Great Big Kiss, 7th January

When I started my Meetup many moons ago, the very first night we went to was a 60s indiepop, northern soul night called How Does it Feel to be Loved at The Phoenix. I had never heard of it before but it was a rollicking good time and I decided I wanted to try its sister night Great Big Kiss where the focus was a little more on girl groups. Almost four years later and I crossed that off my List.

It was also held at The Phoenix which is a venue I have since come to know very well. It was a cold, rainy January night, and even though the turnout from my Meetup was actually about the same as normal, I think the number of people who would normally have come to the party was under par. We went downstairs at about 10 and it was pretty empty. It wasn’t much busier by 11 and had it not been for my Meetup group the dance floor would have been all but empty. But we’re an enthusiastic bunch and we got to dancing almost straight away. The music was a lot more authentic than I had anticipated. That's another way of saying none of us knew any of the songs. I had expected at least a few we would be able to sing along to. It was also a lot slower in tempo than we felt was ideal. More swaying than foot stomping. We suspected it might get a bit livelier come midnight, and it seemed to – a bit  - but still no songs we recognised. However, patience was key and within half an hour we were singing along to Beggin’ and Louie Louie. The night I would say had mostly focused on Northern Soul and much less on the Motown and indie it also advertised. For passing fans of the genre it was a long time to wait for the ‘good stuff’, but if you’re genuinely into this kind of music then you will love it.

You could easily tell the ‘fair weather' fans from the serious followers as they had the genuine dance moves down pat and were very much dressed the part. We weren’t. I had a fun night for sure and danced for a good couple of hours but I would probably not return to this night and go to Soul of the 60s or All shook Up instead.

Cocktail Trading Co, 13th June

From the cocktails I tried I would say some of the drinks here are more style over substance. But when the style is this fun, who really cares?

I was already very familiar with this space when it was but the '&Co' part of Central and Co - it was my and my best friend's go-to cocktail joint that we always seemed to get a seat at. The Cocktail Trading Co has got a lot of publicity lately but it also doesn't really make a song and dance about it when it comes to any signage which might explain why I managed to get a seat as soon as I turned up after work.

I already knew I liked the space and it's just as cosy as before, but this time you get monkey nuts to snack on. The staff are just as friendly and attentive, even though it's busier than it ever was when I went previously.

Reading through the cocktail menu is where the fun begins. Not only do they have great names like Tu-Whit-Tu-Whoo-Woo but the descriptions are actually instructions - telling you how to make them and including helpful advice such as 'shake like a dog in heat' or 'shake it up like a revolution'.

They have the more 'normal' cocktails towards the front - margaritas and even mojitos. On my first visit my friend had a 'Delicious Sour' made with calvados and peach wine which was indeed delicious and also very pretty.

I had the aforementioned Tu-Whit-Tu-Whoo-Woo which was a Frankenstein version of a woo woo. Vodka, sage, peach and cranberry syrup and topped up with prosecco. And packed full of ice, so that the flavours were a little muted. I loved the owl it came in and the candy floss it was adorned with, even if the other things festooned on the top got stuck in it.

On my second visit I finally chose a Scout's Honour which was served in a tin cup and came with a ration tin wedged on top and some toasted marshmallows to complement the smoked marshmallow syrup. (Marshmallows are really only any good when set alight to some degree.) Again, I loved the presentation and the tin actually opened to reveal some sweets and a party popper! (Duly popped). But the drink itself didn't do much for me - it took quite a while before I could discern the mallow sweet flavouring over the tequila.

My companion had the Urn-Aged Corpse Reviver No.2 which, for one of their fanciful cocktails, was the least wackily presented. The cocktail rested atop a plot of grass/hay and with a little hand beside it (I think it was meant to be poking out of the ground). But it did taste nice, even if it was only half full. I didn't even mind the absinthe afternotes.

And then I found myself there on a third occasion where we blitzed through even more of the ker-azy cocktails. Again, they were immense fun to order and drink from (squirting cockails into your mouth from a condiment container is always good for a laugh) but they weren't as memorable from a taste point of view.

So, I still really like the bar, and would happily share the experience with someone who hadn't been before, though I might stick to the more 'serious' ones which are a bit fuller on flavour. 

Smack Deli/Novelty Automation, 28th February

You’ve got to hand it to the people behind Burger & lobster – they like crustaceans and they want you to be able to have them in some form no matter your budget. They went uber high-end with Beast and now they’ve gone the other way with Smack Deli where you can pop in for a lobster roll for £8. Add some courgette fries to that and you won’t top £12 (compare to their £20 for lobster roll and chips and you see how reasonable this is). It’s also really tasty. They have four different types of rolls but Stephen and I had the same so I can only tell you about one. It’s the one I’d heard the most about – the Seven Samurai. The delicate Asian flavours work really well with the fragile lobster taste. The roll is more like a big slab of sweet bread folded in half, almost challah-like rather than the standard brioche bun. I seemed to have far more lobster than Stephen so amounts may vary – you do need a generous portion to compete with all that bread, lovely though it was.

The courgette fries are worth a trip as well. Crunchy, and addictive. I would have appreciated some sort of sauce or dip to go with them but the courgette was juicy enough on its own for that not to be a dealbreaker. I’ll definitely pop in here again when I want a quick bite to eat and I’m in the Oxford Circus area. Lip-‘smackin’ good!

Extra brownie points for the pour your own beer tap! 

Novelty Automation

After this we strolled round to Holborn to check out the new Novelty Automation gallery from Tim Hunkin. It’s free to get in but if you want to operate one of them yourself it’s £1-£3 depending on the complexity of the machine. The kids there absolutely loved them but they’re amusing enough even for child-free adults, with quite a lot of them being darker in tone or humour than you might suspect. Stephen strapped himself into his own private, instant eclipse (probably better than the real one the other day) and I got felt up on the Autofrisk. We watched someone else brave the rabid dog in Test your Nerve, and chuckled dryly at the machine that offered you a holiday without all the nuisance of travelling, too much sun and annoying fellow tourists.

Well worth popping by for a few giggles but you probably wouldn't spend more than an hour there if that. 

Ceru, 12th February

Levantine cuisine’s star is rising and I couldn’t be more pleased. After memorable meals at The Palomar and Honey & Co, I was keen to complete what I termed the trifecta and go to Arabica. And then yet another place came on the scene in the form of Ceru, a tiny restaurant offering a more affordable Levantine dining experience.

A group of us bloggers had a foodie outing kindly organized by Sheepa of Food That Makes You Smile and Snita of Her Favourite Food and we went for a mini feast for the special offer of £20 a head. To start we could choose a fresh juice or mocktail. Almost everyone chose the Patricia for some reason (the namesake of the owner) which was a mixture of pear puree, apple juice, vanilla, cinnamon and cloves (actually reading that is there any surprise we all wanted it?) but the Percy  - pomegranate, soda, ginger ale and fresh lime also looked very nice.

Once everyone arrived we were seated and our dips and breads to share came out. We had four kinds – hummus anointed with chickpeas, green shilli and lemon; pancar which was roast beetroot, garlic and pistachio; fadi – a courgette puree with tahini, garlic and lemon and then a spicy roast pepper dip made with chilli, walnuts and pomegranate molasses. We had warm pitta with za’atar to scoop it up. I could have dived right into a whole pot of all of them but my two favourites were the garlicky fadi and the warming spiced chilli dips. When the bread ran out we kept the rest of the dips aside to eat with our mains.

Choosing what to have put us all in a quandary but the lamb shoulder cooked with shawarma aromatic spices eventually beckoned. This came as strips of fatty, crispy lamb all well seasoned and spiced and adorned with pomegranate seeds. While I love the taste of pomegranate, I don’t love the fruit itself so tried to avoid them spoiling the lovely lamb. To accompany this we had fried cubed potatoes and a very fresh, light butter bean and tomato salad with, I think, some lemon and herbs.

This part was surprisingly filling and I could have happily stopped there. However, dessert was included so I didn’t. Quite a few of us ordered the baklava ice cream. Ceru seem fond of taking a well-known dish or ingredient and Anglicising it for their desserts. So the baklava didn’t have any baklava but instead had all the components of it – nut brittle, honey sauce, and scoops of pistachio ice cream. It was very lovely to eat, though I think they could get away with a smaller serving! There was a lot of ice cream.

The place is run by husband and wife team Patricia and Barry and even without knowing you can tell they’re a couple from their closeness and the speed at which Barry could get on his wife’s nerves! They made for very friendly and amiable hosts, making it feel a bit like you were round their place being treated to dinner.

And what is really great about this little pop-up (permanent place coming soon) is that the prices are so reasonable you don’t have to wait for a special occasion to come here – it’s very much a casual, drop in when you fancy (if there’s space!) kinda place. Even without our bargain set menu, the lamb dish is only £9 and that is the most expensive plate on the menu!

Liars League, 10th February

Liars League is a storytelling night with class and one that recognizes the perhaps awkward truth that just because you can write a kick-ass story, doesn’t mean you’re any good at reading it aloud. So Liars League teams good story writers with good story tellers to create a night of tales that is top notch. Each performer is a genuine actor, turning each short piece of fiction into almost a one-person play. Accents are adopted, actions are played out, and you are completely sucked into the narrative.

Liars League is a monthly event at The Phoenix on Tuesdays (The Phoenix fast becoming a place my Meetup group goes to regularly) and each event has a theme. Writers are invited to send in their submissions and then these are vetted by the ‘Liars’ who run the league to pick the cream of the crop and the ones that will work best for the event. They have to bear in mind that someone actually has to read these stories aloud and make them believable. So, for an example of one that didn’t make the grade – someone had written a story all about a person who could do all these amazing impressions. But that would mean the actor needed to be able to do all these impressions so regardless of how good the plot was, it wouldn’t work in Liars League. Once they have the stories, they need to match them to the actors. Any accents that feature prove a strong point to consider – they had to draft someone in especially for one of the stories we saw as they realized they didn’t have anyone who could do a Scottish accent. But more than that they just seemed to match the personas of the stories to the performers incredibly well so that you couldn’t imagine any of the other performers there doing any other story.

They have six pieces per night and an interval after the first three, plus plenty of time to chat and hang around after (when I got to talking to the compere for the night, Liam, who is a writer himself. Never a storyteller apparently although he does a bang-up job of hosting in an amusingly arch manner).

For this event we had the theme The Beautiful and the Damned (it was close to Valentine’s Day) and so we had a range of love-themed stories with many a non-happy ending. First, Selkie, the eerie tale of the disappearance of a man and his entire family – had he married a silkie and they’d all been taken out to sea?

Next we had a unique and unsettling story of this poor sap who had a tendency to fall and fall hard for people who didn't return his feelings. His tendency to pour out his emotions in poetry lead to his exploitation to create renewable energy. There's nothing like the pent-up energy of unrequited love to create a source of power!

We also had the hilarious story of Ger Sheen and the Satanists involving a literal motherf*cker and a bunch of satanists terrorising a poor sheep farmer. There was the sweet love story Gerald the Absolute Swine who finally meets his match. The rather sad Lag, about a prisoner on day release to attend a uni reunion, seeing the now-married ex he still has feelings for. And even a wizard story on the origins of Guinevere's beauty. You can watch the performances of the stories, or just read them yourself here.

And just to keep it even more interesting, at the end of the break there is a short, literary quiz. With books for prizes of course! This time they were giving out tacky YA romance novels in the main although one ‘real’ book was also a prize. This was much more informal than I expected – if you knew the answer you just had to shout out as soon as you knew it, as they read out clues to the title. So even though I figured out a couple I wasn’t brazen enough to pipe up. 

Riding House Cafe, 23rd August

I can’t remember where I read such good things about the brunch at the Riding House Café that I put it on my list, but I kind of wish I hadn’t bothered.

Not that it isn’t a nice set of surroundings to eat in with its rustic/deco furnishings. Considering we just about made it in, and had to sit at the bar, plenty of people clearly really like it. But I was underwhelmed. Both Alison and I ordered the lobster benedict, which sounded gloriously indulgent. Instead, on two dry, unbuttered muffins were a few flaky, dryish bits of lobster, two smallish poached eggs and some hollandaise. I don’t often say this about lobster but – ‘meh’. It was alright. Not the decadence that you expect when you order lobster. And not cheap either, two eggs were £16!! I had also ordered some mashed potatoes with olive oil. Tasty enough but strangely dry considering the amount of oil it arrived in. 

Alison’s chicory salad was nice and fresh though, and I really enjoyed my bloody mary. Alison had a Prosecco which doesn’t require much remarking upon except to say that our bartender forgot to bring it to her and we had to remind him.

I fear we have been spoiled for brunch places of late with the likes of 100 Hoxton, L'entrepot, the Ginger Pig and Caravan, all of which I'd return to in a heartbeat.

Hip Hop Karaoke, 21st August

Oh my word, I had such a fun time at Hip Hop Karaoke at the Social!

It is what it sounds like. Karaoke, but all the song choices are rap songs. All of them. They've got loads to choose from, and if they don't have your jam, you can request it in advance. They have crowdpleasers like Jump Around and Baby Got Back to Biggie and 2Pac and they're all online with difficulty ratings so you can get an idea for what you want to do (and practise!) before you go if you want. 

The MC is pretty fly for a white guy – he’s a mix of hip hop/ironic nerd and drops the MF bomb like it’s going out of style. He doesn’t partake of the karaoke himself, but is there to make the evening even more entertaining and ensure that everyone gets at least one cheer during their set, even if they’re failing miserably.

For that’s one of the great things about it. Yeah, there are definitely people who go every week, who don’t even need the words and who are mini rapper superstars in the making. But there were also plenty of people who’d never been before, and plenty of people who were just rubbish.

It’s actually trickier than normal karaoke, even with the easiest songs because all you have is a piece of paper with the words on it and then the DJ drops the background track. It’s up to you to figure out when to come in, and if you lose your place it can be pretty hard to catch yourself up again. But the crowd is really supportive, and most of them will know all the words better than you do if you’re not feeling that confident so can kind of keep it going until you get back into it. Having said that, there were at least two performers that just couldn’t even get through half of it, and a couple more that did finish, but I don’t think you could call what they were doing throughout the song ‘rapping’.

But that makes it funny and that’s why it’s so popular. It is on every week and every week it reaches capacity. We got there at 7 and already most of the good tables had gone. By 9 there was a queue outside and some of my friends couldn’t even get in. If you are thinking about doing a song – sign up early. The karaoke doesn’t start until 9 which gives you plenty of time to drink enough to muster up some courage. But if you wait until you’ve got enough alcohol in your system to sign up, you’ll find that they’ll run out of time before they get to you. Sign up early, and then just trust that you’ll be pissed enough to get on stage. I think I signed up to do my song at about 7:30 and I didn’t get to do it until just after the interval at gone 10pm!

So, they have one interval, and before and after they play top notch RnB and hip hop tunes. If you like nights like Supa Dupa Fly or Juicy, but maybe crave a bit more interaction with your dancing, then this night is for you. Hell, if you love this kind of music this night is for you. Or if you just like watching people make fools of themselves in a friendly place, this is for you. Loved it! One of the best weeknight activities out there.

Heavy Load, 25th January

When I started my Meetup group our first meetup was to The Phoenix near Oxford Circus for the night How Does it Feel to be Loved - an indiepop night that was a hell of a lot of fun. 

Almost two years later and I was back again, this time for Heavy Load - a night dedicated to the classic rock songs of yesteryear, though with a little bit of diversity thrown in. I'm not really a 'rock' chick - I mean, I like Queens of the Stone Age and Silverchair but have never really got into the rock bands of yore that lead the way, like Led Zeppelin or Lynyrd Skynryd. Not that I don't like them when I hear them, but I've never sought them out or owned one of their records. But I'd put it on my List because it was something that was a bit different, and it turns out one of my friends was a long-time fan of 'The Load'. He let me know he was going with a couple of mates and I decided to tag along.

On this particular Saturday night they were focusing on the year 1974 which meant an hour and a half of classic anthems from that year, followed by normal Heavy Load music policy, with an emphasis on songs from that year, followed by a Top 10 Heavy Load songs of 1974 played at midnight. I'm sure this happened but by this point I was too pissed to notice.  

I walked in and it felt like a completely different place to the Phoenix basement bar I remembered. Incense was wafting around the room and the ceiling and walls were glowing with rainbow-coloured lights in different shapes and sizes. All very groovy and psychedelic. There was a lot of hair - both as beards and long straggly tresses -  and there were definitely a few people who looked like regulars and who probably knew all the music from the first time around.

The music, for the most part, was great! I had a wicked time there. It wasn't ALL just classic rock - I distinctly remember a bit of Stevie Wonder (Superstitious) among the Stones (Gimme Shelter) and Queen (Don't Stop Me Now).  I remember them playing The Doors (Alabama Song) and The Beatles Live and Let Die. I rocked and I moshed and I even did some headbanging. If 60s and 70s rock and roll is your bag then this night is definitely for you as that was definitely the majority of the music played. For me - well, it was fun while it lasted but it probably won't go into my regular rotation of weekend nights out. 

MEATliquor, 22nd February

You might say I'm a bit late to the party when it comes to MEATliquor. I would agree. I'd say I was so late that I'm arriving the next day, in fine fettle, annoying everyone who is nursing a hangover.

In my defense, I did get to MEATeasy when they were in residence at that pub in New Cross, so I didn't feel the urge to rush here. You probably also know by now that I am not keen on having to queue to get into places and that put me off as well. But with the arrival of a third in the rapidly expanding MEAT chain, we felt that the queues should surely have worn off at the original premises by now.

We went early just in case.

And there was a bit of a queue but nothing too traumatic. And I am glad. Because if I had queued for it, I would have been less impressed than I was. And I was not overly impressed.

We already knew the burgers were good from having gone to Meateasy. Consensus after that visit was that the burgers were good but the rest was decidedly average. I don't even eat burgers so it wasn't such a great trip for me. I wanted to give them a second chance.

Clearly we were there for a junk-food fest but I didn't expect the food to be quite so greasy and heavy. Granted, our choices weren't particularly health conscious. Stephen had the cheese and bacon burger, I got the philly cheesesteak. Stephen had some chilli fries (which came with melted cheese and jalapenos) and I had both onion rings and deep fried pickles.

Our grease feast

In a way, those two sides were a mistake and ordering both entirely unnecessary. But in the interests of journalism, I did want to try as much as possible.

Stephen still liked his burger and said he would come back for it, but when pressed, admitted that he preferred the ones at Honest Burger. He'd really only said he'd come back here because he hadn't remembered Honest Burgers had opened a place in Soho.

I liked my cheesesteak and I know that there aren't many places over here (in the grand scheme of things) doing this kind of food and doing it well. But I couldn't help but be a little underwhelmed when I thought of how, really, this is just the kind of stuff any 'dive bar' worth its salt can churn out in the States. The steak was alright, the peppers and onions tasty, the bread nice and chewy. Some jalapenos in it would have really topped it off to make it excellent.

I loved the fried pickles. I thought they might come as 'chips' rather than 'strips' and they had not been shy about coating them in their batter. Tempura-style, these were not. The batter was almost overwhelming the taste of the pickle, but it just about managed to come through. The blue cheese dip was also great - nice and tangy.

I much preferred the pickles to the onion rings, which had undergone the same heavy-handed batter treatment but didn't have enough oniony flavour peeking out. And look at them! They're mountainous! Too big really.

I didn't have many of the fries but Stephen wasn't singing their praises. 

As I said, we didn't queue for long but that's only the first stage as you get ushered to the bar when you go in. I liked the bar area - a long metallic slab which made me feel I really could be in a bar in Brooklyn. The rest of the restaurant did not conform to my expectations at all. I had imagined that they had basically lifted their pub residency and transplanted it behind Debenham's. The rough and ready style of that venue suited the food. This place was a lot more ROCK. Like they'd arrived, and they knew it. It was dark, and much bigger than I thought it would be, and if I'm honest, I didn't like it that much. In all the reviews of Bone Daddies they mention the too-loud music, but this place was by far a much guiltier perpetrator of that than Daddies. It was a bit much.

The staff were friendly though, and I liked the cocktail list. I had a Pinot Grincho in the end - a fruity/appley cocktail with apple liqueur and topped off with pinot grigio, everyone's go-to wine of choice. Very refreshing. And it was garnished with a candy cane, which is always a bonus.

If this place was a little more under the radar, the kind of place you could just pop in to like any normal diner in the States, I'd say I'd be back. But it's too hyped for what it is - if I ever had to queue, well, basically, I wouldn't.






Find the menu & restaurant information on Zomato