European Hotel

We all know that the Standard of Living in London is quite high and not mentioning the hotel too. It was nearing Christmas Season and most of the hotels were either fully booked or those left overs were very expensive a night. We booked European Hotel through the portal for our 4 days stay in London.

European Hotel

Hotel is conveniently located within 3 minutes of walk near King's Cross Station. Places of interest like Bristish Museum and Library are also walkable within 15 minutes. Room is equipped with free Wi-Fi, an en suite bathroom with shower. Wifi password is generated and use base on device, thus if you have 3 devices, you may ask them to give you 3 different passwords and each of them do have a validity.

Out of the Hotel Window

There are no elevators to other room and we had to carry our luggages all the way up to the narrow wooden stairways.

Narrow Stairways

Corridors

Looking out of the Windows into the street

Room is pretty compact and was quite different from what we seen from the pictures on the hotel booking page. Since we are out most of the time during the days and keeping in mind that hotel stay is expensive in London, we have to make do of the environment. The bed is abit soft but in short decent for a few nights stay without expecting much.

Room

Environment was quite old English style and the room can only cater a small queen bed with a little study desk and TV.

Main Door and Toilet

Toilet may look cramp for some but if you only here for short stay like us, I find it relatively decent. One point to note that the ventilator / Fan in toilet may sound a little bit noisy when switched on.

Toilet

Overall, besides having a good location near St Panceas Station. Despite having the exact same breakfast daily throughout my stay, I like the attitude of their friendly stuff over the reception and breakfast counter.

Breakfast ~ Saussages, Bacon & Scrambled Eggs

Toast, Tomato Puree

My Selection of Breakfast

Another Time

European Hotel
Location: 11-15 Argyle Square, Kings Cross, London WC1H 8AS, United Kingdom

Kiosk

Another recommended food around King's Cross station would be none other than the tastiest roasted meat stacks at Kiosk, located meters away from St. Pancras International. Having passing by the station for few days, we were always either stomach full and no room for supper or forgotten all about it.

KISOK

Before waving good bye to London in our 2015 trip, we took the munch and nibble on it while waiting for our train in St. Pancras International.  As its name suggest, Kiosk is just a small place located at one corner of the station.

Menu

Menu

We ordered their salted beef reuben which was excellently prepared and nicely wrapped. Black. Salted beef came in two sizes and contains their roast salt beef, sauerkraut with Russian dressing and swiss cheese sandwiched by toasted black rye bread. Living up to its name sake, the beef was salty if you are eating that as an individual item off the bread.

Well Packaging

Salted Beef Reuben - 7.75 / 8.75

Cross Section

If you are thinking of having McDonalds / Burger Kings before taking the train, I would strongly recommend you to have a change in your breakfast / meal idea to Salt Beef Reuben at the Kiosk! It's simply worth every penny spent!

Rating: 4 / 5

Kiosk
Location: King's Cross Station, London N1C 4TB

Aux Pains de Papy

With breakfast all provided by our accommodation we thought we would never have visited Aux Pains de Papy for breakfast even though it was just within minutes of walking distance to their bakery and also around the corner of king cross station.

Aux Pains de Papy

The rustic french bakery offered traditional hand made goods. Begining from Artisan bakers from father to son since 1948. It will never go wrong having their hand made items here even its in London.

In Paper Bag

You can even smell the freshly baked bread as you walked pass the shop, authentic with friendly and efficient service.

Bakery

It was a rainy cold day and we decided to have some food to nibble along the way to some places of interest.

Interior

Crossiant had the light buttery fragrance that lingers around as we munch on those flaky exterior and revealing its beautifully folded layers. Pillow soft and yummy! Worth the pounds spent!

Croissant au beurre - £1.40 (Take Away)

Pain au chocolat tasted similar to the croissant with the difference in its size that was more compact in its shape and had chocolate filling in it.

Pain au chocolat - £1.60 (Take Away)

The area for dining in is limited and do note that you will need to pay a little bit more for dining in. If you are nearby the place, it will be a good try on their bakes.

Rating: 4 / 5

Aux pains de Papy
Location: 279 Gray's Inn Rd, London WC1X 8QF, United Kingdom

Website

Jamie's Italian

After a long walk from sight seeing with our last top at the Tower Bridge, we chanced upon Jamie's Italian and were very excited about it. Having tried Jamie's Italian in Singapore, we were rather curious the taste changes in London taking into consideration that we may not have much British Pounds left after the meal. I guess the experience to try Jamie's Italian in London had ruled over the money at that instance, after all we shared similar sentiments that Jamie was born in UK and it was a good chance that we gave it a try.

Jamie's is housed in Hilton Hotel, in the heart of London and while the weather was shivering cold at about 9 Degree Celsius coupled with rain drizzle, we hurried ourselves into the restaurant and felt the extreme gush of heat and got ourselves immediately warmed up.

Jamie's Italian

The friendly waiter greeted us and asked where we were from. Without much hesitation, we told him our country of origin and our purpose was to do a comparison of food in Singapore and London.

Interior

Menu of Jamie's Italian was more or less similar to what we have in Singapore.

Being Hungry & Cold, we ordered their artisan breads so as we can fill ourselves a little while waiting for our mains. These freshly baked breads were served on wooden board, consisting of focaccia, ciabatta, seeded crackerbread, sourdough & grissini with extra virgin olive oil, balsamic & tapenade.

Artisan Bread -    £ 3.95

Featuring one of Jamie's Favourite ~ Meatball Pappardelle on their Pasta Menu. Their Pasta were made in house daily with quality ingredients. As for meatball, they uses free range pork & fennel meatballs in a fiery 'nduja tomato sauce with breadcrumbs that smell of herbs, rocket and Parmesan cheese. Though it was mentioned by the waiter that their pasta was cooked to Al Dente, the consistency of the texture was not really even but taste was good.

Jamie's Favourite - £7.45 / £12.25

Close up on  Pappardelle

Perhaps using free-range chicken coupled with the right amount of grilling skill sums up Jamie's Favourite ~ Chicken Cacciatore on ther Mains. Chicken was perfectly done in its tenderness and paired in rich, tomato & Chianti sauce on their seasonal vegetables. Rocket, black olives, parmesan, pine nuts had elevated the dish.

Jamie's Favourite - £13.98

If you ever tried their Tiramisu in Singapore, the presentation was totally different. This classic Italian dessert with Vin Santo is definitely much more better than what we had. The soft spongy layers of Tiramisu was lavished by handful of chocolate shavings and orange zest. We were all so contented to have our meal wrapped up with such delectable dessert.

Vin Santo Tiramisu - £5.45

So what's the verdict? In my opinion, Jamie's Italian is better in its home country than in Singapore in terms of taste. Restaurant space is alot bigger of course and packed. Having said so, service was still efficient. Ambience was under a perfect dim orange lightings but the chatters around may not be suitable for some who want to enjoy quietness.

Rating: 4 / 5

Jamie's Italian (Hilton London Tower Bridge)
Location: 5 Tooley St, London SE1 2BY, United Kingdom

Dheen's Fish & Chips

Having Fish & Chips in London is a must and it was already our 3rd day in London and we had yet to try any. Thus after our sightseeing at museums and Trafalgar square, we search nearby looking for some recommended English Fish & Chips called "London's Fish & Chips" but ended up in Dheen's. Apparently London's Fish & Chips was replaced by Dheen's.

Dheen's is a small yet welcoming place located in the bustling Bedford Street situated in the heart of Covent Garden next to the Strand.

Dheen's Fish & Chips

The 2 storey high restaurant pride themselves as the providing traditional Fish & Chips experience using quality fresh ingredients, all prepared to order. Besides Fish & Chips, they served an array of seafood that includes prawns and calamari.

Ordering Counter

 There are limited seating at the 1st level with the ordering counter and more seats are available at the upper level.

Upper Level

Environment is pleasant and lively with friendly customers service.

Dining Environment

We went ahead for haddock fish instead of cod fish. Food was served right to our table and the portion was good enough for 2 standard Asian size stomach. With the flaky and tender flesh beneath the golden perfect batter, the first was both crispy and comforting, simply irresistible.

Haddock & Chips - £11

While most additional sauce in European countries require payment, Dheen's tartar sauce was free flow. With lemon juice and tartar sauce, it gave a perfect marriage to the crispy platter without overpowering its taste.

 Haddock & Chips - £11

Though Dheen's may not be the top 10 must eat Fish & Chips in London for tourist, I find their food rather reasonable at its pricing and one thing for sure, they are definitely not a tourist trap.

Rating: 3.25 / 5

Dheen's Fish & Chips
Location: 46 Bedford St, London WC2E 9HA, United Kingdom
Website

Burger & Lobster

Serving just Burger & Lobster as suggested by its business name is may be very straight forward but this simple formula has been a hit in London where you can see people queuing around even though the weather was cold. It was such popular that even our local Dee Jays mentioned that it was one of the stop to visit when you are in London.

Burger & Lobster - London, Mayfair

We visited Burger & Lobster quite early and were readily prepared to wait in the cold after hearing so much raves online about them. Luckily, we were the first few on queue and there was space in the waiting area where we get some warmth from the heater while waiting for customers to finished their meal from the jammed pack eating place.

Interior

The environment was fun and lively with friendly servers around. They will take your name down in the queue and call for you when your table is ready. Not only that, their service is quick and prompt.

Recommendations

Concept is rather simple with only 3 items on the food menu, either burgers, lobster or lobster roll.

Dining Bib

Condiments and Wipes

The whole lobster weighed 1.5lb served with the moreish chips and salad. It can be served steamed, grilled or both. We are not talking about skinny meatless lobster here and instead they were all fresh, plump and juicy, welled cook, totally worth the wait. They are best eaten with the given lemon and butter garlic sauce.

1 Lobster - 20 GBP

Lobster

Half side of a lobster

With all mains served with chips and salad, the lobster roll dish made no difference except for the this starring toasted brioche bun that cradled he cool lobster that was dressed lightly in Japanese mayonnaise and served warm.

1 Lobster Roll - 20 GBP

Zooming Into the Roll

Washing down the dinner, we shared over a glass of beer, Asahi and also 2 cups of tap water (Free of Charge). In case you were thinking why Japanese Beer in Europe, I guess the man who has ordered has just touched down missing Asia already. :)

1 Asahi - 3.80 GBP

Tap Water - FOC

In fact in the area of Mayfair and London's living standard, it is unlikely to have seen such a well-priced meal. You would probably get half a lobster or not even half at such a rate that we are paying. Burger & Lobster takes no reservations, just walk in and enjoy the atmosphere. Do note that there are a number of BUrger & Lobster at parts of London too.

Rating: 3.5 / 5

Burger & Lobster
Location: 29 Clarges Street Mayfair, London W1J 7EF
Operating Hours: Mon - Sat 12pm - 10.30pm
                              Sun 12pm - 5.30pm
Nearest Station: Green Park

Website