Monday 30 May 2011

Tex Mex Tuesday: Lupita & a Bank holiday in Wales


Our Mexican Monday adventures could no longer happen on a Monday due to the time constraints of getting to FHE on time...so we had to pick a new day and for the sake of alliteration it had to be one that we could add a Mexican term too so Mara cleverly came up with Tex Mex Tuesdays! 

Last week we found ourselves at Lupita, in Charing Cross Road area, they were 4th in the top 20 Mexican restaurants so we were expecting big things.


It was crazy busy when we arrived at around 7ish, they didn't have any tables free so we sat at the bar area where you could watch the chef's cooking everything right in front of you.  We could also watch the screen where all the orders came in on and we should have known then how the evening would progress but we were hungry for Mexican so we stuck it out.


I had a delicious mango and honey juice and Mara had a Horchata - a traditionally Mexican almond and rice milk drink. 

The service was absolutely terrible, we had to wait at least 20 minutes before our order was even taken and the drinks took a long time to arrive too.  My starter of tortilla chips never arrived, well they were going to try and give it to me after I'd had dessert but I politely declined! 

Luckily for us, the food was amazing! 


Mara had the namesake 'Lupita' Tortas - a Mexican sandwich filled with a chicken escalope, ham, chorizo, avacado and refried beans...


and I had the pork and bacon Taco, that had been cooked on a rotating spit served with pineapple - it was delish! 


and we had the most amazing Churro's I've ever tasted! The Churro's were that good that they made the whole terrible Lupita experience worth it! 

Having said that they definitely need to up their game for service, the staff including the manager (who was the one who forgot my tortilla starter) were running around like headless chickens and seemed completely out of their depth - they are not going to win any awards running a restaurant like that! 

On the way home we stopped off at Cyber Candy in Covent Garden, because we couldn't not grab a root beer! plus they had loads of amazing new chocolates and sweets like Coconut Twix and Dairy Milk mint filled Rolo type chocs! 


On Thursday night I had a late night baking sesh in preparation for our weekend in Shropshire, if you want to try your hand at baking Mini Coconut Cream Pies, Key Lime Pie Cupcakes or Coconut & Banana Bread you can find the recipes here


We headed to Shropshire on Friday night with all the family descending to have a double celebration of Mom & Dad's May birthday's.


Here is Mom opening her hamper of goodies, with a cheek full of Biltong!


and here she is showcasing her Key Lime Pie Cupcakes - one of her favourite flavours! 


and my coconut loving Dad didn't miss out, he got a Coconut & Banana Birthday Bundt cake which he was pretty pleased with.


We decided to give the boys another shopping free weekend and so we headed to Stapeley Water Gardens.


The flowers were quite incredible! have you ever seen a pink and orange bougainvillea? my mom was quite amazed! 


We saw some Meerkats, which pleased By greatly since they're his favourite animal.  I love that we snapped this one in his little lookout position.


By got involved with the spider holding action...


it was a tarantula but apparently it was the least scary kind! 


We heard a few stories about snakes and what great 'pets' they make, and then the cockroaches came out and that's where I draw the line.  I had more than my fair share of them in Turks and Caicos so I wasn't about to hang around and listen to what fantastic creatures they are...no thanks! 


We finished off our Bank holiday weekend by visiting the quaint little railway town of Llangollen.


It was really picturesque, and just to please my Gran in South Africa we managed to drag Alli (my photo hating sister) into the picture! 


That cute little church and rolling green hills made for a very pretty scene.


and we snapped a pic sitting on the station benches.


Back to the 3 sister shot again...


and we even managed to catch the old steam train in action!


and ended the day perfectly with some ice cream and shakes!


Now it's back to work..boo! Hope you all had fun filled Bank holiday weekends too!

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