Saturday, March 30

SMBC Click for more info

A great tip from SMBC for those too... polite to do the right thing:


Of course it won't work if the other person is way smarter than you are. As is usually the case, of course.

Friday, March 22

Food: One08 Click for more info

It goes to show how limitless the food options in London are when I get to check out yet another unvisited hotel restaurant. One08 is the name (clever, as it sits at 108 Marylebone Lane), with The Marylebone Hotel being the enclosure this time around.

The place was dark (in a good way) and intimate, with us getting a perfectly sized round table for five. For the Muslim there weren't many options on the already limited menu; between us we exhausted the starter options and we had to ask the chef to adapt the beer battered fish and chips; they were happy to do this and the grilled version of the dish wasn't too bad.

We were using a Top Table offer to get 50% off our food bill, and it all came to around £16 a head which was fair enough value, but not so much had we paid full whack. On this basis the place gets a recommendation I suppose, but if you have to book a place then you're better off going elsewhere.

But in this instance the story doesn't quite end there. After pointing out a piece of bacon that was found in one of our otherwise vegetarian salads, we were well looked after when it came to paying the bill. It's probably bad form to say exactly how we were made to feel better, but they did pull out the stops to do so and that very quickly. It's not the kind of service I'm used to seeing, and although it could be argued that it shouldn't have happened in the first place it's impressive that they made the effort to correct their mistake - enough at least for me to note it here and send a thank you email afterwards.

Monday, March 4

SMBC Click for more info

It seems the world is waking up to cynicism and curmudgeonry:


Ahhh when did contentment, self worth and security become so boring?