Sarah D.

Review of Icco Pizza

24 Oct 07, 22:25

Fab cheap pizza and breakfast buzz too

How can their pizza be so good when it is so cheap and fast? Dunno, just glad it is and that it's near my office. It is where we head for lunch when all is going pear-shaped and we need cheering up and it is always the tops.

Ok so you have to hope they yell a vaguely-recognisable approximation to your name out when your pizza is ready (good hearing and lateral thinking helps at this point) but I love this place with its chromey tables and great buzz.

I love it not only for the pizza, but also for the fact that they see me coming in the mornings and have my hot chocolate and croissant to go virtually in my hands as soon as I reach the counter (it's my Cheers moment, like I'm a local in this city of anonymity) and its only £1.50 for the two - free croissant heaven!

oooh yes they are nice, nice people, and then there's the dapper old guy who always says good morning to me even on bad hair days, it all makes going to work just a bit less miserable. Big hangout for motorbike couriers in the mornings too a propos of nothing in particular.

Corner of Goodge and Charlotte Streets.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Review of The Bay Leaf Cafe

24 Oct 07, 22:06

Homemade food from a great family-run cafe

I've been going to this little cafe just around the corner from Goodge Street tube and Pollocks Toy Museum since it opened and I can't recommend it highly enough.

The people who run it are super lovely and the food is always tasty homemade stuff. I would walk a mile for their fabulous moussaka and the chicken pie is always a winner, meanwhile their everyday chilli is brilliant. They are also into making sure everything is in sustainable cardboard packaging so you can ease your carbon guilt over lunch or breakfast from here.

The place looks tiny and most people are queuing for takeouts at lunchtime but there are also tables downstairs where you can hide away and have a good natter or while a bit of spare time waiting for someone or seeking respite from Tottenham Court Road. They also cater for meetings and parties, etc and it's good stuff I've sampled it for myself in the board room (stuffing your face during videoconferences across five timezones is such a good look I find).

Huge recommendation for this place as it is a really well priced, friendly family-run cafe that SO deserves to stick around and go from strength to strength. Enough from me, just try it and see if I'm not right.

0 out of 0 people found this review helpful.

Review of The Old Operating Theatre Museum

23 Oct 07, 21:00

Not as gruesome as you'd think

Small, fascinating, worth a look if you are at a loose end near London Bridge.

I don't actually remember it making me feel squeamish, just intrigued to poke around the collection. Oh and really glad to live in the age of penicillin and safe surgery and non-wooden operating theatres (the joys of our modern day MRSA, etc aside).

The operating theatre itself is oddly elegant but it is very eery to think of it in use. It really shows you why they are called theatres, as there are raked viewing platforms for medical students (or artists I guess) to observe live operations in the round.

This museum is seriously not for those with mobility impairments, or those with kids in buggies with them, as there were loads of stairs to climb I recall.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Review of Cannons Health Club

22 Oct 07, 20:20

Good swim, sauna, bubbly pool etc

I am not a gym bunny, far from it, but I spent part of the summer going to a physio within this club and then sneaking in for a therapeutic swim, jacuzzi and sauna. So on this level as a reviewer who was getting a freebie (sort of, as the physio sure as hell cost me, but Suzanne was lovely, good for sports injuries I'd say) I can say that the pool and lightweight pamper yourself bits of this gym seemed pretty darned nice.

And blimey that bubbly pool thing where you lie in metal underwater loungers was quite something! Oh and the ladies changing facilities were good, clean, well maintained and on the luxury-ish side of the scale.

1 out of 1 person found this review helpful.

Review of Gordons Wine Bar

22 Oct 07, 20:10

Love this place, stop telling everyone

It's still great and I still can't believe it passes health and safety but am glad it does. Just wish people would stop telling everyone about it...oops there I go. Nice in the summer but really comes into its own as an autumn winter treat. And now you can actually see inside as the clouds of smoke have gone, hope they don't think to clean it though, I suspect the walls are 75% nicotine by now.

Surely London's greatest wine bar, there's nowhere else like it I'll be bound. Now shhhh!

1 out of 1 person found this review helpful.

Review of Coco De Mer

22 Oct 07, 10:58

Gorgeous kinky

This small dark place (run by Anita - Body Shop - Roddick's daughter) is full of sexy slinky and positively kinky bits and bobs for adult play.

The shop itself is female and couple-friendly and it is not embarrassing to browse in. The staff are approachable and nice and quite straightforward about answering any questions.

The emphasis is on aesthetically pleasing design and they stock gorgeous (gor blimey expensive) lingerie. Don't feel odd about popping in, it is nothing if not intriguing. I would never go into somewhere like Ann Summers but this place is more than a cut above.

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Review of Nordic Bar

22 Oct 07, 10:45

Great cocktails, full of scandinavians

Ok I meant that the bar is full of London-based Scandinavians not the cocktails, naturally.

This is a cool dark groovy little bar with fantastic cocktails. The mixologist (yes, I know!) behind the bar is a guy I booked for the inhouse xmas parties at a place where I used to work and he is a genius...so naturally the drinks here are fab too. Can't remember how expensive but you know that's the way with cocktails...

The hint is in the name - this is a good place to do a bit of Swede, Fin, Dane, Norwegian (and probably Icelander) ogling or flirty pillage / plundering if that's your kind of thing. As a non-Scandinavian I've never felt unwelcome by the way. Nice place.

1 out of 1 person found this review helpful.

Review of Sh! Women's Erotic Emporium

22 Oct 07, 10:36

Something for the ladies

Great place (women only, men allowed in if accompanied by a lady friend) to be supremely unembarrassed about buying whirring whizzing jiggling and lubricating bits and bobs for solo or accompanied bedroom shenanigans.

It is all utterly unsleazy unlike every other similar establishment I've encountered (not that I'm a sex shop regular you understand) The staff are really nice, will answer your questions and make it a thoroughly unembarrassing experience. Not impressed by the lingerie they sell myself but the rest of their stock is very comprehensive and well-labelled as to FAQs.

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Review of Sublime

18 Oct 07, 13:09

Lovely lovely lovely stuff

Actually check the address because this shop has justed moved round the corner in Victoria Park 'village' to make room for the Ginger Pig (the locals are very excited, but that's another story)

Anyway in its new home (and its sister shop in Clerkenwell that I stumbled on yesterday) this place is a girly glitzy den of fabulous gifty and treat-yourself-y kind of stuff that straight boys will never understand the need for. They stock beautiful jewellery and bags and candles and cards and other shiny things plus very wonderful clothes. In short if you are after a present for a female friend or relation or lover or need a frippery-ish treat for yourself this is a good place to try. Mmmm lovely lovely lovely...

1 out of 1 person found this review helpful.