Said Dal 1923...

I have a sweet tooth. Not just your now and again craving chocolate sweet tooth, a raging give me any form of sugar you have on you sort of sweet tooth. My favourite remedies to cure my longing being cake and chocolate. So when my boyfriend announced we were going to chocolatier and cafe Said Dal 1923 in Soho I was positively skipping down the street. 

Said Dal is a small Italian cafe furnished with little wooden tables next to a giant counter full of goodies from truffles to vats of churning melted chocolate. The smell in there is incredible.

There are a selection of sandwiches and salads on the menu that pop up through the dumbwaiter on the wall of the cafe from the kitchen below. But of course I cannot recommend these to you as we skipped to the main event straightaway, the chocolate!

Boy and I both ordered a Mocha. "A Mocha?!" you say, outraged that we diluted our pure Italian chocolate with coffee. Truth is we both needed a caffeine fix and ordered the Mocha because of the insane way it is made. Melted dark, milk and white chocolate are spooned over the entire mug encasing it in rich silky chocolate before the coffee is poured in.

It was heaven on earth when the chocolate mixed in with the coffee and of course we shamelessly licked off all the chocolate from the outside of our mugs.

If you yourself do not have a sweet tooth/chocolate addiction you might be inclined to stop there but we simply could not leave without trying their chocolate cake. We figured chocolate cake from a chocolate shop must be insanely tasty, and of course it was.

Just look at that stodgy goodness. This cake was definitely more of a dessert than a fluffy cake but this suited us perfectly and we finished it off JUST before the sugar coma kicked in.

I live in Guildford so when I go into London I do not tend to go to the same places as there is so much to see and do all over the place especially where food is concerned. However, I just had to bring my twin to Said Dal 1923 because I knew she would love it as much as I did. 

Again, I ordered the mocha because I think I may have been dreaming about it ever since I tried my first one. It was just as perfect as the first one I had. Emily ordered the small milk hot chocolate (you can have either dark, milk or gianduja which is hazelnut) with whipped cream. A small hot chocolate being actual melted chocolate in a small mug. It was so thick that she was glad she had the portion of whipped cream to cut through the richness of the chocolate, she isn't as well seasoned in the chocolate drinking business as boy and I are.

Of course I recommend heading to Said Dal 1923 as soon as you can. Do not be put off by the brusk Italian staff whose service can seem a little rude and unwelcoming. Order anything chocolate as the quality is very impressive. Next time I go, and I'm confident there will be a next time, I think I'll try the chocolate truffles or chocolate brownie. See you there!

Les 110 de Taillevent...

This adorable bistro just off Cavendish square has a unique concept whereby they have 110 exquisite wines you can have by the glass. From New Zealand Sauvignon to Italian Barolo, they have handpicked this collection to complement all the dishes on the menu.

It was really easy to pick the perfect wine off the menu as they arrange all the wines that go with the dish alongside it in 4 different price brackets. You can also choose from two different measures of wine, 120ml or 70ml. 

The fun coloured coded symbols next to the wines can be deciphered in the key at the bottom which explained what type of wine each one is.

The service here was great and we were presented water and breadsticks immediately which we always appreciate.

It was a good thing that we were so enthralled by the menu not to fill up on breadsticks as next to arrive was a basket of crusty white bread with salted butter which we happily tucked into.

Our first glass of wine had also arrived by this point. We opted for the 70ml option each time as we wanted to try as many wines as possible (we ended up trying 6 in total). We mostly chose wines from the less than £8 price bracket, at the small measure most of them were around the £4 mark which was a total bargain in our eyes.

Around the stem of each glass was a card disc displaying the name of the wine you are drinking. This is a very clever idea because we are always drinking great wine restaurants and then racking our brains afterwards for the name of it.

We opted for the very sensibly priced set menu (£20 for two courses, £25 for three). Unfortunately I did not take photos of the starters we had but I can tell you that we had sardines on toasted garlic bread and a veal carpaccio which were both very flavoursome and each came with a little pouring jug of sauce.

Next up were the mains, sea bream for me and veal onglet for Boy (although we had half and half as usual). We were very impressed by the portion sizes and the quality of the ingredients.

We only opted for one dessert to share which of course had to be the chocolate tart with raspberry coulis. Again it was lovely and was accompanied by our favourite wine of the night. Moscato d'Asti was not actually supposed to go with this dessert but as we only got one dessert we did not want two of the same glasses of wine. It was a lovely sweet peachy slightly sparkling wine that could have been a dessert in itself. We are on the look out for a whole bottle that I am sure will go down far too easy.

Les 110 de Taillevent really is a gorgeous bistro serving the highest quality food and wine for very affordable prices. I would say that it was worth more than every penny.

To check out their menu and the wines to match visit their website:
http://www.les-110-taillevent-london.com/en/

They also have an extensive A La Carte menu if you would like to splash out but this is one of the few set menus I have seen where I wasn't longingly pawing at the other menu.