ramblingassortmentsofalondo-blog

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"The East is Slowly Eating the West"

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The Fable Bar & Restaurant...less special fairtale, more fail.

Last night we decided to head to The Fable nestled between St Paul's and Farringdon. I had high hopes having heard about their 'legendary' cocktails and beautiful decor. Based "once upon a time in a land far, far away", The Fabel is the brainchild of Drake & Morgan, who created The Folly, The Anthologist, The Parlour and The Happenstance. They've set the bar high with their other restaurants so I was expecting something almost magical...sadly the result was less fairytale and more of a fail. 

Having booked a table for 12 people for a friend’s birthday, we arrived and decided to heard straight to the bar for one of these infamous cocktails. I thought I'd venture away from the norm and chose the 'Goldfish in a Bag'… according to the menu the cocktail would be served in a goldfish bag and be made up of Little Bird Gin, mandarin vodka, rhubarb bitters, pink grapefruit ‘fish’, tonic & edible lily pads. Exciting no?! Actually not exciting at all! Informed they were out of 'goldfish bags' I decided to give it a go anyway and opted for a 'Goldfish in a glass' instead - disappointing but these things do happen. 

Given the amount of time spent making the cocktail, I was hoping for something a bit better than an overpriced gin and tonic. The Little Bird gin was replaced by Tanqueray and the pink grapefruit 'fish' tonic was replaced by regular tonic – neither of which was communicated to us by the barman. At the price of £8.95, it looked like a gin and tonic, smelt like a gin and tonic and basically was a gin and tonic! 

After a slightly disappointing start, we headed down to the restaurant. By this point we were starving and really impressed by the first look at the menu. The service was very friendly albeit a little slow to start. As with all good birthdays the first thing to do is propose a toast to the birthday girl....this would've been fine had they not failed to provide the birthday girl (and a few others) with a glass of wine – again these things do happen. What elevates a restaurant from good to great is most definitely the attention to detail, something that’s lacking at The Fabel.

On to the food….a couple of us ordered starters to share including the Chicken satay & prawn crackers, tempura crispy squid with ginger & firecracker sauce and the prawn lollipops with sweet chilli & soy dip. At £6 a dish, we really couldn't fault the starter. The prawn lollipops were juicy and amazing and the ginger sauce that came with the squid was amazing. Things were definitely improving.

For the mains, quite a few of us ordered the 'Reef, Beef and Bubbles' from the specials menu. As a big lover of surf and turf, the dish included half a lobster, 4oz steak, fries & a glass of prosecco for just £15. I confess I was a bit worried about the portion size so was glad we filled up on starters before hand – actually it was the perfect size although if I’d opted for no starter I might have been left a bit hungry.

Overall the steak and lobster main was good value although the lobster could've definitely have been better - it was quite overcooked so by the time it arrived it was a bit shrivelled and dry. Not great but value for money was okay.  By far the highlight of the whole meal was the side of Mac N Cheese - the best i've had in a long time! 

The highlight was most definitely the food although the whole experience fell a bit short of the magic promised...it just seemed to be lacking the attention to detail and 'sparkle'. I would recommend a midweek dinner there however for a ‘special occasion’ I’m not sure I’d hurry back.

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Bearded Sausages and Gin - it can only be Eurovision!

To give a bit of background, every year my friends and I embark on an evening of cheesy europop and political entertainment - commonly known as Eurovision! This year was no different but we thought we'd take it up a notch and hold a more classy affair with a spot of civilised gin tasting* (Sipsmith, Tanqueray and Beefeater) to start.

I have no shame in saying that this is possibly my favourite evening of the year. You can keep Christmas Eve and New Years Eve - give me Eurovision anyday.

As a proud nation, we put pressure on our countries representatives to win, coming second is just not an option (namely sport related). However Eurovision is an entirely different affair! In our heart of hearts we all know that we absolutely categorically do not stand a chance of winning or coming second for that matter...in fact our main goal is just to get something other than 'nill point'. For some reason it just adds to the magic and hilarity of the night. 

This year, a friend of mine decided she was going to embark on an epic drinking game complete with A4 handouts of rules and regulations. This included drinking if someone removed an item of clothing, drinking if Graham Norton took the p*ss out of another country...and the list goes on. Needless to say, it was going to be an exceedingly long night!

First and foremost, everyone was allocated 5 countries each. The rules simple....when it was your county's turn all you had to do was drink when something happened from the list! Some of us fared better than others...excessive use of unnecessary props, 'ethnic dancing' and also wind machines caused much laughter all round.... and god help you if you had two consecutive countries to contend with! 

Its safe to say, everyone was suitably on their way to being merry....but we still had the results to come! The rules simple...if you're country was awarded 10 or 12 points you had to drink some more (thank god we only did shots at the half way mark).

The lucky winner who had Austria made a swift getaway (more of a stumble) after dancing round to the bearded sausage lady and being awarded endless 12 points by pretty much most countries!

What a bloody marvellous evening and not a gin bottle in sight by the end of it....Eurovision we salute you!!  

*sadly this post has absolutely nothing to do with gin tasting! 

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Bagging a bargain at London Designer Outlet

I recently stumbled upon a hidden gem in London...the new designer outlet shopping centre located a stones throw away from Wembley Stadium and arena. 

The new London Designer Outlet is the perfect place to grab a bargain although there's much more on offer including lots of restaurants and a huge Cineworld cinema. Not only does it have wide open outdoor spaces but I was incredibly impressed with the range of discounts available - up to 70% off! Usually when you visit these outlet malls you also end up with last year's stuff or the dribs and drabs that wouldn't sell in a full price store so i was pleasantly surprised at the range of current season stock on offer. 

So with the mission of trainers in mind, I was very excited to see Nike, Adidas, trendy New Balance and Asics...all with money off. The massive trend this season is bright and colourful trainers so the result...a current season brand spanking new pair of Nike Bare Foot running trainers in bright pink! Not only great for running but also fantastic for posture. And the best bit...£130 reduced to £49!!! 

It's definitely more of a Gun Wharf Quays rather than a Bicester Village however personally I don't think that's a bad thing...anyway who can afford Prada even if it is discounted! All in all I would highly recommend a visit...why pay full price when you can go to London Designer Outlet. 

For a full list of brands you can find them here 

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Pepsi Max...making bus journeys unbeliveable!

There is nothing better than the look on people's faces when they encounter something completely unexpected! Great piece of marketing by Pepsi Max with their 'Unbelievable bus shelter'!

Pepsi has converted an ordinary London bus stop on one of the city’s busiest shopping streets into a life like thriller. Bystanders wait at the bus stop on Oxford Street, which has embedded in it, a digital sign disguised as a panel of glass facing out to the street. Pepsi then run augmented reality animations which show a tiger coming towards the bus stop, a tentacle, an alien spaceship and a meteor landing on the street.

Brilliant!

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The CSI Experience...earn your diploma in Vegas! 

A top tip....get three Vegas experiences for $54...it includes the Manhatten Express at New York, New York, The Shark Reef Aquarium at Mandalay Bay, The Titanic experience at the Luxor, The Dolphin Habitat and the Mirage and the CSI experience at MGM Grand plus a few more! All you have to do is visit any of the venues and choose your three tickets.

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Welcome to Las Vegas!!

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No Miracles on the Hudson needed....

I start my story landing in Charlotte, North Carolina after a rather pleasant 9 hour flight from Gatwick! Yes pleasant! Leaving a rather damp and dreary London town to be greeted by beautiful sunshine and a warm welcome from a nice man in typical yankee doodle suit and tie.

    Surprisingly despite the horrors reported about US Airways by various travellers (and also not being helped by the error in reading an article in the FT about fatality rates for flying internationally) it was actually not too bad...some might argue almost enjoyable....certainly no 'Miracle on the Hudson' here... or the need to use the seat cushion as an inflatable life raft as advised during take off!? Eh? Lovely hostesses, reasonable food and as comfortable as you can get in cattle class!

    Sadly the fun doesn't stop there, after rigorous finger printing, eye scanning, 'you have a good day maam' and more full body scans, we embark on the rest of our journey. Next stop...Vegas and as the security chap rightly said, 'have a little gamble, a little beer and win big'! 5 hours to go on a connecting flight... suitably impressed so far!  

(As an aside it's always nice to turn your phone on to the news that we've beaten the French at Rugby in the 6 Nations...today is a good day!)