Fifteen Pickles

Ah the Plan 9 Space and Time Cafe in Maida Vale… being very conveniently located around the corner from me, their breakfast rolls and fry ups have on many a weekend morning (after a big night out) been my saviours! This tiny American style cafe offers a range of tasty treats: cakes, brownies, cookies, bagels, sandwiches, pancakes and various imported goodies from the States.

Bacon Roll

In my opinion the breakfast rolls at this American style cafe are the star items on their menu. They use good quality bacon and sausages from Biggles served inside a soft white roll. Combine that with one of their fresh fruit smoothies and you’ve got yourself an instant hangover cure! (more…)

Due to bad memories of terrible service and the sin which I find most unforgivable (forgetting our food), it had been years since I’d revisited Maida Vale based gastropub Idlewild. So when a friend invited me to her birthday dinner here, I hesitated. If they couldn’t get it together to handle a table of 5, then how would they cope with a large party? What horrors might be in stall for me?

Deep Fried Salt and Pepper Squid with Tartare Sauce

On this occasion I decided to give them the benefit of the doubt and took the risk. At least I never had particularly bad memories about their quality of food. As it turned out our large party ended up consisting of 30 or so guests, so they had a big challenge ahead of them. If they could pull it off, then perhaps I could find it in myself to forgive them for their indiscretions those years ago.

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I used to live in The Barbican.  It was and will always one of my greatest loves in London.  Some people see it as an ugly concrete jungle in the city, but I would find comfort in it’s solid walls and frolic about on it’s labrynthian highwalk late at night when no one was around.  Going out was a breeze, and anywhere worth visiting was only a short walk away.

Eventually the fates conspired, I was torn from the heart of where I loved best and now I find myself living in Maida Vale.  Obviously moving from The Barbican to Maida Vale is not a particularly devastating downgrade.  I should point out that I typically wouldn’t be able to afford to live in either location but it seems if you have patience, some strange twist of fate will enable you to stumble across a bargain.

Maida Vale is nice enough but I think I must be a city girl at heart.  I miss the excitement, vibrancy and convenience of city living.  I realise I’m not making enough of an effort to enjoy Maida Vale living and there is a need to remedy this.  So what better place to start than the local restaurant scene?  Queue The Warrington.

The Warrington, pub adorned with refurbished original features

Owned by Gordon Ramsay, The Warrington is a pub downstairs, restaurant upstairs and formally an 18th century hotel and brothel.  Interestingly enough the slang word “randy” originated here due to it’s proximity to neighbouring Randolph Crescent.  If you look at the feature above the bar, you’ll see it’s adorned with glass paintings of frolicking naked ladies… ooh racy!

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After a gruelling 30-something hour journey from Wellington back to London I was in no state to face the supermarket, let alone cook.  So we decided to grab some dinner locally in Maida Vale.  Being a short walk from my house, Thai Rice is my current “go to” place for a decent Thai takeout but we thought it would be nice to eat in the restaurant for a change.

The atmosphere was warm and inviting with very modern decor.  Being quite woozy from my flight, I wasn’t in the best state to make reliable decisions and instead of ordering beer by the pint we opted to have it served in a large ice cooled barrel.  It was fun but perhaps a little too fun (and slightly embarrassing) for our little table when I was in such a zonked out mood.  It made the experience a little surreal and every time I looked at it I felt quite dazed!

BEEEEEEEEEEEER!!

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