Florida Series - The best steak I've ever had!

The best steak I ever had. That is quite a bold statement for me to make because my order whenever I go out to eat is always steak, cooked medium, chips and béarnaise sauce, but I can honestly say the steak and chips I had in Longhorn Steakhouse where head and shoulders above the rest, and to make sure this wasn’t just a one off, we actually visited the restaurant twice, and both times it was absolutely fantastic.

Longhorn Steakhouse is a chain with the same menu in all the restaurants. 
One of the things I love about the menu is that it explains all the different cuts, there are so many it can often be hard knowing what you would prefer so this is great at helping you decide what is right for you. It also explains the different ways it can be cooked, once again not something everyone knows and may be too embarrassed to ask about.

I went for the flat iron cooked medium as it is one of their smaller cuts and chips. A salad is also included in the price of your meal, as well as all the bread you can eat but I didn’t have either as I didn’t want to be full up before I tucked into my steak.

My first cut into the steak was a delight, it was cooked perfectly, and then the first bite, oh my I can’t even explain it very well. It was tender and juicy and packed so much flavour, to put my normal béarnaise sauce on this steak would’ve been to sin. I can honestly say this is the tastiest piece of steak I have ever had, and there was no gristly bits or lots of fat on the edge as I have experienced in other restaurants, and of course at home.
The chips, or fries should I call them were also delicious. Crunchy on the outside, fluffy on the inside and not too salty.

For dessert I had the salted caramel cake, once again delicious, although in my opinion the salted caramel could’ve been a bit more salted, but I know that is not to everyones taste.

My brother had the s’mores chocolate brownie, which of course I had to have a bite of and it was great, a real chocoholic desert, and my boyfriend had the key lime pie which for a desert was light and refreshing, but also quite tart.

Everyone in my family really enjoyed their meal and agreed it was by far the best steak we have had.
Add to that the fact that the wait staff where fantastic too, and the price is pretty insane. It cost around $14 for a starter salad, 7 oz steak and chips, thats roughly £9. £9 for the best steak dinner of my life, are you shitting me?! The cocktails are around the $8 mark, but you can easily get 2 drinks out of them, beers are around $4 and bottomless soft drinks are $3.

If you are planning on visiting Florida and like steak, I strongly encourage you to visit this restaurant, and don’t make the mistake my boyfriend made on our first visit and order salmon!

Restaurant Review - The Diner Soho

Whilst out with Sophia from the Tattooed Tea Lady the other week, we decided to go for dinner and the place that we chose to go was The Diner.

You may have heard of The Diner before, or at least seen a picture of the menu on Instagram as it is very popular with anyone who likes trendy places or American food.

If you hadn’t guessed by the title of the restaurant, The Diner is a American themed restaurant, with the menu inspired by a 50’s diner (complete with a Lumberjacks breakfast, eggs, bacon and pancakes that are served all day!) with the interior feeling a little bit more modern, but definitely with a nod to the diner style with its leatherette booths and bar that holds center stage.

After being seated in a lovely roomy corner booth, we studied the menu.

Being a American themed restaurant it had all the usuals, chips, burgers, hot dogs and all day breakfasts. It didn’t have a huge seletion to choose from, but I think most people would be able to find at least one thing on the menu that they are happy with.

I went for the steak and chips, one of my favourite meals and something I order quite often.

The steak and fries comes with two fried eggs on top,  I wasn’t too certain on that combo so asked for no eggs and for my steak to be cooked medium.

When the food came out I was very impressed, you get a nice amount of steak for the price you pay and it was cooked perfectly. My only complaint with the steak is that it was a little on the chewy side. The fries where lovely, thin and long, golden brown, crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. I doused these with salt and vinegar and very much enjoyed them.

I think the meal was very tasty and pretty good value for money, I had steak, fries and a diet coke all for under £15. They also served some delicious looking cocktails, but I am off the booze for the moment.

I also have to take a moment to compliment the great service we received. Our waitor was a lovely friendly guy who was very attentive and made sure we had everything we need, including my vinegar! The service is also very fast and they have a kids menu making it great for the family.

Restaurant Review - Ladurée

Ladurée is a french patisserie mostly known for its macarons, and with good reason because they are gorgeous!

As well as selling their macarons, they actually have a tea room, and me and my friend decided to go treat ourselves to some champagne and afternoon tea. 

 

We went to the one in Covent Garden, where the tea room is upstairs.

It's pretty small, and even on a Thursday afternoon it was busy, so I can imagine it would be murders to get a seat at the weekend.

It was very pretty and Parisian feeling, it was done up in a shabby chic style and we sat on a long sofa that was shared with two other sets of diners, which would have been fine had the woman next to us not insisted on putting her bags up on the sofa, leaving very little room for anyone else.

The gentleman she was with was also on his phone constantly, not the thing you really want when you are trying to enjoy a nice evening with someone.

Obviously we had to get some macarons! 

We tried salted caramel, vanilla, rose and raspberry.

Salted caramel is like sex on a plate. That is all I can say about it really. 

All of the other macarons where delicious too, and eating a floral flavoured one is always interesting because it tastes just like how it smells.

If you haven't tried macarons I really suggest you try them, they may be expensive but they are very unique and delicious. My boyfriend pooh poohed them for ages, because he is such a cheapskate, however I bought us some for our 5 year anniversary and he is now converted. 

I also got some french toast, which was absolutely delicious. Very light and fluffy, without being too sweet or too heavy on the cinnamon, that I then doused in maple syrup anyway. Just looking at these pictures is making me hungry.

My friend also got the chocolate cake, which looked very elegant and decadent, it was topped with gold leaf!

It also had macaron layers in it, as well as chocolate ganache and a million other layers of chocolate. 

I was assured it was a great dessert for any chocolate lovers.

Whilst the food was delicious (and so was the champagne) it is quite expensive and the occasion was slightly dampened by the rude couple on the table next to us.

I would only recommend going here if you are trying to impress someone on a first date because it is lovely and intimate (as long as the other diners are considerate), or you have never tried macarons before because this is the best place for them. 

It is slightly too touristy to have a nice girly afternoon tea, although I still enjoyed myself. 

For more info about other locations, here is the site Laduree.

Fire and Stone, Spitalfields

So on Friday night me and my friend Rachel went to Fire and Stone in Spitalfields.

If you haven't heard of it before, it is a restaurant that does gourmet pizza, it takes inspiration from around the world to create its pizzas. Definitely worth checking out the menu, even if some of them you wouldn't touch with a barge pole.

Let's start with the drinks, because everyone likes a good cocktail.

A Raspberry Mojito and a Long Island Ice Tea. 

Lychee Martini

Mai Tai

So as you can see, the cocktails where very average. 

The only one I thought was a bit special was the lychee martini, which was very nice, but it had a lychee popped in for decoration which took some of the elegance away from the cocktail. It looked like a slimy eye just sitting there at the bottom of the glass. I did attempt to eat it as I normally love lychees, but it was quite bitter which was very unusual.

The other cocktails where quite murky and disappointing, the Mai Tai looked like a beer, and the Long Island Ice Tea looked like a vodka and coke, which according to Rachel is exactly what it tasted like too. My Raspberry Mojito was also too sour, it definitely needed a bit more sugar.

Very underwhelmed with the drinks, and definitely not worth the £6.95 price tag.

Now you don't really go to a restaurant for cocktails so lets move onto the food.

Rachel had the Hong Kong, which consists of Chinese five spiced pulled pork ribs, shaved fennel, spring onions, coriander and hoi sin dressing. 

It looks delicious, and I think Rachel enjoyed it quite a lot. 

I had the Florence, which has pepperoni, crude ham, mozzarella, tomato sauce, sun dried tomatoes, basil pesto and olives, essentially all my favourite things on a pizza.

It did make for a very tasty pizza, and I did enjoy it, I think it could have done with a bit more sauce though because it was a little on the dry side, either that or have a dipping sauce for the crusts.

The main issue I had with my pizza, and I think Rachel had the same issue, is the base.

It was very chewy and quite doughy, which made it taste very dry and probably the reason I wanted more sauce. It also had a lot of powder/flour on the bottom of the pizza that stuck to your fingers and went everywhere. It also did nothing for the pizza and was quite gritty in texture, not pleasant. 

This was all the left over powder on the bottom of Rachel's pizza. There was enough for us to make a lovely smiley face. 

One thing I really have to comment on is the customer service. It was excellent. Our server was lovely and attentive, introducing her self as we came in, asking us what part of the restaurant we would like to be seated in, asking us regularly if we needed more food/drinks without over doing it and just generally being a lovely polite server.

The service is quick as well, the food came out shortly after we ordered and the wait for drinks wasn't bad either. I have been in some restaurants where you wait so long for your drink you've already finished your main before you get it.

The pizzas are around £10 each, and they are quite light, not really for sharing. I think the food is fairly priced and quite tasty despite it's issues. I wouldn't recommend the drinks though, there is a b@1 bar around the corner and they are brilliant for cocktails, my suggestion would be to go there first during happy hour where its 2 cocktails for £9, then head over to Fire and Stone for some delicious pizza to help absorb the booze you've just consumed.