Profil von KatBrown

Popped in for tea to kill time before a trip to Lucky Voice and asked for something along the lines of peppermint but a bit more exciting. I was recommended Wanderlust, which was a lovely warming fruity - but not too fruity - tea. I had one of the doorstop brownies as well and it was pretty good. A lovely place to pass the time with friendly staff, a good atmosphere and a massive selection of teas.

Life's too short for bad meals. If you feel it's too short for bad reviews, then feel free to skip to the end, when I disappear into the streets with my mouth in the shape of a sad rainbow.

Having very much enjoyed listening to QV's charming chef Jeremy Lee on Radio 4's Food Programme (lard - who knew it was so exciting?) I decided to treat myself to a pre-event supper on my own there. 

I turned up at half six and the place was very quiet, but the charming front desk lady gave me a choice of very nice tables and made me feel extremely welcome. She is lovely. Douze points for her.

The wine menu is ravishingly designed and a real treat to look through. I had a glass of prosecco, planning on having some wine later.

About 10 minutes after I had sat down for my quiet supper, a group of three businessmen were shown to the table next to me. The restaurant - all three rooms of it - was totally empty. There was nobody there. They could have been perched anywhere - literally, anywhere else. I wondered if this was their usual table? Or where QV had lots of imminent bookings for all the other tables?

My hare soup starter from the all-day theatre menu was delicious, really rich and unctuous, and the brown and white soda breads I had were good too, but I was completely distracted by having these three people's business and personal conversation right on top of me. It was horrible. If I wanted to hear about Singapore trade, I'd Skype my brother.

It went from bad to rubbish. My main course - cornbreads with onions and various bits and pieces that I can't remember due to ensuing resentment and fury -  arrived on a tepid plate. How hard is it to serve a hot plate in a bloody restaurant? I wondered if it was supposed to have been cold on purpose, but could feel the warmth that had once been there, ebbing rather tragically away. The actual food was hot in one part, lukewarm in the rest of it. I didn't finish it. This is unheard of for me - my greed, and habit of finishing everything on my plate, won't usually allow it.  Still, the poor thing had suffered enough. And actually, I felt like I had as well. I had planned to linger a bit with wine, pudding and coffee, but instead ran for the hills after half an hour.

To their credit, the staff removed my glass of fizz from my bill as an apology for the main course. But the lack of attention was really disappointing, and far from a lovely treat, I felt like I had been punished with a miserly QV experience for being a single diner.

I highly doubt I'll bother bringing anyone with me to see what their service is like with a larger party. I wish I'd gone to any of the other untried Soho restaurants I'd thought about going to instead - and next time, I will.

I've been on a few lessons at Dulwich now and am really enjoying learning to ride again after six years off. I rode all the way through my teens, but stopped when I moved to London and encountered a few spookable horses. 

I'd booked in after looking over the website and seeing some positive reviews on here. When I called, I had a thorough chat with the person on the phone about my experience and they decided to pop me in the novice class as I hadn't been riding for years, and I could move up if I felt ready.

There is a large indoor school, and a medium-sized outdoor school, and obviously the park round the corner for hacking. Staff are the usual riding school mix of enthusiastic and world-weary (lots of kids helping out on the weekends, just as I used to) and the instructors that I've had, BJ and Joey, have both been good, although I got more feedback from Joey in the indoor school. I always borrow a hat here, there's a selection in the reception room that you can help yourself to.

I've signed up for a couple of private lessons for my birthday, as I'm still a bit nervous, and I will keep going with my group classes as well. At £25, Dulwich is the least expensive place I've found and it's in lovely surroundings, and the P4 bus stops pretty much by the door. The yard and horses are scrupulously clean and tidy, and each stall has the horse's name on in a pretty plaque which is nice.

I'm not sure what Hmmm100 was expecting - it sounds like they just randomly turned up at the stables expecting a tour! Perhaps arranging a specific meeting with the manager might have been more helpful? Either way, a one star rating is way off for this good-value school. 

Having developed an addiction to acrylics’ classier cousin, the UV nail, last summer, I stopped by Images one evening as trekking up to my usual haunt in Barbican was too much of a slog.

Images’ staff were much friendlier than my usual place, and the place was clean, relaxing and welcoming. Sadly the nails weren’t much cop. I wasn’t given quite long enough to dry them, which meant one nail had a very slight smudge – yes, I am that person who fixates on the smudge nobody else can probably see – and within a week they had started to come away from the nail bed at the sides, leaving those horrible fake-looking blemishes that are the reason you’ve avoided acrylics. I’ve given up my UVs for the winter, but I won’t be visiting Images again should I try them again.

This has long been rebranded as Spa Nails, rather than Cammy’s, but no matter. Unless someone tells you about it, you won’t have a clue that it’s here.

The staff are monumentally rude. They’re also, for the most part, monumentally brilliant. Don’t get your nails done by the blokes, who seem to run the place and are therefore less good with the nails.

I don’t live or work anywhere near here, but trekked up to get my UV nails done for as long as I had the patience to keep them. Affordable, effective, job done. This place is never less than 3/4 full, so do book in advance, but it’s well-priced and well-worth the rudeness, if only because there will either be Free Willy or Jeremy Kyle on the telly, or Phantom of the Opera on the stereo.