One Night In Brighton

This week I have my first week off in a long time, so we thought we'd do something fun with it. We'll be spending a few days in Southampton, but first we decided to spend a night in Brighton after falling in love with it the last time.

We were hoping that it was going to be a bit warmer, but hey, snow was fine too... We searched for a long time to find a hotel with parking, which by the way doesn't really exist in the center. Then we stumbled upon Motel Schmotel which said it had it's very own parking, hurrah! They'll get their own post but I will say that the place was lovely, a few fun quirks, great location and we managed to get parked right outside which was a major bonus.

So after arriving we of course headed straight to The Lanes, stopping in a tea room on the way for a quick drink, 'That Little Tea Shop In The Lanes', it was quaint and quite tightly packed but cute with miss-matched crockery. After fueling up we kept going. I can imagine if you live in Brighton then trawling around these shops doesn't seem that special, but for us it's still a bit special and very quirky so of course we loved it. I'm a bit poor this month so I held back from buying too much, we did however find a great fabric shop where we picked up some cherry print fabric perfect for a rockabilly dress and top - will keep you updated on that one! Speaking of which I did find Dollydagger, I was a little disappointed as it was very small, you couldn't really move around and felt like you were being watched like shoplifters, I hate that.

As we were in Brighton it would have been rude to not visit Choccywoccydoodah, I love that the Easter display was still up and of course wanted to put the whole display in my house. I always think their window displays are amazing and the Easter bunny theme didn't disappoint. I was hoping that maybe the Easter eggs would be reduced so I could snap one up but alas, it was not to be. £30 for an egg is just too much for me, even if they were beautiful....which they were. I did however take lots of pictures of the cakes, who doesn't?

On the recommendation of my friend and her lovely blog we headed to JB's American Diner. You could imagine that this would be my Mecca. With Elvis blasting out the doors I instantly knew that me and my victory rolls would love it. We didn't have a full meal, especially after reading the review, but did opt for a sharing starter to keep us going and a mammoth milkshake. I won't lie, I basically went for the peanutbutter milkshake after hearing how amazing it was. And I'm glad I did.  If you think all you get it what's in the glass then my friend, you are MISTAKEN. You also get a massive jug filled with all the goodness that didn't fit in to the glass, and I'm not exaggerating when I say this, but it was enough for three milkshakes....THREE! I've honestly never have a better milkshake, full of ice cream, peanutbutter, actual whole peanuts....I know....I know. With whipped cream, sprinkles and even a cherry, it couldn't have been more 50s if it was served by someone called Peggy Sue...which I actually wish it was. I will however leave you to read Tora's blog on the milkshake as I could bang on forever about it - but hers is so spot on I shall leave you in her capable hands.

Some people go away to shop, to sight-see, but as you can clearly see, we go to eat - I won't pretend otherwise.

We also had an amazing dinner at a vegetarian restaurant Terre à Terre. I can't stress this enough, if you are in Brighton.. GO TO THIS PLACE, GO NOW! This was actually in the welcome pack at Motel Schmotel, their review of it made us book straight away. Again this will also get it's on post so look out for that, I've never been to a vegetarian restaurant before and I'm extremely fussy - and I loved it, I wish I was eating there right now to be honest. We had the tapas, if you can't decide what you want then get the tapas it was such a great idea and really was amazing. We even had dessert, I rarely bother but they sounded to lush I couldn't resist.

The next day after check out we headed back into town and couldn't resist going to Peter Andre's New York Coffee Club, we tried to go last time but it hadn't opened yet. I'm not actually a coffee fan but my family loves him and they all love coffee, all I can say is that my mum really liked it, and she hates coffee in most places so they did well. We actually didn't stay too long before heading to Southampton as it started to snow and shopping no longer had the same pull so we cut our losses and headed back to the car.

I think I'll have to go back to Brighton in the summer and do all of the tacky summery bits then, maybe take Elvis, I did actually see three Figaros which was nice but made me wish I had mine with me. I also want to go on another peanutbutter milkshake and veggie restaurant feeding frenzy.

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Brighton Weekend

This post is about a week late, I've had so much on this week I've just not been able to do any real posting. It was my brother's birthday two days before mine and he really wanted to go to Brighton, so invited us along too which is great as the last time I went I was about 10, so didn't really appreciate where I was.

We stayed about 2 minutes walk, if that from the lanes shopping area. Brimming with independent shops and incredible eating places. I'm pretty sure I've put on a good few pounds from that weekend but it was worth it, we eat somewhere amazing at every meal time which isn't something you can always say when you go away.

One of the main reasons we went was because he has a serious BBQ obsession, and there was a great place there to get it called the 'BBQ Shack' part of the World End's Pub on London Road. The first night we got there we tried to go in...if you've ever seen Man Vs Food then you can imagine what it looked like, quite rocky, packed out and with a band on. There was no chance of getting a table, which while annoying showed it was worth it so we agreed to come back the next day. Which we did and thankfully a lot less busy so got a good big table, the bad news, THEY RAN OUT OF RIBS! The main reason we went! But we thought OK, solider on, it will still be amazing. And it was. I had a huuuuuge brisket sandwich which was massive, spicy and a good splodge of sauce on it. Stupidly ordered it as a meal deal so came with a mammoth amount of fried and coleslaw, it defeated me I am ashamed to say.

My brother however upped the game with the same sandwich and also a half BBQ chicken. Even the waiter was a bit like..."They're both for you??" and I have to say the chicken looked immense. Sexy chicken, that was the word for how it looked. Suddenly you could easily have been in a bar in Tennessee. 

The first night however we did worry we would have to aimlessly walk around until we found somewhere that we liked. We had earlier eaten at Mange Tout which was incredible, I thought I took some picture but it doesn't look like I did, they served amazing garlic sourdough bread I have to say that. We ended up at Breeze, which was actually a lucky last minute choice, it was really laid back, soft lighting and it was one of those places that you just knew would be seriously yummy, and we were right.

Even the starter, bruschetta, which could very well be my favourite dish in the world, looked stunning. I had to take a picture like a crazy person. What I really liked was that when my brother ordered a steak, it came with only a few huge chunky chips placed artily on the plate with the sauce. Not just heaps of oily fries. Everyone loved their meal here which is another rarity!

We ate so much we kept putting off the cake! I had one for him at home, but as it needed some construction I left it until we came home. His father in law brought with him a cake for us to eat there, a monster of a cake! This was a coffee and walnut cake from Nuts Bistro in St Ives. It was absolutely gigantic! We couldn't face any until the last day as we were just constantly full!

We were all sad to come back, and wanted to go straight back! We couldn't though, as we all had to come back to our house to eat MORE cake, the bleeding heart one I made. We also needed to be able to light the candles properly as in the picture above they had to remain unlit as were in a hotel room. I have to say, even now I've still not recovered from all the food to look forward to a big dinner yet.!

We did manage to do some sightseeing too, the pier of course where we watched some fireworks, spent ages in quirky homeware shops and just looking at all of the other shops you just don't find in normal towns. You can also spend hours just people watching, there are some really interesting people there and it's constantly changing.

I did also get to take a visit to Choccywoccydoodah, I took so many photos though that I will have to dedicate a whole post to it alone and show you the goodies I picked up as early birthday treats!

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