Randall & Aubin Soho

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A couple of weeks back I was invited by the lovely J from Emerald Street to join her in her visit to review Randall & Aubin Soho and take some pictures.

Now, I love seafood and taking pictures of food, so how could I say no??

The service was impeccable, we were whisked to our table by a southern european (if I had to judge from the accent, Spanish or Portuguese) waiter who was incredibly attentive and helpful throughout the evening.

The food was simply amazing – very fresh, high quality seafood, which is not so easy to find in London. If I had to describe the cuisine, it would probably be a mix between French and Spanish. The waiter recommended what he thought were the best dishes on the menu and we obliged – very glad we did as they turned out to be amazing choices.

 

After a starter and a (substantial) main course we were feeling a bit full, but how could we say no to desserts? Again, these were impeccable classics done to perfection and we thoroughly enjoyed them.

All in all, I’d definitely recommend the place. A starter, main and dessert (plus bottle of wine and bread and olives) came to about £60pp, which seems fair for fresh high quality seafood. Seems to me that this could be the perfect spot for a date – the environment is cozy but not overly romantic, with trendy music to set the tone. Word of caution: I’d avoid suggesting it for a first date in case it’s a bit too expensive for your budget (in which case it would be more of a special occasions treat) and if you are with the man/woman of your dreams, resist the lobster… It was a messy (albeit delicious) affair!

Randall & Aubin Soho
www.randallandaubin.com/
14-16 Brewer Street, Soho, London
W1F 0SG
£60pp

How to do a poor job, fail at customer service and social media and ultimately lose customers and clients (featuring Missguided and DX)

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If you run a business, you’re only as good as the agencies, or suppliers, that partially or completely represent your business. Never forget it.

I was reminded of this valuable lessons today, in my personal life.

You see, I love shoes. I spend lots of money on shoes (and clothes…bags…etc). If I find a company I love, I spread the verb religiously – because I genuinely love the topic.

I was delighted, a couple weeks back, to stumble onto Missguided and their crazy high heels. I ordered two pairs, was superhappy with them, so I placed an order for an additional FOUR PAIRS – with next day delivery. I am, on all counts, a good customer.

But then trouble began. The delivery company is DX, this was my 1st experience with them, and they are the worst delivery company I have had the displeasure of dealing with.

I asked for the item to be delivered at my workplace – we are a big company and there’s security on site 24/7 to get deliveries – fool proof really – OR SO SHE THOUGHT.

They ‘tried’ to deliver late on Friday and clearly couldn’t be bothered saying ‘they couldn’t access the property’. Again, don’t know how this is possible. We have security on site 24/7. They clearly were at the end of the shift and made an excuse. I called their customer service on Friday, waited 1hour on hold, only for the phone to be hung on me. I called again on Saturday morning, spent £10 calling from my mobile phone, waited 20 mins, and then talked to the most unhelpful customer service person I’ve ever dealt with, who told me:

* that she couldn’t do anything
* that the earliest that DX could deliver was Tuesday (!!!) (just to remind you, for a next day delivery that was scheduled for the Friday just gone)

I resigned myself and waited. Tuesday came. I called DX, waited on hold for 30mins, and then asked the customer service to tell the driver that he could deliver to on site security, which is there 24/7.

Well now, the online tracking says ‘delivery unsuccessful’. The call centre is closed. I go on holiday on Thursday and I am royally pissed off.

Missguided have tried to help and have been nice, but ultimately, this reflect badly on them.

After this, I won’t order with Missguided again and I recommend you do the same until they stop using DX.

For an online retailer, the quality of deliveries is a key factor, as much as prices, own customer service. Why ruin your business and lose customers by choosing a cheap, unreliable, horrible service like DX?

Missguided have done what they could in the situation, and they definitely deserve a gold medal for social customer service. Replying to me on weekends, contacting me directly via email removing steps like asking me for email address or order number are all small things I appreciate.

But then, my resolution stands. I won’t buy with them anymore until they change delivery company and drop DX. There are MANY online retailers and the customer is spoilt for choice – why go through the trouble?

Oh, and for a laugh, a selection of tweets (not my own) directed at DX. Do you think they replied to any of these? Absolutely not.

Why are you even on Twitter if you don’t know how to use it? DX, you fail at your own core business as well as social media.

Home sweet home (pt.1 – the bedroom)

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Even if I’ve just started blogging again, I feel like this post is long overdue.

I moved in with Dan at the end of February, and we put lots of efforts and what felt like a lot  of money (in IKEA terms) in making a house into a home.

I’m not gonna lie, the first month was brutal – we spent every weekend in IKEA, had lots of rubbish to throw out and bits to sort out. Still, we managed to never argue and just got on with it, because we agreed that we’d rather do the bulk of the work all at once.

I think we did pretty well! We had a few bits (bed, sofa) but we managed to furnish the whole place with about £1,000. More importantly, it truly feels like home.

For me it was important to not take over the house and make it too girly. If you want to take a look, this (1&2) was my bedroom in Rome (living with my dad) and this my last place in London right after I moved in (flatsharing). Anyway: I knew I have a good eye for design and that Dan would let me take care of the overall look&feel, but it was important that the house wasn’t too girl but rather reflected our personalities.

For the bedroom, I followed the colour scheme of my last place, partially because I had bought so many bedding sets and textiles. It was fairly neutral so I felt like light colours, earth colours with blue/green accents would work well.

Because I am OCD, I created an inspiration board on Pinterest:

I convinced Dan to give me the spare room for my clothes (more on that in another post) so that the bedroom wouldn’t be invaded by shoes. Also, we decided on having my iMac in here so that we can use it as a TV.

It’s still not 100% finished – what you don’t see from the pics is that the left side is very empty, so we’re working on adding a bench/horizontal bookcase and to cover the wall in prints, but it’s gonna take some time. In the meantime, it still feels pretty much done and it achieves its purpose: it’s a relaxing environment and I’m happy to go to sleep in it every night.

A few more pics on Flickr

God Save The Clam (never mind the scallops, here’s the clam bake!)

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Oh, London, I love you and your quirky events. Not so much for the shitty weather but hey, it’s ok. No relationship is perfect.

Anyway! I digress. The second I heard about God Save the Clam I had to book tickets – they had me at the description: “a punk styled clam bake and banshee cocktail bar on a rooftop in London Fields”.

Yes, the weather was horrible, but nothing some tequila, great tunes pumping out of the stereo and overall good atmosphere can’t fix. While we waited I snapped a few photos, had a beer with some lobster flavoured pop corn, and drooled over the snack bar serving some fancy burgers:

Then the food came!

1ST COURSE

Pitt Cue links, burnt lettuce, smoked anchovy salad cream, dry rub fried toast

THE CLAM BAKE:

Clams, cockles, mussels, devilled crayfish & crab claws, sea beets & samphire – steamed over seaweed & charcoal, sides of Cornish Early Potatoes in Smoked Dripping, House Sausage, BBQ leeks, BBQ Corn & Grilled Sour Dough

DESSERT:

Strawberry Shortcake Sundae

They also offered us some amazing Tequila (Jose Cuervo traditional, made from 100% agave so apparently doesn’t give you a hangover… Bet Dan wants to test this theory!)

Overall, we had a great time, and the only complaint was about the freezing cold. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on these guys and forthcoming events! The food was very high quality, portions were more than generous, the people lovely and I was quite happy with the value for money – £39 well spent!

I am definitely enjoying this pop up food culture that is spreading in London, so be prepared to see more food reviews from me in the next few weeks…

( As always, If you want to check out more photos have a look on my Flickr – and this blog post by Dan)