Ironworks Supply Co. Review

Ironworks is a cute little cafe which sells a wide array of breakfast/brunch type food such as pancakes, smoked salmon bagels and omelettes situated on a street off St Nicholas Market.

Food:

I usually order the three stack pancake topped with strawberries and blueberries with one boar sausage. The sausages they provide simply can’t be critiqued; they’re a hefty size, packed with seasoning and clearly have a high meat percentage. In regard to the pancakes, 8/10 times they bang (for those of you not from London, if something bangs it is good). The majority of the time they’re nice and fluffy and I really like how Ironworks place the toppings not only on the top but also within the layers. However, I have had an occasion in which my pancakes were under-cooked and I had to send it back. They dealt with this well and swiftly made me a new batch for me. I also usually get a hot chocolate with a shot of vanilla, and Ironworks uniquely lines their mugs with Nutella when they serve a hot chocolate, making it that much more decadent.

I will give the food 8.5/10.

Atmosphere & Service:

Ironworks is certainly a lively place and due to the fact it closes between 4-5pm depending on the day, it is usually decently busy from 1pm until closing. On weekdays, this isn’t an issue and there will still likely be tables available immediately. However, note that on weekends if you arrive between 12-1, you may have to wait a few minutes for a seat which isn’t the end of the world as you can sit on the counter and order a drink in the meantime. Apart from liveliness, Ironworks’ environment is incredibly welcoming and I put this down to the staff and the owners. You are always greeted with a nice smile when you walk through the door and the owners are very hands-on and often wait the food themselves. The staff is also one of the reasons I do not particularly care if an order is not perfect because I know that they will be very understanding, non-combative and rectify the situation the best they can. Also, Ironworks has a banging playlist.

Overall, atmosphere & service gets a 9/10.

Is it worth it?

YES! As someone who has frequented Ironworks more than ten times, I can resoundingly say that Ironworks is one the best places in Bristol to get breakfast or brunch. Ironworks is really good value and you can expect to have a filling brunch for less than £8. On top of this, the staff and the owners are lovely and will make your day that bit better. If you ever find yourself in Bristol city centre, you should definitely visit.

Peggy Porschen’s Cakes Review

Peggy Porschen’s Cakes is one of the most instagrammable bakeries in London. If you don’t recognise the name, you’ll most certainly recognise the baby pink exterior adorned with an array of flowers.

Atmosphere & service:

After a 20 minute wait in the queue to get a table at Peggy’s, my friends and I were seated. In all honesty, Peggy’s is small, cute and fabulously well-decorated, but still tiny for the level of popularity it garners. The decor simply cannot be criticised. If there is anything Peggy Porschen’s knows how to do, it is present. Whether that be in terms of cake or the decor inside, everything is visually immaculate. However, to me the place felt cramped, especially because as well as the approximately seven tables in there, a fair number of people were ordering cakes to go. For this reason, I found the atmosphere to be a bit chaotic and can‘t say I ever felt really relaxed in the bakery.

In terms of service, our table’s hot drinks took a while to come and when my hot chocolate came (which was quite a bit before my cake) it was slightly tepid which meant by the time my cake came it was nearly cold. Also, at one point I wondered if they were making new cakes for our table because I’d assume slicing 3 pieces of cake doesn’t take 20 minutes. This being said, the staff were really friendly and chirpy.

Atmosphere is 4/10

Service is 3.75/10

Food:

I ordered a Glorious Victoria cake slice and my mates got the Vanilla Cloud and the Lemon, Raspberry & Rose slices. The cake itself was really lovely – moist and flavourful but not too heavy. However, the icing on the glorious Victoria cake was too sweet for my pallet. I didn’t end up finishing my slice as the combination of the icing and the cake was too much.

Therefore food gets a 6.8/10

Is it worth it:

I would like to preface this by saying I’m a student aka broke, so spending £6.75 on a slice of cake and around £4 on hot chocolate, is one hell of a commitment, especially if it isn’t overwhelmingly good. This being said, regardless of your economic status, I’m afraid to say Peggy Porschen’s isn’t worth it. The atmosphere, or should I say cramptmosphere *ba dum tss*, alone is not luxurious and if you charge those kinds of prices, it behoves you to ensure that people can eat without having customers ordering to go hovering over you. The food was fine, service was slow but overall its clear to me that Peggy Porschen’s popularity is its biggest strength and biggest weakness. The lack of crowd control just distracts from the food to me. High volumes of customers at an eatery isn’t inherently bad but here it is. If you’re going to spend £10+ on a slice of cake and a hot beverage, there are dozens of other bakeries, which may not look as heavenly but will have better food for a fraction of the price.

Zuma Review

This post will be about one of my favourite restaurants in London– Zuma. Zuma is situated in Knightsbridge on a Mercedes saloon lined back street, frequented by the upper-echelon of society…and me, biannually when my family have extraordinary events to celebrate.

Atmosphere & Service :

The atmosphere in Zuma can only really be summed up by one colloquial term:

Boujie

[adj]

A person/thing who embodies an attitude or state of mind of superior taste, inclination toward posh and luxurious goods

The restaurant itself just exudes opulence, luxury and decadence. The moody lighting gives the place a certain… je ne sais quoi. You get welcomed by hosts who diligently take your coat and show you to your seat. Then the most knowledgeable waiter you’ll ever meet in your life, will introduce themselves to you, give you a warm damp towel for your hands and in general make you feel like you matter. The staff are clearly trained to know the menu, which isn’t short mind you, inside out and this is of a massive help when trying to figure out what to order. Not only are the staff masters of the menu, they are also masters of conversation. As I mentioned earlier, your waiter will make you feel how you felt when you received a participation certificate after a shoddy performance on the football pitch at 5 – special. They ask how your day is, genuinely caring about the response and can sustain conversation on multiple topics.

In regard to timeliness of food and drink, I cannot complain. Having gotten an eight course set menu, I can say that the space provided between each is nicely spaced, avoiding the feeling of chaos and Armageddon which can ensue when being confronted by too many courses at once. With every course, you are reminded of what element has arrived, which I find extremely helpful. It may not seem like an important detail but in some other restaurants you aren’t reminded of the dishes so you’re in a state of confusion for a bit.

Overall atmosphere is an 8.3/10 and service is a 9.6/10

Food:

The food is sublime. I typically use excessively flowery, or what my mum calls dramatic, language to describe pretty much everything, so you may be immune to it now. However, my mild exaggerations aside, Zuma’s food is some of the best I have ever tried. Some of the highlights from the past few times I’ve visited have been the steak tartare and the sashimi. Full disclosure, I don’t even like sashimi, in fact, I’d go as far as to say I don’t understand the hype around sushi. That being said, when I gingerly placed a slice of the sashimi in my mouth, my life changed. The salmon was melt-in-the-mouth tender and the accompanying dishes were great too.

My family and I always get one of the set menus, but as Zuma say on their website, you can order however you like as everything is apparently designed to be shared and also eaten individually so this does add some flexibility with how you order. I would recommend people experiment when they go to Zuma because it really is an opportunity to try things you likely haven’t seen before and to expand your culinary experience.

Overall food gets a 9.9/10

So is it worth it?

If there is any restaurant to fall behind on your rent for, Zuma is it. Between the service, atmosphere and the food, Zuma can be likened to an experience outside your usual restaurant visit. In short, yes, yes it is worth it.

Introduction: Eating with Elise

Food

We need it for sustenance of course, but apart from being a means of maintaining our livelihood, it is a plethora of other things. An outlet of joy, an explosion of flavour, an antidepressant, I could go on but I should probably get onto the main purpose of this intro–introducing myself. When I think about things that I truly love, food instantly comes to mind. Shout-out to my friends and family though, you also spring to mind, however you are inedible. I’m sure we can all think of a a few dishes that provoke instant happiness, whether that be a Sunday roast that galvanises the whole family, or a cheeky McDonald’s to round off a night out. Food is arguably the most universal language there is.

In this specific food blog, I intend to bring you guys along with me as I explore different eateries and give you reviews afterwards. I will also share my personal favourite restaurants. Thank you for reading this first post and strap in, because we are about to go on a culinary journey.