Kingly Court, Tom Tom, Borough Market, & Scotch Eggs

Posted by Andrew on Nov 5, 2016 | 0 comments

Photo of the Day: Chelsie London Tubing

Over the next few days we spent enjoying our flat and the neighboring shops and restaurants of Carnaby Street. Our flat is a one bedroom  AirBnB located on Poland Street. It is literally walking distance to hundreds of restaurants and shops, including BAO, Dishoom, Liberty of London, and everything between Oxford Circus and Piccadilly Circus Tube stations. I am not including too many photos because there is scheduled a spectacular lighting event of the streets for the holidays. Based on some of the prep work we see, it should be amazing.

Day 2 of our trip we were still acclimating to the time change and savoring our time sleeping in. London is a home away from home, so there is no urgency to visit the sights and sleeping in is part of our holiday. Yay sleep! For lunch we head over to Dishoom, it has to by one of my all time favorite restaurants. The food is so flavorful and comforting, we dove right in and forgot to take any photos. I’m sure we’ll be back many times.

Later that evening we further explored the Kingly Court, a beautiful restaurant court in between Carnaby Street and Regent Street. Apparently there is a hidden 40s style Underground pub that requires a  reservation. We’re hoping to book on evening to report back. When deciding to take a holiday this year, we were quite undecided between going back to Japan or London. Obviously we chose London, but there is something interesting and intriguing about the Japanese culture calling us back. Or maybe its the food. Lucky for us there was Shoryu, a Japanese Ramen restaurant that filled that calling. Chelsie enjoyed some amazing Yakimono Black Cod Misoyaki with some Sake, while I went no-holes barred for the traditional Kotteri Hakata Tonkotsu Ramen and Frozen Kirin. The Kirin is served at -4ºC with beer slushy on top; so cool!

Day 3, we continued our journey to places that called us back to London, specifically Tom Tom and Borough Market. Tom Tom has a special place in our heart, as our Cousin Mickey used to frequent this coffee shop when he lived here. It is in the most quaint neighborhood between (or a part of) Belgravia and Pimlico and has the best Flat White in town. We often stay a while here people watching. It’s close to Victoria Tube Station and near many of the international Embassies are so the people watching is great; from folks traveling with suitcases to diplomats driving around in fancy cars. Very entertaining.

Later that afternoon, we head to Borough Market. I grab another flat white at Monmouth Coffee to accompany us on our food tour of the Market. Its a great coffee shop by the way.  Touring the markets offerings, we find  two  stalls that we try. First a local dairy stall offering a 1/2 pints of raw milk. Chelsie and I and give it a go. Wow, it’s so rich and creamy! Watch out Happy California Cows, the Scottish cows are on point. Looking for something new to try, we find ScotchTails with freshly fried Scotch Eggs. Today’s special, traditional pork scotch egg on a bed of rocket. This is something that we missed when we went to Scotland a few years back, and I was trying to use as an excuse to head back to Scotland. Well, ScotchTails delivers! What seemed to be a small snack was actually quite filling, the thick fried pork layer around an organic soft boiled egg (or however they make them). It was everything I hoped a scotch egg would be.

We wrapped up the late afternoon splitting up. Chelsie headed for a personal massage and went back to the flat to write yesterday’s blog. For dinner we headed to Burgers & Lobster which, as you may have guessed, offers burgers and lobster. It was tasty but seemed a bit like a novelty restaurant. Chelsie’s had their Lobster Roll which was the winner plate of the evening. Concluding our evening with a night cap from the Sun & 13 Cantons Pub. Cheers!