So as some of you may know, I finally finished my exams!! Honestly it's such a relief to know I'm finally done with college, along with exams in general. I despise exams - yet I was intending to go to university next year with exams involved ekk... Deferring a year was the right decision to take a break though... Anyways, shout out to everyone who has completed exams, well done to you guys and good luck with your results, and to those who are still going with exams, you can do it guys! Work hard!
If I'm perfectly honest, since I spent the past month trying to revise the same subject (English Language... I cry...) it meant that I was restricted from going out and about to enjoy myself. The rare times I went out, it wasn't very far and most of the times it was to go out and revise with a friend... Thankfully, as exams have finished I have begun to go out more again (yet my bank account can't keep up RIP). This led to my 3-day food excursion which I shall present to you guys soon enough!
As a major food fanatic, I literally have a list of places I've been meaning to go and eat, and slowly I am ticking them off one by one. So now it's time for you guys to check out my food visits, I hope you guys also have a chance to check them out too!
DAY 1 - Wednesday 15th June 2016
So I just finished my exam along with my friend, Julia (literal babe - check out her blog here) aha and after discussing our exam with our other class members (bad idea guys, so much regret) we went off to Kingston to eat. We'd been meaning to meet up to eat up at this Japanese place for ages, yet our plans always seem to fall short because of schedule clashes. However, we finally managed to go to the restaurant, and there are literally no regrets.
We went to Mino restaurant located in Kingston, not far from Kingston College (main building). The restaurant is aesthetically pleasing to the eye. As you walk into the building you can see the restaurant decorated in blossom trees, fans and lanterns inspired by the Japanese culture.
We were sat down and began looking through the lunch menu before proceeding to ask for the main menu for more choice. In the end we chose our dishes, Julia chose the Chicken Gyoza, Salmon Avocado Maki and Chicken Ramen, whilst I chose the Iku Mayo and Chicken Donburi.
The restaurant reminded me of a similar Japanese restaurant called Sapporo Season (located in Hampton Hill) which incorporates a similar aesthetic and costs about roughly the same price. I spent just over £10 for what I ordered and Julia around £20. The portions were quite big which surprised me, with Julia who considered ordering an extra dish originally. We found that the food was quite filling so even if you had one main meal you would be quite full which would cost less than £10.
After we paid the bill, we even received some sweets which was really sweet of them. I appreciated the service and the overall atmosphere of the restaurant was really soothing as well.
DAY 2 - Thursday 16th June 2016
I set off for Central London to meet my dear friend, Nazihah (my foodie friend) for another food outing. I wanted to meet her just before she left for Brunei for the entirety of summer! I'm not going to lie... I totally came late... As per usual oh dear..
First stop, Misato! If you're looking for a cheap Japanese place to eat in Central London, Misato is the way to go! Back when I was still in secondary school, I would go to Misato to go and eat out just because I was a poor student with no income whatsoever... The place isn't amazingly big, but the price and portions for a place in Central London is great. You have a 10% service charge, but the price of one meal (which may I say is a big portion) is usually under £10. The restaurant is usually quite busy so there was a queue however we didn't have to wait too long for us to be seated especially as there was only 2 of us.
We decided upon Soba dishes, which were about £5-£6 each. Nazihah got the Zaru Soba whilst I chose the Beef Soba.
After our meal at Misato, we moved onto the main reason we decided to meet up! Our trip to Pan De Vie located in Covent Garden. For the both of us, we had both been meaning to visit this French-Asian bakery. The bakery provides mainly Matcha products - unfortunately both of us aren't particular fans of Matcha so we decided on cheesecakes instead. Nazihah decided the Yuzu Cheesecake and I decided on the Strawberry Cheesecake.
Overall, I found that my choice for dessert was good for my taste. I don't have a major sweet tooth when it comes to desserts so it had enough sweetness that wasn't too overpowering. I'm also a big fan of strawberries so they went well together. I was also worried that my cheesecake would fall apart but it stayed together quite well, although Nazihah's Yuzu Cheesecake started falling apart as she started going through her dessert despite how carefully she was trying to eat it.
The workers at Pan De Vie were really sweet, they even offered us a chance to sign up for a free points card. This gave us the chance to earn points whilst spending. You receive 1 point for every £1 you spend. I'm hoping when I come again, I'll try one Matcha product at least once.
Other than Asian grocery shopping, we managed to pop back to Chinatown and I got myself some bubble tea. Since I didn't have a chance to go to Central London for a while, it was good to finally treat myself to some bubble tea. One of my personal favourites is the Mango QQ bubble tea from Chatime. I tend to ask for normal sugar, ice levels etc.
DAY 3 - Friday 17th June 2016
The final day to eat out! So my friend, Mary and I had been planning this occasion since 2 months ago, and we were later joined by Emily on our food outing. Since both of our exams finished on the 15th and 16th of June we thought the most appropriate date would be to celebrate on the 17th. As lovers of crabs, we honestly wanted to eat crab but there weren't really good crab places which weren't charging a ridiculous amount of money so we thought we would opt for lobster - you must be thinking, isn't lobster more expensive? Surprisingly the one we got wasn't that expensive...
We decided to eat out at Burger and Lobster at the Soho branch. We found that the menu was indeed expensive, and I'm not going to lie... I felt very uneducated when it came to eating lobster as they gave us certain pieces of cutlery which confused me... But eventually I got the hang of it. We were looking around the restaurant and we could see that it was mainly adults (we are adults too but like we are very young adults aha).
In the end, we decided from the new menu. I read that originally there was some confusion with the restaurant as many people had hoped to have burger and lobster rather than opting between one or another, so they renewed the menu and incorporated meals which included the burger along with the lobster.
Mary and I decided on "The Pounder" (£19) which offered the 500G lobster along with chips, both grilled (despite Mary asking for her lobster to be steamed...) whilst Emily opted for "The Soho Combo" (£28) which incorporated the burger with lobster and fries. She also requested for an additional cheese and bacon with her meal (an additional £1).
The result? We all agreed it was difficult and a lot of effort trying to eat the lobster. We also agreed that we enjoyed the sauce which was on offer (which I believe was a mixture of butter and garlic). I wished there was more lobster meat available, considering the price. Plus, I feel like that fact Mary and I had been hoping for crab and deciding on lobster instead thinking it would have a similar taste (which it didn't) made it slightly disappointing to us - Honestly we didn't think the taste would be so different from one another, but we were proven wrong aha.
Note: Please reminded that there is a discretionary 20% service charge. I enjoyed the lobster but I would still favour crab to lobster if I were given the choice. The chips and sauce were good, but considering the restaurant is called "Burger and Lobster" this isn't exactly the restaurant's specialty aha. The experience was interesting though, and it was great being able to catch up with friends that I hadn't seen for a long time.
Overall thank you for reading my food adventures, I hope to bring you more food posts soon!
So I just finished my exam along with my friend, Julia (literal babe - check out her blog here) aha and after discussing our exam with our other class members (bad idea guys, so much regret) we went off to Kingston to eat. We'd been meaning to meet up to eat up at this Japanese place for ages, yet our plans always seem to fall short because of schedule clashes. However, we finally managed to go to the restaurant, and there are literally no regrets.
We went to Mino restaurant located in Kingston, not far from Kingston College (main building). The restaurant is aesthetically pleasing to the eye. As you walk into the building you can see the restaurant decorated in blossom trees, fans and lanterns inspired by the Japanese culture.
A photo posted by Sophia Tang 🐼 (@sophilicity) on
We were sat down and began looking through the lunch menu before proceeding to ask for the main menu for more choice. In the end we chose our dishes, Julia chose the Chicken Gyoza, Salmon Avocado Maki and Chicken Ramen, whilst I chose the Iku Mayo and Chicken Donburi.
A photo posted by Sophia Tang 🐼 (@sophilicity) on
The restaurant reminded me of a similar Japanese restaurant called Sapporo Season (located in Hampton Hill) which incorporates a similar aesthetic and costs about roughly the same price. I spent just over £10 for what I ordered and Julia around £20. The portions were quite big which surprised me, with Julia who considered ordering an extra dish originally. We found that the food was quite filling so even if you had one main meal you would be quite full which would cost less than £10.
After we paid the bill, we even received some sweets which was really sweet of them. I appreciated the service and the overall atmosphere of the restaurant was really soothing as well.
DAY 2 - Thursday 16th June 2016
I set off for Central London to meet my dear friend, Nazihah (my foodie friend) for another food outing. I wanted to meet her just before she left for Brunei for the entirety of summer! I'm not going to lie... I totally came late... As per usual oh dear..
First stop, Misato! If you're looking for a cheap Japanese place to eat in Central London, Misato is the way to go! Back when I was still in secondary school, I would go to Misato to go and eat out just because I was a poor student with no income whatsoever... The place isn't amazingly big, but the price and portions for a place in Central London is great. You have a 10% service charge, but the price of one meal (which may I say is a big portion) is usually under £10. The restaurant is usually quite busy so there was a queue however we didn't have to wait too long for us to be seated especially as there was only 2 of us.
We decided upon Soba dishes, which were about £5-£6 each. Nazihah got the Zaru Soba whilst I chose the Beef Soba.
A photo posted by Sophia Tang 🐼 (@sophilicity) on
After our meal at Misato, we moved onto the main reason we decided to meet up! Our trip to Pan De Vie located in Covent Garden. For the both of us, we had both been meaning to visit this French-Asian bakery. The bakery provides mainly Matcha products - unfortunately both of us aren't particular fans of Matcha so we decided on cheesecakes instead. Nazihah decided the Yuzu Cheesecake and I decided on the Strawberry Cheesecake.
Overall, I found that my choice for dessert was good for my taste. I don't have a major sweet tooth when it comes to desserts so it had enough sweetness that wasn't too overpowering. I'm also a big fan of strawberries so they went well together. I was also worried that my cheesecake would fall apart but it stayed together quite well, although Nazihah's Yuzu Cheesecake started falling apart as she started going through her dessert despite how carefully she was trying to eat it.
A photo posted by Sophia Tang 🐼 (@sophilicity) on
The workers at Pan De Vie were really sweet, they even offered us a chance to sign up for a free points card. This gave us the chance to earn points whilst spending. You receive 1 point for every £1 you spend. I'm hoping when I come again, I'll try one Matcha product at least once.
Other than Asian grocery shopping, we managed to pop back to Chinatown and I got myself some bubble tea. Since I didn't have a chance to go to Central London for a while, it was good to finally treat myself to some bubble tea. One of my personal favourites is the Mango QQ bubble tea from Chatime. I tend to ask for normal sugar, ice levels etc.
A photo posted by Sophia Tang 🐼 (@sophilicity) on
DAY 3 - Friday 17th June 2016
The final day to eat out! So my friend, Mary and I had been planning this occasion since 2 months ago, and we were later joined by Emily on our food outing. Since both of our exams finished on the 15th and 16th of June we thought the most appropriate date would be to celebrate on the 17th. As lovers of crabs, we honestly wanted to eat crab but there weren't really good crab places which weren't charging a ridiculous amount of money so we thought we would opt for lobster - you must be thinking, isn't lobster more expensive? Surprisingly the one we got wasn't that expensive...
We decided to eat out at Burger and Lobster at the Soho branch. We found that the menu was indeed expensive, and I'm not going to lie... I felt very uneducated when it came to eating lobster as they gave us certain pieces of cutlery which confused me... But eventually I got the hang of it. We were looking around the restaurant and we could see that it was mainly adults (we are adults too but like we are very young adults aha).
In the end, we decided from the new menu. I read that originally there was some confusion with the restaurant as many people had hoped to have burger and lobster rather than opting between one or another, so they renewed the menu and incorporated meals which included the burger along with the lobster.
Mary and I decided on "The Pounder" (£19) which offered the 500G lobster along with chips, both grilled (despite Mary asking for her lobster to be steamed...) whilst Emily opted for "The Soho Combo" (£28) which incorporated the burger with lobster and fries. She also requested for an additional cheese and bacon with her meal (an additional £1).
The result? We all agreed it was difficult and a lot of effort trying to eat the lobster. We also agreed that we enjoyed the sauce which was on offer (which I believe was a mixture of butter and garlic). I wished there was more lobster meat available, considering the price. Plus, I feel like that fact Mary and I had been hoping for crab and deciding on lobster instead thinking it would have a similar taste (which it didn't) made it slightly disappointing to us - Honestly we didn't think the taste would be so different from one another, but we were proven wrong aha.
A photo posted by Sophia Tang 🐼 (@sophilicity) on
A photo posted by Sophia Tang 🐼 (@sophilicity) on
Note: Please reminded that there is a discretionary 20% service charge. I enjoyed the lobster but I would still favour crab to lobster if I were given the choice. The chips and sauce were good, but considering the restaurant is called "Burger and Lobster" this isn't exactly the restaurant's specialty aha. The experience was interesting though, and it was great being able to catch up with friends that I hadn't seen for a long time.
Overall thank you for reading my food adventures, I hope to bring you more food posts soon!
