Yes please!

If its good enough for Scarlett Johansson and Nicole Kidman surely it would be good enough for Sandra and I?

The decor of Cocoon is very funky with sumptious colours (reds, pinks, purples, creams), egg-shaped seating, padded walls, and crushed silk curtains. Tables too are not without their colour with rose petals being embedded within the glass top. With the seemingly lower ceiling and wooden floor it felt quite cosy (hence the term Coocoon) without being too closed in. The restaurant itself is long and elongated and split by a bar in the middle. Overlooking Regent Street it is actually in a perfect position and, should the restaurant feel like taking advantage, could reveal big giant windows giving sweeping views of the street below.

As we were taking advantage of a special on toptable we had to get to the restaurant rather early and as a result when we first arrived it was relatively quiet and had too much attention of the staff. However saying that I was disappointed, seeing how generally attentive the staff were, that our tap waters took over 15 minutes to arrive. More so considering the room was stifling hot when we first arrived. At least we were provided a jug of water. Before many other people arrived service was almost too attentive with our water then being topped up from our jugs almost to regularly. I was so parched that this meant the waitress came to top up every few minutes. On one occasion I beat her to the punch though she was almost insistent that I let her pour.

The food at Cocoon is Pan-Asian so offers a mix of Japanese, Chinese and Thai dishes. Our set menu was seemingly dominated by Japanese dishes with three of the starters being Japanese (sushi, sashimi, gyoza) and the mains all having elements of Japanese in them. I didn’t mind though – as anyone knows I love Japanese food. I started with the sushi roll selection which included a california roll, spicy tuna roll, and cucumber roll. My palette is not so sophisticated to recognise quality sushi ingredients but I can say that the sushi was nice without being outstanding. The dish I really loved was my fillet of beef for my main. Champagne teriyaki surrounded this charred and smoky on the outside tender on the inside dish. Though it was much rarer than I requested it was still perfect. In all honest the kai lan and fried lotus seed chips served with it actually detracted from the meat! Dessert was boring in comparison – an orange sorbet and chocolate gelati (the chocolate admittedly was divine.)

Price-wise we were taking advantage of yet another toptable deal of a 3-course set meal for £25. This seemed quite a reasonable price at the time of booking but after adding cocktails (of which there is a stunningly large variety but at £10+ a pop is way over-priced) and service and a “voluntary” donation to Action Hunger we were looking at a price-tag of £40 each. This goes to show that every little thing adds up!

We had a nice time at Cocoon. We never felt pressured to leave our table (which these days is a bonus considering the large number of restaurants which enforce a 2-hour turnaround rule.) The food ws high quality and tasty. The only drawback is the price which can definitely add up – especially when you see all the delicious offerings on the menu!

Caro and I couldn’t resist going in to the hummingbird bakery tonight even though we were already on the way to dinner at Carluccios at South Ken. I actually have a bakery just near me on Portobello Road but everytime I remember I want to go its been a Saturday and everyone knows how mad it is on Portobello Road on a Saturday. I’ve often seen lines out the door and up the street for the hummingbird bakery so have never really bothered.

We weren’t to be denied tonight thought. Bringing American baking to London the hummingbird bakery is best known for its light fluffly cupcakes and its very American pies. As it was nearing closing the South Ken bakery didn’t have much stock left to sell – I opted to try the Red Velvet Cupcake – vanilla sponge with a dash of cocoa powder, red colouring and cream cheese frosting. Mmmm …

The worst thing about the cupcake? The fact I had to sit through dinner looking at it, smelling it and just generally thinking about it! 😉 Dinner ended up being quite the filling affair tonight so its not been until just now that I could even think about eating it. Yes I know its now past midnight but I wanted to eat the cupcake whilst it was still relatively fresh. The wait was worth it – the icing was delicious and the slight cocoa flavour in the vanilla sponge was perfectly balanced. Yummy! Its probably a good thing that these lovelies are £1.85 a pop (that is, pricey) cause otherwise I think I’d be in the bakery everyday!

If you fancy a bit of America in ya – then the hummingbird bakery is the place to be.

As Timeout so rightly points out Gordon Ramsay may never step foot inside this gastropub in Chiswick but its enough that his name is on the pub sign to bring in all-comers. Seeing as how I’m set to head out into the sticks for at least the next couple of months for work I wanted my last meal at the Hammersmith office to be at The Devonshire. The gastropub is located a shortish stroll from Chiswick High Road. You walk past quite a few tempting restaurants on the way but the Ramsay name is a draw that can’t be denied.

The pub is rather large and L-shaped. The front room has two giant comfy (single) chairs and today it was cold enough to justify having a lit fireplace. By the side there are two Scrabble board games (complete with a dictionary) and some dominoes. Walking around the corner you see that down the long length of the pub is a bar and the restaurant. Not much of a comely feeling if you know what I mean but couldn’t tell if that was because the place was very quiet or the decor of the room.

When we arrived for lunch the restaurant was fairly empty – in fact it was just us and another table but we didn’t mind as we were there for the food. Service was attentive and we were given some free bread with gorgeous butter to start.

The Devonshire currently have a set menu deal of 2 courses for £13.50 or 3 for £16.50. The offering on the set menu is limited – two starters, two mains and two desserts – the trade-off I guess for the offer (starters on the a la carte seem to be about £5-£6 and mains £14-£17.) Both Jenny and Caroline went for roasted fig and stilton salad with confit duck and port vinaigrette followed by breast of chicken with caramelised endive creamed potato and rosemary jus whilst I went for something completely different to them in the butternut squash soup with amaretti biscuits and cider glazed salmon, preserved lemon cous cous and spinach.

The food seemed to come out relatively quickly though there was a bit of a lag between the collection of our starters and delivery of our mains. My soup was absolutely delicious and though I thought the squash was sweet the contrast of the the amaretti biscuits actually served to accentuate the differences in the sweetness of the two (with the biscuit obviously being extremely sweet.) I really enjoyed my salmon main which was perfectly cooked though surprisingly the spinach was a touch on the side of salty. Cous cous was delicious and melded well with the preserved lemon. I thought the portion was reasonable without being too generous though I guess some might think that pub food (gastro or not) should err on the side of large so might have something to say about the portion. All I know is that after the two courses I was quite stuffed.

The service was very friendly. Almost too friendly as our waitress must have checked up on us about ten times throughout the meal – sometimes mere seconds after we’d started into our food. Its not like the place was heaving so if we’d really wanted her attention we could have easily flagged her down.

The gastropub is a long way to hike from Central London to sample another one of Gordon’s holdings so was happy to get the chance to do it today. What would have made our experience memorable today, though, would have been an appearance by the big man himself … am I asking too much? 😉