The past 5 months with Ollie have pushed my tastebuds out of their usual comfort zone of Nando’s, Pizza Express, and the classic Golden Arches to new extremes.

Here is a round up of my top favourite restaurants from this year.

Shaka Zulu

The most recent, and to me the most impressive of our eating experiences.

I had no clue where Ollie was taking me. He said he’d booked a South African restaurant in Camden, but could only get a table for 5.45pm. I thought it was a little odd to eat so early, I should have guessed it was going to be something special but I was not prepared for the surprise. The main thing which took my breath away was the interior design and architecture of the place itself. Escalators took us down into a breathtaking cave of sculpted walls and giant statues of tribesmen and women. As someone who loves anything sculpture related I took a lot of photos and it inspired a couple of pages in my sketchbook. I don’t feel like I was a particularly great conversationalist during our evening due to spending so much time gazing around at the walls. We ate a-la carte and the menu was equally as exotic to me as the interior design. There was crocodile, zebra, ostrich and buffalo just to name a few! I was impressed by the food, but for Ollie who has grown up eating African cuisine didn’t seem very impressed with his croc stew and said it was nothing exceptional.

We both agreed however that it was a super cool place to go, if not for the food, then the atmosphere and waiters and everything else. It was a delight!

Sticks n Sushi

We love sushi! This is such a great restaurant! There are a bunch of Sticks n Sushis dotted across London, we visited the Covent Garden one. We went to this Sticks n Sushi on a whim one evening without booking in advance, this meant quite a wait and not the best of seating arrangements when we did finally get to our spot. It is a chain of Sushi restaurants started in Denmark, so you know its good. I’m such a fan of anything Scandinavian. The atmosphere in Sticks n sushi doesn’t disappoint. I love the careful beautiful lighting which only the Danes seem to right.

The food is also sublime. This wasn’t the first time I have been to sticks and sushi, I think I have tried most things on the menu. It was brilliant being able to order my favourite dishes and show Ollie that it is possible to get nice sushi out of Japan. He didn’t think it was possible but was most impressed with our food. I steer clear of any of the skewers of meat, in my opinion they are over priced and don’t taste that great. The fish is where it’s at.

No-one does tempura shrimp like Sticks and Sushi. A great night out with awesome company, recommend this place to anyone!

Kintan

This is another of Ollie’s choices. Again, I didn’t know what to expect but LOVED it!

The premise of the restaurant is that you have a table with a hot BBQ esq contraption in the centre, you chose your own meat and cook it!

We were seated in a booth which was separated from other diners which I like, it feels more private. I think we were the only westerners in the place, which to me emphasises how authentic it is. There was an odd mix of British pop from the charts which did seem to jar a little with the rest of the place, but we had so much fun it wasn’t too distracting.

The menu was confusing and I loved the comical how-to illustrations which told us how to go about BBQing our food. It felt like we were transported to Japan.

This would be a great place to go with a bunch of friends. There is something super nostalgic about sitting around cooking your own meal and chatting with friends over a drink. We are definitely going to bring family here next time they visit London.

I took control of the cooking a little due to my paranoia about undercooked meat, needless to say I burnt most of it so our food didn’t taste great, but Ollie lovingly ate my burnt offerings without complaining.

Top tip- book in advance. We saw people being turned away, it was so popular and the wait was so long for tables. That would be such a shame if you traveled all the way!

Wahaca

Wahaca is probably the most mainstream of the places from this list, but as Ollie has never been before I thought he would enjoy it. There are so many of them across London. We went to one in Brixton. I have to say it was one of the coolest Wahaca’s I’ve been to. I’m a big fan of lovely interior design and interesting spaces, this certainly has it all. We were seated on a table under romantic fairy lights and had a fun time choosing our tapas dishes, sharing them and discussing which were our favourites as we went along. One dish went down so well with us we even hailed over a waiter and re-ordered. It is such a fun place to eat and I love that the waiters and waitresses are so friendly and willing to help. I would strongly recommend the hibiscus flower water. It is so sweet, refreshing and goes really well with the spice of the food.

Croydon Boxpark

We have eaten a couple of times at Croydon Box park since it opened last month. It is a buzzing hive of brilliant sights and smells and wonderful food. It is FULL of people. We opted for a taiwanese restaurant our first time and enjoyed bowls of noodle and chicken soup. It isn’t somewhere to go if you want to discuss important things as you are practically sitting on other peoples knees, but it is such a great experience. You can visit a different shipping container for each course if you want! There is anything from Mexican, french, Italian, Japanese down to a good old jacket potato place. Croydon is a really up and coming place at the moment, if you’ve never been it is well worth a visit! We are big fans. This would be an awesome lunchtime venue!

Hannah