Lunch at The Natural Kitchen, Trinity Square London - a review

One of the really nice things about my job is that at least a couple of days a week, I'm field based which means that not only do I get to meet our clients face to face but it opens up a whole wealth of opportunities for food that I don't normally get when I'm in the office.

Last week, I was near Tower Bridge for a meeting and so nipped into The Natural Kitchen on Pepys Street for some lunch - its part of the Doubletree Hotel.  Irrelevant to this particular post is my love for Doubletree cookies.  They might actually be my favourite food in the whole world.  

Anyway, I digress.

There are three locations of The Natural Kitchen in London, the other two being just off Fetter Lane and on Marylebone High Street.  All three have both a restaurant where you can sit down and eat and a deli which is perfect for those who want to pop in and grab something delicious (and healthy!) to go back to the office.

From http://www.thenaturalkitchen.com:

We are passionate about serving great tasting food, which means we always use the best ingredients we can find. Seasonal wherever possible, organic when needs be. Free range? Always. And wherever possible locally sourced from farmers who share our commitment to quality over quantity. 

Sounds good, doesn't it?

Well it was!

The restaurant itself has a very relaxed, rustic decor with a duck motif - everywhere you look, you'll spot a very cute little silhouette of a duck.  See?

Excuse the shoulder..someone didn't duck quite enough.  Geddit?  Duck?  

And here he is again...

As for the food, it was delicious.  In such healthy surroundings my colleague went with one of the Big Salads (Seinfeld fans will understand my amusement at this) which he enjoyed very much:

Seared line-caught Tuna steak with bean sprouts, mixed leaves, new potatoes, green beans, sun-blush tomatoes and black olives

 

I, on the other hand, showing my total inability to choose something healthy on a menu, went with the Croque Monsieur.  Because quite frankly, a sandwich with Bechamel sauce is too delicious to pass up -this one certainly lived up to expectations.

What can I say.  Ham.  Cheese.  Bread.  Bechamel.  Chips.  Oh and a bit of salad, which was nice for crunch.

I have a very sweet tooth, but I'm lucky to eat out quite often and so if I ordered dessert every time I did I'd be the size of a house.  However, I was unable to resist the Strawberry and Rhubarb cake from the specials menu, which came with its own dinky little pot of double cream for dipping (or pouring!):

I counted this as two of my five a day.  Rhubarb AND strawberries.  Totally counts.

Its was pretty amazing.  Not overly sweet and I love, love, love rhubarb.  It's not on menus often enough.

The food itself aside, the service was great; the staff were all very friendly and our order came out very quickly which is always good.  

As a nice final touch, they brought the bill to us like this...

...just tucked into a normal hardback book.  They had all sorts of different ones and I think it was a great little quirk. 

All in all, I'd definitely recommend The Natural Kitchen if you're in Central London and looking for a relaxing, delicious lunch.

Have you been to The Natural Kitchen?  Are there any other restaurants you think I absolutely must visit when I'm in London - if there are, leave me a comment and let me know!

Ciao for now!

Bx

A little disclaimer:  My colleague paid for lunch and we received no compensation/remuneration in any way for this review.  It was just delicious and I wanted to share.  And come on.. how cute is that duck?

Mani of the Moment (MOTM) May 2013 - Nude and Teal

As you probably saw it peeking in the background on my Philosophy Living Grace photos, I thought I'd share my mani of the moment.  These colours are gels but for once I'm actually able to quote dupes of them!  

I've been having gels applied to my nails for over ten years now. My nails are naturally very week and I'm quite heavy handed and so the gels give me some much needed reinforcement.  Until very recently, I almost always had a French manicure. It matched everything and I like that look (I know a lot of people don't). In a fit ofJust before Christmas I started to have colour and since then I hadn't really looked back.  


My typical mani of late has been s a solid colour with a glitter accent on either my ring finger or thumb and ring finger.  I like a bit of sparkle and I was just bored with the french.   Going in to my most recent appointment I had actually thought about having a French manicure again. That was until I saw my nail tech's nails.  As soon as I did, I knew I had to have the same, which was this...

Pretty, right?  Except my cuticles, which I must admit I have neglected lately.  

Now, I know that the whole accent thing makes some people's OCD go crazy, I get that.  Not only does that one nail not match, but it isn't even positioned in a logical place for a different colour to be. I also know that this is much more of a contrast nail than an accent but I love it.  The nude is just a standard nude gel and the green/blue was loose glitter sprinkled over clear gel, then topped with more clear to seal it.  

I realised that its definitely dupable with polish - the nude is a dead ringer for Nails Inc Porchester Square and Barry M Aqua Glitter is a good match for the glitter accent as you can see from the pictures above.

What's your take on accent nails? Do you like 'em or do they make your OCD-ometer go off the chart?

Ciao for now!

Bx

Smelling Graceful? Philosophy Living Grace Perfume Review

I'm notoriously fussy with perfume.

I don't mean fussy as in "only the best of the best, custom blend will do".  I really mean "I hardly ever find anything I like".   I don't really like floral scents, I don't go a lot on musk, I can't say as I like the orientals.  I like sweet scents, foodie scents and clean scents.

I'm quite a fan of Philosophy products (in particular their 3 in 1 Bath and Shower gels which all smell delish!) and so I'm always hopeful that I'll find a fragrance in their Grace range that I like.

Their flagship fragrance, Amazing Grace, isn't one I'm immediately drawn to but on a recent trip to Selfridges I tried out Living Grace, one of their newer fragrances and it was love at first sniff.

Philosophy say..

living grace spray fragrance was formulated to help center a woman's mood, is deeply sensuous, multi-sensory and truly a heavenly inspiration. living grace is an ethereal, clean fragrance of fresh neroli to create uplifting feelings of vibrancy, soft, clean lily of the valley brings a sense of gratitude and sensuous, warm musk embraces you to the beauty of living in the present moment each day. 

See that?  Lily of the Valley.  Neroli.  Musk.  All things I thought I didn't like.  Turns out that actually, combined these scents create a lovely, light and clean fragrance which is perfect for every day wear - especially in the summer when heavier fragrances can make you feel a bit bleurgh.  This scent isn't cloying or "too" anything.  It's slight soapy, a bit reminiscent of fresh laundry and so those of you who like Yankee Candles Clean Cotton or Fluffy Towels fragrances have a good chance of really liking this.

A while back I remember seeing someone from Philosophy on QVC say that they make 6 inch fragrances not 6 foot fragrances i.e. they want people to smell it when they are close to you, not from a mile off and that is exactly how this is.  It isn't overpowering, its just subtle and soothing.  I find these sort of smells very comforting and so I know that this will be a regular in my collection from now on.

Living Grace comes in a 3 in 1 Bath/Shower Gel and a Firming Body Emulsion which are definitely on my want list!

I bought mine from Selfridges on Oxford Street and it was £32.00 for the 60ml bottle which I think is pretty reasonable.  It's also available from philosophyskincare.co.uk, QVCUK.com and most department stores.

Have you tried any of the Philosophy fragrances?  Whats your favourite scent for summer?  Am I missing out on anything amazing?  Let me know in the comments.

Ciao for Now!

Bx

Starting Over with the Blog / I'm on Keek

The first few posts in a new blog always seems to be really painful to write.  How do you even start something like this?  I've started and stopped a few blogs in my time and the strange thing is it never gets any easier.

I'm finally at a point that I'm happy with my layout here at lifebybeth.com and so I'm going to have another go at regularly blogging.  I'll be covering a mixture of subjects, really anything in my life:  there will definitely be beauty and food, there might be some fashion and media thrown in and there will probably be some journal style entries as well.  If we're labeling then I guess it's a lifestyle blog.

Another thing I wanted to mention is that  I'm on Keek.  Presently I can't find a logo for it to match the ones for the other social media links you can see on the right of the page and so it gets a post all of its own.

A few people have asked what Keek is all about.  Think Vine but longer, Twitter but in video format.  You can record and upload 36 second clips of video.  I'm enjoying it so far, though it is all a little rambly.  You can hop on over to http://www.keek.com/lifebybeth and subscribe if you're interested, but you do need a login to access the site.  Its free and you aren't forced to upload so if you're camera shy, don't worry.

I'll be posting more in the coming days, I really just wanted to get something written up and posted.  Getting the ball rolling, as it were.

Ciao for now...

Bx

Bloglovin

Well, it seems like Google have gone and lost their minds and are ditching Google Reader.

I love Google Reader.  As a long time user, I can't imagine not having it.

Still.  There's Bloglovin.  So you can follow me there if you like....

Follow my blog with Bloglovin