It's Love I Think - Pop-Up Cafe London review

On a lunchtime errand near London's Liverpool Street station, something unusual caught my eye across the road - a shop front filled with purple teddy bears. I crossed the street to have a closer look and realised it was a cafe - very pink, with cuddly toys and neon signs adorning the walls. Of course I had to go in and have a closer look.

It's Love I Think is both a pop-up cafe and an immersive art takeover by the artist Eve De Haan that claims to be a space for retreat, positivity, wellbeing and nostalgia. Inside you will find inspirational slogans on neon signs, comfy and slightly furry chairs and clear perspex coffee tables stuffed with pink teddy bears. Look up the stairs and you'll spot a cluster of large purple bears; look around and you'll also notice the vintage record player, a bookcase full of wellbeing books, a cutsey milk carton sign and the mystery surprise vending machine. It was only £1 so I popped in a coin and twisted the handle to get a surprise for my seven year old daughter - which turned out to be a fluffy creature of some kind on a key ring and a hairclip in the shape of a bean.

There was a wide selection of hot and cold drinks and some delicious looking bakes; being a hot day - and being in a thoroughly pink cafe - for me it had to be an iced pink chai latte. 

Open until December 2025, It's Love I Think is located at 57 Old Broad Street, and is open Tuesdays to Fridays from 8am to 4pm. Also, 10% of the profits go to Choose Love, a charity supporting women and children in need. So as if you even needed an excuse to grab a coffee and a selfie in this pink paradise, you'll know you are helping do some good at the same time.

Restaurant review: Hixon chophouse Salisbury

My birthday celebration this year included a trip to see Hamilton at the Mayflower in Southampton - excellent seats for a fraction of the West End ticket price, and a fantastic cast, especially Billy Nevers as Aaron Burr.

We stayed in a hotel in Salisbury and had dinner at Hixon, a chophouse which only opened in 2023 but is due to close after two years very soon in June. If you get a chance to visit before it turns into a Mexican restaurant then I strongly recommend it!

The food was excellent though the service was very slow. We both wanted steak so both opted for the fillet (£35) though my husband was disappointed there wasn’t an option for bearnaise sauce - he had the garlic butter and I had mustard cider (an extra £2.50 each).

We had to wait 15 minutes for someone to take our drinks order and eventually when our food came our drinks still hadn’t arrived and we had to ask for them again. I also noticed the server had told the couple dining at the next table what the specials were but didn’t mention any specials to us. We also had to wait a long time for our desserts later. 

I had a French martini cocktail which was very good and for dessert a passionfruit Brule with mango sorbet (£8) which I enjoyed while my husband had a very good sticky toffee pudding (£8.50).

We enjoyed the food and the ambience of the restaurant though did find it a bit expensive even for a good quality steak - this was £35 for a 7oz (200g) fillet; my yardstick for steak is Hawksmoor in London which is expensive as it’s London but also some of the best steak I’ve ever had, and they charge £44 for 275g which is actually (slightly) more per gram, and it definitely wasn’t better steak, and I wouldn’t expect to pay London prices in Salisbury. The service was also remarkably slow; even so I think it’s a real shame Hixon is closing as I would have gone back the next time I wanted to have a celebratory dinner in Salisbury.

Memsahib Gin and Tea Bar Cheltenham

I was trying to work out why I liked the Memsahib Gin andTea Bar in Cheltenham aside from the absolutely delicious cocktails and then I realised - it was the comfy chairs.

These days the last thing I want when I go out for a drink is a busy pub where I’m standing, trying to make myself heard, with nowhere to put my bag. I’d much rather have a seat in a quiet corner and be able to relax and hear my friends speak!

Last year I went to Bath with a few of my friends and took part in a murder mystery event that saw us walking - and at times running - around the town centre trying to solve a virtual crime with Clued Up. It was great fun but pretty tiring as we were on our feet all day. At the end of the day, we drove back to my friend's house in Cheltenham, and walked to the town centre for dinner and drinks. By that point my feet were starting to hurt which is another reason I was glad to sit down!

Memsahib is inspired by the British Raj period in India with tapas food blending British and Indian flavours; it also serves an afternoon Chai tea and crafts its own gin. If I lived closer, I would definitely do one of their masterclasses!

We had some masala chips served with parmesan and lemon salt (£5.50) to nibble alongside our cocktails which were not too spicy and really unusual. But mostly I liked the cocktails - carefully blended flavours, that were out of the ordinary, definitely worth their £10 price tag.

I love Singapore Slings so I had a Cheltenham Sling - vodka, Indian masala rum, orange liqueur, green apple, lime, ginger, angostura bitters, orange bitters and ginger ale. It came on a little tray with a couple of little bottles for me to mix myself. I followed that with a Memsahib Star, made from tropical mango gin, pineapple, lime, vanilla and prosecco - a little similar to a pornstar martini. Both were delicious and I'd definitely recommend making a stop here if you are in the area.

The Tea Terrace - Afternoon Tea in a Princess Carriage

A perfect treat for any little girl - or grown up - who loves princesses and all things pink. We enjoyed afternoon tea at the Tea Terrace in Cobham for our daughter's fourth birthday last year and she was thrilled. Unfortunately that restaurant has now closed but they have another venue in Guildford where you can have the same princess carriage experience - to find out more hop on over to my other blog, Mini Moo Life.

They have an extensive menu of breakfast, lunch and dinner options as well as afternoon tea. The white chocolate and cranberry scones were especially good, and the mini cakes were delicious. The restaurant was very quiet when we were there so we were able to hop over to another table in the corner and sit on throne-type chairs - though my daughter and I definitely preferred sitting in the princess carriage! 

You do have to pay extra to hire the carriage which you get for an hour and a half, and it can add up at £12.95 per person - I think it would be better to have a flat fee per carriage as you aren't exactly going to share it with anyone. There is also a minimum spend of £21 per person if you sit in the carriage so you can't just book it to feel a bit fancy while drinking a coffee! We had planned to go for afternoon tea (which my daughter and I ordered while my husband had a panini from the lunch menu followed by a cake and with a drink as well which came to more than the minimum spend.

While we haven't been to the Tea Terrace's remaining venue in Guildford it looks from the website to be quite similar to the now closed Cobham branch, and most importantly has the princess carriages, but doesn't have Theresa the robot!

Cherish Finden's Shiok - Expensive but worth it

Beautiful presentation, fantastic flavours but you will get a ‘shiok’ from the prices!

I had a £16 individual dessert in Bake Off Professionals star Cherish Finden’s new patisserie… and was it worth it? Find out what I thought of the Apple Tin below!

Cherish Finden is a celebrity chef known for her appearances as a judge on Great British Bake Off: The Professionals and as the pastry chef at London’s luxury Langham hotel. Her formidable demeanour combined with fabulous outfits and comments to the contestants that have launched countless memes have made her something of an icon, so when I read that she had opened a new patisserie just up the street from my office I decided to pay a visit.

Part of the Pan Pacific hotel but in a standalone building with its own entrance (so you don’t go into the hotel itself), Shiok! looks fairly unassuming from a distance, but as you get closer you can see rows and rows of perfectly formed sweet treats on the counter. There’s a seating area that gave off a peaceful, tranquil vibe - possibly because there was only one other couple in there on the weekday lunchtime when l visited. 

There are comfy chairs at the back and more formal hard chairs and little tables at the front, and the three staff hovering at the counter were friendly if a little intimidating - I watched one line up desserts in the display and check the distance between them with precision that the GBBO judges would have loved.

I spent some time admiring the display of treats, as much for their finesse and beauty as deciding which one I wanted to order. I have to admit having a bit of a ‘Shiok’ when I saw the price tags (this is not where the name comes from, and it apparently means ‘very tasty’, but perhaps it should be). Most of the patisserie was priced around the £15 mark and the one I chose was £16. Obviously aimed at the luxury market (I would say mainly tourists and business travellers) it is nonetheless an afternoon tea lover’s heaven. From traditional Singaporean biscuits to what looked like a chocolate tea pot, this is a feast for the eyes.

Cherish has revealed that the Apple Tin was inspired by her childhood where she would open a tin of lychees and eat them straight from the tin. Here, the tin itself is edible too- white chocolate printed with a design. Inside is caramel sponge, apple compote, apple slices and cinnamon crumble. Each mouthful was delicious, a perfect combination of flavours and textures, and at £16 it probably does scale up consistently from when you pay £50 for an afternoon tea for similar bite size patisserie (as the sandwiches and scones aren’t exactly the expensive part). Even do it was definitely a one off treat and not something I would spend that much on every week!

If you do get a chance to check out Shiok I recommend it - but don’t expect it to be cheap!

Woodcote Green Garden Centre Dobbies - New restaurant review

Many people don’t like change, especially when it’s something they are familiar and comfortable with.

So it’s not surprising that some people were a bit dismayed when the independent Woodcote Garden Centre in Wallington was taken over by the Dobbies chain. At first nothing changed, then I saw people on local Facebook groups complain various things were different and in their opinion not as good, and they had moved the gift section to make way for soft play.

That made me sit up and take notice straight away as a mum of a (then) three year old and living very close to the garden centre. So the first weekend that the soft play was open (last summer - July 2021) I arranged a play date with my daughter’s best friend and we went to check it out. Incidentally, I have reviewed the soft play over on my other blog Mini Moo Life - I thought it was great for younger children.

In terms of the garden centre overall and some of the comments I have seen online, I would have no idea whether the quality or choice of plants was any different as I am the least green fingered person you are ever likely to meet. It did look like something was missing though as there is a huge new area selling hot tubs; I can’t remember what was there before but am sure it wasn’t hot tubs. The outside play area is still there, with a climbing frame, slide and sand pit, and inside everything has moved around but it’s hard to tell what if anything is missing, apart from the Edinburgh Woollen Mill concession which I really liked (which went when EWM went into administration). 

There seems to be a much bigger toy area than previously which is both good and bad - great for gifts (in the past I remember it being mainly wooden toys, puzzles and Schleich animals and now they have everything from Peppa Pig toys to Lego as well) but I can’t see myself taking my daughter past that section without her wanting me to buy something!

The restaurant has also expanded significantly and has taken over a large section that used to house barbecues and garden furniture as well as it’s previous site. It’s also changed in that you no longer pay at the till when you order food and instead it’s table service. The menu didn’t look a million miles away from what the garden centre served previously but there were some additions. I decided to try a macaroni cheese toastie - I love macaroni cheese and have had it as a burger topping a few times but never in a sandwich! It was very rich and filling (definitely a bit of a carb overload) but quite enjoyable as a lunchtime treat.

Since I've been back, I've noticed there is a smaller menu than there used to be under the previous owners, but there are some interesting additions on offer like an afternoon tea (which I haven't tried yet).

We have been back to the garden centre many times since it changed hands, to buy plants, gifts, visit the soft play or go to the cafe, and to attend different events. For me, the fact that it has become part of the Dobbies chain is no bad thing; it has given us new opportunities and continues to offer everything we expect from a garden centre - but I appreciate that not everyone wants a garden centre to be as much a source of entertainment and general shopping as it is about plants!

Restaurant review - Lutyens Grill, The Ned, London

Since having our daughter the only time my husband and I seem to go out for a meal by ourselves is a birthday or anniversary, and we haven’t even managed that most of the time for the past few years, thanks to covid and limitations on free babysitting.

We managed to celebrate our first anniversary after the birth of our daughter (pre-pandemic) in style, going into London to dine at the Ned, a swanky private members club (with restaurants and bars that are open to the public) near Bank.

It’s also a hotel, but the rooms are a little out of our price range (!) at over £300 for the smallest ‘crash pad’ room going up to over £2,000 a night for their most luxurious suite. They also have a pool, spa, various restaurants, a jazz and cabaret club and more.

After opening in 2017 in the historic 1920/ building designed by Sir Edwin - ‘Ned’ - Lutyens that was the headquarters of Midland Bank, the Ned quickly became known as a celebrity haunt. It probably helped that the Ned was set up by one of the founders of Soho House - and it’s not often you get the chance to visit somewhere like that unless you are a member but the restaurants in the Ned are open to the public too. There is an Italian called Cecconi’s, the Nickel bar, which has American staples and cocktails, an American diner called Electric, Malibu Kitchen which has healthy Californian food and smoothies, Asia Pacific-inspired restaurant Kaia, Lutyens Grill which serves steaks and fish and the Parlour which is a jazz and cabaret bar.

I was tempted by most of them and knew my husband would prefer either steak or the American diner, but the latter didn’t seem posh enough for an anniversary meal so I booked Lutyens, and it didn’t disappoint.

The building itself is impressive and we walked through the bar to get to Lutyens - It looked really lively and vibrant. Lutyens itself was a lot quieter and much more traditional in feel with banquette sofas and wood-panelled walls. It used to be the bank manager’s office when this was the Midland Bank. The trolley service where meat is brought alongside your table to be carved adds to the old school - and dare I say it slightly stuffy - feel.

The food was top notch - I had a steak with a side of Mac and cheese and ‘happy anniversary’ was written on the plate with our dessert. It was definitely a restaurant to try but the prices were steep - more expensive than Hawksmoor, which is also a premium steak restaurant in central London, and one which overall we prefer. But I’d still be keen to go back and try some of the other restaurants in the Ned - and if I won the lottery stay in the hotel as well!

Butlin's Bognor Regis restaurant reviews - part 2

Following on from this post about the restaurants at Butlin's Bognor Regis and the Dinearound plan, I've written a more up to date review, having returned to Butlin's some seven months later. We are in some of the same restaurants and tried some others, and I've answered some of the most common questions I see about the Butlin's meal plans.

Head over here to read the full reviews.

Samsara Indian Restaurant, Cheam, Surrey

I don’t often do girls’ nights out ever since I became a mum - most of the time I am just too tired and don’t have the time to think about a social life.

So it’s great when someone else organises an evening out and invites me! It was a friend’s birthday so four of us went for a curry and cocktails at Samsara in Cheam, a restaurant I hadn’t been to before.

It's a fairly large restaurant but was very empty with only a few other people there, which is a shame as the food was good - though the cocktails weren't quite as good as I was hoping.

I normally play it very safe when it comes to curry (chicken korma every time!) but decided for once to try something new - though still a mild chicken dish with almonds and a sweeter taste! I had a chicken dakeswari, which the menu described as "tender pieces of grilled chicken, marinated with herbs, spices and ground almond. Very mildly spiced and garnished with mango pulp". It was very nice and creamy with a fruity flavour, and not too spicy at all, and accompanied by a very tasty peshwari naan.

As I wasn't driving I was looking forward to sampling the cocktail menu as Samsara also describes itself as a cocktail lounge. I didn't see anyone who had just gone there for drinks and I don't think I've ever had a cocktail in an Indian restaurant before as I would always go for wine. I started with a mango and peach fizz to complement the mango flavours of my meal, then thought that a White Russian would be a good substitute for dessert as it combined cream and coffee. One of my friends ordered the same drink, and they were both served in tumblers - not quite what I was expecting - but of different sizes, so one of us had a tall glass and the other a much shorter wider one. I'm no mixologist but my White Russian seemed a bit heavy on the cream, and not as nice as I had remembered them being.

We took admittedly quite a long time over dinner; we hadn't started particularly early and also had a lot of catching up to do, but it was a surprise when the waiters started hovering and making clear signs that they wanted us to pay the bill and leave. Eventually one came over and said it was 10pm and they were closing - which was surprising as the website said they were open until 11am. I can only assume that because they had been quiet that evening and were the last people there, they wanted to be able to close and head home.

Still, it was a fun night out with friends and good food, and nice to try somewhere local I hadn't been before - and to branch out from choosing a chicken korma for a change!

Restaurant Review - The Fox, Coulsdon Common, Caterham

I’ve been looking through old photos on my phone and remembering the fun things I did with my daughter pre-pandemic, and all the places we went. Many of them are things I was intending to post on this blog and never got around to - like this one!

It was back in 2018 when my daughter was barely two months old and my school friends came up to meet her as it was also my birthday. I knew I wasn’t really going to be in a position to host so we went out for a pub lunch. I needed to find somewhere that was child friendly and also vegan friendly. Even in the few years since 2018 vegan food has become much more common on menus but at the time I had to do a bit of research to find somewhere suitable.

I decided upon the Fox in Coulsdon Common, Caterham, a spacious Vintage Inns pub with a nice country feel. It did a delicious Sunday roast, a decent choice of vegan food and some very nice desserts. I have actually been here before and even reviewed it before - I don't normally review the same place twice but to be honest I had forgotten about the first time until I had already written this one!

There was plenty of room for the buggy and for me to be able to feed my daughter while sitting at the table. We haven’t been back since but that’s more due to the pandemic and the fact that we just don’t eat out very often, which is something that I think needs to change!

The Trading House, London: Restaurant Review

Anyone for a Christmas dinner on a skewer? In the run-up to Christmas I went for a festive lunch at the Trading House, a bar and restaurant near Bank in central London, and this is how my dinner was served!

I always choose turkey when I go out for a Christmas meal but it was described  as a ‘turkey kebab’; I was very curious to see what it would look like, and definitely wasn’t expecting this!

The metal skewer, dangling from a special stand, had pieces of turkey, pigs in blankets and stuffing balls threaded on it, and sat hanging over a small bowl of roast potatoes and vegetables. It came with a small bowl of cranberry glaze and the waiter explained I should pour the glaze into a little dish at the top of the skewer stand and it would drip down over the turkey. It was certainly a talking point - and the food was very good, particularly the roast potatoes which were aided by a small jug of gravy on the side. 

For my dessert I chose gingerbread cake and after the innovative way my main course was served I was wondering how the cake would come - so it was almost disappointing it was simply a square piece of cake with a piece of pear and ice cream on the side! But nonetheless it was delicious and I do recommend the Trading House for both the food and the service.

The building and decor is also a talking point; it's a listed building with ornate columns and detailed carvings on the walls inside as well as an array of mounted stag heads (which I assume are fake...) and a giant taxidermy bird on the corner of the bar. Everywhere you look there is something to raise the eyebrows or nudge your companion and point out - understated it is not. Inspired by the explorers and merchants of the past, the Trading House conjures up a bygone era and at the same time a modern, innovative cocktail bar and restaurant. Well worth a visit if you are in the area.

Pizza Express Leadenhall Market - A little bit of post-lockdown familiarity

Pizza Express hardly needs a review as I doubt there are many people who haven’t been to one before! And like most chains you would expect consistency from one location to the next.

But it’s been a very long time since I’ve been to a Pizza Express - (not even including lockdown) and the menu did seem to have changed a bit, so I thought it was worth giving a quick update!

The first thing I noticed was that they had calzone on the menu - I love calzone and don’t remember that being something Pizza Express offered in the past. The next thing I noticed was that the classics menu looked a lot smaller than I remembered - now there is more of an even split between different types of pizza, the classics, the romana with a thinner base, calzone (folded pizza) and calabrese (square pizza) and there’s also a much bigger selection of vegan pizzas than I remember. There are the usual al forno dishes and leggera pizza which I always feel like I ought to order as it’s lower carb and you get salad in the middle - but the middle of the pizza that is missing is the best part!

Then I did a bit of a double take at the prices. It’s been quite a while since I went to a Pizza Express and along with regular price inflation we’ve had a combination of factors that have caused restaurants to put prices up, from higher energy prices to perhaps the need to recoup losses from lockdown. Even so I was surprised that most of the pizzas seemed to be around the £15 mark. I remember when Pizza Express did two pizzas for £15 if you had a voucher - but that was about 10 years ago now!

There are some new flavours and toppings on the menu too and I chose the BBQ burnt ends on a romana base. It had slow cooked beef brisket, which was a little fatty in places, with chipotle, barbecue sauce and red onion. I don’t think I’ve ever had a pizza at Pizza Express that wasn’t actually delicious as they seem to get their flavour combinations just right.

I ate with a friend from work at the Leadenhall Market branch in London; it’s a nice location with a small area upstairs and a large area downstairs so even though it gets busy at lunchtime we had no problem getting a table. There is definitely something comforting about the familiarity of Pizza Express and no doubt I will be back.

Eataly London review - Lunch and a tourist attraction

A cornucopia of Italian food, a feast for the eyes as well as the stomach, a good place to meet friends or have lunch with colleagues, somewhere to get a leisurely breakfast before you catch a train, a tourist attraction somewhere you can pick up ingredients for dinner to take home or even take an Italian cookery course - all this under one roof?
 
If you like Italian food then you simply must visit Eataly on Bishopsgate, next to Liverpool Street Station. It opened in May 2021 during the pandemic, and when I returned to my office nearby in September it was the first place I went to check out on my lunchbreak. I was amazed!
 
Walking in I thought I had either entered an Art Deco arcade in Milan or perhaps the Sefridges food hall. A huge effort has been put in to make this a beautiful place with a high end feel (and rest assured the prices match!) with decorative archways and even the way the produce is arranged which is truly Instagram worthy. Check out some of my photos below!

Whether it’s a wall of coffee, a pick and mix selection area with Italian chocolates rather than the usual gummy sweets, watching the bread ovens get fired up or watching mozzarella being made, there is so much to take in. The charcuterie counter had more types of ham and salami than I could imagine; there are also fridges selling pre packaged products. The wine floor has over 2,000 different bottles and the pasta aisles had me dying to take some home and try - I will definitely be back to pick some up once I have decided what to do with it. There were colours and shapes of pasta I’d never even imagined - I particularly loved these striped sombreroni which are little sombrero hats that apparently you stuff like cannelloni and bake in the oven. But at around £7 a bag they are definitely more of a one off treat!

While I was there I decided to get some lunch. There is a chiller cabinet with sandwiches but I wanted to try the freshly cooked food. There’s a counter where you can buy pizza by the (square) slice, a fresh pasta bar, a cafe where you can get pastries and a proper restaurant upstairs though I couldn’t see a menu without going in.

I went for the pasta which had three or four options (I don’t know if these change or always remain the same) and opted for tagliatelle with bolognese sauce. It was served in a cardboard tub with a lid, which I took over to the seating area; free water is provided which I thought was really nice. The pasta was very good - I love fresh pasta - but at £11.50 it was very steep for lunch and I don’t think this is something I would do again unless I was meeting a friend for lunch.

Overall though I loved Eataly; the products are pretty expensive though I do want to come back and buy a few things once I have thought of some things I will actually use - but it’s also a lovely place to have a wander round and simply enjoy seeing so many specialist and unusual (in the U.K. at least) Italian products under one roof!

The Ivy Brasserie Cobham - Review

I’m not going to admit how long it’s been since I last went out for a restaurant meal in the evening with my husband - because it was some time before lockdowns even started. Since having our daughter we’ve hardly ever had anyone babysit so romantic dinners a deux have been off the menu.

We weren’t able to celebrate our wedding anniversary with anything more than a takeaway at home in 2020 but even the year before, our plans fell through as our babysitter was ill so we rescheduled but then my husband was ill and somehow we never got around to finding another date.

So this year with lockdown rules easing and having had our vaccinations I was determined that we were going to do something. As my husband is a fussy eater my first step in choosing a restaurant is to scan the menu for something he would like.

I had recently someone posting images on Facebook of The Ivy Brasserie Cobham and I loved the floral backdrop, which prompted me to look up the restaurant. The Ivy Brasseries are outposts of the famous Ivy restaurant in London which is known for its classic British dishes combined with a contemporary global selection with a particular slant on Asian food. Even then I was actually surprised that somewhere that nice - and that wasn’t a chain restaurant or a pub - had things on the menu like a burger and steak that my husband would actually like!

My eye was also caught by the cocktail list so I booked right away - we had the option of choosing an indoor or an outside table and since my husband had only had one vaccination at that point to my two, he said he preferred to sit outside.

On the day of our booking the weather looked a bit changeable and it had rained in the morning so I called the restaurant to ask if the outdoor tables were under cover and they assured me that they were. However, while our table was at the end of a fixed rectangular canopy that stretched the length of several tables and would have kept the rain off if needed (luckily the weather was fine in the evening!) I did notice that a few tables had what was basically a garden parasol umbrella meaning that at least two if not three people at a table for four would have gotten wet if it rained!

Funnily enough though the restaurant was busy when we arrived but had emptied out well before 8pm.. possibly due to the fact that England was playing in the Euros that night!

The Ivy Brasserie is a beautiful restaurant - there are flowers everywhere and even a wall of flowers outside by the front door (selfie spot alert!). We were shown through the restaurant to a small courtyard garden which would have been prettier had I not been facing a row of patio heaters lined up right behind my husband’s chair. But nonetheless the decor and atmosphere was lovely. 

Service was friendly and on the whole good though I had to ask about my starter after they brought my husband’s and not mine and when I ordered a cocktail from their dessert menu as well as a dessert, I was expecting the drink first and the dessert second, but got it the other way around after having to actually ask a waiter - I think they forgot I’d ordered a drink.

The food was amazing - I don’t know if that’s partly because it as had been literally years since I last ate in a restaurant but I think this was the best meal I’ve had in a long time. We had some sourdough bread (£4.25) and honey glazed almonds (a shocking £3.25 for a tiny handful in a bowl) to start then my husband had the Ivy hamburger (£13.95, cheese is an extra £1.95 - this place isn’t cheap - which he said was very good).

I didn’t want simple traditional food like fish and chips, as while I’m sure the Ivy’s take on this classic dish would be excellent, I can get standard fish and chips anywhere. Instead I chose a Keralan monkfish and prawn curry (£17.95) that came with jasmine rice and sweet potato crisps- with a little trepidation as I wouldn’t normally order a curry in a restaurant unless we were having an Indian takeaway. But it was outstanding - not very spicy (good), with a thin sauce almost like a broth, large chunks of monkfish and juicy prawns and fluffy rice. I wanted to ask for another portion to take home!

The cocktail menu looked very tempting and I had a Passionate Spritz - a combination of aperol, passion fruit vodka and Prosecco. It wasn’t as sweet as I normally like my cocktails - and in fact I’d tried aperol once before and didn’t like it - but it felt like a nice summery drink and I did enjoy it.

I had a Hazelnut Alexander with my dessert - cognac, Frangelico hazelnut liqueur and cream, which was delicious. But probably a bit unnecessary as I’d decided to make the most of being in a restaurant (long overdue!) and also order a dessert.

They had a special dessert in honour of Wimbledon that looked just like a tennis ball which I almost wanted to order just for a photo, but it was filled with strawberries and cream and I’m not keen on strawberries. Instead my husband and I both had a chocolate bombe (£8.95 - since when did desserts start costing so much?). It consisted of vanilla ice cream with a honeycomb centre encased in a chocolate shell, with a little jug of hot caramel sauce that you pour over the chocolate dome to make it melt. I was actually a bit disappointed that the waiter poured the sauce himself as I would have liked to do it! I couldn’t fault the dessert though, it was delicious and the perfect end to a perfect meal - and we got home in time to a happy and contented daughter who had had great fun with her babysitter (and was still awake, but it wasn’t late as we’d had an early sitting at dinner) and in time to catch the end of the football.

A quick FAQ…

What is parking like at the Ivy Brasserie Cobham?

I’d read reviews saying the car park was tiny so expected it to only have a couple of spaces; in fact it was more like 10-12 which admittedly isn’t many - and two spaces were at such angles I wouldn’t have liked to have parked in them. Instead we parked in the public car park on Downside Bridge Road which is a short five minute walk (ten minutes in heels) down the high street to the Ivy restaurant.

Dirty Bones meal kit at home - Plateaway review

We’ve eaten quite a lot of takeaways during the pandemic, but not because we couldn’t get out to our favourite restaurants – since becoming parents over three years ago we have barely been out to eat more than a handful of times! Instead, ordering in food was either something we did at the end of a particularly tiring day of working and entertaining a toddler, or because we felt like we needed a treat of some kind. I was getting a bit fed up of our same old, same old choices, particularly when it came to actually celebrating a special occasion.

For Valentine’s Day we had a lovely delivery from a local restaurant, Spaghetti Tree, but for my birthday recently I wanted to do something else. I have seen a few websites that allow you to order meal kits from restaurants if you live too far away to get a takeaway- you do have to cook it yourself but they provide all the ingredients and instructions. That sounded quite fun so for my birthday I had a look at Plateaway to find something my husband and I would both like - which immediately ruled out quite a lot! I decided to go for burgers out of curiosity - cooking burgers at home is never as good as eating them in restaurants or indeed takeaway/ delivery from the likes of Five Guys. I’ve often wondered even if you get a good quality beef patty surely what makes these meals delicious is the way they are cooked or even the way the burgers are assembled - so this was my opportunity to find out!

I went for the ‘Mac Daddy kit’ from a restaurant called Dirty Bones - they have a site in London’ Shoreditch though I’ve never eaten there before. I selected the option I wanted from Plateaway - kit to serve two for £19 - and entered the delivery date I wanted. I went for the day before my birthday as the meal kits do have to be used within a day or two but as the delivery time is not guaranteed I thought it best to get it the day before- though it came around 11.30am.

Plateaway lists everything you get inside the box on its website so you know before you order exactly what you are getting. In this kit there were burger patties, American cheese slices, brioche buns, a pouch of macaroni cheese and a pouch of pulled pork in barbecue sauce. The latter were both already cooked and prepared and just needed reheating. The kit doesn’t come with fries so you will need to supply cook those yourself.

There was a card inside the pack with detailed instructions, though it was very straightforward and really only involved frying the burgers and heating the Mac and cheese and pulled pork in small pans. The instructions also include how to assemble the burger.

And is ordering a burger from Plateaway worth it? A resounding yes from me. The burger was juicy, the mac and cheese creamy and the pulled pork tangy, all working together to give the taste of something I would happily have ordered in a restaurant.

But is it worth cooking something from Plateaway or a restaurant meal kit yourself? First of all, let’s look at the cost. This was £19 for two people - so £9.50 per burger - plus a £4.95 delivery charge. At Dirty Bones restaurant the Mac Daddy burger is £12 - so you save £2.50 by cooking it yourself or if you count the delivery cost it’s basically the same as eating in the restaurant (though you would have to factor in the cost of getting to the restaurant unless you lived in walking distance, and a tip). It is cheaper than ordering a takeaway - we seem to spend about £40 when we order from Five Guys for instance though that includes fries and drinks. It’s worth knowing that you can also get the cook at home meal kits direct from the Dirty Bones website. They charge £28 instead of £19 for the Mac Daddy kit but that includes delivery and also two portions of fries with their special blend of onion and garlic salt.

Ultimately the draw of getting a restaurant meal kit to cook at home is if you want to eat food from a particular restaurant and live too far to either go there (or are avoiding travel/eating out still due to covid; we were in lockdown when we ordered this but even now haven’t started going into London again) or live too far away to get an actual takeaway delivered. For that reason- and because the food was delicious even though I cooked it myself - I would definitely order again!