Lisbon fits, 2022.

Part of my return to blogging will be some retrospective outfits of the day. As I tend to dress more adventurously when on holiday, I've raided my iPhone vaults containing photos from various holidays in recent years to showcase my more interesting 'fits!

Thus, I bring to thee: every outfit that I wore on a girls' holiday to Lisbon in October 2022 (with some bonus pictures of the delicious food we had)!

Day 1

Restaurant review: STEAK & CO. (Leicester Square)

One of the things that this new world order of social distancing and lockdowns has prevented me from doing, that I miss the most, is the weekends on the town I used to have. These Saturdays in London would usually follow an itinerary of going to a steakhouse, drinking cocktails and watching a film at the cinema, although the order varied depending on reservation and cinema showing times.

OOTD: Red meat, red wine, purple dress

Dress: TK Maxx

Heels: Marks and Spencer

Handbag: Michael Kors

Raincoat: Monsoon

Earrings: Miss Selfridge

Glasses: Nicole Farhi

Restaurant review: CARLUCCIO'S (Smithfield)

Carluccio's is a spacious, welcoming Italian restaurant, with very reasonable prices. I dined there for a team dinner a few months ago, when we all had the set menu (3 courses for £17.99, a £3.50 surcharge for the steak).

Restaurant review: COPPA CLUB (Fitzrovia)

The hustle and bustle of shoppers clambering around Oxford Circus can prove stressful, especially now, in the lead-up to Christmas. Should you crave momentary respite from crawling through a sea of shoppers, step down a side street in the direction of Soho, where you’ll find a collection of cafes, bars and restaurants. Coppa Club, a clean-lined restaurant with a bistro vibe, is amongst them.

I went to Coppa Club when I was quite hungry, on a Saturday evening. As a consequence, only one item on the menu jumped out at me: the hearty sirloin steak. As with all the steaks I’ve reviewed on my blog (exhibits A and B and C and D), I had mine rare.

Restaurant review: BYRON (Farringdon)

Having visited the Covent Garden venue of Byron earlier this year (after I saw Patriot’s Day at the cinema), I thought I’d sample the Byron that was closest to my place of work, to compare notes.

I went on a Thursday night, and despite it not yet being the weekend, the place was grossly understaffed. Someone I was with ordered a beer and the waitress completely forgot about it until we prompted her.

Happily, the quality of the food didn’t differ hugely by central London location, meaning that the burgers still delivered. There was a hearty steak in the centre of the bun (default cooked medium rare, but you can stipulate otherwise) a few organic vegetables you wouldn’t find in your McDonald’s burger, as well as French fries that are tasty but palpably not coated in oil as would be the case in your local fast food chain.

Nonetheless, I don’t feel the overall dining experience at Byron Farringdon is worth the near-£20 bill you’d rack for up for a burger, side and a beer. The service was just too capricious for someone who is used to getting her order within 10-20 minutes of ordering, and the waitresses didn’t even have the grace to apologise for their mistakes.

The pot luck that is visiting burger joints in London continues.

Grade: C-

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For all my restaurant and bar reviews, click here.

RESTAURANT REVIEW: Gaucho (Picadilly Circus)

Seeking to right the wrong I outlined here of having not been to enough steakhouses in the capital, I popped just down the road from the last place I visited, to Gaucho, a famous Argentinian steakhouse. 

Restaurant review: ZELMAN MEATS (Soho)

If you like steak, but don't want to commit to 400g of just one type, and in doing so, restricting your choice to a rump which may or may not be cooked to your ideal condition, Zelman meats could well be the solution to your quagmire.

At Zelman Meats, there are four core beef steaks you can order (Smoked Short Rib, Chateaubriand, Sliced Picanha, “Dirty” Sirloin Steak). The former two are priced by weight, and the latter is priced in conventional restaurant manner, at £32 for 400g. The minimum order per table per given type of meat is 200g, but if you go with a friend, you can order a joint amount of 200g of several types of steaks, and share everything, so there's variety in your meal!

Also pictured above are Black Truffle and Parmesan Chips, which were a bit pricey at £8, but the conflation of truffle, chips and cheese is hard to argue with.

Restaurant review: EL GAUCHO (South Kensington)

Restaurant review: THE GRILL ON THE MARKET (Smithfields)

Just a stone throw's away from where I'm currently doing my thesis, The Grill on the Market is a classy, upmarket venue. Unlike many of its fellow distinguished places in London, it isn't steeped in its own sense of self-importance.

I had a sirloin steak with béarnaise sauce (doesn't sound like me, does it?), and it was succulent, juicy excellence. Although I must admit, I was won over by the meal before I'd even had a bite, such was the cool presentation and the adorable mini-pan which the sauce was served in:

The restaurant also boasted an impressive cocktail selection - I had the One Long Jerry, which was like nothing I'd ever drunk before.  It's the restaurant's most distinguished drink, and with the blend of Sailor Jerry spiced rum, Lillet Blanc liqueur, Luxardo Cherry, lemon juice, maple syrup and thyme, I'm not surprised.

The decor of The Grill on the Market, a charming blend of rustic sofas (downstairs) and more modern padded stools-type decor upstairs, at the bar, meant you could choose an area to sit that suited your preferences/dining arrangements.

I visited The Grill on the Market during a lunchtime when the restaurant was fairly quiet, so the waiter I had brought my food out promptly, and had time to help with drink choices. His style of pastoral care, to give me his opinions but allow complete autonomy of choice, was a far cry from the pushier waiters, who are so thirsty for a tip, they try to force you into having a good time and ordering more. The hard sell never works for me; this more natural, genuine approach which disarmed me of my concerns that I was out of place at such a sophisticated venue, was far more to my liking.

It's not particularly cheap dining here, with the sirloin at £21.75 and £2.50 for the sauce, so I will reserve any future trips here for special occasions only.  But the good news is, with the eclectic cocktail menu and steaks bursting with intense flavour, a return trip is definitely on the cards.

Grade: A-

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I like reviewing restaurants and bars in London; my reviews are compiled here. If you would like me to give some exposure to your restaurant, do email me at lemon_and_lime7@hotmail.com.

Restaurant review: THE GRILL at AMBA HOTEL (Marble Arch)

The Groupon deal with which my friend and I were dining with was £35 for two steaks (with a side each) and a bottle of wine to share, which, as keen carnivores, we were eager to take advantage of.

Like the LivingSocial deal at Truc Vert, the Amba Hotel was located on one of the sidestreets of Oxford Circus and encouragingly, like the Truc Vert meal, proved to be another online restaurant buy that actually proved to be good value for money.

Restaurant review: BYRON (Covent Garden)

I’ve had mixed fortunes when it comes to burger joints in London. Places like Tommi’s Burger Joint and Prime Burger were so awful I wouldn’t recommend them to my worst enemy, and other venues which don’t specialise in burgers, seem to treat them as an afterthought (Maxwell’s Bar and Grill, be ashamed. Be very ashamed). Still, due to the sheer majesty of the burgers I’ve had such as Bird, I still haven’t up hope in the capital’s ability to produce delicious burgers just yet.

Byron definitely delivered on the burger front. I had the Smoky burger, with the meat cooked medium rare, and that, along with all the ingredients (mature cheddar, streaky bacon, crispy onions, shredded iceberg, pickles and smoked chilli) rendered this a verifiable feast for the taste buds. You know it was tasty because normally I would object to paying £10 for a burger and no sides, but in this case, I feel the money was well spent. The way all the ingredients complemented each other and bought out the succulence of the steak… heaven.

Restaurant review: FIRE & STONE (Covent Garden)

(I'm making my way through the backlog of pizza places I've visited in the last few months, but not yet made the time to review!)

RESTAURANT REVIEW: The Savoy Grill (Strand)

For my birthday back in April, I treated myself to a meal at Gordon Ramsey’s The Savoy Grill. It was quite a pricey dining experience, but I’d heard that my personal heroes Marlon Brando and Marylin Monroe liked to frequent this place, and if it was good enough for them, it was good enough for me. On a superficial level, The Savoy features a pretty classy clientele and I wanted to give my brand new Michael Kors handbag an outing, and you only turn 26 once!

My eye was immediately drawn to the Grills from the Wood Charcoal Oven, in the end opting for the Hereford beef sirloin steak, with a side of mashed potatoes and mixed lettuce and spring onion salad. I selected béarnaise as the sauce. It was all scrumptious – I completely abandoned by (already barely there) table manners and wolfed it down in less than ten minutes. Of all the steaks I've tasted in London, the one I had in The Savoy Grill is second only to Hawksmoor.

It wasn’t just the food that was good. Savoy Grill also featured an eye-watering drinks menu, with wines from Bordeaux, Rhone, Burgundy, Loire, Germany, Italy, Spain, Australia and more. And there was a real range in prices, from £60 bottles of wine to £2000 ones. In the end, I ordered a bottle of Latinamerican red wine and it complemented my red meat dish perfectly.

At The Savoy Grill, the waiters were much more attentive than at your typical restaurant, taking the time to get to know you and talk you through the options on the menu to gauge the perfect dish for you. Were I ever to come back, I would quite fancy the lobster which I eyeballed on a few fellow diners' tables and looked immense.

As amazing as it was to feel Iggy Azalea featuring Charli XCX for my birthday, The Savoy Grill was too much of an extravagance to visit other than for very special occasions. Such was the decadence, in fact, that the washroom featured cotton towels instead of paper ones! Here’s an oblig mirror selfie I had to take because it’ll be a long time before I go to such a posh place!

Grade: A-

Told you the washrooms were posh!

Restaurant review: RAVELLO (Old Street)

With my Tastecard expiry date approaching on July 12th, I realised how little mileage I'd gotten out of it this year. It just so happened that me and a group of friends were due a catchup, so I thought I'd make use of it whilst I had a chance to at Ravello, a family-run Italian restaurant that was walking distance from where I study in central London.

I had a table booked for the four of us at 6pm, and when I arrived at the restaurant at 6, two things triggered alarm bells. Firstly, the Food Hygiene Score was just a 4. Now, call me pedantic, but I don't think it's too much to ask to demand the perfect 5 from somewhere which will be handling my food. Also, I was the only one there at that time. On a Friday evening. These two elements did not instil me with confidence.

As the evening went on, I realised that my initial doubts about this place were correct. Pictured above is the starter I had. Without Tastecard, it was priced at £7. With the 50% discount, the price is more palatable at £3.50, but I still think that's a bit of a cheek for a few measly pieces of squid. My friends and I had dined at Isolabello Italian restaurant in Holborn a year or so prior to this meal, and three of us had had calamari for starter there. The calamari in Isolabella was far superior to the one here. This crap squid, in tandem with the fact that this was the second time in as many weeks that I'd been cheated on my starter, nearly pushed me over the edge.

Nearly but not quite. That would be the job of the man, sirloin steak marinated in the most suspect-looking tomato sauce I've seen. As you may have noticed, steaks are my go-to dish when I dine out, and I use the quality of the steak as a Litmus test for the overall quality of the restaurant.

Well, this stanky-ass steak, pictured above in all its, erm, glory, is Ravello in a microcosm: lazy, cheap ingredients, poor workmanship and a hurry string something together just to get the punters off the waiters' backs. The tomato sauce in particular was particularly abrasive to my tastebuds; I strongly suspect it consisted of ingredients that were past its sell-by date, because my stomach didn't sit well for the rest of the night post-ingestion.

As the night progressed, more people entered the restaurant, and I can only assume they were members of the restaurant staff's family who dined here out of pity, because they seemed to be regulars and I have no idea why anyone would subject themselves to this awful restaurant more than once. Once the regular punters arrived, any attention we received from the waiters completely evaporated. We had to wave several times to ask for the bill, and a few times more to ask to pay via the card machine. Two clients who arrived asked for the bill after us were allowed to pay before us, a gross inconvenience given one of our group had a train to catch.

Finally, a note on the desserts: graciously, only one of our party of four ordered a dessert, a tiramisu. This tiramisu was promptly taken out of a box from the fridge (behind us, so not even in the kitchen), and we saw her cutting it up and serving it. Talk about shattering the illusion. I understand that not everything in a restaurant will be home-made, even if naturally, we would prefer it to be. But for a RRP of £5.75, you really would be hoping for better than something out of the box. And if it's going to be out of the box, at least have  the good grace to hide your duplicitous and stingy tracks!

Safe to say, it will be a cold day in hell before I set foot in Ravello again.

Grade: F

Restaurant review: AMPHITHEATRE RESTAURANT AND TERRACE AT THE ROYAL OPERA HOUSE (Covent Garden)

Last April, I went to see Madame Butterfly at the Royal Opera House. It was an exquisite performance that moved me to tears. Before the show and during the intervals, I drank and dined at the Amphitheatre Restaurant and Terrace, which I will now give a review of.

I'm generally wary of dining at restaurants that are part of the institution where the opera/ballet/concert is, because I worry that they'll be an afterthought to the building; a way for the owners to make a quick buck, rather than put any real thought into feeding their punters. Having visited this place, I think my reservations were correct.

Unsurprisingly, given the rather eye-watering price tags, the food was presented well enough, if not quite the same level in terms of taste. The steak pictured above wasn't the most delicious I've had the pleasure of tasting in London (that would have to be the transcendent Hawksmoor), but it wasn't the worst either. But, for the price paid, you'd hope for a little better than 'not the worst steak in London'. It was the chewiness that I really could not get on board with; as much as I like rare steaks, this tasted rubbery. Ew.

One aspect of Amphitheatre Restaurant and Terrace that was excellent was the service we received. The waiters were obliging and charming throughout, and I was very impressed with the organisation of the staff working at the restaurant, for, the second we returned to the restaurant at the interval, our dessert was waiting for us.

I had three flavours of ice cream; a tad overpriced at around £10 for what it was. It tasted fine, but the £1.99 ice cream tubs you get in Tesco taste exactly the same, minus the chocolate shavings ornamented on them. So I wasn't too impressed with the mains or the dessert.

As with The Savoy, extravagances like this where we unleash our inner Iggy Azalea and inwardly holler I'M SO FANCY are only one-in-a-year-type things. In terms of food quality, The Savoy far surpasses Amphitheatre and Terrace. In fact, it's fortunate for the Royal Opera House that their production of Madame Butterfly was so on point, or I'd be even more scathing in my critique of the restaurant; clearly a get-rich-scheme for the owners. They're laughing all the way to the bank. We're still struggling to cut up that rubbery steak with our incisors.

Grade: D

Bar/restaurant review: HARRY'S BAR (Moorgate)

A classy venue with some superb cocktails, Harry's Bar is the kind of place I'd go when celebrating a happy occasion.

My main meal, steak, was succulent and meaty, without reaching the realms of the excellence offered at Hawksmoor. However, they were aided by the thick ridge cut chips which were rendered even more delicious with the generous portion of Hollandaise sauce they came with.

The cocktail menu featured all of the classics (Negroni, Pornstar, etc) as well as a few individual creations, all made with pretty generic ingredients. As the first picture illustrates, they were presented with style and professionalism, without quite reaching the je ne sais quoi that Reverend JW Simpson's cocktails boasted.

Still, the fact they they were drank greedily exposes the folly of places like others and their fixation with trying to dazzle the client with wacky ingredients such as dust, when the end product doesn't do anything for the drinker other than make a considerable dent in their bank balance.  

The decor at Harry's Bar was low-key but elegant and the waiters were attentive, obliging to any request you gave them.

The bill came to a sum more than I could make a habit of spending on a regular basis, but I left the place with a smile on my face, meaning I didn't think the money I parted with was poorly spent.

Grade: B+

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For more restaurant and bar reviews I've written, click here.

La Ballerina (Covent Garden)

Situated behind a gorgeous statue of a ballerina itself, this Italian restaurant is usually frequented by theatre-goers just before they’re catching their show. I ate here under because I’d been walking for a while around Covent Garden, quite aimlessly, and was hungry. Not quite as cultured a motive for visiting it, but, with so few people inside, I wanted a bit of peace and quiet, it seemed a good location.

The food, truth be told, was pedestrian at best. The best steak I’ve had in London remains Hawksmoor, and I didn’t expect the steak in a normal restaurant to rival that of a specific steak joint, but, even the steak from Gaucho, which I had a few problems with, was better than this. It was a struggle to finish the steak here, as it was chewy, borderline uncooked. The vegetables it was presented with had an awfully school dinnerish look about it (see below), and the sauce, though plentiful (it arrived in its own pot), was a little tasteless and had to be lathered onto the steak in multitudes to have its effect. The one saving grace of the meal was the spaghetti, which was delicious, particularly coupled with some parmesan cheese, which the waiters gave generously.

And it’s the waiters at the this place why I am reluctant to give it an altogether terrible review. They were attentive, helpful and polite throughout - a vast difference from the majority of snooty waiters at most London eateries I’ve visited, who are only waiters through circumstance because they couldn’t make it as an actor/photographer/writer, and see fit to take that baggage out on the clients. There was absolutely none of that there. They had great tact - knew when to leave us alone - but were approachable and chatty. I liked them a lot.

But, alas, you can’t polish a turd, and for all their best efforts, there was a reason why there were about two families dining here when I first looked in. La Ballerina has a whole load of unnecessary policies in place that don’t make things easy for their customers - for example, you can only order wine by the glass if it’s the house wines (disgusting), anything more elegant has to be ordered by the bottle. What if we don’t want to consume a whole bottle of wine?! This place is practically pushing people into alcoholism. And let me tell you, I don’t need any help in that department.

So, from the outside, it may seem appealing to go inside a quiet place where you won’t be bothered and there aren’t many people. But next time I see somewhere like this, I will double-think. Just why is it, that this place is so empty in the first place?

Grade: D

If you'd like me to review your restaurant/bar/pub, drop me an email at lemon_and_lime7@hotmail.com

Lunches I've had at work this week.

Rice cakes and tomato sauce. £3. 6/10.

Pasta bolognese. £3.30. 9/10.

Thursday roast. £3.30. 9/10

Falafel wrap and salad. £3. 6/10

Dishes containing meat definitely trumped the vegetarian dishes this week!

Lunch.

Steak and onion pie, mashed potato, peas and copious amounts of gravy, £3.30

10/10