The French Kitchen has a real rustic, country like feel to it with its pine chairs and tables. The dining area is separated by the counter and till area. There is a small food store section near the entrance. The long bar area makes up one end of the interior and there is an open kitchen at the back section of the restaurant.

The kitchen has a lot of character too! There are wicker baskets displaying lemons, tomatoes, bread and garlic. A cake stand at the kitchen counter displayed the scones and fruit tarts.

For a light lunch, the starter of oyster and field mushrooms on toasted sourdough bread was just right. The mushrooms were cooked with cream, white wine and tarragon. The mushrooms and the sauce complimented each other. The sourdough bread slices were fresh.

To drink, I was craving a cup of tea, but then decided to end the meal with the tea. Just before I ordered my tea, my friend pointed out the cream tea option on the dessert menu. The combination of a pot of tea, scone, jam and clotted cream was difficult to resist! So both my friend and I decided to indulge and go for the cream tea.

The Earl Grey tea was lovely and just what I needed. The scone was fairly big and fresh and it was served warm. The little dishes contained the clotted cream and blackberry jam. There was plenty of jam and cream for the scone.

The staff were so lovely at The French Kitchen! While I was waiting for my friend, several members of staff came to me to ask if I was ok and if I’d like a drink while I waited. But they weren’t pushy in any sort of a way. The atmosphere was very relaxed and the place had a good vibe to it. The lighting was quite soft, even in the daytime.

In our time at this restaurant, several dishes passed by our table! All of the food looked really nice and well presented.

The French Kitchen, 95-97 High Holborn, London, WC1V 6LF

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A late Friday afternoon is how we ended up at Ziloufs! We weren’t sure what we were expecting when we went into Ziloufs. We were after a relaxed afternoon with some tea!

Surprisingly, Ziloufs was a spacious place with a separate dining area and another area near to the bar. There was plenty of light coming into the bar area due to the glass front of Ziloufs. It was nice that there were cosy leather sofas, just what we were looking for!

Ziloufs did serve tea and they did it by the pot! The Earl Grey tea was good. The latte was made of strong coffee and it had a good depth to it.

We had some double cooked potato wedges to snack on. These were served in a big bowl and were steaming hot. It came with some wasabi mayonnaise. I wasn’t too sure if the combination of the wasabi and mayonnaise would work. I thought that the wasabi may give too much heat to the mayonnaise. Actually, the two worked really well together. We were totally satisfied with the wedges and the wasabi mayonnaise!

The staff were really nice and friendly and let us take our time even though we were only having drinks and snacks! It didn’t take long for Ziloufs to get really busy as the afternoon became evening!

Ziloufs, 270 Upper Street, London, N1 2UQ

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Ever since Pick More Daisies closed down in Crouch End, I’ve always ventured further afield for brunch. That is until now; now that Monkey Nuts has been discovered!

Don’t get me wrong, I have been to Monkey Nuts a few times before. But it has always been for drinks in their cosy sofa bar area!

Monkey Nuts has a big glass fronted entrance which makes the restaurant feel very light and airy. There is the dining area at the front of the restaurant and another towards the back. Even though we were seated just by the entrance, we didn’t feel the draft of the door and the outside air.

Sunday brunch consisted of tea and eggs on toast! Toasted triangles of granary bread topped with softly scrambled eggs and individual butter portions on the side! The tea was served by the mug. The Teapigs chocolate tea was a good choice.

The cousins decided to go for a savoury and a sweet option! Both equally satisfying and all the portions were of a big size. The Grilled Chicken Macho Nacho Burger was made up of chargrilled chicken, nachos, cheese, guacamole, sour cream, onions, lettuce, jalapenos and tomato sauce. A steak knife was definitely needed to tackle into this big burger! The side of french fries was good too!

The French Toast were soft, fluffy, thick bread slices lightly fried with cinnamon. They were topped with the healthy option of apples, berries and greek yoghurt.

The staff and service were great. We received service with a smile! There was a fantastic range of music playing in the background, from current tracks to some older ones! It was the type of music that definitely added to the relaxed Sunday atmosphere!

Monkey Nuts now seems to be a new local favourite, especially for a weekend brunch!

Monkey Nuts, 2 Park Road, Crouch End, London, N8 8TD

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