macaroon's profile

Somewhat reminiscent of the very chic Restaurant L’Elephant in Ibiza, this new addition to the Clapham bar & restaurant scene has left me a bit undecided. We tried it on a perfect sunny Spring day, which certainly helped give it a cool holiday vibe - gorgeous sunshine pouring into the room making the all-white interior and sparkly furnishings seem refreshing and different for the neighbourhood. It has a small terrace at the front with doors onto the street, which again gives it a relaxed, slightly mediterranean-ish, atmosphere.

The food was ok, bit bland and nothing special at all (probably done on the cheap), but pleasant enough and hit the spot. Sitting just next to the terrace on a high table in the sunshine reading the paper was a lovely way to spend a Sunday morning.

However, something about the place doesn’t make me want to give it any more than 3 stars. Without the sunshine it would have been a totally different experience - I couldn’t imagine visiting this place during the winter. It will probably only work on a sunny day to keep the holiday vibe alive and excuse the tacky decor around the edges. I can also imagine the white sofas and chairs looking grubby in about 3 weeks, and it being full of WAGS! The crowd this morning were quite relaxed, but I fear that won’t last.

So all in all - I like what they are trying to do, especially as I love L’Elephant, but my worry is that it will become a magnet for a certain type of punter, which if you know I mean by that, it may not be your kind of place! If you can see through the fake glitz of the furniture, the mediocre food, and enjoy the perfectly reasonable latte, you’ll have a nice time.

Had a very pleasant brunch here today - lovely smoked salmon and scrambled eggs, and tasty museli with berries and yoghurt mmm. Great location and good service. Perfect place to meet friends on a rainy sunday morning. Good for people watching too.

Horrible, soulless, tacky, boring, 80’s, smelly, dark, paisley, grubby and generally hideous - these are the words that come to mind when I think of this hotel. Thistle really needs to do something about this one, actually, most of their hotels. They seriously need updating or I’m sure they will just end up going bust, which may be for the better. I was forced to go here for a conference, and it wasn’t a particulary pleasant experience. This hotel is so generic and dull I can’t think of anything else to say about it, apart from if you’re looking for a hotel in the area, don’t stay in this one. The only plus is that you’ll be so uninspired and bored by this place it might give you a good nights sleep, that’s if the bed bugs don’t get you first though. London has enough hotels never to have to go here, unless you really really really have to. I’ve just bored myself to sleep thinking about it.

This is veggie heaven. Lovely healthy homeade vegetarian food in a hippy setting, what more could you want?! It kind of feels like you’re in a big room in someone’s house, with the kitchen in the middle and you can see all the food being freshly prepared. It’s very low key and chilled out, nothing fancy here, just good and honest food. Everything looked so delicious I didn’t know what to choose, but opted for a burrito with beans and salad and lots of yummy things. Very healthy and hearty. Brilliant place.

I must admit, I wasn’t looking forward to a sweet breakfast, but it was actually very good. It’s hard to resist the towers of cakes and muffins that greet you as you walk in which this place is famous for, but instead I opted for the porridge, with lots of lovely brown sugar and dried fruit on top. Normally porridge that isn’t your own can taste like lumpy diluted cardboard soup (if there is such a thing!?) but this one was creamy, sweet and very tasty. They brew the lovely monmouth coffee here too, which on a Friday morning always hits the spot. The cheesecake looked incredible and I’ll definitely have to come back to try something naughty and sweet, but maybe to take away. I just have one gripe with this place - you can see right into the kitchen which usually is a really good thing, especially in a sushi restaurant or a bustling kitchen, but here the bakery is really clinical and all I could see when sipping my coffee was the first aid box and hand towels on the wall… also they started cooking the lunch menu and my eyes are still stinging and running from the onions throughout our breakfast! Sorry Bea’s, that lost you a 5th star - yummy food and coffee, but maybe use less onion next time??

This is quite a cool bar in a weird part of London for going out - the only other bars near by seem to be boring hotel bars, so it’s a good meeting place. They seem to hold some fun events - I went to a fashion launch party here and it was a fab venue for it. It’s quite dark and moody and trying a little bit too hard to be trendy, but it sells champagne and plays good music, what more could you want!

As you’d expect, this place has the perfect sushi! Prices are reasonable and it’s probably some of the best sushi I’ve had in London, even comparing to the likes of Nobu which is essentially the same but with fancier ingredients (and more designer handbags). If you just want basic but very good sushi, you can’t go wrong here. Though beware, we were hungry so over ordered and when the dishes kept arriving one after the other we couldn’t fit everything on the table, so most of it came back to the office with us! An amazing roll full with warm vegetable tempura was incredible and I’ll definitely be going back to order more of that! It doesn’t get the important 5th star because it’s pretty noisy and cramped with the tables and very basic decor, but other than that the food is perfect.

This is a very good little Thai restaurant on the Fulham Road (right near a very nice shoe shop called Venise!) The green curry with prawns was delightful - perfectly spiced with a bit of kick but nothing too overpowering and a lovely light coconut broth to go with it. The Jasmine tea was perfect to accompany it too. Cheap, quick, friendly and simple - it did the trick on a cold and rainy Sunday afternoon. The kind of place where everything is tasty and you can’t go wrong.

This is such a cool shoe shop - I just discovered it today - although not so great during the credit crunch! But, if you love boots, and good quality knee high boots, this an excellent place to come. Also if you’ve got long legs and boots don’t usually come up high enough, this is also the perfect place to come. Their over the knee boots can be warn over the knee (as you’d expect!) and also turned down to make them knee high and they are GORGEOUS!! Beautiful leather and suede with quite a low heel so they look more like riding boots. I didn’t part with any cash and they’ve actually inspired me to probably just go and buy some real riding boots! But ladies, this is such a fab shop. Wonderful handbags too and very cute marc jacobs dolly shoes. Lovely old man running it too, I love independent shops.

I love this hotel and have stayed here many a time on trips back to Manchester. It’s right near Piccadilly station. Some rooms are nicer and bigger than others (ask for one with a turret / round window) but in general the rooms are big, spacious, have high ceilings, modern but rustic, with a boutique vibe and amazing windows. And the beds are double king size and absolutely huge! Gorgeous thick grey curtains and wooden floors. It has an Ian Schrager vibe to it and is a great design hotel in a beautiful building. Convenient and an important hotel on the Manchester scene. A pretty good restaurant downstairs and a late night bar/club in the basement that I’ve spent many a late fun night… it used to be popular with footballers and WAGS but I think they’ve moved on somewhere else now…