Some Belated London Goodbyes

So I'm playing catch up on the last of my pictures from the summer.  This should have been blogged about a loooong time ago! My friend Nicola took me here to Westfield as a belated birthday treat and what a treat it was!!

Oh Byron burgers and root beer floats...had I known it was going to be so long before I get to visit you again I would have savoured you that little bit longer!!

Byron is by far one of my favourite restaurants to go to London, and not just because it has the namesake of my one true love! but because it does amazingly tasty and thick milkshakes, yes I'm talking Oreo flavour! and as if that isn't good enough they do A&W root beer floats which is so awesome in my book...

and lets not forget their hamburgers and fries! the stars of the show, although I'm pretty sure I could fill up on root beer floats all night long and it would still be a great meal in my opinion! 

and whilst we're on the theme of burgers and shakes.  One of my last nights in London was spent at Tinseltown in Farringdon as a little farewell with some of my uni friends Nadira and Nicola, and Sinead which was pretty cool because back in the Harpenden days Sinead and Jade and I spent many a night at Tinseltown - it was our fave hangout! Plus where else can you get a double thick shake at 1am in the morning after skanking your socks off all night long to your fave band! 

It's pretty safe to say Tinseltown is the original milkshake diner...it was around long before Shakeaway and it's amazing choice of flavours were pretty innovative back in the day!

and they still get us just as excited today! especially for Nad...what a way to break a fast! Poor Nad had to wait while I snapped this shot of her, she exercised pretty good self restraint I must say! 

Reece's Peanut Butter Cup shakes certainly went down a treat! 

and Nicola went for the old Oreo classic! what else! There is no better way I can think of than spending an evening with some of my best friends and some of the best shakes in London! Thanks for an awesome night ladies!

Hopefully I'll have tracked down somewhere that sells a decent Oreo shake by the time you come to visit us in Wales...but if not we'll just do it R: Unit style and make them homemade like we used to!

Tex Mex Tuesday: Free Taco's at Wahaca, Westfield and some Waffle House action!

Last week we took our Tex Mex Tuesday back to where it all started for us in London - Wahaca.  The first time I ever ate at Wahaca in Covent Garden, long before this challenge ever began, I was blown away! I had the best enchiladas ever, I loved the feel of the place and I was sold...to me, Wahaca was THE place for Mexican in London.  

That was last June...how much has changed in a year! 

We had already decided on Wahaca as our chosen Mexican for the week, and then I saw via twitter that they were running an offer where you could win free steak taco's if you watched Thomasina's program that evening and filled in the missing ingredient for her tomato salsa.  Lucky for us, we already own her book so I just looked up the recipe and filled in the slip and handed it to our waiter when we ate at 6pm, an hour and a half before the tv program where you were meant to find out the answer actually aired! but fortunately he didn't seem to have read the competition details properly and he accepted the offer! 

So it was steak taco's for me...and you'd think they should have tasted even better, being free and all, but I was left feeling disappointed! Steak isn't a taco filling I would usually order so perhaps it was down to personal preference but I just felt these taco's were lacking.  Plus I still can't really get excited about soft taco's...for me it's all about the hard shell! 

Mara had a burrito which was infinitely better than my steak taco but still nothing on the one we had last week at Santo, and it was a little on the spicy side.

We had this rather strange cactus based side dish that came with tortillas.  We were expecting it to be more like tortilla chips but they were flat tortillas so that was a little bit odd.

We were hoping the Churros were going to pull it around for us, but unfortunately they left us with a bad taste in our mouth.  They were too gooey in the middle, again it seemed like a case of undercooked churros and so all in all it wasn't a great night at Wahaca.

It left me wondering why their restaurants are always so busy when I now know of a whole host of waaaay tastier Mexicans that London has to offer! but I guess it comes down to what's in and what's trendy.  Just like how hummingbird bakery always has a queue of people and I've never eaten a cupcake I like from there whereas there are other cupcake bakeries with far more delish offerings that never get a look in! 

Fortunately for me, two of my friends (Jo and Nat) took me to one of my very favourite places to eat when I went home last weekend.  The Waffle House is an absolute gem of a place and I have been there too many times to recall.  It was one of my families fave places to eat, my mom was always taking me and my sisters there and it became a firm favourite with my school friends too.  We even used to skip out on school to go there because it was just that tasty! They've been going for over 25 years so as long as I've been alive and with queues to get in any day of the week you know they're doing something right!

Like these...their milkshakes are some of the best you will ever have! Super thick, super creamy and super delicious! The flavours they offer are the basics: chocolate, banana or vanilla - but let me tell you it is the only place where I would be happy ordering a Vanilla shake because they are delish! but luckily for me on the day we went they had a daily special of a fresh strawberry milkshake so I picked that and it was amazing!! 

On to the waffles! You can get both sweet and savoury waffles, and on the day we went they were offering a daily special of an eton mess waffle! but sadly for us we were too full for sweet offerings! I had the daily special of their meatball waffle which was simply delicious! 

Jo went for the cheese and mushrooms and Nat got the ratatouille.  There is nothing better than catching up with your girls for a gossip, a shake and a waffle! It was a great day!