untold blisses

Quick, I need something to blog about. February was a bust.  Nothing happened.  Shall I review the car wash at the beginning of the month, or the cough mixture I bought?  OOO, I know!  My trusty Southbank can always be relied upon – let’s go there!

Actually, I wanted to treat Husband to lunch to celebrate the first month in his new job, and saw that the OXO Tower offered an express lunch in their bar so booked us a table.  We are big fans of the OXO Tower Brasserie, visiting for my birthday and our wedding anniversary for an amazing afternoon tea – the bar is right next to the brasserie and has the same amazing views plus an insanely long cocktail menu which made it a win for us.

We got there for 12pm just as it opened and we were shown to our seats by the window.  It was incredibly windy so we decided not to sit on the balcony – our window seats were the next best thing.  Despite the wind, we had beautiful blue skies and I think we were quite lucky as it was supposed to be raining.

I was a little worried that the bar would be cramped, but even when all the tables got full, it still felt so comfortable.  Those green chairs are lovely and snug and mean that people can’t easily knock into you!

Their bar menu is very concise – just over a dozen small plates to share and three main meals – and we both chose the burger.  Our waiter was great, and left the cocktail menu with us so I could have an in depth read before the food arrived.

Everything was so good.  The pancetta, the slaw, the perfectly done burger and triple-cooked chips.  I could have quite happily eaten that again – just looking at the photo is making me hungry.  When our plates were whisked away at the end of the meal, we got on to the serious business of cocktail ordering.

There was almost too much choice, which only means we have to go back again (and again, and again).  I went back and forth over my decision a few times – I tend to go for sugary summer fruits drinks and there were a few raspberry or blackberry ones at the top of my list.  In the end, I decided to choose something completely different with a glass of At the Drive-Inn – Butterkissed Four Roses Bourbon stirred down with maple syrup, bitters & popcorn essence, in an Old Fashioned style.  It was beautiful, and genuinely had a maple syrup-y taste to it.

Husband’s drink was the Aviation – Beefeater London dry gin shaken with Maraschino, dash of violet liqueur, sugar & fresh lemon juice.  This was tasty as well but I preferred mine, although I did steal the maraschino cherry from his glass.

I felt very sophisticated with my bourbon cocktail, as Husband and I discussed pensions and Scottish property (no, really) and it was nice to pretend to be an adult for an hour and a half.

After lunch, we braved the wind and walked across Blackfriars bridge, down Fleet Street, and up to Covent Garden where I briefly considered visiting my favourite jewellery store (before reasoning that I had just been there a few days earlier).  Covent Garden was predictably deranged, but Husband wanted to show me a restaurant he goes to during the week and the coffee shop he frequents.  We ended up getting the train back at about 3pm and making it into the house about 10 minutes before the rain started.

It was such a great day, leaving me enough time to snuggle on the sofa this afternoon to try to clear some space on my laptop, which would have been the ever-so-fascinating blog post had we not gone out.  Thank goodness for the OXO tower!