Dinner @ Fifteen By Jamie Oliver (Italian)

Location: London, Old Street

Website: www.fifteen.net

I've been quite fortunate to have dined at almost all of Jamie Oliver's restaurants in London. I love trying out different restaurants. From upscale to simple cafes.Anything that tickles my fancy! My boyfriend adore's cooking, especially food that involves lots of flavours with simple ingredients, just like Jamie. I never go hungry when he's in the kitchen, for sure!

This gem of a restaurant is located just a short walk from Old Street Station. Serving rustic and simple italian food conjured up by Jamie's apprentices. The atmosphere delivers a romantic, sophisticated yet relaxing feel in conjunction with fantastic and friendly service. There are two main restaurants located in Fifteen, one called Restaurant serving a variety of dishes (more fine dinning) and Trattoria, serving a very limited menu, well executed, delivering flavours that will get your taste buds dancing! 

Jamie Oliver never disappoints. Trattoria is by far the best italian restaurant that I have been to. Everything about it makes me smile! :)

Exterior of Trattoria - The actual restaurant exterior was under construction. 

Trattoria's Menu: A very simplified menu, but serving great flavoursome food. 

Love the Trattoria's decor, esepcially the huge zebra patterned shoes art work.. reminds me of Alice In Wonderland. 

Lovely drinks that accompanied the meal perfectly.. Rhubarb and Strawberry lemonade (left) and Fresh Elderflower lemonade (right)

An elegant and sophisticated interior of Tattoria.

A few items that you can purchase from the restaurant, such as Jamie Oliver's cooking books, knifes, oven gloves, etc.

Starter:  Fifteen Signature Anti Pasti

My Main:  Pan roasted fillet of Pollock with Panzanella

Boyfriend's Main: Roasted Sea Bream with Seasonal Vegetable 

My Dessert: Vanilla Pannacotta

My Boyfriend's Dessert: Carrot Cake

A really lovely restaurant, perfect for a romantic night out and ideal for birthday parties. Great service and amazing atmosphere! I will definitely be dinning her again :)

Dinner @ Barbecoa (British) & My Bank Holiday Weekend

Since it's the last bank holiday weekend until August, me and my boyfriend decided to make the most of it by planning a fast and furious weekend; dinning out at the new Jamie Oliver's and Adam Perry Lang's Barbecoa restaurant in One New Change, a crazy trip to MCM Comic Con at London Excel center, and a hilarious trip to the cinemas to see The Hangover 2 (all hail wolfpack!).

So, the weekend started on friday where me and my boyfriend did some shopping in Oxford street. Since it was pay day for us, we treated ourselves to some bits and bobs - nothing too special to get in to detail. After a good few hours trekking up and down Oxford Street, we headed to One New Change in St Pauls for our dinner reservations at Barbeca, the new Jamie Oliver & Adam Perry Lang's restaurant. We were greeted with a lovely welcome by the maitre d and headed up to the restaurant to a stunning setting overlooking St Paul's Cathedral - we were actually seated just behind the cathedral, so the scenery was beautiful and just perfect for a romantic dinner. 

The menu at Barboeca was very simple and very similar to Jamie Oliver's italian restaurants where they concentrated primarily on food that was easy on the eyes and easy on the palette. My god, were we in for a treat. We decided to  go all out, so we opted for a 3-course meal.

We had Italian olives on Ice, which is the best olives that I have ever tasted. They were crunchy and ice cold, perfect to get your taste buds prepped. We also ordered a plate of crispy pigs cheeks. You had to taste it to know how beautiful it was. It literally melted in my mouth, one mouth full after the next. 

We both opted for the steaks as our mains, I went for the mouth watering Fillet and my boyfriend opted for the juicy Sirloin. Let me tell you now, it was one of the best steaks that I have had.. ever. I've had some great steaks in my time, but this one in particular was absolutely amazing. My fillet came with a side salad, also accompanied with Bone Marrow, which by the way, was the first time I have ever tried it (and loved it!). It also came with a perfect amount of bearnaise sauce.  My boyfriend had the biggest piece of steak that I have ever seen. My god was it huge! We both opted for a side dish of duck fat chips and creamy mash potato. Yum double yum.

We finished off the meal with a very generous slice of Rose Cake with creme freche and crystallised petals (i've been seeing this everywhere - is it some sort of trend now?). All and all, a lovely meal accompanied by stunning surroundings. In total the bill came up to £105 including drinks. 

MCM Comic Con @ The Excel Center, London. 

Saturday, a bizarre yet exhilarating trip to the MCM London Comic Con in Excel Center. It would be an understatement if I was to say that it was an eye opener of an experience. I think me and my boyfriend may have underdressed on the day. See for yourself. 

Can you tell it was that sort of day? 

We got there just a little over 9am and the queues were already filled with comic fans of all nature. Some came as Spiderman, some came as Cinderella(man), some even came as Pac Man, but everyone was there for one reason and one reason only.... COMIC and GAMES. I was there to support my boyfriend.

The hall was filled with professionals from the comic/animation industry, to gamers, to japanese merchandisers. We met some great professionals, took photos of people in funny costumes, mingled with comic book fanatics and simply just admire people's outrangous yet wonderful outfits.

Need I say more? 

I've never been to anything like this before.. I could only imagine how the San Diego Comic Con is like.. now that one I would love to visit!