Tag Archives: review

Haworth – The Brontë Sisters Home

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It’s a beautiful sunny weekend, so we both decided to travel somewhere. Haworth is one of the famous pretty town in the Yorkshire because of the The Brontës Sisters. After 30 minutes driving, we arrived the town. It was small, but pretty and peaceful. The sisters, Charlotte (born 21 April 1816), Emily (born 30 July 1818), and Anne (born 17 January 1820), are well known as a trio of sibling poets and novelists. I remembered that when we were in the University, we used to read Bronte sister’s book in our literature classes.

It was nice to visit Haworth and we certainly will go back for hiking there. We picked a cafe where was home-baked bread and produced local meat for lunch. John ordered a really big roast beef with Yorkshire pudding, and I ordered a big breakfast with tea. It was reasonable price with big portion and quality tasty food. I do wish all the tourist places should be like that, not over-priced horrible normal food.

I really enjoy little trip like this.

Piccolino Restaurant

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Piccolino Restaurant is a Italian chain restaurant, and you can see them everywhere. We hadn’t tried it in London, but there is one in Leeds city centre and they have highly reviews. I have been there twice. One was with John’s family and we ordered some pizza, and pasta. I ordered the spicy sausage risotto, and they were all really tasty.

My colleagues decided to have the dinner party in there last few weeks ago. We ordered starters, main courts and desserts – they were all so lovely and tasty. Personally I ordered a king prawn starter like the cover picture, seafood grill and chocolate trifle, and they were absolutely gorgeous. I wish the portion could be a little bit bigger, but it was acceptable. Piccolino is a high-end posh restaurant, so the price is quite pricy too. However, the food did deserve the price. John told me that their pizza was one of the best he had tried. He is a pizza expert and food critic too.

Who doesn’t love good simple and tasty Italian food, and Piccolino is one of them – simple, elegant, and most importantly very tasty. The red passionate interior and a fancy lavatory room with good food and service. 4.5 of 5 for sure. Cover pictures from their office website.

Plushgun – Pins & Panzers

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Knowing Plushgun from a radio called The Sixtyone and listened their ‘Just Impolite’. They are from New York, and music style like Postal Service. I always feel so happy when I listen their songs.

PIns & Panzers (2009) was a professional album, including electronic and alternative-rock elements. I can’t help listening it over and over again – especially ‘The Dark In You, and ‘Let Me Kiss You Now‘ such perfect songs. I always fall in love again when I listen ‘Let Me Kiss You Now‘; what a happy cheerful song! I really like their music and hope they continuously produce more good music. Highly recommended.

You can hear their songs in their Myspace and Spotify.

Kendell’s Bistro French Restaurant

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As a food lover, discovering good food is always my favourite part of a week. We saw Kendell’s Bistro French restaurant in Leeds city centre through the Internet, and it always has the best reviews. John’s Mum’s birthday is coming, so we took her there for special occasion.

We love French food and the best one we tried was my 27th birthday and our wedding day called Savoir Faire in Holborn London. It was really delicious, good service, and home-made French food. So I can’t wait to try another home-made French food in Leeds.

When we arrived, I was expected that it would be a tiny cozy restaurant, but it wasn’t. It was a big and open restaurant with many artistic pictures on the wall. It was fairly dark with candles everywhere. The interior decoration style was really French – elegant and romantic with French Jazz music. The atmosphere was just perfect and so my taste.

All the menu was written on the blackboard because it changes all the time, depends on the Seasons. You can see the main Chef Steve Kendell was so busy cooking through an open kitchen. We all ordered a three-courses-meal and some red wine: I ordered a French Onion Soup, Roast Pork Belly along with some roast potato and vegetables, and Lemon Tart. It was beautiful and gorgeous with right amount portion. The starter was right amount and tasty. The pork was tender, juicy and the cracker was perfect. The tart was fresh. The service was excellent and friendly. We did enjoy the food so much and felt like we instantly fell into the heaven.

The owner knew it was John’s Mum’s birthday, and gave her a rose champagne to treat her special. It was very thoughtful. All the little details made the restaurant different and we did have a good time. I certainly will return in the future. Price is very reasonable, good quality food, excellent service and good atmosphere. It deserves a 4.5 stars of 5. Highly recommended.

The cover picture was from I Know Yorkshire. It will be so perfect to read this article and listening Editch Piaf. I felt like I am already in France.


Manchester Shopping + Dimsum

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After John went to Manchester for his conference meeting, he said I would love to go shopping and experience Manchester. We decided to drive to Manchester at this weekend and see whether I like it or not.

It was very easy road to drive from Leeds to Manchester. After 40 minutes, we parked in central of Manchester and started to explore the area. It got Selfridges and a lot of big departments, high street, and a lot more choices than Leeds. I always think Leeds city centre is too small. I did enjoy to go shopping in London, but could be quite tired, because it is huge. I could easily spend one day only walking in Oxford Street. However, Manchester is the perfect size for going shopping. You don’t need to take tubes to go to different area, but it got so many designers shops and brands everywhere.

Manchester is famous for a huge number of Chinese population, and it means there is a lot of Chinese restaurants in town, so we went to Tai Wu restaurant, which we had been to the same one in Guangzhou and it is a big Chain dimsum restaurant in China. It was great dimsum – very cheap. Price was from £1.7-£3 per dish. However, like in China, Tai Wu didn’t have much of vegetarian choices because John likes vegetarian dimsum. I think we ordered 8-10 dishes and came out only £16 for the bill.

Interestingly there was Jazz Festival promoting in Manchester city centre, and pity that we didn’t stay long to attend the event. I can feel more music cultural happening in Manchester than Leeds.

Manchester always has the reputation that it is a rough and scary city and I felt it when I was there, not because I followed the stereotype, but it was true.  Even though living in London for 2 years, I didn’t feel London is particular a rough or dangerous city. It has some rough area for sure, but I never felt uncomfortable living there. I think I might feel quite dangerous living in Manchester, but it was my personal opinion and it is properly not fully true if you are living there rather than as a visitor.

I do like Manchester, and bigger than Leeds and  love about the shopping and many choices of food. I will definitely go shopping there again and return often. It makes me miss London a lot.

Jamie Oliver Italian Restaurant Leeds

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Friends and us went to try the new opening Italian restaurant – the famous chef Jamie Oliver Italian restaurant in Leeds city centre. The chef was not Jamie in person, but follows his recipes. It was opened few weeks ago, and we alway wanted to give it a try as a food lover.

The starts was amazing, like tapas style. We had one vegetarian dish and one for seasonal meats. It was like the picture – look and taste were really gorgeous with cheese and bread! And we also ordered the white wine called Trebbiano Gargenega Del Veneto (2009) was light and fruity (reason price, but good value) I really enjoy the wine and the starter.

I ordered the lamp chop as my main course and I did try others pasta as well. My lamb was perfect – not too pink, not over cook, and it provided three sauces for me (mint, nuts and basil) I really enjoyed the main course. The other pasta was not bad. However, my friend’s pumpkin risotto was a little bit runny, but tasted not bad either.

The portion was big and great, some of them we could not finish. The environment was quite posh and stylish. The service was excellent and really helpful.

Overall 4 star out of 5. I will definitely recommend it to you.

Broken Bells

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Like the Band of Horses, I have never heard the Broken Bells before, until I watched TV series ‘Chuck’ last episode in season 3, and since listening this album over and over again, I really love it. The famous song is ‘ The High Road’ but I love all the songs in the album. It is label in Spotify with one my my favourite bands Mew, and no wonder I like their style, just not as rock as Mew.

It’s worth mentioning that ‘The Ghost inside’ sounds like from The Dandy Warhols album  – The Dandy Warhols are Sound

I highly recommend this one, 4 of 5 stars. Currently, they are performing in London this month, shame that we are not in London.

You can listen their album in their MySpace or Spotify

Miike Snow (2009)

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I saw one website was introduced Miike Snow’s – ‘Song For No One’, and after listened to the whole album, I really enjoy this new album releasing in 2009.

Miike Snow is from Swedish band, and these days I just can’t fall in love the Swedish electronic music.

My favourite songs are:

  • Animal
  • Silvia
  • Song For No One
  • Black & Blue
  • A Horse is Not A Home
  • Plastic Jungle
  • In Search of
  • Faker

Highly recommended, check it out in Spotify for free (UK only) or their MySpace page to see whether you like them or not.

28th Birthday!

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Before my birthday, I already got the best present ever! Plus John’s family bought some presents for me as well – they are incredible nice and sweet. Nothing really special happened on my birthday day. We shopped some households stuff and John treated me to have a big sunday roast, which is my favourite food ever!

We walked to the Whitehall road, and the restaurant called The Roast near the canal served really nice british food. It was sunday, so they only served sunday roast. It was £5 per person, then we had some sticky toffee pudding with custard too! Yum! Beef was tender and juicy with a lot of vegetable and the home-made gravy. The yorkshire pudding was nice and light, not flowery at all! Oh, comfort food is the best sometimes. Definitely need to return!

Trini sent the song from Lorene Scfaria called 28 , singing that we are turning to 28! Things ganna be great!

Friday night out in Leeds

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Since moved to Leeds, we have been so busy organising the new house. After two weeks, we finished it mostly, and decided to eat out on Friday night.

Piccolino Restaurant

I haven’t try a lot of restaurants yet, but it certainly plenty in city centre. On John’s birthday, we went to the Italian restaurant Piccolino Restaurant in Park Row. It was really expensive like London price. Main courses are like £12-14. I ordered a sausage risotto and was really a good one. However, portion was small, but taste really authentic! John and Mel ordered the chicken pizza and they both said it was really good. 4 out of 5 stars

Primo Ristorante

On Friday night, we tried another Italian restaurant downstairs of our building called Primo Ristorante. It had really fancy decoration inside. Price is really good – main courses are from £10, and pasta / Pizza was £6-7. Wine is from £14. Dishes was well presented, and really tasty; services were friendly too! However, I wish the dishes could be bigger portion. For example, I ordered a duck with berries sauce, and it came with 4 pieces meats. Despite the portion, it tasted really good. 4 out of 5 stars

Sky Lounge

Then we went to the popular bar called Sky Lounge on the top of the City Inn Hotel. The decoration and atmosphere was fantastic. Drinks are same price in London, but worth a try and certainly will bring my friends there again!

It all thanks to Melanie and Paul to take us to experience these good places!