I had a spectacularly good night out with an old girlfriend from college last night in the relatively new Riding House Cafe all-day brasserie in Great Titchfield Street. It has an uber cool New York style interior complete with rusted metal coverings for the Dyson hand dryers. Just lovely to see an old building turned into something so vibrant. Given that my children are still all away we met early, at 6.30pm and it already looked like this in the main drop in bar area:-
The food was delicious, even the bread and olives and you can choose lots of different “small plates” at either £3 or £5 each so we shared a selection and drank too much Tinpot Hut NZ Sauvignon Blanc wine which is one of my favourites. My only complaint was that we spent a lot of time discussing the merits of our “super food salad” which consisted of chopped up iceberg lettuce with (arguably) frozen peas and sweetcorn thrown in. “Which bit was the super food”? We pondered for rather too long…..once the meal was over we did ask about it and it turned out the waiter had made a mistake – pressed the wrong button on his ipad – ordered us the “chopped salad” by accident. They did take it off our bill, but we felt another bottle of wine and the presentation of the real super food salad in order to debrief would have been a more appropriate gesture.
Anyway, we solved the problems of the world, but not our own. We laughed and even cried a little. She’s just finished directing a film about an A LIST HOLLYWOOD STAR. So cool.
She walked me to Oxford Circus, just 5 minutes away and boggled on her way whilst leaving me to manage not only a tube journey but a train ride which was not a good idea. I woke up in an empty train carriage miles away from home. Tried to persuade several policemen driving a police van to drive me home, but failed and then finally found a taxi. £30 later and a long conversation about which I remember nothing and I was home.
Got to be done. Even if I’m too old for that sort of behaviour.
Anna
August 12, 2011Nice place, why is it called the “Riding House Cafe”? Horsey-related in any way?
Yes, beautiful city…
Family Affairs
August 12, 2011No it’s the name of the street – don’t know why it was named that in the first place though xx
lori
August 13, 2011oh wow, what a brilliant night out. the place does look ny, love the industrial feel and those leather couches, gorgeous. i feel like that too, too old for this kind of thing, but then do it anyway (taxi was a good call). your friends sound cool.
Family Affairs
August 13, 2011You should come over from the US – real home from home feel x