OMG, Just got back from a perfect week-end in London with my French girlzzz and all I can think of is the day when I go back there Indeed, when you live in Switzerland, calm-peaceful-quiet country, and you arrive in a CRAZY FUNKY London town, you might feel a little bit overwhelmed (but in a good way). So, we arrived in London on Friday evening and the 1st thing we thought of was f.o.o.d. Of course, as I am a bit of a control freak, I had already prepared a list of good restaurants thanks to some friends living there. So let me share this list with you

Food section at the Portobello Market

 Quick Lunch

• The Pie Shop:
  As you may be visiting London during the day, you might not want to spend 2hours in order to have lunch in a proper restaurant. Let’s keep it simple, affordable but still good please. Quick doesn’t have to mean average good. This is why I suggest you to go to Covent Garden and enjoy the best pies! Both salty and sweet: 1 as main dish, 1 as dessert! The restaurant is located in Covent Garden and you can also do take-aways. The price per person is approximately £10 for a good quality meal. My favorite salty one is “goat cheese” and the best sweet one is “apple pie”.

Apple Pie at the Pie Shop

Asian Style

• Benihana
  Located in the chic part of London, in South Kensington, this asian restaurant is quite popular and famous. I had the wonderful occasion to enjoy the diversity of the asian cuisine during NYE and had a blast! The tables are placed in the room so that each one has a cooking station in front of it. The chef cooks in front of you and makes a great show! This way, you are sure you won’t end up with a coakroach in your dish At the entrance of the outlet you see on a wall a collection of famous people’s pictures taking the pose. The food looked awesome: the NYE menu was composed of several dishes like sushis, japanese noodle salad, soup, salmon and beef, vegetables and cake. Definitely a good quality/price ratio  If you are looking for the best asian restaurant in London, I guess this is the one to me! The atmosphere was really nice as you are sharing the table with other guests. Little tip: order yourself the unique “litchi pina colada” or litchi mojito… Divine!

M. Chef !

Italians Do it Better

• Ciro’s Pomodoro:
  From far the best place I have been to in London in terms of ambiance and atmosphere. Each evening in the restaurant has a special theme such as “elvis”, “arabic” etc. and you can be sure you will never have to face an akward silence or get bored! The place is full of pictures of the owner posing with the biggest and most famous celebs. It is the original place and it is located on Knightbridge (South Kensington area). They serve the best garlic/cheese pizza but also amazing other dishes such as the margharita pizza. Concerning their dessert, all of them are worth it! I advise you to take some shots after your great meal: they have funny names AND are so GOOD.

@Ciro’s – Shooters

Burger-Licious

• Byron Burger:
  The 1st meal we had in London? a typical English medium-rare burger! This restaurant chain has settled all over London but since we were staying in South Kensington we went straight to the nearest venue (King’s Road). As we entered the diner-style restaurant, we were welcomed by some very nice young waiters who gave us the menu and prepared our table. The positive aspect of the menu is that they propose hamburgers without bread (skinny burger) and my favourite ones, the zucchini fries! Little tip: order yourself a large glass of the “best” red wine, extra Byron sauce, and on your way out, grab yourself a well known special Byron oreo milkshake The prices are fair, service is efficient, place is clean and cool. On Sundays, I advise you to go a little early as many Londoners enjoy a good burger and you may have long lines in front of the restaurant! Another special aspect of Byron is their “special” burgers: for example during Movember, they launched the Mo Burger (picture below) and for Christmas, they launched the “Cheesemas”… Big hits!

Oreo Sundae @Byron

Byron Burger @Byron

Mo’ Burger (special Movember)

Traditional Sunday Brunch

• Muriel’s Kitchen:
  As the week end was slowly comming to its end, we decided to gather 1 last time around a traditional English Sunday brunch! When we first arrived in the hotel’s neighborhood, we passed in front of a cute restaurant with amazing patries and cakes in the front window. So on our way out, we decided to test it! Turned out it was one of the best brunch in the district and I can certify you it really is!! I advise you to taste the “scones” that is served warm, with fresh butter and cherry jam (imagine the butter melting on your warm scone yummiiiiii), order yourself a cappuccino (cappuccino decoration) and a fresh yoghurt with granola and honey. There you go, enjoying a quality meal with quality friends in a quality restaurant The price for a meal at Muriel’s kitchen will be around 10-12£ per person. Negative point: because South Kensington is the “french” part of London, our waitress was French and had noticed that we spoke French too. So the first thing she did was to talk to us in French… Not really part of the “English” experience right?
• Tom’s Kitchen*

Cappuccino @Muriel’s Kitchen

Cookies & Cupcakes

• Ben’s Cookies:
  After a day of walking and going around the city, we ended up in the queue waiting for the best cookie ever!! Again, thanks to my friend Clemence, I discovered what a cookie should really taste like Around 1.20-1.50£ for a cookie and your ticket to cookie-heaven hihiih. Since it is a chain, anytime you’re dreaming of a sweet treat, you might as well be standing next to a Ben’s restaurant.

Taste the “Triple Chocolate” one…

• Hummingbird Bakery:
  One thing you must know about me? I am THE BIGGEST cupcake fan. I don’t especially like to eat cupcakes but I love the way cupcakes are designed and colored and so cutteeeee !!!! I have discovered that London is the Cupcake city: cupcakes everywhere!!!!!! Although you will see cupcakes in a lot of front windows, they are not all good. I advise you to stick to the best patry shop ever in London and taste their best seller, the red velvet cupcake.

Red Velvet Cupcake @Portobello Road

Cozyness – Home Away From Home

• Jak’s:
  Enter a place of cozyness, warm atmosphere and pleasure. Everything from the interior design to the choice of meals and wines make of this restaurant a place where you could eat each day during lunch AND dinner. The concept is simple: you enter, choose what you would like from the window, you sit and the waiters bring it to you. The dishes are simple and traditional. For example you will have pesto pasta, fresh fish, italian dishes… Ps: Try the cheesecake, the tiramisu and the cookie
  

  Cheesecake @Jak’s