We went on a day trip to London the other day. We hadn’t been there for a long time so we were all excited to be back in the city, see friends, and eat delicious food! As we usually go to the same places and eat the same foods, we made it our mission to get out of our comfort zone…
Oddono’s – South Kensington
Daughter1 loves gelato, and we always visit the same gelaterias when we go to London. However this time, she wanted to go to a gelateria in South Kensington where I used to go, when I lived in London long time ago. It’s called Oddono’s and they have 7 shops in London. She tried the pistachio and nocciola flavours which are award winning (and rightfully so, she says.) Daughter2 tried pistachio and bacio, which apparently was a great combination.
Anya Hindmarch THE ICE CREAM PROJECT
We went to the Anya Hindmarch’s ice cream shop last year and had fun choosing the flavours so we had been planning to visit the temporary concept store again! From social media, we knew they had different flavours this year, so this was perfect for our mission (to try new things) and perfect for getting out of our comfort zone. They have only unusual flavours such as ketchup, sweet chilli, etc! I had Kikkoman soya sauce flavour last year and it was a bit too salty for my liking so I wanted to opt for something more neutral this time. There was a queue when we got there at 4.30pm but it wasn’t too bad, we probably waited for 10 -15 minutes.
I choose Tip Tree Lemon Curd and it was really tasty! It was like lemon cheese cake. Daughter1 had McVitie’s Digestives and she said it was delicious and similar to cookie dough. One of the shop assistants told me that it’s the most popular flavour. Daughter2 had Ribena. She didn’t like the bits in it but otherwise she liked the flavour. Like last time, it was such a fun and unique experience, and we hope to go back and try the other flavours. I recommend visiting as early as possible, because flavours will run out and these tend to be the more ‘safe’ flavours too.
Uniqlo Covent Garden
Next we went to Covent Garden. We wanted to check out the new Uniqlo there. They have RE.UNIQLO STUDIO on the 2nd floor where you can have embroidery, repairs and customisation services on Uniqlo products. Also, they have a café called Katsute100 on the same floor. It’s a Japanese Tea Room and they have so many different Japanese style teas along with an outdoor seating option. We weren’t hungry or thirsty at the time so we didn’t go but it looked nice. We’d like to try it out next time when we are in the area as I am interested in their tea and cakes.
Chinatown
After Uniqlo, we headed to Chinatown. There were so many people and it was so hard to walk. I have never seen Chinatown that busy! Never seen people that many in the area! (Well, it’s because I have never been to Chinatown in the middle of the summer holidays.) We had a look at some bakeries, supermarkets, street type food shops etc. I was hoping to eat some steamed buns while walking but as there were many people, I thought it would be a better idea to sit and eat.
Vietfood – London
So, we went to Vietfood – London restaurant on Wardour Street. It was around 18:00 but it was already busy and people were queuing to get in.
I love Vietnamese food. I like bún very much (dry vermicelli noodles with herbs, salad, and sauce with fish sauce) and every time I have a meal at a Vietnamese restaurant, I always order it. I normally have bún cha gio (dry vermicelli noodles with spring rolls) but they didn’t have it, so this time, I had Bún thịt nướng (Chargrilled Three of pork). It was nice and I liked the flavour but I’d like a bit more pork in it. Daughter1 had spring rolls and she said that they were nice and crunchy. Daughter2 had Cơm chiên tôm và lạp xưởng Việt Nam (Home-style fried rice with Vietnamese sausage and prawns in King soy sauce) and we liked the presentation of it but unfortunately, I forgot to take a photo of it as her order was forgotten and ended up coming really late, by the time everyone was almost finished eating. (I found the photo on TripAdvisor). Daughter2 loved it so much that we ordered another one for the table to share!
Good price and fresh food. It’s nicely decorated and the food is presented aesthetically but it’s not a fancy restaurant, definitely a ‘eat and go’ situation. Most people were there for no more than an hour. It’s like a cool Vietnamese diner.
Bake
After our dinner, we walked down to Bake (a Chinese bakery) to get a dessert for Daughter1. It was her 3rd ice cream today! Daughter2 and I were full and we couldn’t fit another ice cream in. Daughter1 had Green Tea and Vanilla mixed Taiyaki soft serve. She says the green tea was nice but bitter so it worked well with the vanilla. Though she liked it, she says it was a lot bigger and lot more filling than she expected, so only order it if you are really hungry!
It was a fun trip over all but Chinatown was just so busy. We need to go back there when there are less people so we can enjoy walking around and trying the street food that we had hoped to have tried!
