Elephant Royale!

Hey guys! Welcome back to another restaurant! Recently we visited Elephant Royale in Docklands as part of Melissa's birthday weekend celebrations!

When entering this place, immediately you are just stunned by how gorgeous the decor is inside and how traditional it seems. The one thing that just made us fall in love was the fact that they have a kind of running pond throughout the restaurant with fish inside. Sadly we didn't get a picture but it was just gorgeous.

Look at it!

Along with this, the seating was just amazing too with us getting a lovely window seat with a gorgeous view outside onto the Thames.

When we sat down it was then time to order drinks! Seeing as we are still under 18 (sadly), we had to order the non-alcohol cocktails. As you can see below they were all very reasonably priced and did came in large glasses to last your whole meal.

Pussy Foot

Cooler

Erin: Melissa opted for the cocktail on the left called the Pussy Foot which I have to admit was just gorgeous. I opted for the Cooler (right) which had lemonade, lemon juice and passion fruit (I think! Don't hate me     >.<) and, whether I'm right or wrong about what was in it, it doesn't really matter because it was just plain stunning. It is a great drink for a summery day like the day we were there to cool you down (as lemonade usually does).

Melissa: My drink was called Pussy Foot and it

tasted DIVINE. Elephant Royale's mocktails never failed to delight me, my other favourite includes the Mickey Mouse. One thing with this place it seems is that presentation is everything. I liked the mix of strawberries, soda, and lime cream. The added cream helps with calming down your taste buds from the spice of Thai food!

Next up it was time to get out food. On a Sunday this restaurant does a 3 course buffet for £16.50 which we think is just great value.

First up for our starter, we both had something pretty similar by trying almost everything that was there.

Erin: For my starter I tried a bit of almost everything that was there (except the soup which I'm not very keen on). This included vegetable spring rolls, paper wrapped prawns, satay chicken and vegetable tempura. I have to say, all of these starters were just gorgeous. The vegetable spring rolls had noodles in them which was just totally unexpected and gave the spring rolls a lovely texture. The prawns had peanut butter inside it which, again, was totally unexpected and just gave it such a great taste. The satay chicken I just loved. You can't really go wrong with chicken. I did find the one thing I thought the starter was lacking was spice but it was gorgeous all the same.

All starters

Seafood spicy soup

Melissa: Erin isn't a fan of coconut which is a shame because coconut cream is used in Asian, especially Thai cooking a lot. That being said, for a buffet, whilst not extensive, they know how to choose their key dishes well. They also don't scrimp on flavour and portion sizes which some buffets do so you end up getting up a lot more. The spicy seafood soup was not too spicy but it really did awaken the taste buds. I loved how much seafood there was on the buffet. Everything was perfect for the starters. I had an addition of the Thai fish cake as well as everything else Erin ate, and whilst most fish cakes are expected to be crispy, this one was soft and chewy, it reminded me of the fish cakes my mum would sometimes add to Filipino dishes...only spicier.

Next up was the main course. There was so much choice to be honest. We both struggled and ended up going back and forth picking and choosing.

Erin: For the main course I chose the noodles, jasmine rice, a piece of chilli pork (I needed some sort of spice!) and the beef in oyster sauce. I think my favourite part of this was the chilli pork as from the one piece I had, it did have quite a kick and was very enjoyable. I do regret not going up and getting more but after eating this, we had to sit and have a break before getting dessert but I would definitely recommend it. The beef in oyster sauce I also loved and I was quite surprised that I did because I am not the most keen person on sea food ever and can be quite picky when it comes to my beef but it was lovely and didn't taste anything like I expected it to.


Melissa: I took a bit of everything, Prawns with cashew nuts, beef in oyster sauce, garlic fish fillets and mussels in sweet chilli sauce with jasmine rice. I loved the kick of the sweet chilli from the mussels. Everything was cooked to perfection! If I had the space in my stomach to go up for more, I would have. Maybe I should develop some sort of regime to build up stomach space and stamina for buffets, because for this place, it's a must!

Next up was dessert, the best part of any meal!

Erin: Dessert was the only meal we ended up going up twice and getting. The first time we both kind of shared from the two plates and swapped to kind of get a taste for the different desserts that were on offer to us. First up was Jasmine cake which pretty much was like alot of other cakes I had tasted and was quite sweet. Next up was trying rambutan and longan, both two different fruits that were both very juicy. Longan actually quite reminded me of a very juicy orange which I love. Then I went very western with my desserts and got a slice of cheesecake, a few profiteroles and a slice of black forest gateaux. I managed to eat the profiteroles and cheesecake without a problem but it got to the black forest gateaux and I was just too stuffed. The cheesecake and Longan had to be my two favourites.

Melissa: So on the left we have more of the traditional Thai desserts, I actually don't remember the names but I can tell you what's in them. The white one is a tapioca and sweetcorn dessert topped with coconut cream, it is very rich and the textures are velvety and very very creamy. Took a while to convince Erin to try it because she hates coconut but at least she tried it. The little slab of yellow cake in the middle is the jasmine cake, a little goes a long way, it is very very rich and dense, I think it is because there is some sort of sweet mung beans in the mixture or else it would be lighter and less crumbly. Along side that is a lot of fruit, my favourite fruits actually, longan and rambutan, so fresh and juicy, I could eat those all day! The last one is a glutinous rice concoction with coconute pieces and mango on top. Again, very rich and very creamy yet very fresh and not overly sweet. Thank goodness I took a break before dessert.

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Overall, this was a very enjoyable experience for the both of us, Erin, for it being my first time with Thai food. Melissa's mother had recommended it since it's her favourite restaurant, I think this may be a place we will go often.
That's all from us for today! We hope you enjoyed this post and we'll be back soon with another food adventure!

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Street Feasting #1!

This Saturday we were in the Brick Lane/Spitalfields area so that I could show Erin some of the delights that can be found from street food stalls. One thing I love about street food is that you can get a whole meal for a fiver and it will fill you up and you get to eat something you've never tried before. 

So this week's street find includes meat porn, cupcakes and Malaysian pancakes.

 First up! MEAT PORN!

This isn't the actual name of the store, but all I remember is seeing "The Home Of Meat Porn" and thinking "Damn, it must be that good."

Melissa: I had the Pulled Pork sandwich with a side of the fries. For me the fries made me happier than the actual sandwich...I don't know how. It's funny because there wasn't much meat as I was expecting, I hardly tasted the meat and was more overwhelmed with the homemade chilli barbecue sauce that the smothered my sandwich in. But I've got to admit, that sauce with those fries are A+. Not bad for £6 but I do wish there was more pulled pork!

Erin: As Melissa said, the name is what drew us into this place. For this cheeseburger I paid £5 and then £1.50 for the can of diet coke. When eating the burger it did taste amazing but then I realised the only reason it tasted so good was because of the chilli barbecue sauce. The sauce was great but it would have been nice to taste some meat too seeing as it was meant to be Meat Porn...

After a dissapointing serving of meat porn, we found cupcakes over at Spitalfields Market from Flavourtown.

Flavourtown Cupcake Website

So we bought the Snicker Champ and the Posh Peanut Butter Cup cupcakes. 

Melissa: If you're going to wish me a happy birthday, just get me a good cupcake. THIS WAS DIVINE.

As well as having the most accurate flavour to an actual Snicker's Bar, there was a caramel gooey centre! I'm not a chocaholic but this was just such a lovely cupcake. 

Erin: The name first attracted me to this cupcake and when I first started eating this, the frosting was just so good and you could properly taste the peanut butter. I then abandoned the frosting for a while and moved to eating the cupcake and realised just under the layer of frosting there was MOAR PEANUT BUTTER. It was a bonus when I realised there were chocolate chips inside. I really can't flaw these cupcakes. They were gorgeous.

Afterwards I found the one thing that I was craving for, Malaysian pancakes! Move over crepes, it's all about the Malaysian pancake.

When I first tried it a couple of months ago, I think I forgot to eat an actual meal and bought around 5 of these sweet little things so I had to make Erin try some.

Banana, Nutella and Melted Butter. 

Melissa: Whilst the more traditional Malaysian pancake has coconuts and sweet red beans and a chock full of sugar, Erin and I opted for a more Western flavour. In comparison to a crepe, I think it's a lot chunkier and full of fillings. One thing I must complain about to the guy who served it to us was he should have given us a paper plate. I mean, I don't want to burn myself with molten Nutella dripping in a paper bag. It's just really difficult to hold! Also the bananas and Nutella fell out whilst I was eating it so it was just a hot mess. I'm slightly sad.

Erin: I don't think there is really much else for me to say. The pancake was delicious and quite different from the American fluffy style pancakes or the British style pancakes/crepes that I am used to. Again, the downside was all of the filling falling out. We didn't pay £4 for it to just fall in to the bag! But apart from that, it was a lovely pancake and I would love to try one of their other 'flavours'.

That's it for this week's street feasting adventures!

Thanks for stopping by!

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The Breakfast Club!

I have said before that breakfast is the most important meal of the day so what better way to start the day than here at the Breakfast Club in Spitalfields?

With few branches around the city, each sporting a bright yellow door and retro decor, the atmosphere is fun and homey. For anyone looking for a throwback or a blast from the past, The Breakfast Club will transport you back into an old American Diner. In the Spitalfields branch, by Liverpool Street,  you would come across a mix of hipsters and business men. 

Guess the song!

Breakfast is served from 7 till 5 and lunch and dinner from 12 till closing. As well as struggling to choose what you want to eat from the delicious sounding descriptions, you'd also find some cult references such as "Ham So Eggsited".

So all in all we ordered, 2 Pancakes and Bacon, 2 All Americans and 1 Banana and Bacon French toast as well as a pitcher of Big Breakfast Smoothie all for £50.80 for the five of us. 

Pancakes and Bacon

The All American

Banana and Bacon French Toast

Melissa: If you plan to participate in Man vs Food, this would be a great place to train. The price of food is reasonable for the amount you get, actually, more than reasonable. After two pancakes, my little sister Maria started to struggle eating a pile of pancakes (they're not pancakes, they're practically cakes) and I after two pieces of french toast had to start pacing myself. You know the food is good when everyone is silent and that's what the Breakfast Club provides, good food in astonishingly large portions. I still haven't decided if it's a good or a bad thing because it tastes so good to eat but when you feel your stomach ballooning up, the pending gym session just feels impossible. I think the Breakfast Club is one reason why I can't achieve my summer body, but the food just tastes soo damn good. My other recommendations from previous visits would be their Pulled Pork Sandwiches and Pancakes and Berries (you would still struggle to finish it).

Erin: This is the first time I had been to The Breakfast Club and me and Melissa have just been meaning to go for ages as she has been DYING to tell you guys about it! I got the Pancakes and Bacon which I struggled to finish. The phrase "the struggle is real" was said alot while we were all attempting to demolish the mountains on our plates. One of the things that really amazed me in The Breakfast Club was the fact that the maple syrup that had available for you to use was imported from Canada, the home of this sweet, sweet sauce. When I looked either side of me, all I saw was two of the All American's and I do not understand how they managed to even get through about half of it. I had to take 3/4 breaks while eating my pancakes! 

We also got a pitcher of The Big Breakfast Smoothie and shared it between us in the small glasses and, although it was a delicious smoothie, I would say if you were to get this, only get this if you will be eating a small meal because we think that is what filled us so much. It is a very heavy smoothie with it having oats, strawberries, bananas, yoghurt, milk and honey. The thing that was great with this smoothie is that the flavours all sort of came out one after the other. With one sip you'd taste banana, with another strawberry and so on.

With this being my first experience at The Breakfast Club, I must say it definitely won't be my last! I didn't eat for the rest of the day due to how big my first meal was!

Thanks for stopping by with us today! To see The Breakfast Clubs website click here (their site is pretty cool too) to see other locations and their full menu.

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