Candle Lit Dinner @ Amici Miei

Sammii here!

So a month ago it was a Sunday and a Valentines day! I went on my first Valentine's day dinner :) I know how Valentine's day can be an advertising money spending trap kind of day, buuut it still feels nice when your man can go out of his way to spoil you for the day! 

I am defiantly not the type to have an extravagant full on cheesey Valentine's day however, and I was quite scared that everywhere that weekend would be a full on IT'S-VALENTINE'S-DAY-BE-ROMANTIC-PRESSURE-IS-ON-YOU, so I was very happy that this little restaurant in Shoreditch was not full on in your face! It was discreetly decorated for the day with a rose in the middle of the table and a Valentine's day menu. 

My other half and I both opted to go for the Valentine's day menu, as we both are lazy to look and choose through the complete menu lol!

The menu was priced at £31 per person which included a starter, mains, dessert and a glass of prosecco. It gave you different options to choose for each course, but this is what I choose for my set Valentine's day dinner, 

Starter: Capesante In Salsa Pesto- Scallops and Pesto.

I thoroughly enjoyed this starter, it was very simple and light!

Mains: Gnocchi Al Tartufo Nero E Porcini- Black Truffle and Porcini Gnocchi.

This dish had a very chesnut-ty wooden taste. I think that it could have done with a bit more flavour as I felt as though the taste was watered down. 

Dessert: Strawberry Tiramisu. 

The star of the show always ends with dessert. This red curtain came in the form of red strawberries!

It was a delightful end to the meal and it was a very hearty size! We were both struggling to finish this dessert! It was very creamy!

I was happily fed and accompanied by a very fine guy sitting across the table from me with a very nice shirt on, nothing could have gone wrong that day! :)

Atmosphere- 10/10

Service- 10/10

Food- 7/10

Chocolate Sushi Rating- 8/10

London Film Museum and Italian Food

In December my friend and I celebrated our birthdays by visiting the London Film Museum and eating Italian food afterwards!

The London Film Museum is a hidden gem in South Bank, found in the County Hall building. I myself can't remember how I found out about it but once I did I was literally buzzing to visit (particularly as I am a massive Star Wars fan and was very excited to see the Star Wars section!)

We bought our tickets at the entrance, £13.50 each and definitely worth the price!



The dinosaur featured in Night at the Museum 2

Thunderbirds are Go

Costume from Batman Begins

Superman Newspaper Props - I love the original Superman films (1-3) with Christopher Reeves 

We really enjoyed the Myths & Legends exhibition! The original 1981 Clash of the Titans film is one of my favourite films. I remember watching it and being terrified of Medusa. She is still pretty scary as a movie prop! (See below)

Medusa....don't look directly at her

Facehuggers from Alien

Props from the Alien films

I'll be back.....Terminator 2

I love Star Trek and I got very excited when I saw this Klingon Bridge Chair featured in the Star Trek movies. I took photo after photo, from all angles...

I have loved the Simpsons since as long as I can remember. I used to come home after school and just watch episodes, one after the other.

I saw the Borrower's movie in school and so was very excited when I saw these giant versions of everyday products and objects (I felt a bit like a borrower myself). The film was also playing on a mini screen so I caught a couple of minutes of it when I was sat on the Simpsons chair.

We went to the museum on a Saturday and surprisingly it wasn't very full but this worked to our advantage. We got to spend as much time as we wanted in each section.

One thing I was disappointed with was that the Harry Potter section had gone! I had heard that there was a room with Harry Potter props and costumes and was very excited to see this, but when I checked it wasn't there anymore! Still, despite this, I would definitely recommend a visit to the London Film Museum!

After spending a good couple of hours exploring the museum we had worked up an appetite and decided to go for Italian food. We stayed in Waterloo and had an Italian Dinner at Azzuro Restaurant.

Starter
Bruschetta topped with crumbled goats cheese, tomatoes and balsamic vinegar
£5.95

The one time I tried goat's cheese it literally tasted like feet to me but I have to say this starter was delicious!! I could easily have eaten 2 helpings! In fact I actually don't think that there was enough goat's cheese on the bruschetta! I did find that the bruschetta was a little bit overcooked but this didn't matter as the tomatoes and goat's cheese were so tasty I quickly forgot about this.

Pizza - Danielle
Pizza with roasted peppers, goat's cheese, balsamic caramelised red onions and rocket
£9.95

Pizza - Margherita
£7.95

I found the main wasn't as tasty as the starter...I had liked the goat's cheese so much in the starter that I went for Pizza Danielle (my friend had the Margherita Pizza). However, I found that the pizza had too much goat's cheese in it which overpowered the other flavour's, making the pizza very sweet. The caramelised onions didn't help either...so in hindsight I probably won't be getting this pizza again.

Atmosphere                       7/10

Service                                7/10

Food                                    8/10

Chocolatesushi Rating    7/10

Blog Post written by Nabs

The Future of Dining?

For my friend's birthday we went to Vapiano, which is an Italian restaurant in oxford street. The Italian theme continues!!

Vapiano proved to be a unique dining experience for a number of reasons:

1. Unlike traditional restaurants where once shown to a table your order is taken by a waiter or waitress, Vapiano is a 'made to order' restaurant, and there are no waiters or waitresses. Just staff occasionally walking around the restaurant and asking if everything is going well. 

2. As you walk into the restaurant you are given a card (see image A and B) which you need to make sure you don't lose as this is the card that you will use to order your food from the pasta, pizza and salad bars. How it works is that you select a dish from the menu and go to the right bar. So for example, if you want pasta you would go to the pasta bar. Once there you tell the chef your chosen dish, who will cook it there in front of you, using fresh ingredients. You then touch your card to the scanner. All the orders will be saved onto the card as you touch it and you pay at the end, at the same till where you were given the card.

3. Dining at Vapiano, you are able to see your food made in front of you (hence 'made to order'). Fresh ingredients are used for the pasta, pizzas and salads.

'Made to order dining' at Vapiano is a new concept in restaurant dining, already established in Europe, and one of the first of its kind in the UK.

Image A (front of card)

Image B (back of card)

Image C Starter Bruschetta [toasted bread, tomatoes, garlic, olive oil]

Image D Main Margherita Pizza [tomato sauce, mozzarella]

Image E Dessert Strawberries & Cream Haagen Daaz

The starter's saving grace (see image C) was the tomatoes on top of the bread which were rich in flavour. Otherwise I found the bread to be quite bland and boring.

I found my main dish (see image D) to be disappointing. When I first saw the pizza come out of the oven I remember thinking how beautiful it looked, with the big tomato in the middle and the soft doughy crust. However, as I began to eat it I realised that the layer of cheese was far too thick. I usually love cheesy pizzas, the cheesier the better but this proved too much. I must admit that after trying my friend's main dish (arrabbiata: tagliatelle pasta with tomato sauce, garlic and chilli) I preferred it to mine. So, if I was to go back to Vapiano, I would definitely go for the pasta dish, which with its combination of flavours proved to be a tasty dish!

Advantages of dining at Vapiano

• Chefs use fresh ingredients


• The dish is made in front of you, hence you know what is going into your food


• Great atmosphere! This was actually my favourite thing about the restaurant. There is also a variety of seating arrangements, from wooden bench style tables to cushion style seats which are very comfortable! We  sat in the restaurant for a couple of hours and unlike some restaurants where you are constantly asked whether you are finished so someone else can sit down we were not in any way made to hurry, even though the restaurant was full


• Reasonable prices (starter, main, dessert and a soft drink all for under £15)

Disadvantages of dining at Vapiano 

• When the restaurant gets busy, as it was that day, it can be a long wait in the queue to order your food! This can be especially annoying if you want to order a pasta dish and a starter (which most of us will want to do!) and will therefore have to queue up twice. As a result there is a chance of either your starter or main dish going cold, depending on which one you ordered first. Yes, you could order your starter first, eat, and then go back to queue for the main but if you are like me you will want to order everything in one go so that you can sit down and enjoy your food, rather than have to worry about queuing again!


• Balancing a pizza, starter and glass bottle of coke on a tray is actually a tricky business, particularly if you are going upstairs or walking around the restaurant to look for a seat. I think this is when I really missed being in a traditional restaurant, where the food is brought to me, as there is no chance of me accidentally dropping a plate or bottle!


• The food is actually a bit of a disappointment, and ultimately the restaurant's focus is on providing a good atmosphere and dining experience rather than the food

Atmosphere                       9/10

Food                                   6/10

Service                               5/10

Chocolatesushi rating     7/10

Nabs 13/12/12

 

Italian and Apple Pie

After working up an appetite from a morning of uni and work, we walked around Leicester Square looking at various menus along the way and finally settled on having a bit of Italian at Leicester Square Bella Italia. It turns out there were 3 Bella Italia's to choose from! All less than a minute's walk away from each other!! It was calling for us to eat there! haha.

 When we walked through the door we were greeted straight away and shown to our table. We chose one right at the back around the corner, very cosy!! 

There was a lot to choose from on the menu, the prices being fairly average at around £9-10 a dish! There was also a lunch menu available, but we chose to try something from the main menu. 

 This is the shared starter we ordered: 

Calamari £5.95

Lightly breaded and deep fried tender squid with lemon and caper mayonnaise

It took roughly 13mins for it to be brought out, so all in good time for a nice chat!

The dish was very nice! The batter was light and not too oily, however the squid pieces could have been more 'squidier' xD We would have liked to have bitten into a bigger piece of squid meat!!

For Samantha's main dish she ordered: 

Polle e Spinaci £9.45

Wholewheat riatoni with sliced chicken breast, field mushrooms and baby spinach in a creamy gorgonzola sauce

Samii: The dish was ok..... not as nice as it looked however! There was nothing wrong with it don't get me wrong! Guess it lacked a flavor I could say.. But I would not be ordering this dish again in the future. 

For Nabila's main dish she ordered: 

Gamberoni £9.95 

Eight succulent king prawns sauteed with garlic and chilli in a spicy pomodoro sauce, with spaghetti

Nabila: Now I'd like to start by telling you that I am a huge fan of prawns so this dish was a no brainer for me, especially since it said in the description 'succulent king prawns'! I mean what could be better?! Still it took me a while to select this dish as my final choice as there were just so many dishes on the menu to choose from! When the dish arrived I did oo and aah at the plate as it was nicely presented apart from the splattered chilli sauce on the side! 

The dish as a whole was very tasty, I especially liked the prawns as they were nice and juicy! And big too, which is very important as sometimes on the menu they say king prawns and when they arrive they are definitely not king sized! Also, there was a very generous helping of spaghetti but the dish did not fill me up. I am a person who usually gets full quite quickly but after cleaning my plate I was still hungry! So perhaps it wasn't value for price and the dish looked bigger than it actually was!

For both of our main course dishes we were given the option to have the dishes sprinkled with grated mozzarella cheese and pepper! Lovely!

Overall, our waiter was pleasant, the service was timed nicely and the waiter got the balance right between checking if we were ok and leaving us to enjoy our meal, which is always nice!