April is a bit of a celebratory month as it is my blog’s birthday, Aftab’s blog birthday and my wedding anniversary! We also celebrated Aftab’s birthday, Angie launched her YouTube Channel and Emma booked a hell of an amazing trip after going full time on the blog and starting a brand new chapter. As you can imagine in true Angles style, we celebrated over lots of Mojitos, Pornstar Martinis and Champagne.
We kicked off the month with a Sunday breakfast with a seriously amazing view at Aqua Shard with Emma, Aftab and Christina. Over some champagne cocktails and seriously good food we had a fabulous catch up. If you haven’t been to Aqua Shard yet it is a must for either breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner or cocktails!
Full of energy after our wonderful breakfast, on the same morning, Aftab, Emma and I headed to Paddington train station where we met fellow blogger friend Angie. We were off on a very special trip which was a surprise for Aftab and now we can reveal that we played Prince and Princesses at Bovey castle! I hope you enjoy reading the tale of our stay as I wrote it in a very different way!
We had the most wonderful time and I fell in love with Devon so much that I returned again later in the month, as you will see. If you have always wanted to stay in a castle I can’t recommend it enough.
Once back and recharged after all that clean crisp countryside air, I attended a preview of the ChocolaTEA – Chocolate Afternoon Tea in collaboration with Green and Blacks launched at the Hyatt Regency London – The Churchill. I reviewed the tea here and it is definitely worth indulging in!
April was also the month of the London Coffee Festival and I explored all the various stalls and tried lots of drinks at Truman Brewery with my siblings. I love coffee and it was a great afternoon! If you missed it this year would definitely recommend going next year.
As far as High Tea’s go, I also tried a unique one at Cinnamon Bazaar called The Trader’s High Tea, which I highly recommend if you are a chaat fan. It is so reasonably priced and the dishes are a real delight.
For our 7th wedding anniversary we returned to our favourite bar, Smith and Whistle, for some cocktails before venturing to our favourite restaurant, Hakkasan, where we thoroughly enjoyed Dim Sum in the Mayfair branch.
Easter weekend soon arrived and having already eaten all my chocolate before hand I had a mini meltdown and headed straight to Hotel Chocolat to replenish the stock (which didn’t last very long either).
I was craving my all time favourite Butter chicken at Jamavar so I headed there for lunch, where this time we dined in the luxurious Sapphire Dining Room, with my siblings in tow.
This seemed to be the month of Afternoon Teas, especially chocolate themed ones, and I also tried out the limited edition Easter Special Chocoholic Afternoon Tea at the swanky new Four Seasons Hotel at Ten Trinity Square. It is a stunning hotel so if you haven’t been yet go!
It was also great fun pretending to be a tourist in the area and wandering around Tower Hill. Sometimes it is great to go sightseeing in your own city just to rekindle your love with it.
Using the Easter weekend as my excuse, I continued my feasting early on Easter Sunday with breakfast at Farm Girl, where they did the cutest coffee art on our coffees. I had some baked eggs and Amit went for scrambled eggs on sourdough toast. The concept is healthy food and I loved it but Amit is not quite sold.
We also popped into the Ivy Chelsea Garden after for a coffee after a leisurely walk from Portobello Road to Chelsea. It was worth it though to see this flower wall and we were lucky to have a warm sunny day.
It was then back to work after the lovely Easter break and since I hadn’t seen Aftab in ages we decided to catch up over cocktails and dim sum so we went to Ivy Soho Brasserie for drinks and then to Yautcha for dinner. We always have the best time together!
I luckily somehow had quite a few short weeks this month and had booked Friday off so Amit and I had a weekday date night on a Thursday evening which rarely happens! We started off at Bar Boulud for drinks and decided to go for home comforts at Haandi for dinner.
It was then time to return to Devon again and this time we stayed at the Moorland Garden Hotel, which is in South Devon, close to Plymouth. We had a wonderful weekend in the serenity of the Moorlands and returned to London a little refreshed.
The final weekend of the month and again a long one thanks to it being a bank holiday weekend so I participated in some more indulging! We had lunch at Asia de Cuba as I really wanted a Cuban Mojito. It didn’t beat my favourite though!
It was then time to brace the mad crowds in Camden and a little queue to try the signature hot chocolate at Chin Chin Labs which comes with a massive marshmallow on top. I can confirm it was worth the wait and the walk. Chin Chin also have nitrogen ice cream in such amazing flavours. I will be back to try those!
My favourite Blogs and Vlogs this month
In April, I experienced severe travel envy and nostalgia whilst my bestie Aftab toured Lisbon. If you are planning a trip to the Portuguese city (which is seriously amazing), you can read about the 5 Things that surprised Aftab about Lisbon as well as the Sheraton Lisboa, where he stayed for part of his trip. The restaurant at the Sheraton Lisboa has a panoramic view of the city and some seriously amazing food and you can read about the Creative Classics Aftab ate here.
If SilverSpoon London wasn’t already an addictive blog to read, she has now launched a YouTube channel which is fabulous. Make sure you subscribe and watch her videos. My favourites so far are her Maldives Vlogs and her family stay over Easter at Coworth Park.
If you love Paris as much as I do, you will love reading about Emma’s solo adventure to the city of lights where she had the perfect day! It makes me want to head to Kings Cross St Pancras now! I loved her post about our brunch in the London clouds at Aqua Shard and the serious tub goals at The Scarlet Hotel in Cornwall.
Maggie from Planes and Champagne has making me want to book a spontaneous trip to the beach all month with her posts about her AMAZING stay in the Maldives. She pampered herself at an Underwater Spa in Huvafen Fushi (yes underwater!!) I loved her post about the Hideaway Bliss at Huvafen Fushi and just made me want to head there straight away. Once back, she indulged in a fabulous afternoon tea at Hamyard Hotel and you can get pastry envy here.
What did everyone get up to in April? I would love to know in the comments section below.
Binny xx
Binny's Kitchen & Travel diaries 