Visiting England: London in the Summer

We make a point of going to London at least once a year to check out current exhibitions, take a small break and mostly catch up with friends who live there. The last weekend we spent there was all of this and more.

E. had been keen to go and see the 'Pink Floyd: Their Mortal Remains' exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum so we organised our flights, booked our museum tickets (great exhibition by the way, it ends 1st October, do not miss it if you are around London beforehand) and off we went. 

As weekends go, this one was very sunny and filled with great times, from catching up with friends to seeing a bit of the famous Notting Hill Carnival before saying goodbye to our lovely hosts (K. and M. you rock!) and rushing off to the airport.

And also, we ate and drank some wonderful things at the following places:

- Frenchie: E. and I had first been to Frenchie last year. We had such a great experience there that it was the first restaurant I booked after we had organised our flights this time. Once again, we had a fantastic lunch. We started with snacks of Portland crab with lemon and lovage on squid ink crackers. This and what followed was a real feast for the taste buds. We both had the starter of red tuna tartare which was, to me, the highlight of the meal, such a stunning dish. We then had Cornish whiting for him and smoked pork belly for me, the latter was just perfect with the aubergine, hazelnuts and pickled mustard. We ended on a sweet note by getting both desserts on the lunch menu. As recommended, we started with the yellow peaches, almond crumble and verbena ice cream and moved on to the banoffee with nutmeg and caramelised pecan. This is not just any banoffee - it is THE most incredible version of a banoffee I have ever had. I want to add that the great experience is not only due to the amazing food but also to the really friendly and impeccable service.

- El Pastor: after a day spent between Frenchie and the V&A Museum, we met with our friends K. and M. for dinner at the Borough Market. We had two options. The first one required one hour and a half of queuing which seemed crazy. Luckily, the queue at the second place was much smaller and we were able to go grab a couple of drinks at the nearby oyster bar while we waited. Taqueria El Pastor turned out to be really great. We decided to share a few dishes, which is always the nicest thing to do with a group of friends in those types of restaurants. We had guacamole with totopos and chicharron, choripapa tacos (soft tacos with chorizo, potato and salsa verde), carnitas tacos to share, the short rib tacos (amazing!), pork quesadilla, grilled corn (topped with lime mayonnaise, chipotle and queso fresco, one of the nicest side dishes) and frijoles charros (pinto beans with smoked chorizo and smoked pork belly). All the dishes were very flavoursome topped with wonderful fresh herbs and different types of salsa (the pineapple one being my favourite). I still had a bit of room after all this, but just enough for one scoop of the delicious cajeta ice cream (a type of dulce de leche made with sweetened caramelised goat's milk).

- Dishoom: I had wanted to go to Dishoom for a while and we all opted to go there for breakfast as we wanted to eat things that would keep us going for the day (but leave room for the iced coffees and ice creams we had in mind afterwards). I chose an egg naan roll with sides of grilled tomato and fried chicken livers. The fried eggs were perfectly cooked with the nicest saffron-yellow egg yolk oozing out of the naan roll. I felt a bit greedy having ordered fried chicken livers on top of this but I could not resist trying them and it was so delicious that I am glad I did. I hear really good things about the lunch and dinner options there so this is on our list for the next time we visit London.

- Monmouth Coffee: Since we were in the Covent Garden area after breakfast, this was the perfect spot for a catch up with friends. The iced latte and filter coffees were especially welcome on that rather hot day walking around.

- La Gelatiera: I had recently read about this wonderful ice cream place and it was quite easy convincing our small group of friends to head there after coffee. There are some incredible flavours to try. I went straight for the Sicilian pistachio sorbet because pistachio is my favourite ice cream flavour. I was rather intrigued by the idea of having it as a sorbet. It was so creamy and flavoursome, the most delicious I have ever had. I got a taste of the basil and chilli ice cream which is quite surprising too. This is definitely worth a stop if you are on a mission to find really good ice cream in London.

- Som Saa: After a day walking around, eating delicious things and a short visit at the British Museum, we headed East of London where we had a booking for dinner at thai restaurant Som Saa. My friend K. had suggested we go there and it was a really good choice. We picked a few dishes (ok, almost everything on the menu - almost...) between the four of us, making sure to balance everything with a couple of salads (which were incredibly fresh and packed with the nicest thai flavours). One of the salads was quite spicy but we were given jasmine water to soothe our palates and it was the perfect remedy. Among all the delicious things we ate, the winner dish was definitely the whole deep fried seabass with roasted rice powder and isaan herbs, the only thing left on the plate was the backbone. We ended the meal on a refreshing note (after all the hot spices) by sharing some salted palm sugar ice cream with turmeric grilled banana between us before heading to a truly amazing cocktail bar.

- The Gibson: I could give you a detailed description of the fantastic cocktails we had there but I would rather not spoil the experience. You would have to see and drink it to understand what I mean when I say for example that the cocktail I chose was electrifying (the Electric Earl in the January month - the menu is divided by months).

Where do you eat and drink when you go to London? Leave your suggestions below in the comments if you want.