London's a half way point for me and Rachael; she lives slightly north and I'm obviously a stone's throw away in Brighton. She also used to live there, and I have other friends that currently reside la-bas, so it's always nice to meet up and see what's new in The Big Smoke.
We both wanted to do a spot of shopping, but first and foremost... was lunch. Rachael had a vague recollection of eating some really good poached eggs last time she was about, somewhere in the Covent Garden area. And that was about all we had to go on! So with no restaurant name in mind or any real idea of which street we were looking for, we moseyed on down the cobbled streets and chatted away happily, until 10 minutes later we suddenly turned a corner, and KOPAPA was there! (on Monmouth Street, WC2H 9HA, by the way). "This is the one!" Rachael squealed excitedly, and we skipped inside. There was a bit of a queue, but we were seated within 10 minutes.
After a cursory browse of the menu, we quickly decided on sea salt caramel milkshakes, ‘Turkish eggs’ (two poached eggs with whipped yoghurt, hot chilli butter and two slices of toast), and the West Country beef burger with tomato chilli relish, smoked aioli, Emmental & crispy bacon.
The milkshake was probably my favourite part, as you can probably see... Rachael loved her eggs (they did look good!) and my burger was nice, but... it didn't rock my world. I'd definitely go back, but would probably go for the soft-shell crab burger next time, which sounded delicious!
With one dining establishment just not enough, we hit the sales for a couple of hours, and almost immediately hunted down the next. This is why I love Rachael (ONE of the reasons...!). We may have come a little way from our Haribo days (it was probably a main staple of our diets before, during, and after Geography and Maths lessons), but boy, do we love our food. And unashamedly so. To Benugo we went!
Benugo was a cute little cafe we happened across by accident on Long Acre. It was lovely! A simple coffee shop with some handsome-looking baguettes and baked goods on offer, it has an almost studio-feel to it when you first walk in, with it's wooden floors and spotlights hanging from the ceiling. Downstairs was my favourite, though. I could have stayed cosied up there for hours, hiding away from the rain in one of the cute alcoves set behind red brick archways.
Rachael was getting impatient waiting for our seats... :o)
We spent the rest of the evening wandering around Covent Garden, admiring the pretty lights, the busy main square, the atmospheric cloudy sky, and the random performers on the streets. I do love London for a weekend visit!
And then it was time for us to go our separate ways...
I'm looking forward to our next trip already - lovely to see you, Miss Rachael :o)
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