A nice casual restaurant with good food. Here’s, Cote.
If you come during the lunch hours, you’ll be able to participate in their two or three course lunch set menu for a fairly good price.
Sliced smoked salmon with dill, shallots, baby capers and crème fraîche dressing with toasted sourdough bread. The smoked salmon was fresh, the bread was nicely toasted, put them together, squeeze some lemon, and your tastebuds will be pleased.
Rustic French onion soup with a sourdough croûte and melted Comté cheese. Okay, I’m usually not a soup person but wow this french onion soup was delicious. The cheese melted right in your mouth, the soup was warm and didn’t feel greasy.
Baked crêpes with wild mushrooms, spinach and Gruyère cheese. I normally wouldn’t order a dish like this but thought I’d change things up and I’m so glad I did. This crepe is very different from what you’d get in America or Asia, so this was new to me. It was a bit more “mushy” and the cheese and mushroom would melt in your mouth. I enjoyed every bite of it.
Pan roasted pork belly with gratin potato, braised Savoy cabbage, apples, thyme and calvados jus. If you’re looking for a more filling meal, this is a good safe option.
The restaurant was a bit crowded when we went, so it felt a bit chaotic, but overall, the food was good for its price.
P.S. apparently they have good espresso coffee too!
Here’s a nice Italian Spanish tapas restaurant in London near Covent Garden. Hello, Opera Tavern.
If you’re looking for a light snack or a full meal, this is a nice ambiance restaurant to go to.
The broccoli was well steamed and the lemon gave it a refreshing kick.
If you don’t like beans, I recommend that you skip ordering this. I personally enjoyed this dish and I have no idea what they put in their “herbs oil” but it was delicious.
These were bite sized and they went light on the parmesan. I completely forgot they even added some to it until I was re-reading their menu. The salsa was fresh and the meat was tender. Highly recommended!
This was another great dish but it didn’t leave me with a “wow” impression. If I ever came back, I’d probably skip this and try something else under their “Meat” menu.
A tiny crunchy cannoli filed with pistachio and powdered sugar to end the meal.
Unfortunately, Opera Tavern lost their Michelin star ranking, but their food is still delicious with great ambiance too.
What a blessing to be able to travel and work for an organization that gives you enough days to go on vacation too.
I’ve always wanted to visit London, so when I finally had the privilege to do so, it felt like someone stamped me right into a movie. I’ve only seen the streets of London and its architecture on screen and in print, so it felt surreal to be here in person.
There’s still so much left for me to see, so I will be back, UK.
We came across this quaint, cozy restaurant at Maggie Jones’s during our London Travels.
We ended up sitting on the second floor of the restaurant. They had unique interior that made you feel like you were cozying up at an old cottage home.
They have a lunch set menu for those interested in having a little bit of everything.
This tasted… refreshing? I wasn’t the biggest fan of this dish.
More mint in your pea soup… interesting.
The potatoes were nice and warm and well cooked. The salmon was flavorful enough. It was an average healthy-salmon dish.
They were doing a Fish & Chips lunch special on this day, so of course I had to order some. Wow the fish was fried perfectly so you’d get a nice crunch when you took a bite and the fish itself was fresh. Squeeze some lemon for some citrus and you’re good to go.
The Fish & Chips were the winner at this restaurant. The food was average but I’d come back here for the ambiance. It’s a great place for those intimate date nights to a casual classy dinner outing with friends or colleagues.
I know, you’re probably wondering why in the world I’d eat Ramen while traveling abroad, but we were hungry and this spot looked cozy, so we decided to step into Shoryu Ramen and this place did not disappoint.
It always takes me a minute when deciding what type of ramen I want since I only started to like Ramen in the last 3 years.
I can’t remember what ramen this was but the broth wasn’t as creamy and rich as the Shoryu Ganso Tonkotsu.
I personally wasn’t a huge fan of this gyoza, it wasn’t the worst but it also wasn’t the best. Feel free to skip this order (unless you’re really craving some gyoza).
The broth was creamy and warm, the noodles were thin and the pork was tender. I highly recommend this dish.
I did a bit more research on this restaurant after I got home and it looks like Shoryu Ramen has multiple chains in the UK and one spot in Japan. Their Executive Chef was born in Hakata, so he wanted to bring their Hakata Tonkotsu ramen to the UK. I highly recommend this ramen shop if you’re in the UK.
Photo time!
This was my first time at In-N-Out and I now see why the hype is so big. The quality you get for the price you pay, 10/10!
Just a few additional photos from my trip to San Francisco that I wanted to share.
Pizza, Pizza, Pizza.
Aka one of my favorite junk foods
We ordered the combo pizza, pepperoni, and cheese.
Wanted to share a few touristy photos I took during my trip to San Francisco. Shoutout to my brother for his patience and being my personal photographer during this trip.
He's not a huge fan of getting his photo taken but being the sister I am, I of course had to at least try to capture a few shots of him.
I can't express how much I love sights like this. It's such a refreshing feeling and views like this always gives me peace.
I could honestly sit here for hours.
I tried.
Also, it was ridiculously windy up here.
But I wanted to share a few additional photos.
I tried. Did it work?
Thank for sticking around till the end. Make sure you check out my other posts from this trip and keep an eye out for my recap vlog too!
My family and I took the cable car - and yes, we waited for over an hour with the rest of all the tourists - to Fisherman Wharf. We stopped by Franciscan for a quick lunch. We weren't too hungry - we had a huge breakfast - so we decided to order appetizers! We ordered crab, crab fondue with spinach, smoked salmon bellini, and crab and clam chowder soup. We then walked and explored the area to burn off some calories in the beautiful-humid-free-fall-like-weather. See below for photos!
We ordered the pork and chicken sandwich and oh my goodness, they were so heavenly. The chicken was juicy and I loved the navel orange kick. I wish I had enough space in my stomach to try their frozen greek yogurt but maybe one day, I'll get to stop by and try it out. But in the meantime, photos below of my meal and their chic decor!
My family and I decided to take a quick trip to the Bay Area to check out a few colleges around the area for my brother and do touristy activities since my brother and I have never been to this state. After taking a quick trip to the Google Headquarters - we geeked out and wanted to check the place out - we decided it was time for lunch. See below for my photos and what we ate at Cocina Central!
Time to fill my empty stomach with some good food! How did I find out about this place? I literally googled, after visiting google, "best restaurants near Mountain View, CA". True story.
I couldn't decide what I wanted, I also didn't understand 10% of the menu, so I was studying the menu pretty rigorously before making my final decision.
Just look how good looking that food looks. Keeps scrolling down for close ups and what we ordered. Trust me, you won't be sorry.
My brother decided to order enchiladas but accidentally ordered this one instead of the enchiladas de pollo. I say this was still a pretty good choice though.
You can't really go wrong with chicken tacos and I never saw tacos as something special, but oh man, were these good and fresh.
Let me copy and paste the food description to paint you a picture what my taste buds were experiencing: roasted potatoes, crema, avocado-serrano sauce, shredded lettuce.
This was 100% the clear winner out of all three dishes. Yes, this was off the appetizer menu but this filled me up pretty easily. Seriously, this was amazing. The hard taco shell, potatoes, and everything else was such a good combo -- you must order this if you ever get the chance.
Could you tell I was a huge fan of the Tacos Dorados?
Great price, great meal, great dining experience.
10/10
I wanted to share a few non-food-related photos I took during my trip to Vegas. I guess this would also be a good time to share one of my "moments of truth" from this trip, so here we go: My friends and I purposely decided to stay at Caesars Place due to its multiple appearances in Hollywood films. Can you tell it was all of our first time making it out there? We quickly checked-out Bellagio as well to see the waterworks but ended up missing it by a couple beats, so I just took a few photos of the hotel instead.
I'm guessing you were expecting something a little more gossip-worthy, so sorry to disappoint if you were. See below for photos!
Alize: a french restaurant. Our server was warm, the view was stunning (especially as the sun was setting), and the meal was appetizing and delightful. Even their bread (not pictured below) was amazing - everyone who knows me know I love bread a little too much; hello, carbs. If you're ever in Vegas and you want good food, ambiance, and a quick getaway from the crazy Vegas strip, I highly recommend stopping by this place.
Sautéed Foie Gras: I doubted the caramel peach combination at first but my goodness, this went so well with the Foie Gras.
Potato Gnocchi: I think gnocchi is one of my new favorite dishes. Also, I'm usually not a huge fan of cheese but wow, just everything about this dish. Amazing.
Haricots Verts, Genoa Salami, Pink Peppercorn Vinaigrette, Brown Butter Aioli. Aka, the chicken was very tender and juicy and I liked how this wasn't too rich for my tastebuds.
Smoked Prosciutto, Mushroom Duxelles, Asparagus, Truffle-Shallot Jus. This dish was a little too rich for me but it's also a dish I probably would order for myself if I ever go back.
Falafel, Kefta Sausage, Broccolini, Tzatziki, Apricot-Mustard Jus. Aka, the one thing I cannot eat in this world: Lamb. But my friend who ordered this dish loved it. I was even tempted to take a bite because she made it look so good!
I know this photo is blurry and I'm a little upset about it but I had to upload it anyways to show you how amazing and beautiful our view was. We enjoyed our meal as we watched the sunset. I couldn't have asked for a better group of friends to share this meal with.
In conclusion, I usually don't order a chicken dish whenever I come to restaurants like this but because I really didn't want to eat something that would be too rich for my stomach, I thought the chicken would be a good option. The chicken was still extremely delicious and I'm glad I picked that over something else but the next time I go, if I'm up for something more savory, I would probably order the Veal Wellington. Overall, wow, the meal was amazing and I loved the view and ambiance of this restaurants. 10/10 I would recommend!
Okay, so this was actually my last meal in Vegas, but because I got excited - and hungry - all over again while going through my photos, I couldn't resist the urge to post about this meal (I was going to share my Vegas experience in chronological order). Below, you'll find a few snapshots of my time at the Sterling Brunch Buffet hoping you'll get hungry and I would've persuaded you to visit this place by the time you reach the end of this post.
Get ready to drool. Enjoy!
From salads to fruits to parfait to cheese. The options are already starting to feel endless.
From lamb to beef tenderloin to chicken to fillet mignon. Are you hungry yet? No? Keep scrolling down for more.
Do you see all that lobster on our plate? Top that with some king crab legs, caviar, jumbo shrimp, and bottomless champaign. Are you drooling yet? Because I know I am.
There was a good chunk of time when my friends and I sat in silence as we enjoyed our meal.
Fillet Mignon, Lobster Ravioli, and Salmon. The lobster ravioli was probably my favorite dish out of the three.
Our server was very amiable and did not hesitate when having to open a new bottle for us. He was also great at making sure our glasses were never empty.
I seriously have the biggest sweet tooth, so of course I got extremely excited when my stomach was ready for the dessert table.
They had macarons, chocolate peanut butter tart, key lime tart, mousse, that chocolate popsicle/lollypop (the name is slipping me right now-- what in the world are these called?).
The only way anyone should ever finish a meal. With sweets.
Time to be real: You're probably thinking, "$95 for a meal... that's a lot." But if you think about what you're getting and consider the unlimited champaign and mimosa too, I say the price is worth it. Just make sure you go with a very empty stomach. We had impeccable service, ate our hearts out, and hopped on a plane with an overly satisfied stomach as we headed home. I personally highly recommend stopping by this place if you're ever in Vegas. When you do, I hope your experience is as great as mine! You'll have to let me know how it went.
Pat's Steaks Philly Cheese Steak
LOVE Statue
At the Franklin Square Park
At the Reading Terminal Market
Cannoli French Toast at Cafe Lift
Pub & Kitchen's Burger
Over Fall Break (October 10 - 12) my friends and I decided to take a spontaneous road trip to Philadelphia. It was nice being able to get out of town and relax for a few days. We ate a lot, tried their famous Philly CheeseSteak, and went to local tourist spots.
When driving around Philadelphia, I noticed they had a different marketing approach than they do in DC (although not pictured in this blog post). They have a lot of street and wall art and used pop art in their billboards. This clearly demonstrated the importance of researching who your target audience is and learning about their culture.
I had a lot of fun learning about Philadelphia and I can't wait to go visit again. Especially for some Philly CheeseSteak!
When you come to the Bahamas, almost every local restaurant you visit, you’ll come across “Conch” and “Kalik” beer, which I highly recommend you try.
Everything from a Conch salad to fritters to even a sandwich is amazing and you’ll want to eat conch everyday you’re there. If you only have time for one dish, I highly recommend the fritters and salad (with the Kalik beer on the side).
During our last night at the Bahamas, my friends and I decided to treat ourselves to a nice restaurant. We decided to check out Bahamian Club.
We ordered some champaign to cheers to the end of our spring break trip. The main course was pretty good, but the highlight of this meal was the dessert (see bottom right photo).
The chocolate brownie was nice and warm, the vanilla ice-cream with the caramel twist would melt in your mouth. This was definitely the highlight of the course, and I’d go back in a heartbeat just for this brownie dish.
I now see why people love Hawaii.
The weather is always incredible, the beach is right there, and the down-to-earth-stress-free vibe is something I can’t complain about. I don’t think I could ever see myself living here, but I’d come here in a heartbeat for vacation, it just sucks that it’s so far from the east coast. Hawaii, you stole my heart. I will have to come back again soon.
