What Carrie Thinks: February 2012

Monday, 27 February 2012

London Fashion Weekend

Vodafone London Fashion weekend, unfortunately I wasn't at any of the shows or parties in the week...here's hoping for next year. However Vodafone amongst others were putting on a weekend of designer showcases, seminars and general mooching around Somerset House open to anyone (after purchasing a ticket...).

What to wear for my own fake little bit of LFW? Luckily this seasons trends are gorgeous, wearable and massively available on the high street. This whole ensable is from H&M (shirt, jeans and blazer) and can be yours combined for a shade less than £60 - nope I couldn't believe it either.

The Owl necklace is £9.99 from Mango and available in 4 colours, you can buy yours here. The boots are an incredible £25 from New Look. Altogether this whole outfit including shoes and jacket is less than £100 - luckily for me it was also all a Birthday treat. Definately 'chic to the next lev'

Ciro's Pizza Pomodoro

Hands down my favourite restaurant in London (so far...). I have been here a few times each time with high expectations and I have never been disappointed and it is only a stones throw from Harrod's. For my Birthday evening, I knew where I wanted to go early on...so booked in November. You never can be too careful and I did not want to miss out (if you want to go to Ciro's on a Monday evening in mid January or another obscure time even for a table of two I would advise booking to avoid disappointment.

Now, rule number one of a good blog? Take lots of representative and enticing photos. Therefore it is not a good idea to drink white wine, red wine and cocktails beforehand and completely forget/end up with everything out of focus. I did manage to get one of the highlights - the garlic mushrooms.

I've also got my Caterina pizza in there - admittedly there is a lot of shadow going on.

The rest of the evening was spent quaffing delicious red wine, dancing around the table and generally having a fantastic time. Every night of the week they have live music. I was absolutely thrilled the soul singer on for the evening was my absolute. She was accompanied by a male vocal and together they literally blow you away. I particularly enjoyed my rendition of Stevie Wonder's Happy Birthday while I had my cake with a huge firework.

Just go here. That is all. Book and go, thank me later.

Atmosphere: 5/5
Food: 5/5
Drink: 4/5
Overall: 4.5/5 - I'm only deducting 0.5 as the wine is good, but standard.

The Nightjar

As mentioned in my Tapas 'early night' post, sometimes early nights do not go as planned. On the eve of my Birthday I was thrilled (in the end) it didn't turn out this way, otherwise who knows when I would have discovered Nightjar?

Old Street station is somewhere I travel through everyday, either walking, running or on the bus. I've never noticed this place before and that is probably - like all the best places it is just an unassuming doorway with a lot of love inside. By this point in the evening we were a group of 10. It was around 1030pm and we had to queue outside for around 5 minutes while they prepared a table. As soon as we got in the atmosphere was very cool, not pretentious or 'East London', but laid back with Jazz playing. Unfortunately the live jazz band were just packing up.

We were presented with the menu and a recommendation - go for the sharing cocktails. So we did. My favourite was the Swedish Punch the other was the Little Entente. We ended up having four bowls between us, and enjoyed every last drop. We also celebrated my birthday (midnight anyway) in here, and they gave me a souvenir pack of branded cards with a different cocktail recipe on each one. That's my idea of a king of hearts...

Swedish Punch (top)

Little Entente

Happy Birthday to me!

Pinchito Tapas

Birthday eve. I was intending to be home early to do some housework for the weekend and have an early night, being fresh and ready for the birthday festivities. That was the plan, sometimes...plans do not work out how you imagined. Some of those times you have a fabulous night out.

What was good about this restaurant was it had all the charm of a pop up with the feel of 'here to stay'. As there was a large group of us we had the whole bar area. This actually worked out perfectly, no one had to commit to a seat and it was all about mingling and enjoyment. Apparently this area holds 25, we were 14 and this was a perfect size. Anymore than 20 you'd be night clubbing it - squashed together and not enjoying the perks we were.

Sangria was the name of the game for me, there was a good choice other than the standard red wine and the cava sounded better than the white, red or rose, it was good. Although value for money wise, for your £17.50 you got a lot of juice and only 3 glasses. It was however very refreshing and tasty, but I'd expect more from a pitcher - less ice and more fruit. Others went for red wine...later however we would really open up the bar.

For food? We ordered everything. Here are the highlights; garlic bread and alioli, cured meats, cheese parcels, calamari, steak, garlic mushrooms, garlic prawns (see a patten forming?) chicken skewers, it was all good.

Later on? We moved onto spirits, shots, cocktails and lots of them. The measures are good and the mixers really made the place, the decor was quirky and fun. The music could have done with being turned up a notch or two, but if you were on a date you may be thinking differently. In its tucked away location just off Old Street it was a great find. I'd recommend for groups, date, friends, family...anyone who appreciates a good bit of garlic.

Atmosphere: 4/5
Food: 4/5
Drink: 3/5
Overall: 4/5 - mainly for the vibe

Sunday, 19 February 2012

Being Silly

Saturday nights are made for being silly with friends, especially in the run up to my birthday...the countdown commences.

This particular Saturday was Camden. Champagne pre game, singing, dancing and posing for the evening. Disclaimer...do not worry, we are NOT taking ourselves seriously...