1000 Things to do in London

The cafe in The National Gallery - The National Dining Rooms - is catered by Peyton and Byrne, which is the shop where I bought my scotch egg (see below).

It is a nice place - there is a restaurant section for proper meals, and a coffee/snack section which consists of a few long tables. The problem is with it is that it is grossly expensive. A piece of cake is about £4.50. I opted for a egg and bacon quiche which was £6:

It was nice, but not £6 for 4 mouthfuls of quiche nice. I was also really annoyed to see that 'a 12.5% gratuity charge will be added to your bill'.
With prices high already, I think that's just ridiculous. So I decided not to pay the gratuity on the bill, and leave my own tip.

I went to the till, which really annoyed them as you're expected to sit and wait forever tor them to bring you the bill. The bill said that the quiche was £6.50, and when I told the girl it was £6 on the menu she shrugged, as if to say 'tough luck'. Luckily someone with a brain came over and sorted it out.
I put some money in a tips bowl at the till, and told them I wouldn't pay the gratuity on the bill as I had already left a tip, just to annoy them even more. And then I left.

Ranoush Juice is situated on Edgware Road - Marble Arch end. I love Edgware Road for all its arabic restaurants and shops. I love the way you have awful Oxford Street with it's big high street shops, and then Edgware Road, which is like a different universe, running straight off it.

So I went into Ranoush and saw all the lovely fruit behind the counter:

And I asked the man behind the till for a juice. He said 'mixed', and I said 'yes', presuming he meant a mixed fruit juice - I think I presumed correctly.So I paid him £2 which is a bargain considering how much you have to pay for a fruit smoothie nowadays, and 10 seconds later a man produces a red drink which was my juice:

It was very nice, but I couldn't work out why it was red - strawberries perhaps - so even though I had no idea what was in it I still really enjoyed it.

Definitely worth popping in to for a nice drink. Apparently the food is good too.

The Stockpot is on Old Compton Street and is basically a very cheap restuarant. It's more like a cafe, but they do hot dinners and serve wine.

There is a good selection of starters, including Garlic Bread, Smoked Salmon, Pate and Egg Mayonaise (who eats egg mayonaise anymore ????!!)

I opted for the garlic bread for £1.30:

It was OK - totally edible but not the best garlic bread I have ever had.#

Then I had Spaghetti Bolognese for £4.20

It wasn't amazing but again, totally edible. It wasn't as good as my 'home-made' spaghetti bolognese (£2 Iceland mince with Uncles Bens Bolognese Sauce). They gave me some parmesan cheese which actually tasted of nothing:

To finish I had pancakes with bananas and chocolte sauce - £2.50:

They were OK but nothing special.
I also had a half a bottle of their house red wine - Cuvee Jean Paul - £5.30 which was very drinkable.

So overall, very cheap food with a average taste. If you need to fill up and don't want a sandwich it's definitely worth a visit. Or if you are really really poor but have to go out for dinner, it's worth a visit, otherwise it will be McDonalds.

The Social is on Little Portland Street, so whilst I was staying at The Langham Hotel, a 5 star hotel on Regent Street (not that I'm showing off or anything), I looked on a map and found that this bar was very close.

I walked past it a few times before I found it - it's a strange place - underground, loud music, not very busy. I couldn't find the Jukebox so I had to ask the barman.It's next to the upstairs bar.

I put 20p in and flicked through all of the albums to pick a song, and out of about 60 albums and hundreds of songs, I did not recognise the name of one. Unfortunately they didn't have classical music , or greatest hits of the 90's (I know some of them).
So I picked a song at random and listened to it (I think), and left.

I have just eaten a very nice scotch egg from Peyton and Byrne. I got it from their shop in Heal's on Totttenham Court Road. It's a really nice shop - lots of nice pastries and cakes so highly recommended if you are shopping locally in all of those nice home furnishing shops, and need a little snack to keep you going.

Anyway, back to the scotch egg. It cost £1.50 and it was very nice. The difference between this scotch egg and one you would buy in Sainsbury's or Tesco's, is that this scotch egg was warm. Not refrigerated as usual.
It was cold by the time I ate it as I had to get home and take a photo of it for the blog.

It has very fine bread crumbs and it tasted a bit deep-fried. I don't know how you make a scotch egg. Maybe they are deep-fried.

Anyway, the meat was delicious - it tasted of stuffing which I like, and the egg was a nice egg. Eggs pretty much taste the same wherever you get them from, I find.

So overall a nice scotch egg but if I went to Peyton and Byrne again, I'd try something else as there seem to be lots of very very nice things.

The dodgems on the South Bank are in County Hall. Who would have thought it?! THe directions I got were: 'follow the sign to McDonalds and it's round the back'. Nice. The dodgems are the centre piece in a small amusement centre.

I met up with Alastair, Chris and Helena and after having some trouble buying a token to work them, we all got in a car each. I was very glad that we were the only people using the dodgems, as I didn't want to bumb my car with the horrible looking teenagers that were 'hanging out' in the arcade.

So we drove round for a bit ( I couldn't get mine started - luckily Helena was at hand to tell me to put my foot on the pedal) and we bumped into each other for a bit. My clarinets were in the passenger seat and I think they had a nice time.

It was really good fun - even for us saddos in our late 20's with nothing better to do on a Friday night.

La Luna is on Walworth Road -a very grotty road near Camberwell. The restaurant is not in the most appealing place, and if you didn't know how delicious the food was, you probably wouldn't bother with it.

It is a really nice, typical Italian restaurant. The decor is basic but comfortable, but some might be put off by the large television with Italian Football on constantly. I know my Italian football obsessed father wouldn't mind.
The staff were fantastic, one could barely speak English, but as she was Italian, I didn't mind.
I ate some delicious Melanzane Parmigiana, a fantastic bowl of Spaghetti Carbonara, and I tried some pizza which was excellent. The food seems to be made with very fresh, Italian ingredients. The mozzarella actually tasted real which is a rarity in London I think. Portion sizes were perfect, but I definitely couldn't manage dessert.
The food is very reasonably priced, but considering the restaurant's location,it has to be really.

Definitely worth a visit for some true Italian cooking. I'm definitely going again.

Go to Abbey Road zebra crossing on a Tuesday morning at 8:45am, and you will see me crossing it. Don't go this week though because I'm not going to be there....

I teach at a school one minute from this zebra crossing, so in order for me to get to work, I have the joy of walking over it.

There is a constant stream of people hanging around this zebra crossing, usually tourists from foreign lands. Usually they make their own way up to it, but occasionally there is a coach load of them.

Basically they get there, one of them crosses the zebra crossing, while someone else takes a photo. It is unbelievable how long some of them take to do this, and I am often amazed by how patient drivers are in their cars, waiting for some buffoon to have his photograph taken.

There is absolutely no official reference to The Beatles and their album, Abbey Road. The only things that you can see is a load of naff graffiti on the walls outside Abbey Road Studios saying things like ' We all live in a Yellow Submarine' and 'John Lennon RIP', and a rubbish coffee shop 5 min away - The Beatles Coffee Shop - who sell a few mugs and magnets with Beatles things on.

A must see if you're a Beatles fan, otherwise don't bother.

This is a posh american restaurant, and doesn't really have much of a 'diner' about it, which was a bit of a disappointment for me. There is a table and chairs bit at the front (where I sat) and then some diner style booths at the rear of the restaurant.

It is situated in Mayfair so at lunchtime it is full of very nicely dressed people coming in for their lunch. I was sitting next to 2 anorexics eating salad. I had burger and chips. The burger was very nice but not particularly memorable and the fries were cold. Not great considering I paid nearly £15 for it.

The menu looked good and I would like to try other things - the macoroni cheese looked tempting.

If you're in the area I think it's worth a visit - the menu is interesting and there's something on it for everyone. Book early though, it gets very busy.