after my cloudy day with mama in womble-less wimbledon, i headed back into town to meet my 'original' pal (by default) in this big, bad city for a wee birthday celebration. i met erin back when we both lived in new zealand - both expats in a new city, plus working together full time, we became fast friends. (don't tell her, but i only hired her because she was english, and i wanted to hear london stories from someone other than marian keyes) so, when the time came and i finally booked my one-way-ticket to london, it was erin (who was now living back home in "london" [actually essex - lying little scum bag]) who decided i would be coming to surf her sofa until i found my way. well, my way wasn't found for a good five months, and her sofa bed definitely has the shape of my body indented into it by the time i finally moved. sorry, not sorry.
when i moved to actual london and she stayed in actual essex, we didn't hang out as much. in fact, it got as bad as us only hanging out around her birthday every year, when we'd make the proper effort to do so. but, since she got out of working crazy hours in retail, and i suddenly find myself with all this spare time on my hands, we've been hanging out a lot more. kinda funny though that we still ended up hanging out on her birthday... like old times!
we kicked things off at the anchor by borough market. i walk past this pub a lot, and see it pop up so frequently in movies shot along that stretch of the river, that i have deduced that it is kind of an iconic london pub... i mean, there's a fish and chip shop inside the pub. that's... unusual, right? well, we grabbed some cider and sat outside in the bloody cold and rain until we could bear it no more, then headed in amongst the masses and grabbed the lucky last booth until the rest of erin's pals turned up when we then headed off to dinner... we had reservations at the real greek along the southbank - my first tapas experience!
with so much choice on the menu, we decided we wanted to have a bit of everything, and so opted for one of the sharing options. the food was served on a giant afternoon-tea-esque type contraption, which was pretty handy, as between the four of us we devoured celery and carrot sticks and greek flat bread with hummus (nom) and taramasalata (bleurgh), gigandes plaki (giant broad beans in tomato sauce), and revithia (chick peas mushed in delicious flavours) as the first 'course'. we were positively starved, so it was all gone pretty quickly - the fresh and toaseted greek bread was sensational; some of the nicest bread i've ever eaten!
we washed all that down with some of the restaurant's best pink wine, before another tier of finger food was served to us. this time we were presented with both chicken and halloumi skewers (i've never had halloumi before, so yum!), as well as separate grilled halloumi, pork belly (ermergerrrd), tiropitakia (filo pastry filled with spinach and feta), dolmades (vine leaves stuffed with rice and other noms) and saffron rice and buttery new potatoes. serrrriously though, so much food. all of the food! all of the delicious food!
the waiters were super friendly and attentive (except when we wanted the bill...ha), and as they approached us with the dessert menu, and we sat there rubbing our full bellies, they laughed and walked away instead. jokes! all of that food and pink wine, and we still only paid just over £20 each (inc service charge), so definitely another little gem of a restaurant for a quick and cheap bite - and the best part is that it wasn't even overrun with tourists, which is sometimes a massive downfall along the southbank.
with restaurants all over london, i'll definitely be heading back there again soon.
have you been? what did you think?
