[Review] Cream Tea at The English Rose

By chance I discovered this cozy tea room when I was on the bus to Victoria Station.
As it is conveniently located by the station, I visited it one afternoon before I had to travel somewhere.

It was late in the afternoon and filled with people.

The decor was very homely but then it used to be a house, every corner of the place was beautiful.

The menu was down to earth and not overpriced which is a hard to find in Central London.

Overall, I had a great time there but the only thing that let it down was the scone which was a bit dry and hard.

Other than that, this place is highly recommended.

[Review] Lovely pies at Young Vegans

I have heard of Young Vegans a lot but didn't really know it was a pie shop until recently.

When I found out that they served Vegan pie and mash decided to give it a visit.

The shop is easily missed because it is right at the back but the good thing is that they have a few seats inside and there are tables outside.

Seitan and ale or the Aussie vegan mince pies were my main choices because pies with gravy are usually beef.

According to their insta, the steak is seitan while the Aussie vegan uses mince.

Unfortunately when it was my turn to order, both the labels for these pies were turned over so I thought they would not refill them so I ordered the Cheeseburger instead.

Other pies that were available were the Chick'n Katsu, Chick'n parmigiana and the Sweet and sour chick'n.

When I got my pie, it was satisfying to see it drizzled with gravy and topped crisp onions.

Instead of mash, I had mac and cheese.

Although it was not the pie of my choice, the cheeseburger was actually delicious because of the flavours like gherkin and cheese inside but the seitan beef patty let it down a bit because the texture was rather rubbery as it was all compacted into one patty.

The vegan mac and cheese was quite comforting in the sense that it was creamy and cheesy yet light.

 

It was good that they serve tea but it wasn't very full.

After I finished my pie, decided to go in and look at the menu again but to my surprise the pies were refilled so I was a bit gutted that they didn't tell people they were going to be refilled.

Saying that the cheeseburger pie wasn't bad so I didn't make a wrong choice.

To summarize, I would definitely recommend their pies and the flavours really blend in nicely as they have taken popular pub favourites like sweet and sour and put it in a pie.

Young Vegan:

60 Camden Lock

[Review] Marks and Spencers Christmas Dinner

As mentioned earlier, the Marks and Spencers Christmas Dinner was on my list to try but the smaller branches don't offer it.

Luckily I was checking something out on Oxford Street so went to Marks and Spencers for the Christmas dinner while everyone in town was probably going for more sophisticated choices.

It was late in the afternoon and relatively busy, overall it was quick to queue and pay but the drinks counter was holding up the queue.

After paying for the dinner, queued for the tea which took a while then sat down and waited for the dinner.

When it arrived, it looked just as good as the product shot with lots of gravy.

Everything on the plate was delicious so I would definitely recommend the Christmas Dinner.

[Review] Marks and Spencers Christmas Rainbow Cake

Spotted the Marks and Spencers Christmas Rainbow Cake and the Christmas dinner at some branch so decided to try it the next time I was out.
Sadly they only serve the cake and Christmas dinner at the bigger branches.

Went to Marks and Spencers at Westfield in White City.

We were greeted by the coffee kiosk on the ground floor so we didn't realize there was a bigger cafe upstairs so ended up just having tea.

Went upstairs after tea and discovered a bigger Marks and Spencers cafe where they had the Christmas Rainbow Cake so ended up going there as well to eat it because it is difficult to find another branch.

The layout at this branch was rather bad because the cake stands were too high which made it difficult to put the slice of cake on the plate.

The Marks and Spencers Christmas Rainbow Cake is basically a cake with layers of green, red and plain cake with buttercream topped with sprinkles.

Overall, it was a fancy cake that was instaworthy with colourings that didn't have any special flavours.
The buttercream a bit too sugary for my liking.

Will return for the Christmas dinner as this branch does not offer it.

[Review] Patisserie Valerie

Patisserie Valerie has been around since 1926, you can find it almost everywhere as they became popular in 2006.
The cake selections are pricey and just the usual.

I was treated a blackforest cake for tea so finally tried Patisserie Valerie.

The cherries on top were nice while the chocolate sponge was soft, but overall I think their cakes are over hyped.

[Review] The Poutinerie

Poutine is a classic Canadian dish of French fries topped with cheese curds and gravy.
I have had numerous poutine in Hong Kong that were fake except New York Fries which sadly closed down because the market there just doesn't appreciate this kind of dish.

Anyway, I love Poutine because I just love chips with gravy, curry sauce etc.

The Poutinerie is a mobile stall that operates in London four days a week with a different location each day.
It has been difficult for me to try and catch them as I am always on the go to try different places to eat.
There were four current locations: Victoria, Brick Lane, Wentworth and Chancery Lane.
Locations vary each week but Brick Lane and Victoria are usually on their schedule but still it was hard to go on the right day.

Victoria would probably be the best place but I went for the difficult choice when they were on Brick Lane.
It was not a good day for me because quite a few tube lines and stations were suspended so I had to go different routes to get there.
Finally made it to Brick Lane and it rained and to add to that, there were millions of other food stalls on Brick Lane as well as the stalls at the Truman Brewery.
Luckily I made it before 3pm and got my poutine.

It was cold that day so it was a race against the time to eat it before it got cold.
As well as poutine they had some delicious rib meat which I asked to have it separated because I wanted to taste poutine on its own.
The poutine was amazing, each chips was covered with delicious gravy and big chunks of cheese curds which were rather rubbery but then they would be in this cold weather.

The pulled rib meat was soft and delicious which was complimented fantastically by The Rib Man Holy Fuck Sauce which was fiery.

It is hard to describe the sauce because it is very different to chili, the spiciness does not linger yet it makes a loud statement.

Overall, I would definitely recommend The Poutinerie and hope to see them at any Boxpark or Camden because there will be seating.