Eat Here: Inamo.

I guess in London we are a little spoilt for choice when it comes to cool restaurants and particularly novelty type eating establishments. (Remember that time we went to Bubble Dogs?!) So - while the brother was visiting us over Christmas - we decided to take a trip to one of the more novelty London eateries -  Inamo - an interactive Asian-fusion restaurant in Soho. So I just thought I would tell you about it - if you are looking for a cool new place to try in the City - for the approaching summer!


What makes this restaurant so cool is that it is entirely interactive. The menu is projected from the ceiling onto your plate (above) - and you place your own order directly to the kitchen by "adding the meal" to your "cart" right from your own table. You can also change the "decor" of your table depending on your personal preference or mood!

While you are waiting for your food - (which seems to just appear out of nowhere) you have the option to interact even further with your table/friends. There are a variety of games that you can select including Battleships and puzzles. You can also read about things to do in the area as well as watch a live video feed of the kitchen - right from your table!

To be completely honest I didn't expect the food to be any good - I kind of assumed that the restaurant would fall back on the novelty draw card only. But we were so pleasantly surprised and the food we had was some of the best concoctions I've ever eaten!

We decided to go for the Salmon (GET-IN-MY-FACE-YUM) and the pork belly with a spicy chocolate sauce and crushed wasabi peas. With some smaller dishes of Asian-flavoured Aubergine and Chicken satay skewers.

I'd definitely recommend this restaurant! (And I would particularly say that it's good for a first date! That way... if things get awkward and you realise you're BOMBING OUT hard, you can always fall back on a friendly game of Battleship. {Hint: let her win and you'll redeem your DATING DIVE BOMB})

Or, if you're happily married - 

you can take your husband and let him win the Battleship.

London folk - where are some other cool restaurants that we should try?!

Looking for something to do this weekend?

You guys, Pop Up Restaurants.

There is something so awesome and trendy about them - kind of makes you feel like you are dining in a super secret hot-spot that is so elite, it only lasts for 48 hours. Then all of a sudden, the whole thing is dismantled and it's like it. NEVER. EVEN. HAPPENED.

SO - I wanted to let you know about an awesome little Pop Up that is coming to London this weekend - so that you can snap up your ticket - before the whole thing is over in the BLINK of an eye!

What makes this Pop Up so awesome (apart from it being a pop-up, the coolness of which, we've already established) is that this one in particular is being "cheffed" by my friend, Ashleigh and the rest of the Belazu Team. Now, given my "cooking record" I know I am no "authority" on this matter... but you guys...  - I've tasted her food - it's legit.


The tickets are £35 each for a yummmmy three course meal and a welcome cocktail. The food is all Moroccan inspired: think delicious mezze platters, lamb shanks, aubergine, chickpeas, hummous, spiced yogurt, olives, pomegranate and epic dishes cooked in those Tagine things.

I have actually NO idea how those things work - but I know that what comes out of them is GOOOOD. Take a look at the menu here!

What makes this Pop UP even more awesome than it already is, is that over £20 from each ticket is going towards The Belazu Foundation - which supports the educational needs of children in England and the Atlas Mountains in Morocco. The Belazu Foundation will also match all the funds raised from ticket sales - which makes ONE ticket sale enough to educate a child in Morocco for an entire year. So it's a win-win-win-win situation. DO IT.

It's taking place on Friday (14th March) and Saturday (15th March) at The Dolls House in Hoxton Square - how awesome is that venue!? You better be there!

You can get your tickets here!

{Eat here} Bubbledogs

No. There is not much that is better than a hot dog.

Remember those squirmy pink vienna sausages that you used to have as a kid?

Wrapped in a soft white bun, smothered in tomato-sauce and mustard (because what is more grown-up than mustard?) eaten around the pool in the summer sunshine (because your feet were too wet from swimming to go inside?). 

Exactly.

Hot Dogs and Champagne.

Have. YOU. EVER?

This is the greatest concept since sliced buns started adopting sausages.

introducing - 

Bubbledogs

The Man, le Moi, The Maid of Honour.

The Maid of Honour, The Fab Housemate, The Man.

They are all very cold and slightly wet - can you tell?

Ok. So the concept is so simple that you will want to cry that you didn't think of it yourself: A small exclusive restaurant serving only hot dogs and champagne. Last Friday, The Man, The Maid of Honour, The Fab Housemate and le moi decided to test out Bubbledogs. These two pics of us above are from the hour plus we spent waiting outside to get in. That's right people - we waited over an hour in the London freeze to get into this little restaurant. (Yes, we should have made a booking - and yes we tried to make a booking - but all their bookings were full and we were determined, so we waited).

(On a side note: In a pure stroke of genius, I have decided to set up a little hot dog stand on the street corner right outside this restaurant: serving the masses of people who are waiting to get in {and very hungry for hot dogs and something delicious to drink}. And there really are masses waiting to get in. It's a foolproof plan really).

So then we got in and it was well worth the wait.

There are a number of different hot dogs that you can order- each with their own unique toppings. 

Some of the toppings included wasabi-mayo, caramelised onions, coleslaw, kimchi, avocado, bacon and sauerkraut. 

You can choose your "dog" from a choice of beef, pork or veggie. Even the veggie in our group was happy and they even gave her two veggie sausages (pic right) - I guess it's a "we're-so-sorry-that-you're-a-vegetarian" kind of thing. Also (pic left) I had to take my ring of and strategically place it on the Tomato bottle - because my hot dog was so saucy and juicy that it was running all over my hands. Ain't nobody wants hot-dog juice in their bling.


Then we had a discussion how everyone at the table had a shiny white iPhone except Che who is the iPhone black sheep. Above is the face of iPhone Envy. But it's ok, because I ordered the Best Hot Dog:

(It's the Fourth of July Hot Dog - in case any one was wondering -

and i added caramelised onions.

-  do it.)

And the bill comes in a book which all the patrons can sign and leave their comments.

Yay for kid food and adult juice!

Dining for the WIN.

PS. Happy Valentines Day ya'll - For The Warr and I, it's our very first Valentines as a couple!
I hope you all get smooched in the face.
x

Review: The Bluebird Chelsea

We headed out for drinks to The Bluebird Chelsea last Friday for "date night". The Bluebird Chelsea has hosted plenty of Stars like Zac Efron and Taylor Schilling for the European Premiere of The Lucky One and is a popular spot for London's socialites to be seen hanging out. The interior is absolutely gorgeous with high ceilings and skylights- which is awesome in London when the sun goes down so late in Summer. The chairs and tables are different/co-ordinating to give the inside a very modern eclectic feel. There is a gorgeous summer garden outside to enjoy drinks when the weather is peachy. I couldn't stop commenting on how awesome the wallpaper and the menu covers were. The pic above is from the bill-docket (which I definitely kept) and is also what the menu cover looks like and some of the interior wallpapers. Fancy no? 

(pics taken off the bluebird chelsea website)

 We ordered some cocktails which were quite pricey but super delicious. It's not really the kind of establishment where you whip out your iPhone to snap pics of your fancy drinks - even although I was really itching to. Anyway decided to share my artistic impression of the drinks we ordered with my little review. Warren started out with a vodka martini. With Olive. James Bond Style. We all know what that looks like, so I'm not drawing it.

The first cocktail I had was the Chelsea Flower - one of their speciality drinks, which was recommended by one of the bar-tenders. It was really fresh, slightly fruity/apple taste and quite "florally" if I could describe a drink like that. It was served with a little flower and crushed ice so it makes a delicious summer drink.

The next cocktail I had was the Stardust Martini (since I was slightly jealous of Warr and the James-Bondness of his last drink). It had a fruity-pear taste but because of all the gin and absinthe it wasn't an overpowering fruit-smack in the face. It was very yum and gone a bit too quickly...

Warr then switched it up and had the Heart of Darkness (which was my choice for him - not because I think he has a Heart of Darkness, but because it had chili in it - so i told him he should try it because he loves spicy things and also - he's just so hot. {lol im hysterical}.) He did love it. It was garnished with apple and chili for an extra zing - You see that red thing in my picture? It's a chili. Chilis don't float. Do you see that white thing underneath it? That's a slither of apple. Apples do float. Chili, floating on apple. Genius.

There is also a shop attached to the ground floor of The Bluebird Chelsea - we didn't go in because I think they were closing - which was fortunate/unfortunate depending on how you view your bank balance.  There are also different events on offer at The Bluebird Chelsea such as Moet and Chandon tasting, Pizza making and outdoor film screenings which you can read more about on the website.  

This place is definitely worth a little visit if you feel like being glamourous for a night.
We then hit up the Big Easy Crabshack for some delicious food-nomming.

Date Night: ten points.

Southbound Bride

(pic credit: Monica Dart)

On Tuesday I had the absolute pleasure of meeting Gaby (above) from Southbound Bride. Southbound Bride (SBB) is:

a wedding blog designed to support and inspire brides and grooms getting married in South Africa and to promote the SA wedding industry, with a particular focus on the Cape.

I started reading Southbound Bride - (formerly Cap Classique) almost a year and a half ago when Gaby contacted me to do a guest-post on her blog. (Yes, I was reading wedding blogs before I got engaged. Yes, girls do that.) In the guest-post I shared some pictures of the wedding invitations I had designed and the wedding guestbook I was asked to make while I was living and working in South Korea. Southbound Bride also features a weekly "Love List" and Gaby chose one of my personalised wrapping-paper designs in one of her lists which you can see here. Southbound Bride is really a great source of inspiration, ideas and real-wedding stories for brides (engaged or not).

Gaby lives in London and asked to meet up at the most gorgeous little cafe called Belle Amie which is just down the road from where I'm staying.

I had an AMAZING carrot cake and cappuccino. Moist and tasty and delicious. It is so lovely to meet a blogger who you have been following online because once you have met them - you can totally hear their voice - (figurative + literal) in the things they say in blogposts.  We got straight onto chatting and Gaby shared some awesome wedding related stories. Gaby has an amazing way with words and I was literally hanging off every sentence. lol. I left our little coffee date feeling so inspired and enthusiastic - not just about wedding stuff, but about life in general and the direction I would like to take indieBerries and my design work. (Thank you Gaby!) It was also great to be able to "talk wedding" to someone other than Warren (who will probably reach his wedding-talk quota pretty soon) and without the rest of the housemates wanting to smack me in the face, with all the save-the-dates-wedding-planning-colour-scheme-moodboarding that is going on. ha.

We got so wrapped up in chatting that I forgot to take some snaps of the inside of Belle Amie - it was a gorgeous little coffee shop on Garratt Lane- with a gorgeous shabby-chic vibe. Def worth a visit - even without the cake. (Except you really should have the cake).

These pics were stolen taken off the Belle Amie Facebook Page.

Go there.

And also hit up Southbound Bride to feed your eyes on wedding loveliness.

Quote of the day

Yesterday I had the most wonderful day shopping with the girls, buying unnecessary clothes, beautiful fabrics, jewelry making supplies, crafting papers, delicious coffee and generally spending way too much money. At the end of the day, we found a fabulously fancy restaurant/bar/tapas lounge in Itaewon called Between. So we were discussing our lovely day and Marvelyn had the following to say:

We love Marvelyn :)

Here are some pics from our delicious dinner - yum!

Crostini with eggplant, brie cheese, peppers and sun-dried tomatoes.

Mascerpone cheese cake with blueberry sauce.

Creme Brulee

Maitai cocktail and view to the street.

If you're living in South Korea, make a date to visit Between.