Sakurado – The most colourful Japanese desserts

I recently had the pleasure to try out this cute little Japanese cafe in Putney. As far as it was from me (I’m based in East London), it was worth the trek! Just check out these super colourful Japanese cakes!

Here we have the Mille Crepes in the forefront. Flavours were (left to right): Raspberry, coconut, matcha and Mango.

In the background we have their cake rolls. Flavours were (left to right): chestnut, matcha, sweet potato and mango.

They taste as good as they look 😍

Sakurado is known for their desserts but their hot food is great too! They do a set lunch for £15 from Fridays – Sundays (no more weekdays!) so make sure you book ahead 🙂

Starter

A lovely mix of starter plates, from what I remember it was miso soup, pumpkin salad, sesame vegetables, pickled vegetables and matcha pudding. The mini bowls they come in is just too cute! My favourite was the pumpkin salad, mmm.

 

Mains

Chicken oyakodon; I only tried a bit of this but my god the egg was tasty. I highly recommend this one.

Salmon teriyaki: at first I thought this plate didn’t look like a lot but the onigiri’s were deceptively filling! The teriyaki sauce was delicious, wish there was more of it!

More dessert

Saving the best for last; the matcha tiramisu! The coffee was quite strong but I love coffee so it didn’t bother me. The matcha creme was strongly infused with matcha, and the combination of the matcha creme and the coffee base was perfect. I’ll honestly come back just for this!

-EatsEscapades

The Attendant would like to serve you…

…a lovely cup of latte…

(Did anyone catch the love pun? hehe :P)

…along with the most beautifully decorated French Toast I have seen to date

Like seriously, here’s a close up:

Like honestly, how aesthetically pleasing is that? Absolutely gorgeous!

It tasted great as well. I’m usually not a fan of flower flavouring in food (most of the time it reminds me too closely of perfume and who would want to eat perfume?) but the taste of the petals blended beautifully with the pear/maple syrup sauce. Not only did the crushed petals look beautiful, it added a nice hint of extra flavouring.

The cafe I went to is called The Attendant;  a quirky, shabby chic coffee/lunch restaurant that fits perfectly within the hipster style of Shoreditch, London. I had a meeting around this area and so originally only stopped by for a quick bite/coffee fix thinking it was just a coffee shop and that was all did, but I was pleasantly surprised by how much more they offered in terms of menu items and the interior design. You all know how much I love a nice, shabby chic designed cafe 😉 They offer breakfast, brunch and lunch menus daily.

Here’s how the interior looked:

Just look at clever design of the overhanging, multi plant pot holding decor on the ceiling:

Here’s a close up, it gives the cafe a refreshing atmosphere:

More leafy vines decoration at the back of the cafe:

If you’re ever around, I recommend popping by even for a quick coffee to go 🙂

Bonus: they also serve still water in a jug mixed with mint leaves and cucumber for free, pure awesomeness.

 

-Eats Esacapdes

Brunch. Munch. Fun. Part 2

Another weekend, another weekend for brunch! This time, it’s at a shabby chic styled restaurant located amongst modern, business high rises. Bad Egg, London, has long been regarded as a great lunch place with high review scores so I’ve been excited to give this place a visit! As the name suggests, expect to see eggs, as a component within your choice of dish. Seeing as I’m a lover of eggs, this doesn’t sound like a strange idea at all 🙂

Above: the massive amounts of dishes we had between 4 people 😛

They also offer bottomless brunches (unlimited alcohol for a set amount of time with your choice of brunch set), but we went ahead with the all day brunch menu instead; bottomless brunch for next time 😉

See the below for close ups:

Huevos Rancheros: Creamy scrambled eggs, chilli, cheese fondue, chorizo, peppers, salsa and guacamole. Served with fried tacos

French Toast with blueberry jam, vanilla cream & maple syrup

Cheeseburger Hash: All the parts of their cheeseburger except the bun smashed with crispy fries & a fried egg

Pancakes with fried chicken, banana & maple syrup

Last but not least, the perfect dessert for this cold, winter-like autumn:

Warm sticky toffee pudding with caramelised apples and peanut butter ice-cream. What a fantastic dish to and the meal!

I recommend making a booking in advance as the restaurant is normally pretty busy during the weekends. They’re usually booked up for large groups of people going for their bottomless brunch. You can easily make a booking online – simple.

-Eats Escapades

Need a pick me up? Check this coffee shop out

Spotted an excellent coffee shop in borough market the other day. Monmouth Coffee; filtering coffee since 1978, has been a staple for tourists and locals around the area. The coffee gives you a nice, soft hum of a buzz that gets you going steadily throughout the day, it’s incomparable to chain store coffees. The first sip is able to give you that instant kick you need to get your day going or wake you up from that hangover you most likely will have this Halloween 😉

Park Starbucks for a bit; PSL (pumpkin spice latte) is out of season soon anyway (if not already) and give Monmouth Coffee a go if you’re around the area. They also sell cakes and pastries, I haven’t tried them yet so let me know if it’s worth trying in the comments below 🙂

The coffee is well worth the trip. No Seats? Just have it on the go.

-Eats Escapades

Cute little Cake Store

Peyton & Bryne is this lovely, cute little cake shop in Greenwich, London. I’ve walked past it quite a few times now; it’s caught my eye and each time I said I’ll go but never had time to pop in. After walking past it the third time I searched and read up reviews online – all good reviews – and decided to give it a try!

The decoration inside was quite simple and minimalist; bringing focus to the cake display shelves and the creative light designs. Using wood as the featured material for furniture. It gave a modern twist to a shabby chic design.

The atmosphere was great, although super busy on a Saturday. I was lucky to get a shot of an empty table with the lights in the background! I had a ninja moment; having to quickly take a picture sneakily before the next set of customers sat on the tables. It felt surprisingly spacious once you were inside even though the tables were all very close to each other. This caused me to feel close to like I was in a canteen although the decorations did not remind me at all of a canteen.

The cakes on display looked divine. I had a latte and a carrot cake (my fav <3), served on a circular wooden tray; loved the look of this, how great does the plating look in my picture above? However, I was very disappointed in the cake. It tasted nice but it was quite dry and I prefer my cake to be soft and moist.

All in all I would recommend this place for a nice, casual place to catch up with friends over the weekend but do bear in mind how busy it can get. It’ll also be a great place just to chill in the afternoons on a weekday. I wouldn’t recommend going just to try their cake though. I may go again to give another cake a go (they just look so tasty!) but it probably won’t be any time soon since my first bite of that cake didn’t leave such a good impression.

-Eats Escapades 

Green Tea Everything

Another post on cake! I do love my dessert – a little bit of sweet treat here and there won’t hurt 🙂

So last week, I was introduced to another amazing cake shop. They specialize in french patisserie but with an Asian twist; focusing mainly on french patisserie with green tea infused flavours. However, I have to say I was slightly apprehensive at first (green tea flavoured french dessert, really?) but the foodie in me was more curious than my uncertainty so I took the trip.

From east London I traveled all the way to North West London stopping at Finchley Road. Here lays Lanka,  Cake shop and Tea Salon. Owned by a reputable french cuisine Japanese chef who has worked in multiple Michelin star restaurants and run mainly by Japanese hires. The service is great, unbelievably polite servers even though the restaurant was so small (it can only seat a maximum of about 15 people at once from what I remember) and there was a long line forming inside.

Shame I don’t have a picture of the cake display (they all looked delicious) but below is what we had:

*picture clearly formatted for instragram

Of course, we chose the green tea flavoured ones 🙂

From left to right: Green Tea Paris Brest, Green Tea Panna Cotta and Green Tea Tart.

We also ordered tea (cake with tea of course!): Green Tea Rose Petal and Royal Delight. I loved the royal delight! Fruity and smells delicious!

And of course, the tea is accompanied by beautifully designed tea cups as well.

The decoration of the shop took the minimalist route with white as the dominant colour used for walls/display shelves and brown for tables. Not sure if it was deliberate but it really enhances the colours of the cakes and makes them stand out against the neutral colours of the shop.

Overall, great experience and delicious cakes I’d definitely recommend this place 🙂

-EatsEscapades