Wednesday, August 26, 2009

RICHOUX

On our last morning in the city, we skipped the hotel breakfast and walked down the road to South Audley street to a London institution - Richoux. Opened in 1909 as a confectioner and patisserie, over the years it has become a cafe and tea room with several locations in London. Personally, I prefer Patisserie Valerie for the French pastry but the never-changing atmosphere at Richoux is why it's well-loved by locals.

We arrived almost at 11 and the place was still filled with families having a late breakfast and businessmen having coffees. The breakfast menu is complete with classic egg dishes (eggs Benedict, scrambled eggs, full English) as well as healthy options like fruit and yogurt. We decided to have a big breakfast before our flight back along with large cappuccinos. Service was a bit erratic as they were switching over to the all-day menu at the same time but otherwise, it was a pleasant start to our day.

After breakfast, we decided to stroll around the block and window-shop to kill time before checking out and taking the afternoon train to Gatwick. As usual, we ended up on chic Mount street window-shopping by the high-end boutiques: Christian Louboutin, Marc Jacobs, the future Goyard store, Balenciaga, Stephen Webster and almost walked by a tiny, nondescript shopfront - Aesop. Lucky that we didn't as this company makes botanically-based products for men and women. We had used their hand wash and lotion at Hakkasan a few days before and loved the clean herbal scent. Since it was our last stop before heading back to Marbella, we ended up buying a few treats for ourselves as well as a present for A. With our stylish Aesop bottles wrapped up, we headed back to the hotel to check-out and go to the airport. It was a perfect girl's mini-break. I'm looking forward to the next one, wherever that may be.

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