Crocodile Cafe is part of the Crocodile Antiques shop in Muswell Hill! You have the option of going through the shop to get to the cafe but I prefer the other way. The other entrance is next to the shop, down the green foliage plant filled aisle. Here you can pass by the fish pond with the carp!

The kitchen area of Crocodile Cafe can also be seen from this walkway. The pavement leads to a heated outdoor covered seating area on one side and the cafe entrance on the other.

Crocodile Cafe has lots of cakes on display, including scones and fruit bread teacakes. Along the top of the counter fridge are a row of small jars displaying the many teas on offer. The cafe does hot food such as breakfasts, soups, paninis, soups, jacket potatoes. It also does sandwiches and milkshakes.

At the Crocodile Cafe, you order at the counter, and then go upstairs to the seating areas. There are two areas, one of which had comfy seating! This area led to the shop.

The staff were really friendly and gave service with a smile. As we were indecisive on whether to go for the carrot cake or the apple cinnamon cake, we thought the easiest way would be to ask the staff. We went with their recommendation of the carrot cake.

The carrot cake was a big portion, definitely enough to share. It was moist, with raisins and carrots. A really tasty carrot cake and it was nice that it only had a thin layer of the cream frosting.

The tea was served by the pot. The vanilla chai tea was a lovely tea with the subtle flavours of the spices coming through.

Crocodile Cafe has a really relaxed atmosphere, friendly staff and good quality food. It is easy to spot the cafe by the painted mural of the crocodile on the side of the walkway!

Crocodile Cafe, 120 Muswell Hill Broadway, London, N10 3RU

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As it was a week of ongoing celebrations, this meant that there were a fair amount of meals out! On this particular evening, we decided to stay local and opted for The Sitara.

The Sitara describes itself as “The Indian Jazz Restaurant”! We were intrigued and not quite sure what to expect. Entering the restaurant, we were welcomed by the friendly staff. Framed pictures lined the red walls, tables lit by candlelight and jazz music softly playing in the background all contributed to the mood of The Sitara.

Our round table had the turntable in the centre, which made it a lot easier for us to share the dishes throughout our meal. As the menus were black, we had a little bit of trouble reading them as the restaurant was dimly lit. The kitchen was at the back of the restaurant and it was nice that we could see the food being prepared from the dining area.

For the starters, we had the meat samosas, pakoras and special mixed grill. The meat samosas came as a portion of two and were filled with minced meat and onions. The pakoras were deep fried onion bhajees and were fairly spicy.

The favourite was the special mixed grill. A sizzling plate of tandoori chicken, chicken tikka, sheekh kebab and lamb tikka. All of the meat was cooked perfectly and it had a wonderful delicious thick sauce. The sauce of onions, tomatoes, fenugreek and capsicum completed this special mixed grill.

Originally, we chose a few main dishes to share as we were not sure how big they were going to be. The main curries came in small silver bowls and after they were brought to the table, we decided that an extra one was needed. A selection of meat, chicken, lamb, vegetables and fish made up the main meal.

The karahi chicken was a tomato based dish with tender chicken cubes. The tasty sauce was made with garlic, spices and capsicum. The saag gosht had a fair amount of spinach in it and the taste slightly overpowered the lamb. Saying that though, it was still nice enough.

The dish that we added at the later stage was the fish masala. There was a good amount of cod pieces coated in the masala sauce. The fish was not overcooked and remained flaky.

For the vegetarian option, the matar panir was chosen. You can’t go wrong with the cooked cubes of cheese, together with peas in a spiced tomato sauce. We were also tempted by the classic dal tarka but this will have to wait for another visit.

To accompany the curries, rice, plain naans and garlic naans were chosen. The naans were piping hot and were freshly made. The rice was served on oval silver dishes.

The staff made sure that everything was the way we wanted throughout the meal. Even though the food was freshly made, we didn’t have to wait too long for our meal.

The Sitara is a gem of a restaurant! It’s great that all the food at The Sitara is made fresh to order and not prepared beforehand. The Sitara will definitely be our local Indian restaurant of choice!

The Sitara, 784 Holloway Road, Archway, London, N19 3JH

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Euphorium Bakery is an extremely busy and popular one! Heading here on a weekend, it was pretty full, even though it had seating on the ground level and additional seating on a lower level too! It seemed like it was one of those places that if you saw an empty seat, you should grab it, otherwise it would get taken up fairly quickly!

All orders are taken at the counter. The first counter fridge had the savoury items including sandwiches, salads, quiches, savoury rolls and pizza! The second fridge had all the tempting sweet pastries, cakes, cookies and pies!

Euphorium Bakery serves Teapigs teas and I chose the English Breakfast. It was served in a tall mug and not by the pot. It came with a small jug of milk on the side, balanced carefully on the saucer!

The spinach and ricotta roll was tasty and very moreish. Not one of those items where you can just have one bite! Once you’ve tried it, you want to finish the whole roll! The spinach and ricotta filling was encased in a lovely buttery flaky pastry!

The vegetarian quiche was a big portion. It was jam packed with broccoli florets, button mushrooms and tomato! The taste of the creamy cheesy filling went well with all the vegetables! The pastry was quite dense and slightly harder than I like.

There is a long wooden table with small plastic Perspex like stools as the main seating area. There is also some outdoor seating.

The staff are efficient and friendly. All the tables are constantly being cleaned, ready for more customers.

Euphorium Bakery is a good place to come for tea and a bite to eat!

Euphorium Bakery, 79 Upper Street, Islington, London, N1 0NU

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