Kitchin N1 - Restaurant Review

Last week I accompanied BeautykingUK my better half to Kitchin N1, a restaurant in Kings Cross to review it.  Describing itself as "Deliciously fresh - buffet at its best" I had only ever walked passed it on my way to other blogger events, never venturing in.

Taking recipes from India, China, Italy and Thailand the restaurant centres itself around a theatre style cooking island, giving you the diner an opportunity to watch the chefs in action whilst they cook and prepare food.

Entering the restaurant, we were shown to a table and handed a drinks menu which had something for everyone, whether you like your wine, champagne, cocktails, beer or soft drinks, every need is catered for.  The joy of doing a restaurant review allows you to have the attention of the manager for some of the time to throw questions at him, nothing was too much for any of the staff and as we got to grips with how everything worked, I couldn't help but notice the number of people who came in, had their meals and left.

When you go to Kitchin N1, you have your table for around 1.5 hours, 2 hours at the most and as it is buffet style, essentially you can eat as much as you like, but be warned, if you waste excess food, you will be charged for it, something I think is a good idea because I hate people wasting food.  

Their is a choice of cold or hot starters and your choices include Greek Salads, houmous, opinion rings, Sushi, onion Bhaji, prawn toast, soups and many many more, you simply go up, take a plate and choose whatever you fancy eating.

These are just some of the starters and main dishes that we made our way through.  Each dish tasted freshly cooked, if it was meant to be hot it was and likewise if it should have been cold it was.  There was nothing I disliked or wouldn't have eaten again.

When it came to trying the mains which were on offer, again there is something for everyone, whether you want it cooked in front of you from the Wok station to make your own stir fry or from the grill station where an option of meats will be presented to you and cooked for you to your liking.  Choices of mains again include dishes such as Pizza of the day, curries such as Rogan Josh, Kormas, Thai Green Curry, italian pastas, chow miens, prawn dishes and rice or noddles.

The final test if all of that hadn't been enough to try is the dessert menu!  By this point, both Steve and I had been feeling pretty full, but felt it rude not to try a few of the options on offer, well as soon as I saw rice pudding and a chocolate foundation, I was never not going to have pudding.

Again there are many different options to choose from including very delicate little cakes such as coffee cake, chocolate cake, apple crumble, creme brulee, chocolate fountain with marshmallows and possibly the most exciting thing is the ice-cream machine to pour your own Mr Whippy looking ice cream which I had made some room for, would have had.

There is also a bit of theme for Kitchin N1 at the weekend.  On Friday, Saturdays & Sundays there is a selection of fresh seafood, including Prawns and Mussels as well as certain fish dishes. On Saturday evenings they serve crispy Duck, spring onion, sarded cucumber, hoisin sauce & pancakes and on Sundays there is a full roast!

Price wise, well lunch will cost just £7.99 and dinner in the evening £14.99 with a slight variation at the weekend, all of which can be found on the Kitchin website and to make life easier, you can book your table online too, a straightforward easy to follow form and it is all done for you.

For a restaurant which is hidden away from the bustling streets of Kings Cross on Caledonia Road, it is one which is worth going to find.  The food is exceptionally lovely, there is something for everyone and the experience is something i had never experienced before. From salads which are fresh and crunchy, to meat that is cooked to your liking and hot, curries which are as tasty as they are from your local Indian and desserts which melt in your mouth, it is not somewhere that will break the bank to enjoy good quality cooked food.  If you are out and about in Kings Cross and are looking for something a little bit different, I urge you to give Kitchin N1 a chance, it is worth every mouthful.

Signorina Eleganza by Salvatore Ferragamo

Salvatore Ferragamo is not a name of a brand I have ever come across and this is one of the things I love about blogging, the things it introduces you too and allows you to be a part of.

Elegance and femininity are two things which spring to mind when I look at Signorina Eleganza.  The bottle is very dainty and delicate not to mention beautiful to look at, everything from the writing on the bottle to the dusky pink ribbon, which gives it that extra feminine touch, makes me want to use it.

The fragrance hosts a lot of different ingredients which include:

Head notes - Grapefruit, pear

Heart notes - Almond powder and Osmanthus petals

Base notes - Patchouli and White Leather

All together they work to give the most beautiful floral and fruity scent which lingers on the skin.  Once on the skin, it lasts such a long time, it is one of those scents which leaves a trail behind it, whilst being subtle yet noticeable, this is one fragrance that I have come to absolutely love wearing and have had quite a few compliments about.

Launched this March, the bottle comes in three different sizes which are:

• 30 ml Eau de Parfum Spray £42 
• 50 ml Eau de Parfum Spray £60 
• 100 ml Eau de Parfum Spray £81

Have you tried any scents from Salvatore Ferragamo?

Delph Sun Care Products

We all know how important it is to ensure our skin is protected is the sunshine, particularly with this heat and yes we all want to have lovely golden skin that makes us look and feel healthy.

Delph have recently launched their sun care range which comes in these sleek squeezy 150ml tubes, making them perfect for popping into your handbag or beach bag without taking up too much space. The range claims to offer "no-compromise sun protection at a fraction of a designer range cost"

I was very kindly sent two of the products from the range.  The Delph SPF50 lotion which comes packaged in a bright yellow tube with an orange flip-top lid, making it really easy to recognise.  The lotion inside the tube is bright white in colour and is not only water resistant, it has not been tested on animals but is dermalogically tested.

One thing I dislike about conventional sun creams is the scent, I don't know what it is about them, but I just don't like it.  Now I know you should never judge a book by its cover (but I do) and when I saw the price of this cream, I was filled with dread, assuming it would have 'that smell'.  Surprisingly there was no horrible smell, in its place is a sort of lemony fragrance which lingers quite nicely on the skin.

Finding an aftersun which is soothing and again cools the skin is something I am always looking for and this Delph option is actually fantastic, especially if it comes from the fridge! Housed inside a clear see though tube with a blue flip top, you can see the green gel inside. Filled with Aloe Vera and Vitamin E, this gel is so refreshing and lightweight it absorbs itself quickly into the skin, cooling as it goes.

Available from independent pharmacies you will find:

• SPF 15 Lotion 150ml £3.49
• SPF 30 Lotion 150ml £4.49
• SPF 50 Lotion 150ml £4.99
• After Sun Lotion 150ml £1.49
• After Sun Gel With Aloe Vera & Vitamin E £1.49

Which sun care do you use? What do you look for in a sun cream?

BGO brings a touch of Vegas to London

Towards the end of June, Beautykinguk and I was invited to an event called the #bgomeetup in the heart of King’s Cross. The very mention of bloggers, roulette, blackjack not forgetting pizza and alcohol was all it took for me to accept the invitation, thanks James and Joe Blogs Network.

The night started brilliantly, being handed some fake money to play on either the Blackjack or the Roulette tables in an attempt to ‘Beat the Boss’ - a life-sized cut out of Austin Powers star Verne Troyer. Keith, our wonderful professional croupier, soon got a griup of us together to test our knowledge (or lack of) of poker and tried to teach us a few tricks of the trade before we started to use our own fake money we had been given upon entry.

The idea of the evening being to raise money for WWF (World Wildlife Foundation) and in doing so there would be two prizes on offer - one for the person with the most chips at the end of the evening and the other for the best selfie with Verne.

Now we (Steve and I) didn't have a hope in hell when it comes to the chips, a few glasses of prosecco the chips disappeared but I had one trick up my sleeve, knowing my beloved had drunk a fair bit of prosecco, I could talk him into posing with Verne, assuming we could track him down from the ladies loo where some bloggers had taken him for a selfie (the mind boggles). Once we had secured Verne, this happened:

         

Yes Steve managed to win the selfie competition by turning into his Alta-ego Lizard King and won a Magic Eight Ball which is how we now make any decision we can neither agree on and a bottle of prosecco.

Thank you Joe Blogs Network and BGO - it was a great night, we met some wonderful people and most of all we raised some much needed money for the WWF.