London’s Calling

London, the city I’ve been to so many times before, for some reason keeps bringing me back for more. More shopping, more musicals and more foodie hotspots to discover. About once a year I hear London Calling and then I just have to pack up and leave. Even if it’s just for one day. Because of that, me and my equally as crazy girlfriends S. and S. decided to jump on the train, and head for: destination London St Pancras Baby!

OXFORD STREET, REGENT STREET & CARNABY STREET

We started our day at the best shopping streets in the world; Regent Street and Oxford Street. But as we were still a bit early, and the stores weren’t open yet, we had a coffee at  Slug & Lettuce, a cozy coffee house that becomes a trendy bar at night. The good news: there are over 70 venues of this cool place in the United Kingdom, so make sure to check out their website, when you travel to the UK.

London is my shopping paradise. There are just so many stores that we don’t have in Belgium, and for those of you who know me a little, you know that’s what I like. There’s always something new to discover. One of my favorite shops is the department store Liberty London. They sell luxury clothing, beauty products, jewelry, accessories, furniture, stationary, flowers… and although most of it isn’t really in my budget, I love walking around there for idea’s.

I always stop by Carnaby Street and the surrounding little streets as well. I just love the easy going atmosphere in that area and the cute little stores, such as Dahlia and Skinny Dip for example. Carnaby is where you’ll find unique clothing, shoes and accessories.

SKETCH

Hungry we went on to our next stop; Sketch. This two star Michelin restaurant is located in the trendy Mayfair neighborhood. It consists of 5 separate restaurants and bars, each with their own interior, character and menu.

Our plan was to have high tea at the ‘The Gallery’ (remember that pink restaurant I posted a few weeks back on my Instagram), but unfortunately it was already fully booked. So as brunch is the next best thing, we decided to go for that and book a table at ‘The Glade’. And although the décor of the restaurant seemed as beautiful as the one from the Gallery (think enchanted forest in Wonderland) we were very disappointed with everything else.


We were appointed a table with a view upon the door for two persons, while there was three of us! To make matters worse, our table just stood next to the one of other guests, so we could easily listen in to each other’s conversations. Not nice for us and not nice for the other guests. This, while there was still a table for four people available in the restaurant the whole time we were there!

Then the menu came…To our surprise there was no fixed brunch menu, so you had to order everything à la carte. Again not what we expected! In our experience, when you go for brunch there’s always a fixed formula, so you can taste a bit of everything. The food we ordered was nice, but overprized for what we’ve got. I had the poached eggs with creamed velouté of green asparagus, which costed £ 11, without side dishes. I get that you have to pay for side dishes like fries, potatoes, salmon and so on, but that you have to pay £ 3.50 for two little toasts, when you order eggs, I found absurd. But as the food was good, I’ll just leave at that. What we weren’t ok with, is the fact that our little table was filled with all the side dishes and we had to eat with our plates on our lap. For a business with their standing, I don’t get that, there were so many empty tables and instead of moving us to another table, they didn’t give a damn about our comfort. Even afterwards when we asked the waiting staff why, they blamed it on the no shows and rolled their eyes at us, rather than apologizing for our inconvenience.

Very disappointed, but still a little bit curious about the interiors of the other rooms at Sketch, I wandered off to The Gallery, which looked as picture perfect as ever by the way, but what did you expect? The afternoon tea looked delicious, but still, after the experience we had I’m not sure if I would go back to try it.


CHOCCYWOCCYDOODAH

Still hungry, we decided to go to Choccywoccydoodah, another not to miss stop in Carnaby Street. This exclusive art and chocolate store has one branch in Brighton and one in London. Not only do they sell and serve the most yummy chocolate desserts, they also specialize in the most beautiful, arty wedding cakes. I always go there with my aunt and cousin Kiki for a quick chocolate break between all the shopping, so it seemed like the ideal place to take the girls. We ordered a sampling platter to share, and kind of expected a little piece of everything, with some raspberry coulis and ice cream (as it said on the menu). Turns out we got LARGE pieces of cake off….. every cake. Pretty sure we had enough chocolate cake to feed 10 people, so we took most of it home. And yes auntie and Kiki I know… sharing is caring! CAKE FOR EVERYONE! 



COVENT GARDEN

Next stop: Covent Garden! Where we did: more shopping off course. In our defense; the plan was to walk around the city and see the main landmarks again. Not that we hadn’t seen them but before, but because it’s always nice to see Big Ben and Buckingham Palace again right? But because it was raining cats and dogs we decided to skip that and head to Covent Garden instead. We had to stay busy right? 😉 The good thing about Covent Garden is that a lot of the stores are located inside the market hall, and thus covered. Walking around there, I came across kikki.K., whom sell the most beautiful stationery and gifts. Exactly what I needed as I still had to buy some presents. Yippie!

Afterwards we left for St Pancras station, to catch our train back to Brussels. It’s been an amazing day of yummy chocolate cake and lots of #shoptillwedrop, but most importantly fun amongst friends. So thanks lovelies. 

PRACTICAL INFORMATION

  • The tube takes you from St Pancras Station to wherever you need to be. And as it really is the easiest and cheapest to get around the city, I’d suggest you buy an Oyster Card. You can reload the card at any tube station.   
  • Currency: British Pound (£)

In collab with www.wijvenshit.be – Find her on Instagram: @wijvenshit.be

 

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