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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Down a small side street off Lincoln Inn’s Field is this wonderful Thai restaurant! Pu’s Brasserie is a small, cosy, intimate kind of a restaurant. It doesn’t have a huge dining area so it would be better to make a reservation to guarantee a table! The restaurant looked bigger due to a huge wall mirror!

For the starter, the paper rice baby corn was chosen! These were whole baby corn wrapped in a crispy pastry! It was a nice alternative to regular spring rolls!

As it had been a while since I’d had Pad Thai, it didn’t take me long to decide that that would be my main dish! When I asked the waitress if it came with extra vegetables, I was told that it really only had beansprouts. So, I requested extra vegetables in my Pad Thai.

This Pad Thai had the perfect balanced sweet and tangy flavour. The noodles were soft and the vegetables crunchy: a great combination!

As it was a cold day, a hot drink was needed! The jasmine tea was served by the pot and when it had nearly finished, the waitress asked if I wanted to have it refilled with hot water. It’s not often that the staff suggest refilling pots of tea!

The staff were really friendly and efficient. Pu’s Brasserie had a relaxed atmosphere. There was attention to detail such as the menu’s being on wooden boards! The dessert menu was presented in a small wooden case!

Pu’s Brasserie, 10 Gate Street, Holborn, London, WC2A 3HP

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Belgo has a really lively and sociable atmosphere! There is the comfy seating at the front of the restaurant and then this extends to the dining area.

Although Belgo’s speciality is mussels, we didn’t fancy these for this evening meal! Instead, we had chicken and burgers and frites!

The half chicken was spit roasted and basted with Belgian blonde beer and apple juice. The chicken was really tender and the meat come off the bone so easily. It was served with a mushroom and cream sauce and a big bowl of frites.

The sauce was creamy, as expected and also had a good amount of mushrooms in it. The frites were thick and perfectly crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside.

My friend was impressed with her burger and frites. She asked for the burger to be cooked medium/rare and was pleasantly surprised when it was more rare than medium, just the way she likes it! Other restaurants seem to go the other way and overcook the burger so it is entirely medium cooked!

The waiter was great! He was really friendly and gave service with a smile. I asked for the sauce for the chicken to be served on the side. When the waiter brought out our meal, he told me that if I needed any more of the sauce, then just to let him know. It was a big portion of sauce but it was nice to know that Belgo didn’t skimp on these extras!

Belgo do a great Beat the Clock menu, usually between 5-7pm on the weekdays. This means that if you order any items on that particular menu then you pay the price of the time that you placed your food order!

Belgo, 67 Kingsway, Holborn, London, WC2B 6TD

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