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Andina – Peruvian Food in East London
Picture taken from Opentable, where you can book a table should you want to. Or you can call the restaurant, they have a phone.
I don’t like raw fish. Andina is a Ceviche Bar. Just so you know what that is as I didn’t, it’s raw fish. My heart sank. It hadn’t been my choice to go for Peruvian, because frankly who would? Menu Menu Menu, my eyes then scanned to quinoa burger. Sad, so sad. But wait then Pig Butty – oh lunch only and I was there for dinner. I was glad their food was for suitable for coeliacs and locally sourced but how about some food that I could have? You can get a whole suckling pig, – if you order it five days before…
But wait there’s a pot at the end of the rainbow, because being on my best behaviour and also being hungry I just decided to go for it. Grilled steak skewers and chicken casseroles, all with weird, but cooked ingredients not previously mentioned and you know what? It was good. It was really good. The doughnuts for dessert made the meal just wish that there had been more choices.
The place has a good vibe. It’s busy, small seating, not posh nosh but street food. The service is really good and friendly but it’s not somewhere you would go and sit for a long time enjoying your food. I liked it, but if you like sushi you will probably like it more.
Dorset Square Hotel
Taken from the Telegraphs pics online because I was too drunk to take one.
If you could picture it I was on the fourth from the left trying cocktail on the menu with my two girlfriends. Then I was eating my fish and chips to the left. The place was empty bar a few people mooching around so it felt like my girlfriends and I had run of the place. Why on earth was it a Saturday night and this place without the people? Such a shame. It’s a great little find in Baker Street just minutes walk from the tube. We stayed and ate, and the food was good, but not as good as the drink where a lot of care and attention happened in the arrays of colours into a glass and the service was excellent. Great for friends catching up, great for a romantic meet up. Not great if you want a party atmosphere but what the hell take your own party. Keep this place alive people!
Miami
After Vegas I headed to Miami to visit my friend. We headed out looking for a strong coffee called Cortadito, which I would say is like an espresso but called something else. We found a great little place in the middle of pretty much nowhere and got our fix. This is of course after having to order in Spanish something that should be so simple and yet both of us floundered with our arms helplessly flapping as we tried to ask for coffee.
I learnt Spanish for a year when I was sixteen, mainly because my boyfriend at the time was Spanish and I wanted to know what his mum was saying about me. All these years later and the simple task of ordering a coffee and all I could think of was how to order a beer and say where is the station? Useless. But they smiled politely and got us what we wanted after what seemed an eternity of lost in translation. I had let myself down, my family down and anyone else I could think of down.
We decided not to do South Beach but drive around looking for Street Art and we found plenty. I have nothing sarcastic to say about any of it. It just reminded me of how I got a B- for effort in art but D for the actual execution. I never quite worked out how to get what was inside my head into art but these people certainly had. I wonder if they draw it first as a sketch or can just do?
We had an amazing lunch at a place called Michael’s Food and Drink; it’s worth mentioning because apart from the tables being too close together, so much so we actually joined in the conversation with the people next to us, I think I had the best Chilli I had ever had. It was a food haven.
Miami behind me I flew for a rest to my family in Florida, on a jet plane. The propeller kind where there is only 20 seats. Now I know why it only cost sixty bucks. How the pilot and attendants do it constantly I don’t know. I felt like I was in the movie Knight and Day when Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz are the only people on the plane bar the bad guys. If only Tom Cruise had made an appearance perhaps all would have been well, but he wasn’t so I shit myself for the hour.
New York – Days 24 to 35
I had a good friend in Town so we decided to do what I should do and don’t and that was go to the Museums. So we made arrangements and toddled over to the to Met Museum to find it closed. The Met is closed on a Monday to the Public should you need this info. So we went to the Natural History Museum to see the Whale Exhibition which was actually pretty good.
We had to go through the dinosaur exhibition to get anywhere and being a City girl I was immediately annoyed that I couldn’t just get direct to where I was going. Past childhood why on earth would you want to see a bunch of dinosaurs? But no I take it back. It’s pretty amazing and worth the walk. The only thing the museum could have done with is a good dusting. Some of the exhibits are behind glass and look like no one has cleaned the filth accumulating inside for as long as the items have existed. Get a duster Natural History.
We made it to the Met a few days later to the see the Punk Couture exhibition which would be great if you didn’t know anything about punk but I thought it was pretty lame in general. It’s a lot of clothes in rows and quite dull. But I’m from London and a musician so I know all about punk so I’m probably just being over picky. It didn’t stop me buying a CBGB t shirt at the end though. I once played there so I figured I had the right.
And in this amount of time there had been a ridiculous amount of food in amazing places. I do like a munch on the crumbs of life. Stanton Social on the Lower East Side, The Tangled Vine wine bar on the Upper West, Del Frisco’s amazing steak house in the Mid West, The Magnolia Bakery and their ridiculous Banana Pudding. And the cocktail bar of the hotel which killed it with their amazing mixology at The Crosby Hotel. I will name and shame the waiter in Sara Beth’s on the upper West Side for purposefully not trying to bring back change for a bill which meant he would have taken a 40% tip. And he was not making an error. When I complained he couldn’t even look me in the eye as he brought the change back. I am no tourist here now sir, so take the shame.
I also got stuck in a rainstorm. As it was warm and rainy I waited inside a toy store not looking suspicious in the slightest as I played on my phone. In the end my time of dawdling had run out and I decided to make a dash. Sure I might get a little wet but how much worse could it get? Well it gets much worse in New York as the sheets of rain hit. This is rain unlike any other I have experienced . I felt like I had been caught in a monsoon yet I was in the centre of New York. So if in doubt in the rain over here, just don’t.
And to top it off I l have been learning that the measurements of alcohol in drinks here is nothing like the paltry measures back home. I’m a practicing lush and I’m having to learn to take it slow on the consumption. Well I’m trying. After on a Monday night downing a few Espresso Martinis at the Crosby Hotel I went onto a friends bar where I ended up being the only proprietor. This ended with me getting over excited by the DJ playing a random selection of 80’s and running up to the booth like a fan and making him put on Don’t you Want me Baby by the Human League at full volume and making him sing it with me. Alone in the bar with my friend and two other co workers watching. The dangers of mixing the drinks is a lesson learned here. Maybe not adhered to but learned all the same. I felt very quiet the next day. Never have I willed a natural fruit juice to heal me more; It didn’t.
The Crown and Goose
This is a great pub in Camden, hidden away from the mayhem. It gets packed and it’s only let down is that sometimes there is not enough staff on. Other than that it’s a great pub with a dark brooding atmosphere. The food here is excellent with offers of lamb kofte burger to a wonderful vege bean stew. I’d recommend booking even on a Monday as you never know when the local crowd is going to take it over. One of my favourites for North London.
Artigiano
Artigiano is a local Italian in Belsize Park. I’ve been here a few times. It looks wonderful. Clean and spaced out tables, inviting. A real neighbourhood gem. HOwever something about it always lets it down. A place that is capable of giving an excellent experience but yet a few times has had something lack when I have visited. The food is excellent but last time I ate there the inside of my ravioli was cold, which for an Italian restaurant is a no no. Another time I was there in a large group and the service was a let down. It’s also somewhere that sits people close together when there is plenty of room to be spaced out and have some privacy.
The food is excellent. The service good but insincere. I would eat here. It’s so much more than a local Italian but doesn’t quite make it to the classic Italian restaurant that it could be. It would only take a bit more of a step up with an attention to detail for this place to realize it’s potential.
A Maze ing
Maze is one of Gordon Ramsey’s restaurants. It’s on Grosvenor Square, near to Oxford Circus. It’s very easy to find and get to.
Although I can fault the snooty woman at the check in who deemed it fine to think I enjoyed standing in front of her for kicks and seemed confused that I might have a reservation, I cannot fault the rest of the service. Our Head Waiter had more than a touch of Tom Cruise about him and gave us service with a crazy eyed smile that said, ‘I only want to serve you, you are the most fun’; he had me at hello. Everyone working in there was friendly and helpful and you could tell got on really well which made the atmosphere really fun and somewhat cheeky.
I can’t fault the food, or the price. Gastro Pubs are charging outrageous prices for main courses these days and this place on average was £12.50 for a plate. The plates are there to share and you can have as many or as little as you want. We had six between two, which was plenty and I can’t fault one of them. If you are a vegetarian who doesn’t eat fish though give it a miss. I am talking, crispy veal sweetbread, scallops, pork belly.
Did I mention the wine list is on an ipad? Ridiculous. It made me love the place as much as the sommelier’s red spectacles which I did love. They made his face and the strangest thing is that he looked a bit like Heston. Perhaps the employees all moonlight as famous doubles? Drinks and wines are not a bargain but they have to make money somehow people. This is not your local dirty boozer.
So if you like food then go. It’s not a snooty place to go and the food is worth every penny. So many people think places in London have to be expensive in town but they are competition for your local try hard pub serving what is a Marks and Sparks meal at triple the price. This is good food.
Good for girly catch-ups, dates, sitting on your own and staring at the staff pretending you have a date. Casual smart and trendy but not up it’s own arse which is down to the people working there. Food cost me about £60 for two people. You can call direct or book last minute on Opentable a live reservation service. For a good night out I’m giving it five stars. Lets start this blog with a bang people.
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