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Cafe Churchill – London, England

It was a cold, rainy London morning in September when we decided to take a walk through the touristy area. When we got towards Westminster Abbey, I realized how hungry I was — and there wasn’t much food options nearby. So, we walked towards the Parliament buildings, we found Cafe Churchill where we quickly popped inside to dry up and fill up on our bellies.

This location was really cute, with little table outside – which I can’t see anyone utilizing in the rain, but probably perfect for the nice days without the rain! Once we walked into the cafe, we saw this pastry display where I got excited! I love pastries!

We both sat down and asked for some English Tea and I wanted mine with lemon. It was so nice to have and anything hot like teas really warmed me up from the inside out! I know it’s just a normal tea, but it was just great timing for this tea.

From entering the cafe, one of the first things I saw was croissants and I noticed a Giant Almond Croissant so I knew that was something I would need to order. The croissant was nice and fresh, crispy layers, subtle sweetness from the powdered sugar, and the sliced almonds made a for a delicious treat!

I thought a croissant for the 2 of us wouldn’t be enough, so we also ordered a Ciabatta Salmone which is a great sandwich of smoked salmon, cream cheese and lettuce on a ciabatta bun. This was a little disappointing compared to the giant almond croissant. This only had 2 thin slices of smoked salmon, and there wasn’t much cream cheese or even lettuce either! The bread was really good as I believe it was fresh. None the less, I ate it up and continued on my journey.

Overall, it was a great experience, and it definitely gave you a small town feel in this cafe! If I’m there, I’d definitely stop by for an almond croissant again though!

Cafe Churchill

Westminster/Millbank
49 Parliament Street, Westminster
London, United Kingdom
(020) 7930 7676

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New Armouries Café – Tower of London

Okay, I know it’s not a restaurant review, but it was a perfect snack review as we were looking for a little sugar in our system during our visit to the Tower of London. we popped into a cafe called New Armouries Cafe and it was almost a cafeteria style cafe – where you pick up what you’d like to eat/purchase and the pay for it.

As we were here only for a little treat, when we walked by the Raspberry and Almond Bakewell Tart, that was the solution for our sugar rush! These tarts are priced at £3.50 which isn’t cheap, but they sure were taste!

Once we cut into this tart, it was a Crisp pastry, raspberry jam and a dense almond topping! The overall taste was really good with the raspberry jam, with a hint of sweetness, and the nice crispy tart was a great balance. The contrast between textures and tastes was magnificent!

The Tower Of London
London, UK
(020) 7488 3668

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Aji Japanese Canteen in London

We walk by the Aji Japanese Canteen every time we walked from our hotel to the tourist areas and every time we did, there always was a nice crowd inside – which made me think it’s not bad! It’s located on the South bank of River Thames just after you cross the Waterloo bridge. One evening, we finally popped in as it was a cold and rainy evening… and they had free internet which we were looking for a place to sit down and use!

It’s a different concept in this restaurant, or what they call Canteen as the space is large, but it is a seat yourself like a food court. Then, you order from the menu an they servers will bring you your food. We each ordered our own dish, and the food came out really quickly. They didn’t mind us staying there longer than we needed to, or anyone doing that actually!

I ordered the Kara Age Don which was ginger flavoured crispy fried chicken, boiled eggs served in a bowl of rice with shredded cabbage, Japanese QP Mayonnaise and Shiso flavoured Sauce

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The other entree we ordered was a Soup Noodles, where you got to pick the kind of noodle you wanted, the type of soup, and the topping you’d like! So, this was fun as we got to personalize our noodle dish. We chose to have Ramen, which is a thin egg noodle, (one of our favourite types of noodles) with Shoyu soup which is a chicken broth that is kind of “soy sauce” flavoured. Then, we topped this bowl of ramen with Cha-Shu and garnished it with bean sprouts, shitake mushrooms and bamboo shoot.

Overall, this place is decent. It’s not the best, but it definitely hit the spot and it served our purpose of getting some nice noodle soup in our bellies, use the internet, and wait out the rain. This isn’t a location I would return to mainly because there are a lot of Japanese resturants that have opened up along the banks of River Thames.

AjiZen Japanese Canteen

Waterloo
Riverside Building County Hall
Waterloo, United Kingdom
(0871) 962 0035

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Belgo Centraal London

My sister really wanted to introduce Belgo Centraal to us in London at Covent Garden, so we all went to eat an early dinner there – which they called Express Lunch. The express lunch was available daily 12-5pm and for £7.95 it came with a choice of Belgo Pils, a glass of house wine or a soft drink with the selected lunch.

I ordered the Salmon Filet with leek mash and mustard cream sauce, and even though the salmon looks like it’s over cooked, it was actually cooked to perfection! It was flaky and still tender inside. The leek mash was divine and it was smooth and creamy. While both these contents sat in some mustard cream sauce, it really tied the dish together. It was a perfect pair.

We also ordered the Pork and Leek Sausages with stoemp mash and berry jus, and I have got to say the stoemp mash was better than my leek mash! It was pretty much a mashed baked potato and it was truly something memorable!

My sister ordered a Bowl of Traditionelle mussels served with frites, and of course I stole a few of both mussels and frites (fries). The mussels – they sure know how to make them here at Belgo, and they were really fresh with absolutely no fishiness to them at all. The portion of this bowl is huge and is a great dish to share!

We were having such a good time here at Belgo, we decided to order dessert! We ordered 2 to share between the 3 of us and it really was the perfect amount! Our first dessert was the Strawberry Pavlova which was not only insanely beautiful to look at, it was insanely delicious as well! The pavlova was nice and crisp on the outside and soft on the inside. I’ve had a few pavlovas and they tend to be very chewy on the inside.

We ended this fine express lunch with the very heavenly Belgian dark chocolate cheesecake! The Belgium Dark chocolate wasn’t so dark that the entire cheesecake turned bitter or anything, and the texture and creaminess of the cheesecake was to die for.

This was one of the best meals I’ve had the entire trip, and I would recommend it to anyone! The location does seem strange as it is in the lower level where it appears it’s the entire building! The concept of this restaurant is phenomenal, and the food is extraordinary!

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Comfort Hotel – Heathrow Airport

We’ve been late for a flight leaving England before, and that was the only flight we’ve ever missed. So now, if possible, we’ll try to be closest to the airport the night before, as we’re paranoid of missing an international flight, and we don’t fly on independent airlines or anything like that – that doesn’t help you out…

This time, we took the London Tube out to Heathrow Airport the night before. We chose this hotel as it’s really close to the airport, and there is a shuttle that takes you to and from the airport for a nominal fee. It was very reasonable, and much economical than taking a cab from the airport. Our day consisted of checking in early, and taking the tube back on to London, and returning that evening to the hotel — only to check out again the following morning.

This hotel offers excellent service, as they allowed us to check in early! They offered free internet for us, as we were apart of their loyalty program.

The shuttle service to and from the airport came quite frequent, and was never off schedule – in fact in both cases, they were early which is excellent if you were running late for your flight. This bus service to Heathrow is only 4GBP one way, or 7GBP round trip! This was an excellent offer and the shuttle was called National Express Hotel Hoppa.

The actual room was quite small, but offers everything you need in a hotel room, especially if you’re not looking to be there for long term – as it’s great for lay-over stays or anything like that. I really enjoyed my stay here, even though the rooms were a little dated, it had it’s fun component to it! It was more of your “standard” hotel room layout, with 2 twin beds, a small CRT TV, and that’s pretty much all you need for hotels like this by the airport! It really is a place for you to rest your head down and get a nice hot shower!

Another thing I really like about this room was the fact there was a towel heater in the bathroom! There’s nothing more relaxing than using a towel that is perfectly warmed to wrap yourself in after your shower. It was my favourite feature during my stay and I know if I’m in the area and doing an early flight the following day, I will be returning to this hotel!

Comfort Hotel Heathrow

Shepiston Lane, Hayes
Middlesex, UB3 1LP

Phone: 020 8573 6162