Menier Chocolate Factory

The Chocolate Factory is a converted chocolate factory in Southwark, near Tate Modern, which now houses a theatre, gallery and restaurant. I've visited twice now and never yet been to see a play... Last time we went it was for food. We were early and were directed to a cosy little sofa area behind the dining section to have drinks, which made a change from having to stand by the door or perch on an unfeasibly small chair at the front of the resaturant. The place has a good, warm atmosphere and the building itself is impressive, all wood floors, exposed brick and beams. The food was good, reasonably priced (about £18 a head with drinks), generous portions and tasty. Although we nearly all had veggie burgers so we hardly sampled the breadth of the menu but hey we liked it anyway. Not the most delicate of cooking but comforting and well cooked. The only minor complaint was that the full menu wasn't being served until 8, so we chose from a smaller version, whcih restricted choice somewhat. This may be something to do with the fact that this is primarily a theatre and so it didn't trouble me too much and I would definitely go again, may be even see a play while I was there.

veggie restaurant

222 Veggie Vegan is a vegetarian (No!) restuarant near west Brompton tube. We went there last Friday for the first time. The food is great, fresh and not the usual veggie food trying to be meaty food, no vegetarian lasagne or fake sausages (although I do like those), except for a token burger. I had crispy pancakes with abrocolli and some kind of cheesy tofu filling, which I am doing a poor job of describing but which tasted good, not in small part due to an excellent rich tomato sauce. The puddings were delicious, we had banana and walnut cake with vanilla ice cream. All the food is home made, no heatng up or buying in and is reasonably priced. The only slightly less than rosy thing about it all was the decor. If you are familiar with veggie restaurants then you will know that there seems ot be a connection between veggie food and bare neutral walls, pine furniture, folksy easy listening music and overly tall, thin owl like waiting staff. Surely there must be an opening somewhere for a decadent vegetarian restuarant, all red velvet and purple walls. Who says you can't eat tofu whilst listeneing to pink floyd!?

Scotland

We have just returned from a (very) small Island in Scotland, surrounded by impressive scenery, actual wildlife (cuckoos that sound just like cuckoos - if you see what I mean), plush accommodation and all very middle of nowhereish. Lovely. However it means two things: one, I am unable to write about the usual hanging around town things as I saw no one except family (and that is a whole other blog in itself) and did very little except walk and lounge, and two that although I had a fantastic time, I did in fact sigh a little sigh of relief when we arrived back amongst the concrete and the shops.

Also I have lost my phone to computer cable and can't transfer pictures which means that the visual aspect of this will be a lot less interesting until I find it.