We visited my husband's family near Brighton this past weekend and decided to visit Arundel to have lunch and do a little bit of shopping. I had no idea that Arundel was so cute. There were lots of cute little shops and everything was reminded me of France. I bought a great little French market basket that is perfect for trips to the farmers market on Sunday.

We had a great lunch at Arundel House, which is a both a restaurant and a boutique hotel. Our food was excellent. I had a brilliant asparagus starter, crayfish tagliatelle and rhubarb cheesecake. Did I mention I am crazy about rhubarb at the moment? The service was excellent and one of the staff even gave us a tour of the hotel rooms. My husband was so inspired he was ready to stay overnight but unfortunately I had to veto that idea because I wanted to go strawberry picking and plus we had absolutely nothing with us that would've warranted an overnight stay.

We ran out of time in Arundel and I felt like I was rushing to get everything done but I definitely would go back. There is a beautiful castle that I missed and would like to go back to see.

Arundel House
11 High Street
Arundel
West Sussex
BN18 9AD

One of my friends from the US was here this past weekend with some of her work colleagues so we went to Fifteen in Shoreditch to celebrate.

We ate in the Trattoria and I love the juxtaposition of basic wooden tables, chairs and floor with the over the top glamorous chandeliers.

The food was outstanding as usual. The absolutely love the rosemary bread served with olive oil and aged balsamic vinegar. Don't forget the balsamic vinegar, please. I wonder if it would be a problem if I just stopped by to pick up some bread on my way home from work every day.

I had the antipasto to start which I absolutely loved, but I also tried the Penne pasta with spicy sauce and the potato gnocchi, which were equally excellent. I had the Scotch Rib eye for the second course which was very well seasoned but the sides were truly the highlight for me. The potatoes with rosemary and garlic, funky leaf salad with an outstanding dressing and the green beans with garlic and chilli were beyond good.

You know when you are full but you just keep eating anyway. We'll that was clearly me last night. I want to recreate the green beans with chilli and garlic at home so I was trying to pay attention to the flavors as I was eating. And of course, we finished things up with great desserts including a chocolate banoffee brownie, cheesecake and creme brulee.

I was reading so of the recent reviews and this place gets a lot of flack for being too expensive. Our total bill came to about £240 last night for 4 people and I thought that was actually pretty reasonable considering we had three courses each, 2 cocktails each, 2 bottles of water and a bottle of wine, both for the table.

Fifteen London
15 Westland Place
London N1 7LP
Tel: 0871 330 1515
www.fifteen.net

We've just returned from a fabulous dinner at Le Petite Maison, which was a bit of a birthday surprise planned by my husband. You may have noticed my interest lately in French cuisine so this restaurant was perfect.

Le Petite Maison is in Mayfair near Bond Street. Tables are close together, which brought back memories for me of Brasserie Lipp in Paris. Food is served family style, which I love although some restuarnts (mind you, not this one) need a lesson in how to time family style courses better. Two tomatoes and one lemon are pre-set at every table, which is an interesting idea for table decor. If you like, you can slice up the tomatoes yourself and pass them around the table. Bread is also placed directly on the table with no bread plate in sight.

When we sat down, I noticed a distinguished gentleman who my attention was drawn to immediately because from time to time he kept speaking into a dictaphone. My husband recognized him as Michael Winner who is a film director and he also writes a regular food column for Sunday Times called Winner's Dinners. Hmmm, perhaps I shall be checking the upcoming Sunday Times for any reviews of La Petite Maison.

A few minutes later, a gentleman in a tux came in and immediately acknowledged Winner (can you tell I do a lot of people watching in resturants?). They had a quick chat and then the gentleman in the tux sat down at another table as he was clearly waiting for some other people to join him. I kept thinking, hmmm...I wondering who he is waiting for and then Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin walked in. You would honestly have recognized them immediately if you were there, too. Chris is actually much, much taller than I would've thought and he has a huge amount of hair right now, which is all curly and sort of wild. Gwyneth looked lovely. Her hair was pulled up completely off her face in a soft bun, which sat high on her head. She wore a purple top and some gold dangly earrings and a gold bracelet.

Oh and the food was fabulous, too. Starters are fairly reasonable with most priced between £7 and $12. A few highlights for us included some lovely grilled peppers and an artichoke salad. The tables are you close together that you can't help but notice what nearby diners are eating. I must admit that often I make my ordering decisions based on how good other peoples' food looks. For mains, we had some lovely sea bream and steak. Large portions for the main course. Most of the main dishes are priced between £20-30. For dessert, we had an outstanding creme brulee, which was nicely infused with vanilla. If you go, seriously don't skip dessert. Outstanding restaurant, excellent for people watching.

Le Petite Maison
54 Brooks Mews
London W1K 4EG

Great Mexican Restaurants are so hard to find in London. I've eaten at some really BAD Mexican Restaurants in Covent Garden and other areas in London.

Crazy Homies, located in Notting Hill, is the best I've found. Some of my favorites include the chips with a trio of guac and salsas, the burritos, spicy chicken gringas (aka quesadillas pretty much anywhere else) and if I'm still hungry, churros with chocolate. The chips and salsa alone are enough to keep me coming back again and again.

This place is SMALL so come early, make reservations or dine at an off peak time. Otherwise, you will probably wait for a table, but trust me, it's worth it.

Crazy Homies
125 Westbourne Park Road

I absolutely love great restaurants and I am fortunate to have eaten at many of the best, which is why I am so excited about this new book that's coming out next month.

It's an insider tour of a 100 of the world's most fabulous restaurants. Who eats there, what to order and how to get a table!

Booking a table can be tricky especially if it's a popular place. It's not unusual for reservations to be made 2 months in advance and at many places, if you don't call exactly 2 months in advance, there may be no more bookings for that evening.

For London restaurants, I put the numbers of my favorite restaurants in my mobile, figure out time the reservation line opens and set my calendar to send me a reminder when I need to call.

If I am traveling and there is a restaurant that I really want to try but haven't made a reservation, then I make sure I book the hotel based on whether or not they have an alliance with the restaurant where I want to eat.

More often than not, the restaurant will reserve a couple of tables each night for hotel guests and usually it's just a matter of letting the concierge know that I want one of those tables.

For St. Patty's Day, we went to Brighton to meet up with some friends and go to dinner at Terre a Terre.

Terre a Terre is a restaurant that only serves vegetarian food. When the owners started this restaurant 13 years ago, they had a mission to change the way people felt about vegetarian food.

All of the dishes are beautifully presnted and bursting with flavor. This is not just a restaurant for vegetarians, this is a restaurant for people who love good food. I am not vegetarian but I do a lot of vegetarian cooking. I would bring any one of my meat loving friends and I know they would love it, too.

For starters, I had the soup of the day, which was pea soup and my husband had the rock salt bruschetta, which was excellent. I love pea soup and it was served with some excellent focaccia, which made it even better.

For his main dish, my husband had the rosti, which it pictured above. I had never heard of a rosti before but it's basically like a large hashbrown topped with buttered spinanch, cheese and tomato. My husband love it--and I loved it too, which annoyed my husband because I kept eating from his plate.

My mushroom linguine was also excellent. I was craving pasta and the sauce was truly delicious.

Dessert is a big highlight of any meal for me and Terre a Terre did not disappoint. I ordered the Churro, which is basically like a sampling of donuts with their own chocolate sauce.

It reminded me of when I used to order Churros from Taco Bell, but I have to say this is a much better version. Paul had the most original looking apple pie I've ever seen and better yet, it was excellent. I thought I made a good apple pie, but sadly, I cannot compete.

This is a pretty glowing review, but there was one thing that kind of annoyed when we first sat down at our table. After we sat down, the hostess proceeded to seat 4 other tables in the same section within a matter a minutes, which meant that our server struggled a little bit to get to everyone promptly.

To me, this is restaurant management 101 and the tables should be timed better. To their credit, our reservation was at the busiest time of the evening, the staff were very friendly and attentive and the food was timed correctly.

If you are in Brighton and you are looking for an excellent culinary experience, then I highly recommend Terre a Terre.

71 East Street
Brighton, East Sussex, BN1 1HQ
Tel: 01273 729 051

Yikes, do you know that Mother's Day is right around the corner -- March 18?

I've been in London for almost three years and I still forget that the US and the UK have different dates for this holiday! I have been doing a little research today trying to decide what to do with my husband's family for Mother's Day. I think we should try to keep it nice and simple, which means no cooking for me!



I need to find a nice place for brunch and Christophers in Covent Garden was one of the first places that came to mind. I ate at Christopher's probably about two years and the people at the table next to us were talking about how much they loved it and how they heard Gwyneth was a regular.

No Gwyneth in sight when we were there and for me, brunch was just ok. But I think perhaps it is time to have another go and the brunch menu does look pretty good, so why not?





Christophers (near Covent Garden)
18 Wellington Street
London WC2E 7DD
Tel: 020 7240 4222
www.christophersgrill.com

Until today, I would never have guessed that there was an American style diner in London that I DIDN'T know about.

One of my co-workers wanted to celebrate by having her leaving lunch at Tinseltown and what a great time we had.

Tinseltown is a restaurant that serves American style diner food. Open 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. The menu has ATLEAST two dozen milkshakes to choose from and the chocolate one that I tried today was divine.

There were just so many classic American favorites that I have not seen on a menu in SO Long. Burgers, Caesar Salad, Floats, Milkshakes, Banana Splits, Onion Rings, Apple Pie, NY steak sandwiches and pancakes...yes, pancakes!

It was really difficult to order and I changed my mind about twelve different times. If you are an American Expat in London, missing a taste of American food, then I suggest giving Tinseltown a whirl.

Tinseltown
44-46 St. John Street
London EC1M 4DF
www.tinseltown.co.uk

I try to eat healthy foods and most of the time I even enjoy it, but sometimes it is worth throwing away the healthy eating guidelines for onion rings and a sensational burger.

I have been searching, but trust me, I haven't found a better burger place than this in London.

I don't know what kind of batter they use for the onion rings, but it is beyond excellent. Not only do they have a whole range of burgers to choose from, but they also do malts. If you are craving excellent diner food, look no further than the Fine Burger Company. There are multiple locations in London, just make sure that when you go, you bring your appetite.

If you don't know where to look for The House Pub & Restaurant, chances are you won't find it. Set back away from the crowds of Upper Street, The House is located in a residential area of Canonbury and very popular with local residents.

The House calls itself a pub and restaurant, but I actually think that it's more of a gastropub. If you're not familiar with the term 'gastropub', it just means it is a pub with higher quality food than your typical pub grub. With selections like Fresh crab and ginger spring rolls, pan fried sea bass with chorizo and frangipane tart with clotted cream ice cream, the menu has a nice selection of excellent dishes.

While I think that the food is excellent, I think the service lets this place down a little bit, which is why I think it's more of a gastropub than a restaurant. There were just a number of little things that I noticed throughout our meal, which indicated to me that maybe some of the staff could use a little better training.

For example, when I ordered a glass of Sauvignon blanc, the server asked me to point to it on the menu so she would know whether it was a red or white wine. What? She also brought around a bread basket, but wasn't able to tell us anything about the different types of bread in the basket.

Service between courses was also slow. I felt the need to ask for our bill as soon as our dessert arrived, because I knew how long it took the server to do everything else and I hate that feeling of being ready to leave of restaurant and you can't because you still need to pay and your server is distracted and off doing something else.

My advice: Go for the food, but make reservations and if you are in a hurry for whatever reason, save this place for another time. To be fair, I was there on a busy Friday night so I think I'll give this place another try during the week to make sure that my assessment about the service is fair.

The House Pub & Restaurant
63-69 Canonbury Road
London N1
(T) 020 7704 7410