Shoreditch Staycation

Sometimes you don’t need to go away to get away, sometimes a little staycation is just the ticket. A couple of weeks ago my friend Sophie and I did just that, taking ourselves off to Shoreditch for a weekend of R&R.

We kicked things off with lunch at Som Saa, a cracking little Thai place on Commercial Street. It’s been around for a while but I’ve never made it before now, although I definitely won’t leave it so long before returning.Kicking things off with the most delicious salad of chicken, prawn, pomelo and herbs. Fresh and light, I could happily eat this every day.The main event was this showstopper. Whole deep fried sea bass with a punchy fragrant sauce and an abundance of herbs tumbling down. We picked this bad boy clean.Green paypaya salad came along side and was knock your socks off hot and not for the faint hearted but if you love your chilli like I do then it’s a must order.The only thing that left me a little cold was the stir fried veg, more mushroom than anything else it was just a little blah.

The weather was a proper February drizzle and so we wasted no time hot footing it up the road to our home for the weekend, The Curtain. Nestled down a side street, not far from Spitalfield Market it’s a hotel and private members club with a couple of bars and restaurants to boot.Upon check in you’re offered either a whiskey or a water – no prizes for guessing which one I went for. The bar for check in has officially been raised.Now let me give you a little tour.Big squashy bed of dreamsBlack and white bathroom, a classic design packed full of the most scrumptious smelling goodies. You can buy these at reception to take home with you and neither of us could resist stocking up before we left.The drink and snack bar was pretty well stocked too.As tempted as we were by the idea of a martini, the inner Brit won and we donned our dressing gowns and hopped into bed with big steaming mugs of tea.

A quick perusal of the in room literature led to this utterly brilliant discovery.Why doesn’t every hotel do this?

Heartbreakingly, the wheels of the trolley had broken on the night we were there but reception kindly sent us up some cocktails to compensate.Cocktails in bed with your bestie has to be one of life’s great joys.Just when we thought we couldn’t be any more content, there was one more knock at the door.Milk and cookies, of course!

Eventually we dragged ourselves up to the rooftop bar for a cocktail. Only open to members and hotel guests it was nice but pretty dead on a Saturday night although I bet in the summer it’s fab.In the mood for a bit more atmosphere we made our way downstairs to Red Rooster for dinner, a little bit of everything to share.Now if I’m honest the food isn’t that great, you’re not going to be raving about it. BUT, the restaurant is really fun. They have a live band every night and the atmosphere is buzzing. If you’re going with a group, ask for the table right in front of the band and get ready for a party. Also order yourself one of the slushie cocktails from the Mexican bar on the ground floor (they’ll bring it down for you), it’s kind of like a frozen negroni and it’s delish.

After a while, the squashy bed was calling and we sleepily hopped into the lift and surrendered to it.

Now I don’t know about you but for me one of the best things about staying in a hotel breakfast in bed. No need to hang anything on your door, just give reception a bell, tell them what you fancy and it’ll be delivered to your bed. Bliss.Whoever is in the breakfast kitchen is doing a much better job on the food. We went for a bit of a hodge podge (always a winner in my book) and it really hit the mark, the scrambled eggs being particularly good.

Before we knew it, our time was up and we had to check out.

So we headed off for a few hours of shopping in Spitalfields before eventually retiring to our new favourite restaurant – Androuet.

Now I should start by saying that if you’re not a fan of cheese then this is not the place for you (and also, we probably can’t be friends). Nestled at the side of Spitalfields is a cheese lover’s paradise. We wasted no time getting stuck into the menus.First up came the raclette – we went for the French over the Swiss as it packs more of a punch.And a classic fondue, so incredibly underrated, it’s essentially heaven in a hotpotAll washed down with a couple of delicious glasses of red and served by hunky French waiters, I’m not sure two girls where ever quite so content.