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

Coffee Max

Coffee Max is a Halal Italian restaurant on Tooting High Street. I've been going there for years, whether it be for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Over the years I've tried a lot of things, from pizza and panini to a full on English breakfast.

When I go to a restaurant on a regular basis and end up really liking a particular dish I'll begin to order that everytime I go (I'll never try anything new). For a long time it was the panini that was my favourite. My go to panini was the 'Melted Mozzarella' which is made from turkey rashers, cheese, tomato and basil. Delicious! There are a range of other fillings to choose from including a vegetarian option (vegetables, olives, and cheese) and a fish option (tuna, sweetcorn, tomato, lettuce, red onion, and mayonnaise). All the options excluding the vegetarian are priced at £5.95; the vegetarian option is priced at £5.25. All the panini come with chips.

For the last year or two when going to Coffee Max I've always ordered the 'Melanzane Alla Parmigiana' or as I like to call it, 'the aubergine dish' (see the photo below). On the menu it's listed as a starter but the first time I tried it I was so full afterwards that for me it's a lot more filling than a starter is. I usually have it with some bread and that is my meal complete. 

Melanzane Alla Parmigiana £4.75

Melanzane Alla Parmigiana is baked aubergine layered with tomato sauce, mozzarella and parmesan. I love aubergine (one of my favourite vegetables) so I could eat the aubergines on their own and still be satisfied but the tomato sauce and cheese add a beautiful flavour to the aubergine. The bread is perfect for mopping up the tomato sauce and there is a generous amount of bread given so I usually have enough for the entire dish. 

Last week I went to Coffee Max for dinner and ordered my usual 'Melanzane Alla Parmigiana'.

I don't always have dessert after a meal (it depends on how I'm feeling) but this time I really needed something sweet. I usually have the chocolate fudge cake (see photo below) which is lovely! I am a chocoholic but for some reason am not very fond of chocolate ice cream or chocolate cake (I know, I'm weird) but I've literally eaten this cake everytime I've gone to Coffee Max for either tea & cake or as a dessert after dinner and I've never gotten tired of it. It comes drizzled with chocolate sauce and accompanied by whipped cream. I usually have it warm and in the past I've sometimes had it with ice cream (instead of whipped cream). 

This time though I wanted to have something different for dessert and went for the Tiramisu instead. I've eaten Tiramisu in the past and although I'm not a huge fan I do like it. Tiramisu is made using sponge cake, coffee and mascarpone cheese. The last time I ordered it (which was probably years ago) it certainly didn't look as pretty as it did now. The tiramisu was presented in a dessert glass with two Italian biscuits on the top (see photo below). A perfect mix of cake, cream and coffee (perhaps a little heavy on the coffee, I know I know, Tiramisu is made with coffee, what am I talking about?!). I was unable to finish it though (not because of the taste but because there was quite a lot of it and around 3/4 of the way in I was full). 

The Tiramisu and Chocolate Cake are both priced at £3.95. 

Post written by Nabs.

Atmosphere- 8/10

Service- 8/10

Food- 9/10

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