Barrafina

Whoever said you can't change a person, was wrong. When I first met The Boyfriend,  he knew a grand total of two restaurants,  neither of which took reservations or served food that was unhealthy - Sophie's and Barrafina. The Boyfriend, pre-boyfriend title, was unable to make plans more than three hours in advance, or eat food other than cottage cheese, smoked salmon and blueberries, unless it was only slightly less nutritious. In other words, he was the world's best dinner date. Luckily for our relationship - Barrafina was such a great location for our first dinner date that I didn't mind that no carbs were involved in the whole meal and that he hadn't had to put in any effort. Almost two years later it still serves as "oh-bugger-we-don't-have-a-reservation-for-any-decent-restaurant" - which happens a lot less frequently than 18 months ago. Now of course, he not only knows more than two restaurants, many of which have phone lines, but he primarily eats unhealthy foods.

MeatLiquor

I'm not very good at queuing for food and I'm definitely not very good at waiting for an hour for food once I'm seated. Normally, this would make me hate the restaurant involved, angry at the staff, tearful inside the restaurant and bitter leaving it, and yet, I left MEATliquor happy. Fatter but happy.

The Breakfast Club

The Breakfast Club has been on my “to-eat” list forever - they have four branches, the Soho one not too far away, but always I’ve been put off by the lack of reservations and the threat of the queue. Okay temperature, sunshine, and only a slight hangover made it a feasible option for The Brunch Buddy and I. When we arrived at 11am, the queue outside was already snaking up the street, and we waited about 15 minutes before grabbing a table outside next to the ever growing queue. 

Polpetto

Faced with the familiar situation of yet another Saturday night with no reservation The Boyfriend and I ended up at Polpetto. Barrafina, would be the normal choice in this situation, but we felt like going outside the box.

Corner Room

I really didn't want to like the Corner Room. Why? Because the Corner Room is really far away from Covent Garden, and I mean River Cafe far away. A £20 and 30 minute long cab ride each way and this place becomes expensive and time consuming. To be perfectly honest, had The Boyfriend and I not been heading to the East End anyway we probably never would have gone. This would have been a mistake because the Pork with Portugese Bread and Butter Pudding was so worth the journey. 

Nordic Bakery

Soho, cinnamon buns, coffee, cakes and a whole host of other wonderful things.

Princi - The Happiest Place on Earth

There is one over riding factor that puts me off visiting a restaurant - a lack of information. Apparently, this is cool at the moment  and seems to be a common  theme with new restaurants, I blame Nuno Mendes and Russel Norman. As a control freak, I hate this. A normal trip to a restaurant is incrediby well researched - I tend to know everything about the place before I show up - I know what I am going to eat, what the place looks like, and roughly how much the experience will cost me.

Cox, Cookies & Cakes vs. Hummingbird - A Tale of Two Cupcakes

The corner of Brewer Street and Wardour Street in Soho is a great place to be standing, as both streets have a fabulous cupcake shop. The question is which street to take? One afternoon, The Boyfriend and I decided to taste test. One Vanilla Cupcake (Cox,Cookies and Cake) and one Toffee Apple Cupcake (Hummingbird). Sitting on a step on a random street in Soho we compiled the following list of merits: 

da Polpo

The Boyfriend's move to Covent Garden three months ago was easily the best decision ever. Not only do we have Opera Tavern, my new favourite place, Machiavelli and Laduree but now we have da Polpo, yet another Russell Norman restaurant. 

La Fromagerie

I've been dying to go to La Fromagerie for ages. My normal cheese place " La Cave a Fromage", in South Ken, has been seemingly getting further and further away -  a product of my increasing laziness and lack of desire to leave the Holborn/Covent Garden/Mayfair/Marylebone area.  So one day my cheese and wine buddy - The Bestie and I decided to try it out.

Spuntino

They Boyfriend and I are polar opposites. I like to organise, plan and book things in advance. The thought of a weekend without a reservation somewhere is a stressful thought. To be fair, this isn't entirely my fault, but restaurants in London seem to be booked so far in advance it is only logical to book restaurants for the next three months. The Boyfriend on the other hand, like so many males, doesn't like to organise, plan or book things in advance. He is a more spontaneous, happy-go-lucky kinda guy and before we started dating there were only two restaurants he knew in London - Sophie's and Barrafina (both reservation less).