Where to eat in London: Tokemeite

Jesse has been pestering me to eat here since I shared Tokemeite's Instagram account with him.

There are just so many places to eat in London and sometimes we are just so spoilt with choices.

Jesse is a lover of Japanese food. He can eat Japanese food everyday if he could. So when he saw this place, he wanted to go there.

We went post-theater after watching Book of Mormon. We literally ran there as they were closing at 10.30pm and our booking was 10pm. 

Tokemeite

The ambience was quiet. The food and service was good but we can tell the members of staff were tired. And it is perfectly reasonable given that we were the last booking of the night.

There were other diners but they were close to finishing their meals.

Without wasting any time, we scanned the menu and quickly decide what we wanted.

We ordered:

Wagyu Truffle Maki and Snow Crab Avocado Maki

The Wagyu Truffle Maki was good. I tasted the smokiness in the wagyu and it was a perfect paring with the white truffle shavings.

The Snow Crab Avocado Maki was very mediocre. It was fresh but nothing special.

Scottish Scallop

This is pretty good. Very fresh and big scallop.

Tempura Langoustine

This was quite nice. I am not a fan of tempura but this was light and pretty good. Langoustines taste like a cross between prawns and lobsters.

Teriyaki Eel

There's nothing special about this dish other than it being very fresh.

Chargrilled King Crab with Aubergine Sauce

This was quite special. I never had anything like that before. It was a very fresh and clean dish.

To be honest, I think Tokemeite is not very creative and special but they rely on good and fresh seafood. And I think they are doing well because of that. This may just be another restaurant in Asia but in London, it is good to know you can get such fresh and high quality Japanese food here.

We spent £163 (including a sake).

More info here: https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-d9456170?m=19905 

Banana Tree - Soho, London

I've probably walked passed this restaurant over 50 times when I am in Soho and didn't think twice about going in. That is until I saw an Instagram post (which is not an ad) posted about how good the food was. 

So when James wanted to meet up for dinner, this place popped into my head. 

We managed to arrive before 7pm on a Thursday so we managed to get some good 2 for 1 cocktails. 

We were all famish when we arrived so we trusted James to order almost EVERYTHING. And we loved it. Everything was spot on. Even J and James liked it. So I know it is not because my expectations has lowered since I've moved here. Lol

We ordered so much that the waitress had to ask us to stop. 😂

If you are in London and fancy some Asian fusion, I would recommend this place.

See you soon James! 

One Twenty One Two - The Royal Horseguards, London.

This was definitely a good throwback for me. This was one of the first ever date night for us after I obtained my spouse visa. I started my first job in UK and we were going to celebrate.

He wanted to surprise me and arranged for everything. All I had to do was to meet him at Embankment.

Turns out, we were going to dine at the One Twenty One Two at The Royal Horseguards. Such a mouthful eh? Haha.

So many good reviews at this place.

Great ambience too. The restaurant is situated in th hotel, so you can expect a very private and quiet environment. But not in an uncomfortable way.

We started off with a bottle of prosseco which we didn't finish. (It was a work night..else, we will never let a good bottle of wine go to waste!)

Good hair day and skinny face. 

I swear one automatically put on 4-8 kgs after their wedding. How can that be normal? 😞😞😞

The menu.

The starter for him: Duck terrine.

The starter for me: Cornish scallop.

Mains for him: Lamb cutlet

The main for me: Halibut

The food was really very good and fresh. We really enjoyed it.

The waiting staff were very warm and attentive as well. I would really recommend this place.

Dessert for him: Almond and lemon tart.

Dessert for me: Gateaux Marcel

By dessert, we were both super duper full. We managed to eat half of each desserts. And it was very very good.
There were definitely regrets for not finishing the desserts. 

Find out more: One Twenty One Two - The Royal Horseguards

Address: London SW1A 2EJ

Phone: 020 7451 9333

Dog-friendly hotel in Bournemouth: Riviera Hotel, Alum Chine

When we go on vacation we have a lot of factors to consider. And Dug is one of them. Do we bring him? If not, who is going to look after him. We want to bring him as much as possible as we feel guilty leaving him behind if we know he is allowed and he will have loads of fun. We love our silly boy.

J's birthday fell on the long weekend end of May and he wanted to celebrate with the two brats he love the most. His words, not mine.

So we were researching the deep web to find a dog friendly places. And decided on Bournemouth as it is not too long a drive from Epsom. We ended up in booking.com because it was the easiest hotel booking site with the dog-friendly hotel option. While working with a budget (because everywhere was super expensive during long weekends), we found Riviera Hotel. The review were satisfactory and most importantly, they allow dogs with additional of £10 per night on top. That is cheaper than a dog sitter.

He knew we were going out then got too excited and climbed onto the front passenger seat. 😧😧😧

Source: Google

The photo is not that clear sorry. I lazy to find another photo.

It is not the grandest but with a doggie we had limited choice but you know what I was very pleased with it.

Checking in and out was easy enough. There were parking everyday even when it was obviously a very busy weekend.

The room was kinda small but it was quaint and good enough for us for just a couple of nights. We had a balcony and sea view.

I don't mind waking up to this every morning. 🌊🌊🌊

We wanted to take a family unit photo. Dug has been acting like a teenager lately. He doesn't want to post for photos.

Chilling and have lunch at the balcony after we checked in.

The Alum Chine beach is just around the corner from the hotel. It is 5 mins walk to the beach. I think we picked the right end of the beach to stay at.

It is a long strech of beach. From where we were to walk to the famous Bournemouth pier, it would take us around 30 mins.

So cheerful!

Catching up with the boys. It looked gloomy in my photos but i was actually really sunny.

Another reason why we were at the right end of the beach is because the doggie beach area is at this end.

Dug dived in right away but couldn't stay in the sea for too long because it was so cold. He would get out, roll on the sand to get dry and then forgotten that the water is cold and go in again.

Silly doggie brain.

J fell asleep and snored super loud at the beach. Horgh horgh horgh.

Like father like son.

Address: 14-16 Burnaby Rd, Bournemouth BH4 8JF

Super Fresh Oysters - Whistable, Kent

I loooove the taste of oysters. The aftertaste of the sweetness of the oyster flesh and the saltiness of the sea water plus a dash of lemon juice and Tobasco. Hmmmm! Take me back!

I jumped on the chance to visit Whistable, Kent when Robert recommended this place. If you like seafood and want it fresh and cheap-ish (depends on where you ended up), this is the place to be. I found out about this place last winter but we didn’t want to go in the cold, so Jesse only took us there recently.

 

 Industrial but picturesque at the same time.

 

It’s one of the best experience I had in the UK. When we arrived, Jesse was smiling ear-to-ear. He was looking at the sea and was so happy about it.

 

We did our research before we go. Looked through Tripadvisor to find the best place to eat. The most recommended place is obviously the Wheelers Oyster Bar but upon reading the reviews and seeing the photos, I know that this is not what we wanted because of the way they serve the oysters. Also, it’s a tiny restaurant/café..well it is essentially a bar so we can’t take our time to enjoy the food and there’s a queue to get in. When we saw the bar, we knew we made the right decision.

 

So we decided to go to The Lobster Shack instead. We did not regret it!

 

Before that, I want to say that the famed cheap seafood in Whitstable is actually West Whelks stall by the pier/docks. When I say cheap, it is dirt cheap. Think 80p for one rock oysters. Fuck yes!

 

 

 

 

 

 

We didn’t have any cash on us and managed to pull together £1.60 so we could have one each. Damn, it was good. Not because it was only cheap but it was actually good.

We wanted to save our appetites for The Lobster Shack so we left and search for it. If you can’t find it, not to worry, there are signs everywhere.

 

The restaurant is neatly situated by the pebbles beach. So we managed to get a table by the window to look out at the sea whilst enjoying our food. If it was warmer, we could definitely sit outside too. The restaurant is dog-friendly. We made a mental note on these things because of Dug. So we know we can bring him with us the next time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We ordered the half Seafood Platter. Omg, it’s so big. The half, you could feed up to 4 people if you order some sides. We also ordered their baked lobster with chips. It was good. But the oysters were not as good as West Whelks. Everything else was fantastic though. The shrimps that came with the platter were filled with eggs/roe. I can feel my cholesterol level shot up after the meal but hey it is worth it. The platter was quite pricey (Robert thinks it is London pricing) but everything else was not expensive. I think it was worth it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We then went to walk around the town and loved how quaint it was. It’s a small town though, so you probably don’t need to spend the whole day there. We were there for half a day and managed to cover everything.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also managed to dip my toes into the sea. It was freezing!!!

 

 

Happy but super naughty man.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As usual, I needed coffee so we found this hidden gem right on the high street but we missed it the first time. It’s called No. 15 (maybe that’s why we missed it). We had this lovely cake called the Hummingbird cake, I loved it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We took a slow drive home after that. Yes, we will be back again.