Eastern promises

I spent large amounts of yesterday trying to deliver on my promise of organising a date, and kicking myself for forgetting that other Londoners are uncannily savvy and always getting in there first, doing annoying things like booking up all the places i'd like to go. However, looking on the bright side, (a) I spent lots of time checking out places that I intend to return to, and (b) I reconnected with the wonderfulness that is Time Out after a couple of months of ignoring it.

And as it happened, eventually a cunning plan came together, which proved to be lovely despite the inevitable lateness-caused-by-rubbish-traffic that always characterises my interactions with any area near Liverpool Street. We wound up at the Eyre Brothers restaurant, where I apparently ordered the thing on the menu designed exclusively for girls (herbs and cress and walnuts, yum) whilst S consumed a steak bigger than my head. This restaurant is text book good - dark wood, delightful waiters who forgave my earlier rudeness on the phone, well-spaced tables, great loos. I gather it is part of the chain that also runs Cigala so I unwittingly have been handing them fistfuls of cash in recent weeks. But I don't really mind cos they're lovely.

From there we went on to Green and Red, which I can't stop calling Green and Blacks, even though I don't even like chocolate much. N was full flow at her leaving do, and it was lovely to see her, and various other former workmates, as well as a surprising number of thinktank boys who all appeared to be there as the arm candy of their girlfriends who were in N's book club. A little out of place amidst music bordering on cheesy in a Mexican basement bar, but still...

It all got a bit messy thanks to sherry mixed with wine mixed with margharitas mixed with rum and cokes, but that was probably a good thing given we more or less walked home thanks to the serious lack of taxis (what was it T was saying about no one taking taxis since Bear Stearns???)

And I now have a whole bank of other nice bars and restaurants i need to pay a visit to in that area... including the Great Eastern Dining Room which looks gorgeous and would contribute to my mission to eat my way round the world without leaving London. Similarly, and coming highly recommended by L, the East room follows the Milk and Honey concept with the whole impossible to find entrance, deliciously dark and sexy interior, and top quality cocktails (not that I particularly want to think about that today). Slightly further afield is the Buen Ayre steak house in 'gritty' Hackney... er... or upmarket Broadway Market, depending on what you're reading... and according to this review, 'a good place to take fat friends to'. genius.