Qype: Shoreditch House in London

London - Pubs & Bars - Bars - Cocktail Bars

I was sure I'd reviewed Shoreditch House having been here quite a few times - but it appears not. Anyway - very very good Shoreditch House it has to be said. Beats Soho House and makes the Hospital look frankly ragged. The only members club I like more is Milk & Honey, but that might be just familiarity.

The highlight is definitely the swimming pool at the roof area - great stuff, more Miami than London in terms of styling, but with a little bit of an NYC feel thrown in as you look out across the city. The whole place has a great atmosphere to it - brilliant put together throughout with all the different floors having their own unique feeling. Very occasionally it can feel a little bit overly 'media' but nothing too annoying/distracting.

Service is excellent whether its food or drinks you are after and of course the food and drink is first class. If you are going to get stuck into the cocktails - may I heartily recommend an espresso martini, a fabulous drink made to perfection here.

While not being cheap by any stretch the food and drink is definitely good value.

If you are going to join a club - join this one. Yes yes it's in Shoreditch and not the centre of town, but if you're stumping up to join, I'm sure you can afford the cab ride over there!
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Qype: Bunch Of Grapes in London

London - Pubs & Bars - Pubs

It's a nice little pub this one, hidden away off the main drag of Borough High Street, and currently hiding behind some fairly major roadworks. It's a fairly small place, in traditional English pub style, with lots of dark wood, lots of tall tables and chairs and a pretty good selection of beers.

As 78Apples says - a bit less 'blokey' than a lot of pubs in the area and that's certainly no bad thing. It's got a friendly atmosphere, full of lots of chat.

It gets pretty busy from mid-week onwards and actually, despite the credit crunch it was rammed this week on a Tuesday when we popped in.

No music and no TV for those interested in that sort of thing - just chat and drinks.

All in - if you're looking for a pub around the area you can do a lot worse than drop in here.
Check out my review of Bunch Of Grapes - I am scottishwolf - on Qype

Qype: The Albert in London

London - Pubs & Bars - Pubs

There are quite a few really nice pubs, bars and restaurants around this area and the Prince Albert is definitely one of them. It’s a good looking building from the outside - a very traditional feel to it and this is continued inside where its all wooden furniture and brass.

A decent range of drinks in a pub that is always relatively full but never too busy and never too empty - seems to always be just about right.

Food is very good and it has a decent enough range on the menu.

Bearing in mind the beer garden out the back is basically a small concrete space, they have done well to make it as welcoming as it is with lots of trees and bushes around the place. However, I seem to remember having a very very long afternoon here and can tell your the wrought iron garden furniture gets a bit uncomfortable after about 5 hours…

All in - very much worth a visit and a much friendlier place than The Engineer which is just down the road from it.
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Qype: Parliament Hill bench in London

London

Not too far away from me and although it's a long old walk to get to this bench, it's well worth it for the marvellous views all across London. The odd thing is that there isn't a queue for it after dragging yourself up to it.

The other interesting thing is that this bench has featured in a few films as well. Judi Dench in Notes on a Scandal, and a whole chapter of the super-budget, but rather good Scenes of a Sexual Nature was set on this bench (the whole film being set in Hampstead Heath). The Omen had some filming done here as well - though I'm not sure if the bench was in it -has it been in any other movies? Is it the most famous bench in cinema history? Should it be getting a royalties cheque?
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Qype: Allies Statue in London

London

I really like this bench/sculpture - it's always one I stumble across by accident in London rather than design. It's incredibly lifelike and is considered the artist's most famous work.

The background on it is that it was a gift from the Bond Street Association (the shops and businesses of Bond Street) to the City of Westminster to commemorate 50 years of peace. It was unveiled on 2/5/95 by Princess Margaret.
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Qype: The Gaucho Grill in London

London - Restaurants - Latin American - Argentinian

Only going to give this Gaucho a 4. It's got a great view from upstairs of the Tower Bridge area, but for some reason it's not quite got the same level of quality of staff, service and atmosphere as some of the others. It's still a brilliant place for a steak and there is still the fun opportunity to see the cuts and have them explained along with how they are best cooked before diving in to the eating.

However, for some reason the environment doesn't quite work as well as at other Gauchos. Added to this the last time I was here was with a chef from the Oxo tower and the Sommelier we had decided to try and convince us that the red wine we were having should be served at the same temperature as rose. Wrong, and simply not a very good idea when someone works in the area for a living. This undermined the experience a little - she should really have just admitted she was wrong and that the place they hold wine up from the cellar was a little too cold - but we still had a fun night.

Oh and if you really fancy a meat adventure - why not get one of each of the four cuts in a 1200 gram steak extravaganza...just don't get two of them to share between 4 people. 2,400 g of meat is just too much steak!

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Qype: The Gaucho Grill in London

London - Restaurants - Steak Houses - Restaurants - Latin American - Argentinian

Vegetarians - you must not go to this place, or you will go to the dark side. This is my favourite of the Gaucho set of restaurants around London. The food, as at all of the Gauchos, is first class with a fabulous selection of Argentinian steaks with a variety of cuts and the opportunity to see the cuts and have them explained along with how they are best cooked before diving in to the eating.

Outside of the steaks are a great selection of sides with the mushrooms being my personal favourite though all of them are great and go very well alongside the main event of the meat.

There is a decent wine list as well along with a wide variety of other drinks to satisfy the majority of diners. The wine varies from reasonable to fairly mind crushingly expensive so something for everyone really.

The atmosphere is great - its all cow hide seats in a little darkened cellar style setting, and it really is the perfect place or a long lunch that just keeps on going...I seem to remember one time we were still there when the evening sitting was coming in...

Cheap it is not - but I'd say it's good value as it's not exorbitant.

Service is speedy, polite and knowledgeable. Get yourself a steak and enjoy.

Check out my review of The Gaucho Grill - I am scottishwolf - on Qype