Afternoon tea between showers

Friday was a very wet day, but between showers l decided to investigate Maison Bertaux on Greek Street East.  It is a very distinctive cafe/bakery with blue and white striped awnings and lots of small pavement tables made rickety by long spindly legs.  Not knowing whether it was waitress or self service I hovered around the doorway until I was invited in by a friendly blonde haired woman who told me that the menu was visual i.e. look, see what you fancy and order.  The window was full of lots of beautiful cakes, tarts, and pastries and I plumped for a slice of a apple pie with a crumble topping and a pot of tea.  Its a very quirky place with two rooms, a larger one with large arrangements of garden flowers, Aztec art and huge swags of bright pink chiffon draped around the walls. I took my place in the sun and soon tea was served in functional white china but with an individual tea pot, jug of hot water and huge strainer.  The pie was absolutely delicious with sweet plump raisins in it.  A very pleasant, but not cheap experience (£6.40) and definitely one for girls with a sweet tooth. 

Time for a stock take . . .

I decided that as it's just been two months since I started my challenge, it was time for a stock take to see if there had been any changes since my lists were compiled.  Actually what I mean is, have any closed down and not re-opened so that I could claim some quick wins.  Now I know some of you will think this is cheating, but if it's not there, it's going to be claimed as a hit.

Cafe Italia (listed from Street Sensation) is not sandwiched (or perhaps it should be paninied?) between Little Italy at 21 Frith Street and Bar Italia at number 22.

Stanza on Greek Street West has now been turned into the Fox Poker Club (opening shortly).

The enticingly named Tangier Wine Bar on Greet Street East is, contrary to Street Sensation, part of Maison Toureg which I have already visited.

Kaffee Automat and Pendulum Bar which should have been next door to each other on Frith Street West no longer exist. 

Clutching at straws, but the address of Ba Shan is technically 24 Romilly Street, so that's crossed off.

Then there are the ones which may not be quite appropriate. 

Although Moonlighting Eclipse www.moonlightingnightclub.co.uk/ does still exist on Greek Street East, I'm afraid it only opens after I've gone to bed and so I definitely won't be going.  However, if I start work early enough it will probably still be open then. 

The same can be said for Club 49 Soho www.club49soho.com/ on the opposite side of Greek Street, Ku Bar www.ku-bar.co.uk/#/bar/frith and Karaoke Box www.karaokebox.co.uk/soho/whatson/ both on Frith Street East.

However, just so you don't think I've completely given up, I'll tell you about lunch time and Moolis http://www.moolis.com/ on Frith Street West.  It's really unusual with wholemeal rotis stuffed with either a meat of vegetarian filling.  I plumped for a small Goan Pork mooli with pomegranate salsa.  It was easy to eat, not too large, very spicy and good value at £3.  There was also plenty of seats if you wanted to eat inside.  They also have a license if you'd like a drink with your roti.  Will definitely return as it makes a change from sandwiches and paninis.

Stylish and elegant Love Birds

This has been a lean but delightful week with only one visit, but it was rather a special one. RM and I met up with the Mr and Miss Love Bird to celebrate Miss Love Bird's well deserved promotion. Unfortunately I have now run out of new bars and so we met at The Crown and Two Chairmen (Dean Street East) which wasn't one of my favourites when I visited previously, but I arranged it in a rush and got confused.com!  Anyway the good news is that it was right next door to 'elegant and stylish' Quo Vardis http://www.quovadissoho.co.uk/ and we felt it was time to be upmarket because as well as celebrating a promotion, Mr Love Bird had just being made a school governor, RM is hoping to become a pensioner and as for me, well I was looking forward to a makeover the following day for the Christmas edition of the Boots Health and Beauty Magazine (order your Boots Advantage cards now and then you won't have to pay a £1 to see me!).  We started as befits any celebration, with a bottle of champers and then all had something different to start with: squid, sand eels, steak tartar and a scotch egg (albeit an upmarket one).  Mains were very meaty: pork belly, neck of lamb and beef ribs which were huge slabs of beautifully cooked meat.  We were too full for dessert, but three of us were able to manage a snifter of port. And with that, the love birds flew off into the night to dream of becoming Mr and Mrs Love Bird.

PS: I did hear from two independent sources, that Miss Love Bird had a slightly bad head the next day.     

PPS: Lots of offers flooding in volunteering to test out Sunset Strip with RM!