Affordable Fugly Fun & Vanilla

We're in London for a few more days, continues...

Yesterday we went on an excursion with our friend Jayme to the Affordable Art Fair in Battersea.

We took the tube to Knightsbridge and then walked to Sloane Square and there discovered that the line for the shuttle buses to Battersea Park stretched around the block. So we decided to walk. Walk! It was a long but wonderful walk across the bridge to Battersea. The weather was gorgeous and amazingly warm. I took some great photos of the views from the bridge which included the best view of the famous Battersea Power Station I've had yet. So cool.

We arrived at Battersea Park and made our way to the art fair. It was huge and completely packed. John had bought art at the fair back in October but this time we didn't really see anything we felt we just had to have. It was mostly pretty fugly, if not totally ridiculous. There were a few gorgeous pieces which made going very worthwhile.

Then we took a cab to lunch at one of our favorite restaurants, Amaya. It was perfection and we ate way too much. Such a fun afternoon!

Vanilla

Last night John and I went to another restaurant in our ongoing cuisine quest for fabulous restaurants.

We have another winner! Vanilla.

It has everything we've been looking for: beautiful, fun, ambience. Exquisite, inventive, cuisine. Diligent but not intrusive service. It was perfection. The two waitstaff were actually delightful, with a sense of humor (a rarity in waitstaff). My favorite was when the waitress delivered my starter which was a clay-encrusted violet potato. Also on the plate was a hot, fragrant stone and because the potato was covered in clay it looked pretty much like the stone. The waitress informed me which was which and "do not try to eat the stone." Love it. It was one of the most amazing potatoes I've ever eaten in my life.

They were discretely diligent about keeping our glasses filled with champagne (Gosset 1995) without us having to prompt them. Perfect. For mains John had the pork and I had the lamb. Astonishing. The portions were nicely small for a change and everything was a level of exquisite that we rarely see.

The menu was fairly small but the choices were very appealing. Since it was a set menu of three courses (they had a five course version too), we had dessert. Again. No sticky toffee pudding this time. John had the chocolate fondant and I had the basmati ice cream. OMFG. Yea, amazing.

We're very excited to have found Vanilla and are definitely putting it on our list.