London: Beach Blanket Babylon

Hi everyone! Thank goodness the tennis is over for now- it's been distracting searching for jobs while it's been on :) I'm not quite sure how many more posts I'll dedicate to London, but hopefully you're still enjoying reading about these places. It's great to look back at my time there...who knows when I will be in London next time.

For today's post, I will be talking about a very trendy lookin' place called Beach Blanket Babylon that serve "modern European" cuisine. Real-time, online reservation websites like Toptable are awesome because you can always find good deals on particular restaurants. BBB was no exception to the rule as I found a special offer on Toptable for 50% off the 3-course set menu (normally £34.50) at the Shoreditch branch (they also have their flagship restaurant in Notting Hill). I can't exactly explain why I deliberately sought out BBB on Toptable, as the reasoning behind it is more of a inside-joke between my fiancé and I that is not really that funny when said out loud. But we liked the location since it was only a 10 minute walk from our place. Plus it was very handy considering we wanted to go back to watch the Olympics straight after (no TVs in our flats, god bless BBC for online streaming).

Beach Blanket Babylon

19-23 Bethnal Green Road, Shoreditch E1 6LA (Closest tube station: Shoreditch High St)

If possible, both my fiancé and I try to avoid going out during  busy periods of restaurant service. This can usually be achieved when I've/we've at least got a plan in mind. Don't worry - I like spontaneity too, but I'm not really one for crowds nor loud places (which therefore rules out clubbing - unfortunately I gotta be drunk or it be someone's birthday to commit to clubbing). This seems kind of strange since Wahaca is the essence of loudness and crowds....but then again, I avoided all that by going there for lunch! So a dinner reservation before 7.30/8pm (depending on the day) is optimal for us. Though these attempts for earlier reservations can no longer work since we're no longer students anymore, so a lot of what I've said is simply a bit of phooey. But 90% of the time, service is more attentive before peak hours and the food won't take so long to come out of the kitchen. By the time we wanted to pay our bill, it became busier and the service of the wait staff were certainly not as attentive as beforehand.

With an earlier reservation, we were fortunate to be given a large table – well certainly a big table for two people, that's for sure – with a nice round booth seating. The booth had a pretty good view of the restaurant and bar. We weren't in a drinking mood, so we stuck to water. Restaurants with large pretentious bottles of water make me laugh, but I was simply glad that they didn't push us to order anything alcohol. It really annoys me when restaurants do that and then try to make you feel bad for not ordering anything. As we were contemplating what to order, we were given a plate of warm bread with olive oil and butter. Warm and not tough, a tick! I'm halfway through Anthony's Bourdain's No Reservations book and he mentions  something about the reuse of bread baskets/plates in restaurants.....can I just say that I'm slightly deterred now? Can I be in denial or be naive and say that every restaurants I've been to in the last twelve months (i.e. BBB) don't do that at all????? 

Ahem. Anyway.

If you've read my previous posts, you'll know that I like to order differently from whoever I'm eating with when choosing the set menu. That is if there's options within the set menu. I tend to ask my eating companion what they're ordering, which makes it more easier for me to order. I like to try bits of theirs to see if I'm missing out on anything (yes, it goes both ways!). Perhaps that's why I'm such a big fan of tapas.

For the starters, I ordered the salmon tartar with celeriac and fennel remoulade, caviar and cress salad; and my fiancé ordered the baked goats cheese ("goat cheesecake" as they like to call it, which sounds accurate and yet so bizarre) with beets and basil dressing.

I think for both of us the starters were the least successful out of all of the dishes, but we still thought our respective dishes were okay. I preferred mine over his partly because beetroot and I will never be friends, while he enjoyed his more than mine because of cheesy goodness and him not liking the remoulades much. While I did like the salmon, I did think the capers in the tartar overpowered the dish a bit. 

For the main, a certain someone thought my decision to order prosciutto wrapped chicken breast with creamy mash and a mushroom & tarragon ragu from the four options given in the set menu was boring. Yes I played it safe, but if BBB didn't know how to cook something as simplistic as a prosciutto wrapped chicken breast, it would have been rather telling about the quality of the restaurant. Luckily it was my favourite dish of the night. Even that certain someone agreed that it tasted pretty good. Everything tasted delicious and was cooked perfectly. The only critique that I could give it would be more mushrooms (of course). I felt guilty that I didn't have any greens, but that was only temporary guilt. It's almost like eating dessert in a way. You know you have to spend forever at the gym to counteract all of the butter and sugar, but you end up not regretting eating it... especially if it's darn tasty.

My fiancé ordered the miso marinated seabass with wasabi mash, bok choy and a soy sherry sauce. He was a very big fan of his dish, like I was with mine. I was glad to see him happy! I did try a bit of the seabass and it was perfectly cooked. Both dishes were perfect portion sizes for mains too. Anymore on the plate and you'd struggle to walk home (you heard that America?!).

  

Lastly for dessert, there were only three options available from the set menu and one was simply a cheese plate. Sad. Anyway, I went with the french vanilla pannacotta with blueberries and butter biscuits; the fiancé went with the lime meringue cake with blueberries in syrup. Both dishes were good. The pannacotta was smooth and creamy but I preferred the pannacotta with the sauce from the berries rather than the berries itself, as I found the berries extremely tart when eaten with the pannacotta. Yikes.

As for the lime meringue cake, I really appreciated the fact that it wasn't too sweet at all. However, when expecting lime, I expected to taste citrus and yet I don't think I tasted much citrus at all.

The decor of this place is very elegant and trendy looking – it is almost worth it to have a look at the interior design alone. It would have been great to go again and visit the bar, but unfortunately there weren't enough days left for us before our departures to go back home.

Overall the food was pretty decent and great value for money, especially if you consider the fact that the three course meal was 50% off. They do such a deal quite often actually. But the food was better than I expected as I had read many mixed reviews on BBB. One of the critiques I had read was with regard to disappointing service and as I mentioned earlier, it was pretty decent for us up until it became a bit busier, where it dropped in terms of attentiveness. Maybe you just have to go on the right day or roll a dice and see if you're lucky. 

Next blog: Eight! Members Club. (We weren't members though).

London/UK: Hopping from one café to the next!

Hi everyone! Hope everyone had a good weekend. This next blog is dedicated to my good ole' café hopping times. When I went to the US, café hopping didn't quite feel the same because there were barely any cafes around where I lived. To my detriment, I mostly drank Starbucks while I was in New Jersey (which is frankly still better than Starbucks in New Zealand...gross). I loved café hopping in London because there was a lot of decent coffee and I did quite a bit of reading in some of those cafés! Coffee drinking enhanced my productivity - what more can I say? 

The most unsatisfying thing about café hopping was the fact that coffee was and still is quite expensive. The average cost would be about £2.50 ($4.80NZ) or more. I became so sick of converting the British pound back to the NZ dollar, that I gave up and forgot about it. Probably wasn't the wisest thing because coffee became such an expensive habit that I had to stop drinking coffee for about a month. Whoops. 

All cafés below with the exception of the first one are in London. I went to a lot of cafés, so obviously not all of them are included here. Probably because they weren't that memorable to me - so you're not really missing out on those! 

Bill's Café

34-35 Green Street, Cambridge CB2 3JX

On the last day of Michaelmas term, I decided to take a solo trip to Cambridge. Tickets were cheap and I wanted to have a look around where my brother used to live years (years!) back. My lovely flatmate at the time advised me to go to Bill's, where she said she had the best scones she's ever had. My expectations were high and I had no choice but to try them. I wasn't expecting it be so busy considering Cambridge is rather quaint (I feel like that's the most apt way to describe Cambridge really) but it was. I went in for a quick bite to eat and some tea - but ended up wishing that I had ordered something more filling since everyone else's meals around me looked really good. My brother had recommended a random (possibly dodgy) place for spicy potatoes (which they had none of by the time I arrived) so left Cambridge rather hungry. Oh well. I think I ate Burger King at the train station once I came back. Probably shouldn't have admitted that really...

As planned, I ordered the warm scones with Bill's homemade strawberry jam and clotted cream, and a cup of camomile tea. I'm not sure if they were the best I ever had, but I really did enjoy eating them. The scones were cut in half once baked, then toasted, which is something my dad does (well sort of, he doesn't make his own scones unfortunately). The scones were absolutely delicious with the cream and the jam. Never had clotted cream before but it was really good with the scones. Thank goodness we don't have that stuff here in New Zealand. When I think I've consumed too much coffee, I usually drink a cup of tea. So I accompanied the scones with a camomile tea, which was soothing to my cold cold skin.

J+A Café
1-4 Sutton Lane, Clerkenwell, EC1M 5PU (Closest tube station: Barbican)

J+A was not exactly on the way to university, but my friend – another café hopping addict – recommended me this place and it ended up being one of my favourite cafés to go to. Hence, why this might be a bit of long one to read. Sometimes I would go with her, sometimes I would go alone to eat, drink, and do my readings there. The people that work there are nice and friendly, which is always a treat. For lunch, I'd be rather boring by ordering the same thing. If it ain't broke don't fix it, right?! I always ordered the steak sandwich - with rocket, red onion, tomato, dijon, and mayo, with a side of potato chips (which was always a different flavour everytime I ordered it). The flavours are what you exactly expect and there's nothing about it that tries to be fancy or different. 

If I was feeling a bit cheeky, sometimes I would order a slice of cake. I seriously don't do my body any favours. The first time I felt cheeky, my friend and I shared a piece of their chocolate guinness cake which was gooood. Well the cake itself was delicious, but the icing I could have done without. I'm very particular about icing and its sweetness. I think I'm not the only cheeky one because J+A also accompanies the cake with whipped cream. Very cheeky indeed. (How many times have I said cheeky in this one paragraph?)

I did try the victoria sponge cake once (I probably have a photo of this but it doesn't want to be found). I think I've come to the conclusion now that I must not be a victoria sponge cake person. It's not bad but the chocolate guinness cake is much better. 

I've also gone to J+A for brunch a few times. The first time I went for the eggs benedict (£6.50). The menu says that it comes with either ham or spinach, but I was actually given both. Heh. I tend to order it for brunch because I would never make it at home – well by 'it', I mean the hollandaise sauce. My favourite part is always cutting through the yolk. When I was a kid, my mum used to fry eggs for me all the time. Not for breakfast, for dinner. With soy sauce and rice. It's considered normal for us. Anyway... for such a long time, I assumed that the yolk was poisonous and would therefore avoid eating the egg yolk. My mum would yell at me, telling me to eat the egg yolk but I never did. I eventually became curious about the taste and despite my assumptions of the yolk being poisonous, I decided to try it. And now it's my favourite part of the egg! 

Random story. Don't get me started on green potato chips...

The one time I went solo for brunch, I decided to order something that I normally wouldn't order. I have those moments every now and then. I ordered the J+A Veggie Breakfast (£7.50) – poached eggs, mushroom, tomato, potato cakes, baked beans + toast. At the time, irish soda bread was the bread of choice. Interesting texture that's for sure. It's a very hearty meal and very filling. I enjoyed it immensely! I used to have this aversion to baked beans when I was a kid because the texture used to gross me out, but I'm glad I don't have such feelings anymore. Heh. 

I'm a big fan of their tea selection. While it's not the ideal price I like to pay for tea, I like the fact that they give you a full pot too since some places such as the above don't do that. The first time I drank coffee at J+A, I wasn't a fan But I gave their flat white another chance, and it wasn't too bad. So either I had a different barista or the barista had an off day the first time!

 

(From top to bottom: flat white, veggie breakfast, chocolate guinness cake, steak sandwich, eggs benedict, tea #345).

Foxcroft & Ginger
3 Berwick Street, Soho, W1F 0DR (Closest tube station: Piccadilly Circus or Leicester Square)

While J+A was one of my favourites, I must admit without any bias whatsoever that the antipodean cafés are the best cafés in London. Australians and New Zealanders know how to make good coffee and know how to run good cafés. I like to think it is a result of the café culture that exists in both countries. Foxcroft is frequently so busy that it was always a bit of journey trying to find seats every time I went there, so Foxcroft closely follows behind J+A as my favourite. The decor downstairs is a contrast to the ground floor. It's interesting trying to eat and drink on the pummel horse 'tables', that's for sure. Very interesting.

Of all the coffee I had while I was in London, Foxcroft had my favourite flat white coffee. Their sandwiches change occasionally (£4-£6) and they are really delicious. Their baked goods are also really good too. While the brownie was great, the carrot cake in particular was the favourite determined by my friend and I. As I mentioned before, I'm very picky with icing/frosting/buttercream, but the frosting on top of the cake was light and not too overly sweet. Yum.

Rose Bakery

Dover Street Market (top floor) / 17-18 Dover Street, W1S 4LT (Closest tube station: Green Park)

Rose Bakery was an interesting adventure. My café hopping friend of mine had this place on her list of cafés to go to, so we decided to venture off for a weekend lunch. Rose Bakery seemed like one of those cafés where all the hip, rich, cool folk go. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against those people – it's simply just an observation. Obviously I was way out of my element. The location confused me because I think I took the Market part of Dover Street Market too literally. Whoops.

For the record, I liked everything that I had at Rose Bakery. I liked the lofty portions of greens and enjoyed my quiche. The coffee was decent and the carrot cake was too, though I really disagree with that proportion of icing and I don't think it is as brilliant as everyone makes it out to be. One of our main problems with Rose Bakery was the lack of seating available and the prices. Sure, Rose Bakery was located in a high end area, but £30 for a quiche (or as they call it... 'bacon tart'), a simple frittata, two coffees and a carrot cake (not including service charge) is simply too much. Is it worth paying for a £4.50 carrot cake or nearly £10 for a frittata or tart? I don't necessary think so.

Flat White

17 Berwick St, Soho, W1F 0PT (Closest tube station: Piccadilly Circus or Leicester Square)

I read an NZ Herald article before I left for London recommending the best places to find a Kiwi coffee in London, therefore Flat White was one of the very first cafés to go on my list. Flat White is run by a mix of Kiwis and Ozzies and it is incredibly tiny. Very little room to walk around and a cash only premises (sigh). Very popular as there was always a decent queue when my friend and I were there. My flat white was indeed very good, but not as good as Foxcroft & Ginger's. I think Flat White is probably ideal for just coffee as my salad was nothing special. Takeaway more so than drinking in.

Fleet River Bakery
71 Lincoln's Inn Fields, Holborn WC2A 3JF (Closest tube station: Holborn)

Fleet River was conveniently located next to LSE, so if I didn't want to get food at university or wander off somewhere else in Soho or Covent Garden, I would then go to Fleet River. There is typically a queue that extends to outside the café/bakery, simply because the food and coffee is solid. I don't have many photos from Fleet River Bakery, but I've eaten a variety of dishes and have never had a bad experience with the food or coffee. Their variety of salads are especially good, with salads changing often. Well actually the menu changes pretty regularly as well. I haven't actually had much of their baked sweet goods, but their cream scones are massive. I love a good scone but I find them so impossible to finish! Very filling indeed. It doesn't look like there's much seating, but there's quite a bit downstairs. Service is okay, but could be consistently better.

LSE students can also get a 10% discount if they show their ID card, which I never knew about until after 10 months of living in London..oh joy.

(from L-R: big big scone with cream and jam, pizza with rocket, figs, parma ham and gorgonzola)

Look mum no hands!
49 Old Street, St Luke's, EC1V 9HX (Closest tube station: Barbican or Old Street)

This one was also on my friend's list. I willingly came along because I liked the name. It sounded quirky and no doubt the place is exactly that. Because for awhile I was questioning myself whether is was a bicycle shop that sells some food and coffee or a café with some eccentric bicycle aesthetic. Turns out it is something in between. I wish I took a photo of the decor but you could google that yourself. Some might think it's a bit strange, but I liked the fact that it was a bit different. If this café wasn't out of the way (as in not in the right proximity to university), I would have loved to come here to drink coffee, eat and do a bit of my school work. Both my friend and I brought our work with us for a couple of hours and it's a great place to do a bit of reading or even bring your laptop to chill and do some work since there's quite a bit of space. A particular person I know doesn't quite understand the idea of studying in a café, but it's not for everyone.

I really enjoyed their flat white even though it wasn't as strong (in taste) in comparison to other coffees I've had in London. I wonder if they only put in a single shot? Their range of pies with a side of salad are pretty popular, but amazingly the side of salad is as big as the pie itself! They tend to pile small amounts of all of the salads they have. Maybe some people enjoy that, but I would personally prefer to either pick which salads I want or there be a couple of different ones on the plate as opposed to five different ones. I sound so picky...maybe my parents were right about me after all! Their brownies are pretty devilish though. 

Lantana
13 Charlotte Place, Fitzrovia, W1T 1SN (Closest tube station: Goodge Street)

Lantana, an Aussie owned café, had been on my list for awhile. I had read many favourable reviews, so I knew I had to eventually try it out. This one was all on my own, and I was pretty lucky to avoid any queuing/waiting since quite a few people had to wait for seats while I was dining in. Constantly busy, It's a bit small and tight inside, which seems to be a common theme amongst many of the good cafés in London. 

My flat white was good indeed, but probably not as good as I had imagined from all the reviews I had read.I'm just glad it wasn't terrible. I was in a sandwich mood, which is rather rare since I'm not a huge sandwich person, so I ordered the only sandwich available on their lunch menu: the BRAT (bacon, rocket, avocado and tomato...aptly named then). The sandwich was very delicious but a bit hard to cut into and eat. Wanted to pick it up in my hand but was afraid everything would fall out. Heh. I wish I had ordered a pastry or something sweet from the takeaway area but I was so full! I find sandwiches very filling. It's the same way I feel about rice - can't eat too much of it in one serving. Service was fine, but nothing too memorable.

Next blog: Haven't decided yet! Either Beach Blanket Babylon in Shoreditch or some afternoon tea adventures! :)

London: It's Wahaca time!

I can't believe I've been back home for nearly three weeks! Time surely does fly by and it's kind of scaring me. I'm so thankful for such good weather since I've been back, despite all of the sweat from the heat (I bet you didn't want to know about that, huh?).

This next post is actually dedicated to a Mexican chain that became one of my faves in London. Thomasina Miers, chef and co-owner of Wahaca across seven sites, as well as one mobile and one experimental restaurant, is proof that maybe something good can come out of winning a reality TV cooking show (she was the first female winner of Masterchef UK, winning in 2005). Even though Wahaca has expanded across seven sites, I only ever went to the one in Covent Garden. I tried to go to the one in Wardour Street once, but my friend and I were so hungry that we couldn't wait and wanted food immediately. More on that below. Note that this isn't going to be about one visit, but a combination of multiple visits to Wahaca.

Wahaca

6 Chandos Place, Covent Garden, London WC2N 4HG (Closest tube station: Charing Cross Station).

I think the first time Wahaca was ever introduced to my muddled, over-thinking brain was by my friend's friend. My friend was undecided between Thai and Mexican, so her friend chose for us, recommending this place for dinner. We ended up not eating Mexican; it was first time out of numerous visits to Wahaca that I witnessed the waiting list - a throng of people waiting to get tables - and that the 40 minute queue was too long for us to wait for food. We were pretty starving before we even got there. So we went for Thai food instead. A week later, the same friend invited me to go out for dinner at Wahaca with a group of her friends from her course. I was very keen. Wait time? One hour. They don't take reservations. Instead of resigning and giving up, we left a name with them and went to the pub. Not long after, we came back and while we were waiting, we went to the bar and had some drinks and some snacks. 

When you go at night time, the wait time can be excruciating. One time I tried to go for dinner with a couple of friends and the wait time was 75 minutes. No thank you. So after a few visits, I realised the best time to go (well, for me) was to go during lunch. You don't have to wait and there aren't as many people. See that photo on the right - all those people standing are waiting by the bar so they can be seated. The funny thing is despite the mad rush of people at night, the service is always pretty consistent no matter what time of day and how busy it is. 

Wahaca prides itself on fresh Mexican market eating (street food), dispelling the notion that not all Mexican food out there is greasy. Your menu is your placemat and you can opt to try a few smaller plates on your own or share with friends, or opt for a bigger plate (which I've never done). The smaller plates are fun and more interesting in my opinion, because I love trying little bits of dishes rather than just one. What if you're totally missing out on something awesome?  Wahaca also changes some of their menu when the seasons change, so excuse me if some of these dishes aren't on their current menu (though they might come back eventually...)

The first thing to discuss would be the drinks. For my first visit to Wahaca, I ordered the passionfruit margarita (£6.25) which was delicious and fruity. I'm normally not a passionfruit person, but I had this inkling that it would taste good. Sometimes inklings are the best things to happen to you. Visit #3 or #4 (it's all a blur), I wanted to drown in my sorrows after a confusing VAT/tax class. Oh boy. (I still have no idea how I managed to pass that paper. I had nightmares after that exam). I ordered the hibiscus margarita (£5.95) and while it was much stronger than the passionfruit one, I didn't mind that one bit! I'm not sure if I should be condoning drinking by midday, but I'd like to think that it's a part of me trying to fit in with London culture...

For non-alcoholic fare, I did try the Horchata (£1.75) a few times. Horchata is a Mexican drink that consists of almond and rice milk. Lots of cinnamon on top. Kind of weird, I have to say. Maybe it's the unnecessary excess of cinnamon, maybe it could be that it's never that cold enough for me to drink in spite of a couple of icecubes in there -  I like my cold drinks to be cold (unless I'm suffering from a god almighty toothache).

While you and your friends are deciding what to order, you can opt to order some nibbles with your drinks. I seriously can't fault their guacamole (with tortilla chips or scratchings, £3.85). Every person that I've taken to Wahaca has always mentioned how good it is. The frijoles with tortilla chips (£3.25) are also pretty darn good and I am not the biggest fan of black beans. Yum. The black beans are served with cheese and crema on top.

Now for the street food menu. I've ever only tried one of the taquitos (corn tortilla wrapped around a filling, deep fried and served with crema) on their menu, which were the marinated chicken ones with shredded lettuce, cheese and tomato salsa (£3.95). Those were pretty good and were a hit at our table. A bit hard to eat, but had great flavour. The tostadas are a bit of mix bag (a crisp tortilla piled with a cold light salad on top). The best one I had was one that I forgot to take a photo of – the MSC ceviche tostada (£3.95) with shrimp and scallop, habanero, lime, mint, and tomato salsa. I was surprised by the taste since I'm not a big fan of the preparation of the shrimp, but it was so fresh that I ended up forgetting about my original preconceptions. The black bean tostadas (£3.80) with avocado salsa, crema, cheese and tomato sauce was also fresh and tasty – so nice that I forgot that there was no meat in it! My least favourite was the chicken guajillo tostadas (£3.95) –  chicken marinated in chipotle dressing, with salad mix, guacamole, salsa fresca and smoky guajillo oil. In all honesty, I wasn't a huge fan of the chicken and its texture and nor a huge fan of oil on top. Not bad, but most likely not to my tastes.

(from top left - clockwise: chicken taquito, black bean tostadas, the crowd, chicken tostadas)

My favourites from the street food part of the menu are the tacos. I'm a bit of a sucker for soft corn tortillas - especially when they're warm! Both the pork pibil taco (£3.95, slow cooked pork in a special yucatecan marinade) and the grilled british steak taco (with chipotle salsa £4.50, with grilled cheese & salsa £4.85) are extremely flavourful and have such tender meat involved. I personally favour the steak one more, only for the reason that I like chunks of steak and that the juiciness of the meat compliments the rest of the flavours in the taco.

One of the dishes that made it on the specials list was the queso fundido (£4.50), which is mexican fondue - with cactus, caramelised onions, lots of melted cheese, and served with soft corn tortillas. Can't go wrong with melted cheese, right?

Moving onto the quesadillas, I've tried the huitlacoche (£3.95), which had sauteed mushrooms, corn mushrooms and melted cheese; and the chorizo and potato (£4.10), which had chorizo (that they apparently make themselves), thyme and potato. While both are really good, my favourite was actually the chorizo and potato filling, and that shocks me since I have a mad love for mushrooms. It had a really nice amount of heat to it thanks to the chorizo. These quesadillas are not like the sloppy quesadillas I used to eat at university..which is a good thing really.

Now onto dessert! Hurrah, my favourite thing. From my first visit, I remember that we wanted to share two desserts. We instantly decided to order the churros with the chocolate sauce (£3.95) but weren't sure for the second one. So we asked our waitress for a recommendation and she exclaimed, "The churros definitely!" Well we already decided on that so we asked her for another one. She contemplated, "Hmmm...the churros?"Heh. "I guess the next best thing would be the dulce de leche icecream [£3.85]?" Such hesitance, but nevertheless we ordered it. As far as ice creams go, it was nothing overly spectacular. The waitress was right to hesitate – the churros was the only way to go. When they hesitate, you should probably take that into consideration. I've had many churros' in my time and Wahaca make some good ones.

In terms of service, service is always pretty efficient. As I mentioned earlier, service is rather consistent across lunch and dinner and I guess they have to be with fast turnover of customers. I think lunch is nicer in particular because the waiters seem to be more hospitable and it has a quieter atmosphere – there's still a lot of people but not overly crowded like it is during dinner. Lunch is also more convenient because there's barely any waiting time to get a table. 

I think the reason why I like Wahaca is because it's rather informal and fun and the food is actually fresh and decent. London is an expensive city, so it's nice to go out somewhere for a quick bite and drink at a reasonable price. I don't know how authentically Mexican it is, but for whatever it is, it was good enough for me and my friends!

My next blog will be a very general update on the cafe culture in London. I love cafes!