Galvin Bistrot de Luxe - London

 Perhaps one of my favourite restaurant in London and my top 3 French restaurants worldwide, Galvin Bistrot de Luxe is a petit coin de paradis Parisien in the heart of London.

As soon as you walk through the doors you're transported to a local Parisian bistrot. The atmosphere can only be described as a busy yet relaxed casual upmarket food lover's heaven.

The Michelin-starred brothers, Chris and Jeff Galvin, founded the Galvin Restaurants in 2005. The group now counts seven restaurants, all offering similar high-quality French cuisine in a luxurious setting unique to each of them.

I have lost count of the amount of awards the chefs and their restaurants have accumulated since opening their first restaurant. Amongst an impressive list of accolade, Galvin Bistrot de Luxe was listed in the Tatler Restaurant guide 2012 and was voted Harden's London top 3 favourite restaurants in 2012 and top 10 in 2012, 2011 and 2013.

Two dishes immediately stood out to me at the Bistrot de Luxe, the Lasagne of Dorset Crab and the Steak Tartare - for anyone who knows me, I will never pass raw beef if I have the opportunity.

The Dorset crab lasagne were hands down the best crab dish I have ever had and have now made it into my all time top 5 dishes. I am struggling to find words to describe how delicate and satisfying this experience was.

The steak tartare was hard to fault, but I was too busy lusting over the crab lasagne I had just enjoyed to snap the beauty.

Then came my favourite time of any meal, dessert. After a long debate between the strawberry soufflé and the white chocolate and ricotta mousse, I finally decided on the latter.

 The white chocolate and ricotta mousse was accompanied by kent strawberries and saffron ice-cream. I would've never thought about pairing white chocolate with saffron, but the ice cream took the dish to a whole other level.

We were sent home with a "petite attention" filled with two little delicious raspberry financiers that went perfectly with the tea I brought back from Paris when I returned to my room.

I already look forward to my next visit, and a feast of Dorset crab lasagne. I will definitely add the Galvin cookbook to my Christmas list

as always,

Love, Sarah xx

Galvin Bistrot de Luxe
66 Baker Street
W1U 7DJ London
United Kingdom

My Airbnb Experience

First of all I feel I must start by saying that I love staying in hotels, so much so I am one of those people whose dream home would be a hotel residence (with a huge bath with a view and a modern fully equipped kitchen - but this is for another post).
 This said you may be able to imagine what my views of Airbnb are, so let me tell you how I felt about giving up my lovely comfortable idea of a lovely clean and safe hotel room for an Airbnb experience.

I have never been a great fan of Bed and Breakfasts and guest houses, when I'm staying somewhere I like to feel at home, and staying in someone else's house whilst they're there makes me feel uneasy at times. But we were planning a mid May trip to Paris for a long weekend during a very busy period, and Paris in spring is not cheap. So my other half, who thinks Airbnb is a fantastic idea, had more  convincing arguments than usual when he found a studio in the 17e arrondissement for less than £100/night.

I finally agreed and was pleasantly surprised when we arrived in front of the elegant Parisian building, until we stepped in. We were taken to the back of the building through the "service" door, it wasn't the chic Parisian staircase I was expecting - far, very far from it. The staircase was partly open to the environment and very narrow and dark. We had four heavy suitcases to get up those seven flights of stairs and untrained legs and lungs, it took us a good twenty minutes to get there.

The studio was alright, not more, it was a bit dark, needed a slight refurbish and an added ghost in the shower. The sower ghost was actually just the water coming back up the drain with a slight brown colour and a sewage smell to go with it. Now the host did end up booking a plumber for the day we left.

I guess you can tell from this post that I wasn't very pleased with our accommodation, but here are my pros and cons of using Airbnb.

- More choices
- Better prices
- Bigger accommodation
- Self catering opportunity
- Live like a local
- Flexibility

- Little standardisation - incl cleanliness and security
- A lot of stairs - Ok that was just my experience but I'm still recovering ;)
- Hidden costs - Housekeeping fees

I guess at this point it's a personal preference, if you enjoy bed and breaksfasts and similar accomodation then Airbnb is probably better for you than hotels. But I love my hotels too much and will keep Airbnb as a last resort for my future trips.

I'll talk to you Sunday.

Love, Sarah