It’s afternoon’s like these – which incidentally was on my birthday – that make me fall in love with London again. I think it’s a commuter’s burden to regularly fall in and out of love with the bustling capital. The falling out happens during the morning commute. The falling in happens when we take time to delve into the capital outside of work hours.
I haven’t given London much attention over the past couple of years; too preoccupied with other things, preferring to remain in St Albans rather than dealing with shitty Thameslink trains. I mean, I’m there every week but always in the same area. But now that I work at home more than 50% of the time, my desire to see more of the city is growing; it’s the same feeling I get when I begin to think about my next travel adventure which is great because London is less than an hour away.
Anyway, here’s how my birthday afternoon went.
After catching the tube to Oxford Circus and noting that my patience with tourists is much higher when it’s a non-work day, I wandered into Mayfair for lunch at Sketch which I was veeerryyy excited about. I’d been to Sketch once before years ago and I know a lot had changed since then so it felt like a fresh experience.
I am thoroughly of the belief that half the cost of Sketch is down to the fact you will leave with an extra 50 photos added to your camera roll. And yes, most of these will be of the toilets. If you haven’t been to Sketch, I realise that sounds weird. If you have, well then you know.
If you’ve never heard of Sketch: it’s a gloriously eccentric townhouse in Mayfair made up of completely different rooms which are less restaurant and more an immersive experience. This time, we were in The Glade which has an enchanted woodland theme. The walls are beautifully decorated with trees and the delicately shifting light beams give the impression of sunlight shining through the treetops. The carpet is a patchwork of greenery and spongy underfoot, resembling a forest floor and the bold fabrics on the chairs and sofas were all floral themed. Honestly, it’s a proper work of art.
As it was my birthday, I treated myself (seriously, it was £15.50) to a bubble and pear cocktail (prosecco, lemon juice, vanilla syrup, pear puree) which was soooo nice. My starter was the cod croquette with endive salad which was the perfect combination of soft and crispy, and – something always special about fancy places – the salad tasted divine.
For mains, Alice and I both had the potato gnocchi with green velouté and roasted pine nuts. I genuinely wish I could have asked the chef how one can make gnocchi like that cos omg so soft. It melted in your mouth and the sauce was so tasty.
Naturally, we weren’t going to miss the opportunity to use the famous Sketch bathrooms and this also meant we got the opportunity to walk through The Gallery room aka the famous pink room everyone is always instagramming. Can confirm it’s just as cute as it looks and I took a few sneaky pictures whilst loitering by the bathroom door.
So the toilets! The ceiling is a patchwork of colourful neon lights, there’s cute wide-angle mirrors dotted about everywhere and you get your own individual egg to pee in. It’s quite a hard one to explain but hands down, most fun peeing experience you will ever have and the only time in your life you will take more photos of the restaurant toilets than of your food.
After finishing our pee-experience, we collected our coats (of course there’s a cloakroom) and took a walk through Carnaby which is an area I love. It’s just so cute, with so much going on and so much to look at. We stopped off at Doughnut Time, another place I’ve wanted to try for ages, although not as fancy as Sketch! There are so many different options but I eventually picked the ‘Hans Rolo’ and then promptly demolished a doughnut as big as my head.
And then we hit up the theatre and I FINALLY saw The Lion King which I have wanted to do for a stupidly long amount of time (Tip – the tickets aren’t going to get cheaper. Just suck it up.). We came out just as the sun was setting and walked back to the tube through Covent Garden, yet another picturesque area. My camera roll was very full by the end of the day!
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