see why it is. Our coats were hung and champagne glasses clinked. A basket of freshly baked bread sticks, cheese puffs, …