Uuup

We all ordered cocktails and snacks, I chose a Guavita cocktail which was a delicious and refreshing combination of gin, watermelon & guava shrub, with cardomom, pomegranate, lemon, jasmine, and soda. A few of the others chose the flamboyant looking Peacock Spirit! Snacks-wise we chose the Guacamole and the Cassava cheese bread – the guac was slightly better than mine (huge understatement, and I promise mine is pretty amazing), and although I only had a little nibble of the cheese bread because , it was incredibly moreish and I desperately wanted to devour the entire bowl of them!



Our huge array of starters arrived, and while everyone else shared a selection of Ensalada Amazónica (mango and avocado salad), Patacones Mechados (Crispy plantain, pulled pork, achiote seeds), Tequeños (clay oven chicken rolls), and a variety of sushi, I stuck to my keto-friendly dishes and had the Hamachi Tiradito (thinly sliced yellowtail). My yellowtail was absolutely beautiful and tasted super fresh in a zesty passionfruit dressing.

For mains I chose the Merluza Negra, which was Patagonian black hake, grilled eggplant, plantain crisp. The fish was cooked perfectly, although the grilled eggplant wasn’t really grilled and was more of a mousse, but very taste nonetheless! I absolutely adore plantain, but it’s not exactly keto-friendly due to the high-carb content, so I was relieved that there were three *very* thin plantain crisps – it saved me because I can’t say no to plantain!

There are different areas for you to sit in, and you have the choice of sitting on the old barge itself, or on dry land in the gardens or terrace. The gardens around the old barge are very pretty, and the relaxed, canalside setting makes you feel as though you’re in the middle of the countryside rather than London. I loved the different areas, and all of them are served by the street food style vans near the entrance. With covid you order through an app and everything is brought to you, but it was still refreshing to have a sort-of street food style experience after 18-months without, and it was the perfect relaxed Saturday afternoon lunch.




Food-wise we were in for a treat! We began by sharing the Hoisin Duck Scotch Egg which was out-of-this world good, but my goodness the mains were even better. I chose the Hackney Cheese Steak Burger, while the boyfriend chose the Buttermilk Chicken Burger, and each came with a side of Chickpea Fries which were unusual but tasty.


Despite being full-to-bursting, I couldn’t resist the Barge Eton Mess (after all, everyone has a separate dessert stomach, right?!), which was an orange cake served with strawberries, vanilla ice-cream and meringue. It was one of the best desserts I’ve had recently – I absolutely adored the orange cake and am now desperate for the recipe!

I adore whimsical afternoon teas that take a theme and go wild with it, drawing you into that little quirky world for a couple of hours and giving you an escape from the real world. After a stressful few weeks of house hunting, this week I escaped the everyday and was whisked away to Neverland when I tried out Aqua Shard’s Peter Pan afternoon tea offering, and was blown away by the impressive presentation and tasty on-theme treats! Additionally, J.M Barrie gifted the Peter Pan copyright to Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) in 1929, so for every Peter Pan afternoon tea bought at Aqua Shard, £2 will be donated to GOSH’s children’s charity.

Dining in the era of Coronavirus is always a bit of an unusual and nervous experience when you’re not sure what the situation will be like at the restaurant and how well they’ll be following guidelines. Thankfully both The Shard and Aqua Shard are doing everything they can to minimise contact, with every staff member wearing staffs and/or visors and each table set at least 1m apart. It was a very different experience to the festive afternoon tea last year, but the staff did everything they could to make it a lovely and enjoyable afternoon.
Shev (who you may remember from my Slovakia posts) and I were so excited for our afternoon tea, and after choosing our special teas (I chose the Adventure Tea while Shev chose the Darling Tea) and admiring the cute on-theme crockery, the pirate ship arrived! As dry ice streams from the ship, you can’t help but be wowed by the breathtaking views over the city behind. The views of London were portrayed in the Peter Pan movie when they fly to Neverland, and it’s without a doubt one of my favourite scenes of the whole film! Being on the 31st floor of The Shard, on an overcast day you can even enjoy your Peter Pan tea surrounded by clouds imagining that you’re floating through the sky over London…

We began with the savoury selection, which included a deliciously moreish pork sausage and caramelised onion puff pastry, a mushroom pastry ‘chimney’, and the “codfish” captain hook which was a deep fried cod brandade. We then moved on to the little sandwiches, which were the “Lost Boys”, aka roasted chicken and crispy bacon with mayonnaise and mustard, and the Little Bird which was egg mayonnaise with cucumber, chives and truffle. I absolutely loved the sandwiches and wish there were more provided as you only got one little sandwich per person of each flavour.

As if by magic, our lovely waiter appeared with a special treasure chest which was opened to reveal four perfect little scones. I’m not a huge scone fan usually so I was THRILLED that these were smaller than your average scone…but then I ate them and they were probably the best scones I’ve ever had, so for the first time in my entire life I wished they were bigger haha. I didn’t think it would be possible, but the jam that accompanied the scones was actually even better than the scones – my favourite was the mammee-apple jam, which I loved so much I ate a teaspoon of it by itself once the scones were in my belly!

The sweet treats that followed were so adorable – the Tinker Bell iced shortbread sprinkled in gold dust was my favourite, but the Tick Tock Crocodile (jelly with a crocodile gummy sweet), Hook’s Perish Cake (Lime green victoria cake – basically a lime-flavoured Australian lamington), and the Peter’s Secret Never Tree Entrance (Dark chocolate mousse with raspberry jam and chocolate sponge) were also delicious and so moreish! We struggled to finish them all as we were so full by this point, but after a little break we just about managed it.

Sexy Fish, and now MNKY HSE (pronounced ‘Monkey House’). A Latin American fine dining restaurant on Dover Street in the heart of Mayfair, the restaurant is fairly unassuming from the outside, and it’s only when you walk through the bar and descend into the basement that your eyes adjust to the effortless cool surrounding you. Match that with incredible Latin American food, and you have a winner.

Having opened just under a year ago, t’s already been used for multiple fashion events, including the GQ closing party for Men’s Fashion Week this year. Despite departing after dinner around 11pm, just as the night was really starting, we got a small glimpse into the potential of the space, and it’s safe to say I’ll definitely be going back for a later dinner time when I return to London at Christmas!
I picked Jasiminne up enroute as she FINALLY lives nearer to me! Since she moved to Battersea from East London, I can now pick her up on my way into central as Battersea is on my way haha. We had catch ups and did some car-dancing/singing like we always do, and once parked up round the corner from MNKY HSE we wandered down the road to it.
Dan was running a bit late due to a delayed train, so we sat at the table, ate some chips, and ordered some drinks – I could only have one alcoholic drink as I was driving, so chose the most delicious Guava Pisco Sour…

Half an hour later Dan rocked up and we quickly ordered a whole bunch of stuff to share. Unfortunately the lighting inside was *very* dark and moody with overhead yellowy spotlights, so terrible for photos. But alas. We went with…
Yellow Tail Aguachile

Kingfish Ceviche

Wagyu Tostadas

AUGUST 23, 2020 LONDON
A Post-Lockdown Dinner at Amazonico, Mayfair.
I’ve been seeing individual friends each week since lockdown ended, slowly seeing them all for the first time in months. It started out as picnics and drinks in the parks, then moved to restaurants at the beginning of July, and finally I plucked up the courage to visit an actual bar with a group of friends at the start of August. Since then I’ve seen a few groups of friends, but the lovely bunch I saw for our Amazonico dinner last night, I hadn’t seen since January when we went to Isabel! We had the best evening, it’s a restaurant we’d all been wanting to visit for ages so it felt extra special, and I wanted to share our experience as we were all super impressed!



We started with pre-drinks at Sketch just up the road, before walking down to Amazonico. I made the mistake of wearing new heels, so the boys had to practically carry and support me down the street haha. We arrived and were shown to our big booth table. All of the staff were wearing masks, you had to use anti-bac gel on arrival, and I loved that our table felt a little private and tucked away. You’ll have to excuse the poor quality of the photos – I wasn’t expecting to post about it so I didn’t take my camera, so I only have phone photos!



We all ordered cocktails and snacks, I chose a Guavita cocktail which was a delicious and refreshing combination of gin, watermelon & guava shrub, with cardomom, pomegranate, lemon, jasmine, and soda. A few of the others chose the flamboyant looking Peacock Spirit! Snacks-wise we chose the Guacamole and the Cassava cheese bread – the guac was slightly better than mine (huge understatement, and I promise mine is pretty amazing), and although I only had a little nibble of the cheese bread because , it was incredibly moreish and I desperately wanted to devour the entire bowl of them!



Our huge array of starters arrived, and while everyone else shared a selection of Ensalada Amazónica (mango and avocado salad), Patacones Mechados (Crispy plantain, pulled pork, achiote seeds), Tequeños (clay oven chicken rolls), and a variety of sushi, I stuck to my keto-friendly dishes and had the Hamachi Tiradito (thinly sliced yellowtail). My yellowtail was absolutely beautiful and tasted super fresh in a zesty passionfruit dressing.

For mains I chose the Merluza Negra, which was Patagonian black hake, grilled eggplant, plantain crisp. The fish was cooked perfectly, although the grilled eggplant wasn’t really grilled and was more of a mousse, but very taste nonetheless! I absolutely adore plantain, but it’s not exactly keto-friendly due to the high-carb content, so I was relieved that there were three *very* thin plantain crisps – it saved me because I can’t say no to plantain!

The others chose a lot of red meat – lamp chops, steak, the whole shebang. Other than Francis who like me chose fish! We also had a bunch of sides; cassava fries, tomato salad, and broccoli and carrots.

I turned the key to my Loft room and when the door opened was astounded by the unique design of the interior. I entered immediately into the bathroom, with a private toilet behind a door to the right, and the sink space immediately ahead of me under the staircase. Past the toilet is an open bath space made from beautiful Italian terrazzo tiles, but no privacy screen – not great if you’re staying with a parent/sibling or a friend.

Paramount House Hotel in Surry Hills Sydney hotel review
The bath is a rectangular wooden box made of native blackbutt; a nice idea, but frankly a little impractical – it’s impossible to lay back and relax, you sort of have to just sit there with your knees up under your chin like so…

Paramount House Hotel in Surry Hills Sydney hotel review
Aesop bath toiletries
Paramount House Hotel in Surry Hills Sydney hotel review
Gorgeous Aesop bath products are provided, and rather than a closet, there’s a hanging rail under the stairs, which, although fine for male guests, is slightly inconvenient for anyone with dresses longer than knee-length as the space under the rail isn’t long enough for either midi or long dresses – the bottoms of my dresses covered the mini-bar snacks.

Paramount House Hotel in Surry Hills Sydney hotel review


Past the bath-space is a cosy living area with a comfy relaxed couch, which I loved lazing on after my impractical and slightly uncomfortable bath, and a door leading onto a balcony with table and chairs. Upstairs is a mezzanine bedroom, with beautiful coloured linen bedding, and a wooden tree-trunk bedside table with power outlets directly above (thank goodness!).

Paramount House Hotel in Surry Hills Sydney hotel review
Paramount House Hotel in Surry Hills Sydney hotel review
Paramount House Hotel in Surry Hills Sydney hotel review
When I returned to my room later that evening I was pleased to find a glass bottle filled with fresh lemon and orange water – I poured it into the glass provided and my face creased into a pained expression as I tossed it around my mouth. It was sparkling water. An unusual choice when surely it’s fairly common knowledge that many people can’t stand sparkling water? I mean, have the staff at Paramount not seen the amount of memes around this issue! Sparkling water aside, I had a blissful sleep and loved the space of the Loft room with the living room and balcony.

There are plenty of food and drink options both within Paramount House and in the local area. Paramount Coffee Project is perfect for a relaxed breakfast and lunch (I really enjoyed my banana bread breakky!), while the in-house restaurant, Poly, is an intimate space, and a spin-off of famed Sydney restaurant, Ester. Downstairs is a cocktail bar, and mere minutes away there are my old favourites; Chin Chin, Tio’s, Rosie Campbell’s, The Clock, and The Winery.

Banana bread breakfast at Paramount Coffee Project in Surry Hills, Sydney


There’s no swimming pool or gym at Paramount, but there is a cinema on the lower floor in the original Paramount Pictures screening room and a rooftop health club, Paramount Recreation Club, which provides regular classes and health juices from the kiosk.
There’s no denying the fact that Paramount House Hotel is beautifully designed and a welcome independent addition to Surry Hills and the Sydney hotel scene, but the basic expectation of a private bathroom and sufficient wardrobe space left me feeling slightly disappointed. It very much felt like a case of design over functionality created by designers who weren’t fully aware of guests’ needs or pet peeves.Despite its shortcomings, Paramount House has a lot going for it, and I think it probably appeals more to a trendier crowd who are looking for something unique. If you’re looking for a more ‘local’ experience of Sydney, book a stay and use it as an opportunity to explore the city’s coolest neighbourhood.

An elevator took me up to a dimly-lit corridor with largely-spaced apart doors leading to the guest rooms. Even the smallest guest rooms at COMO The Treasury are an average of 55sq m, with the largest suite measuring a huge 120sq m. I walked into my elegant Heritage Balcony Room and was instantly shocked (as in, my mouth literally dropped open, shocked) by the size and space before me.
It was without a doubt the biggest ‘standard’ hotel room I had ever seen, and beautifully designed too, with light-hued furniture and natural light flooding in from the original oversized windows. My room had everything I could need with a VERY comfortable king-sized bed with Egyptian cotton bed-linen, a table and chairs, large desk, and a sofa/chaise longue thing.

There was a gorgeous balcony stretching the entire length of the room, with chairs and a table.

The mini-bar features local wine from the Margaret River wine region, and a range of delicious complimentary snacks (the lemon biscuits were my favourite) and cold and hot drinks (including fancy cold pressed juices).

And then there’s the bathroom; a swoon-worthy room of beautiful travertine stone tiles with a twin vanity unit, and a floor-space large enough for a plethora of activities – I personally cranked up Beyonce and danced around as if I were on stage. The walk-in wet-room style shower is also huge – big enough for me to perform ‘Freedom’ (if ya know, ya know) mid-hair wash. As well as the shower I also tested out the insanely deep bathtub with the provided COMO Shambhala at Home aromatherapy bath-salts, and then dried myself off with the plushest towels I have ever used.

Uuup updated their business hours.

Uuup updated their website address.