A Foodie day in London

A couple of weeks ago I decided to take a day trip to London for my birthday (with family). I love London as it such a diverse city with a vast selection of places to eat and different cuisines to try out. This post is mainly just an overview of some of the places I visited with brief reviews. I hope you enjoy reading and looking through some of the snaps.

Firstly, we had breakfast at Balthazar in Covent Garden. I decided to go here due to the location and the reviews online.

                                                   4-6 Russell Street, London, WC2B 5HZ


The location is only a few minutes away from the tube station which was ideal as by the time we had reached Covent Garden the five of us were really hungry and couldn't wait to get some breakfast.

                                                   

We decided to order some tea and coffee to start, which I must say, we were not overly impressed with. For our actual breakfast we had 'eggs as you wish' so we chose scrambled, almond waffles, avocado on toast with a poached egg and New York pancakes.

Everything was absolutely delicious. The scrambled eggs were probably the best Ive ever had and the service was excellent. I would definitely recommend visiting Balthazar and I will surely be having breakfast there again. If you want to check out the menu and prices etc you can visit their website http://balthazarlondon.com/menus.

After all that good food we were ready to visit the winter wonderland in Hyde Park. We only spent about an hour there and decided to move on to do some shopping on Oxford Street before heading to Burgeri for a spot of lunch.

                                            22 Great Marlborough St Soho London W1F 7HU

OK, so this was a contrast to the dining experience at breakfast. As expected from a burger place, it was much more laid back and casual. I decided to go for the 'B Special' burger with a side of onion rings and my hubby opted for the 'B Mushroom Melt'. I found my burger to be quite tasteless and the onion rings were not anything special. Maybe if they were 'home made' they would have been better. Having said that, the ' B Mushroom Melt' tasted much better and did have flavor. For drinks I had the 'Fifty Fifty' (half iced tea and half lemonade) which tasted more like lemonade with a hint of tea and not fifty fifty as its name would suggest.

Overall, I probably would not go back to Burgeri as I didn't find the burger to be as flavorful as I would have liked, however, for Central London I don't think its badly priced and it was very busy so I think there are many people that do enjoy the food here. You can find their menu and prices on their website http://burgeri.co.uk/


So after a little more shopping, we headed back to Covent Garden and stopped for some coffee and a rest as all the walking had our feet aching.We didn't actually know where we had stopped until we had sat down and ordered some drinks. The Charles Dickens Cafe was a cute corner cafe and provided us with some much needed rest and a few drinks.

                                               26 Wellington Street, London, WC2E 7DD

Finally, before dinner we walked around Covent Garden and enjoyed the beautiful Christmas lights and visited a few more shops.

For dinner, we had made a reservation as Talli Joes for 7pm, however, we arrived early at 6.15pm and they seated us straight away which was lovely as it meant we could finish earlier and head home.

Our waitress advised us to order 3 half plates per person. Furthermore, as some dishes may be spicier than others she also advised us to order some yogurt to have with the spicier dishes. We decided to go on this recommendation and ordered all our dishes x 3. Below is the list of things we had ordered:

• Chana Jor Garam (really tasty, spicy and tangy)
• Kale Chaat (the best thing we ordered, I could have had a few bowls of this. A must try!)
• Kolhapuri Chaap (1 Lamb Chop per order, I didn't like this as I prefer my lamp chop dry but tender, this had a lot of masala)
• Bohri Chicken (Really strong flavors, so I felt the fenugreek flatbread didn't really go with this dish, a plain bread would have worked better) 
• Wild Mushroom Khichri with Organic Pickled Eggs (this was somewhat like a dish my mums makes called Haleem, I was not a fan of this but some of my family did enjoy this dish)
• Pineapple Spice Mocktail (refreshing and a twist on a normal pineapple juice)
• 3-4 Parathas (sides are not on their menu which I found a bit odd) 
  

Overall, I was not impressed with the food at Talli Joes. I don't think the whole tapas and Indian food work well together. Having said that, the restaurant seems very popular and busy. The food was very strong in flavor (too strong I would say) and apart from the Kale Chaat which I loved the rest of the food was not to my liking.

I personally prefer a lighter atmosphere when going out for dinner and it was very loud and stuffy, which I guess you have to be in the mood for. I also found the service to be a little overbearing. This is only my opinion and as mentioned before this place was very busy and I have had others tell me how much they love eating here.

As with all the places mentioned you can view their menu, prices and full address online http://www.tallijoe.com/


On the whole I had a great day out in London as always and hopefully will be back there soon.