Dine at a UK Masterchef restaurant + Visit all good coffee shops in London

Ok so this is another food post!

Since returning from a trip home in February I have become obsessed with finding good coffee in London because in my opinion the coffee here sucks. There is not really a café culture here like there is in Sydney. London has a love of high street franchise coffee houses and you would really struggle to go to any suburb in London and not find a Starbucks/Costa/Nero which in my opinion is very boring and commercial.

I was delighted when my favourite cultural magazine Timeout London recently ran a feature on the best cafes for good coffee in London (and some amazing treats let me tell you!). I am an avid fan of Timeout London. Being a foreigner this is a fantastic title to give you ideas of things to do, where to eat, drink and find interesting things happening on a weekly basis.

So I set myself another mission (as if I didn’t already have enough challenges!) to visit every coffee shop on this Timeout list. There are 25 in total, some I may not get to as it might be a bit hard with public transport but I am going to try my damn hardest.

The first one I ticked off this list was in Richmond, a lovely lush suburb in the south of London, there you can take a lovely walk alongside the Thames and the greeny or simply sit on the grass and watch the boats go by, ive always had a pleasant time in Richmond.

Anyway back to the coffee, the place is called Taylor Street Baristas and its right outside Richmond station. Run by NZ folk and boy do they know their coffee! The Cappuccino was fantastic, bitter enough to taste the right flavours (apparently it’s a complex mixture of seven varieties of coffee beans) and yet creamy enough to be a pleasant drink. Let me tell you it was such a welcome break from the Caramel Macchiato that I have been relying on from Starbucks.

I followed this experience with a meal at the new restaurant/café in Putney opened by the UK masterchef Gregg Wallace. The place is very welcoming, all wooden with organic food products in the window and most importantly the staff were very polite.

To start I ordered the Spinach, apple, beetroot and smocked mackerel. I don’t normally like fruit in my salad however this mix was very refreshing and tasty.

For my main I had hot smoked salmon, cucumber and shallot salad with horseradish, the meal was lovely, not exceptional but yummy enough. On the side we ordered a serving of broccoli as Mr Wallace is known for his exceptional vegetable cooking skills and let me tell you it wasn’t all that. The broccoli was under cooked and covered in butter, it was still enjoyable but I expected a lot more from what I had read.

However the meal was redeemed with the amazing chocolate brownie that I inhaled for desert, it was heaven in a bowl heated with ice cream, yum yum yum.

All in all a lovely follow up to my first 'List' eating experience and im very excited about all the coffee shops I have left to visit.

Have you got one food/drink that you are obsessed with? Please share your own…

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