Tags
busy, Christopher's, cocktails, Covent Garden, entertaining, food, frivolity, hungover, Joe Allen, lifestyle, London, reviews, socialising, Sophie's, student, west end, Whisky Mist, wining and dining
This week has been a jam-packed one for me, so apologies for having no posts!
On Tuesday I had a good friend from home come and stay with me in London before she went back up to Scotland for Uni. We thought we’d go for a few drinks and then dinner for a bit of a change – and for some reason we were both feeling rather frivolous, which always helps if you’re in London town.
We decided on Covent Garden, as I know it’s got lots of nice bars and places to eat in a relatively small area, not forgetting it’s very pretty too.
I wanted to go to a famous martini bar called Christopher’s but discovered it is under renovation; so opposite we found a place called Sophie’s.
We didn’t want to eat straight away, so we asked if it was okay to just sit at the bar which was completely fine. After sitting down for about 10 minutes, ooh-ing and aah-ing over the cocktail menu, a young male waiter came to save us from our distress! He simply asked, what were our favourite spirits; whether we liked fruity or sour, and that was it.
Within 5 minutes he came back with our custom made cocktails; he’d worked out our tastes to a T.
My cocktail was the one on the left, and this was a rum based cocktail with a splash of Disaronno included. I likened it to a sweeter Mojito, as it was very refreshing! My friend had the strawberry & vodka based cocktail, which went down extremely well too.
After this little introduction, of course we were persuaded for another round (forgetting we were students on a student budget of course)…
I had this divine Raspberry Collins (a gin based cocktail), and this was very sweet and served in a tall glass.
The service here was great, we were definitely looked after even though we were just drinking; and when we collected the bill, surprise surprise service was included. However, when the service is actually worth it I don’t begrudge the service charge being automatically added.
We then decided to head to a gem of mine called Joe Allen’s on Exeter Street. This is an underground restaurant which is famous for it’s theatre goers, and continues to serve food until around 11.30pm. I’ve been going here with my parents since I can remember, but never been with a friend; so this was a nice new experience for me.
Being familiar with the maitre’d we were greeted with a smile and were able to choose our table. Joe Allen’s is an American run restaurant, which is reflected in the menu. Verging on the slightly pricey side, there were still options for us to choose from and we decided to order a bottle of wine to decrease the cost of ordering separate drinks too.
It was fun to forget about having a budget for one night, and actually buy something regardless of the price-tag (the butternut squash & mushroom pie was to die for).
During our discussion over dinner we decided that my friend should stay in town an extra night and experience one of London’s west-end clubs. I chose Whisky Mist, because it does a fairly good Wednesday night. Another plus about these types of clubs is that if you’re a girl on the guest list, entry is free; plus unlimited drinks all evening. Just what we needed after the night before!
So…as you can probably guess, I spent the whole of Wednesday hungover (in which I also managed to fit in a Uni hockey match). Then was tired plus hungover on Thursday. Needless to say my bed after Uni on Thursday was welcomed with open arms!
Frivolous? Definitely. Worth it? 100%. 🙂