| Everyday London Life Restaurants

Valentine’s Day – Drinks at Barts and dinner at Bo Lang

Cheesy as it may be, I love Valentine’s day. I’ve always been in love with love! And now being engaged to be married to my lovely Mr Silver, it means even more to me. Mr Silver and I had been together for just over three years and we’ve had four Valentine’s days together. Our first one we’d only been together for a month so we kept it very low key! I cooked for him at my flat, so maybe it was my fantastic cookery skills (!) that won over his heart.

 

We always have a fantastic time together, so I look forward to any date that we go on!
Being cursed with a perpetually frizzy fro, I usually start with a good blow dry.

 

If you’re in London I would highly recommend the very capable hands of Sarah Louise at Daniel Hersheson. She is so fab, I’ve also asked her to do my wedding hair.
I lay out my outfit and accessories.
Do you sense the theme here?
And here’s the finished product!
Mr Silver also looked very dapper in his new suit!
I was extremely excited by my Valentine’s gift. Who wouldn’t be excited by a box like this!
He’s bought me a night of dinner and dancing at the Ritz! He’s knows me so well!
‘This will make a fantastic blog post’ I said with delight!!
I’d read about a bar called Barts on two of my favourite blogs Cocktails and Caroline and Heroine in Heels, and I was keen to try it. Thanks for the recommendation ladies!
Barts is cocktail bar / speak easy hidden in the the Chelsea Cloisters on Sloane Avenue. When you arrive you ring the bell and peephole slides open and the hosts decide whether or not to let you in!
The bar itself is like a tiny secret den of iniquity! Decorated with weird treasures and antiques and walls adorned with road signs it is an eclectic treasure trove. Painted red it feels very sexy and like you’re doing something a bit naughty. I loved it!
A house of cards!

 

The menu is in this book.
The opium den

 

 

Kooky antiques!
The cocktail menu is as experimental as the surroundings.
I started with a Nightingale’s Kiss which contained Moet, jasmine, vanilla and mint. Mr Silver had a Charleston Crumble which contained vodka, rhubarb, pomegranate and vanilla.
Both were deliciously drinkable!
We also sampled the Wake Me Up, containing Vodka, ginger and sweet and sour.
Barts also serves larger sharing cocktails which looked amazing, but I deemed too much for just the two of us.
It was then on for dinner at Bo Lang just across the road. Although I love Valentine’s day, I hate it when restaurants serve an over-priced set menu for the day, Bo Lang was our restaurant of choice because they were still serving the a la carte menu. Yay!
Bo Lang is an intimate dim sum house with a menu featuring traditional and experimental dim sum. The restaurant is small but stylish with wooden screens giving a feel of the Orient.
Naturally we started with some dim sum.
I absolutely love dim sum! The words mean ‘touch your heart’ and these certainly did. We chose the chef’s selection and each was a heavenly pocket of loveliness.
Sichuan pepper tuna came next which was as perfectly light and fresh as it look!
Duck spring rolls. Well you can’t really go wrong!
Soft shell crab, another one of my favourites!!
Sea bass with kow choi flower and Bo Lang sauce.
Bo Lang offer ice cream, sorbet or frozen yogurt for dessert. We virtuously chose the yogurt option but, by then quite tipsy, forgot to take a photo!
Bo Lang touched our hearts, the food was great and it’s a lovely little place. A great alternative to the big hitters such as Hakkasan and Yauatcha. The intimate feel and the food that you share make it the perfect venue for a date night!

 

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