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

What I ate: Buffet at Jimmy's in Wimbledon

When going for a buffet I always imagine that I'll  be able to eat  4 or 5 plates of food yet I never manage more than 2 plates, 3 is pushing it. This is despite the fact that I've not eaten anything beforehand so am really quite hungry. I don't know if it's because I sometimes pile my plate with too much food and as a result get full quickly but it literally happens everytime I go for a buffet.

Moving onto Jimmy's, I went to see the the Hobbit: The Battle of The Five Armies with my friend yesterday and we ate at Jimmy's before seeing the film. Jimmy's is a buffet restaurant serving food from around the world: Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Thai, and Italian. 

There was so much different food to choose from that I didn't know where to start. Did I feel like eating pizza or maybe sweet and sour chicken? In the end I went for both, so my first plate (see photo below) had sweet and sour chicken, spring rolls, rice, prawn crackers, beef in black bean sauce and pizza. The spring rolls were my favourite, I found myself eating all 4 and wanting more. 

Plate 1

Plate 2

I have been to Jimmy's once before and on that visit had been to the wok cooking station where fresh stir fry is made for you while you wait. How it works: you add noodles and vegetables onto a plate which you then hand to the chef who will ask you what meat you would like on the stir fry (you can choose from prawn, chicken or beef) as well as how spicy you would like the stir fry to be. I can't remember what I had on my first visit to Jimmy's but yesterday I chose peppers, mushrooms, bean sprouts, pak choi and chicken with medium spice. The chef took all the ingredients (noodles, vegetables and meat) and cooked everything in front of me. I couldn't wait to eat! 

Dessert

Moving onto the best thing about a meal: dessert! At Jimmy's you can choose desserts ranging from ice cream to cake to marshmallows and chocolate fondue (my favourite!) Although the meat at Jimmy's is halal some of the desserts at Jimmy's contain gelatine (this is labelled) so I wasn't able to try everything. I love ice cream so that was an obvious choice for me. You choose a flavour of ice cream (from chocolate, strawberry and vanilla, there were a few other flavours but I can't remember what they were now) and a range of toppings, I chose vanilla ice cream with mini egg chocolates. Mmm! Next, I obviously went for the chocolate fondue (I seriously need a chocolate fondue kit at home!) where I dipped two marshmallows (they are halal) into the chocolate. The melted chocolate was lovely, it tasted like melted galaxy! The other dessert I chose was red velvet cake but I was so full by this point I couldn't eat it.

Christmas prices apply from 1st December to 24th December, so the buffet on Saturday (we went around 1.30) was £12.99. I don't know how much the buffet usually is (outside Christmas prices) but here is the link to the website: http://jimmysrestaurants.com/restaurants/wimbledon/

Post written by Nabs

Atmosphere- 7/10

Service- 8/10

Food- 7/10

Chocolate Sushi Rating- 7/10