Brunch at HotBox

My brother and I have always been close and I like to make sure we see each other often. We both love food and eating out so we often meet for dinner but this time I fancied testing out a brunch I had heard good things about, Hotbox in Shoreditch. So on one very sunny Sunday morning, I crossed the river to meet my brother and Charlie for a feast of a brunch.

They don't take bookings and I don't like queueing so we made sure we were there for 11am when it opened. The setting is simple, long tables with benches and bar stools around the windows. It's very casual, loud and fun. They bring you bottomless coffee or tea while you get stuck in to the menus. I'm one of those people who find it really hard to settle for just one thing. I want a little bit of everything, I want to try it all. Luckily the other two obliged, sharing is caring after all.

We also got the bottomless cocktails, a variety of bloody mary's, bubbly and mimosas.

We ordered the truffle egg toast and it was as good as it sounds.

The beef rib tacos, amazingly tasty and surprisingly light and fresh.

Chicken Belgian waffles, super crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside.

Fluffy pancakes with very thick cut bacon, unfortunately my least favourite.

Mac and cheese that I could happily live on for the rest of my life.

And finally the skillet smoked meat hash, very tasty and meaty.

We ate for ages, and I am not ashamed to say that we finished absolutely everything. I was determined to sample the puddings too but we were just too full. There is always next time right?

 

A Sunday morning well spent in the best company, I will always cheers to that!

I recommend giving Hotbox a try, you can check out their website here. Let me know if you loved it or loved it! 

1Rebel: A Workout Review

1Rebel is a new type of boutique gym in London, it opened it's doors in January and it's caused a bit of a stir. It's located in the heart of the city right by the Gherkin building. It was set up by the son of the guy that opened Fitness First, James Balfour, and he said the idea was to rebel agains his fathers chain like, contract only stereotypical gyms and to create something different.

When a friend suggested we go and take advantage of the free trial class I jumped at the chance. I love trying new kinds of workouts and this seemed like my kind of thing. They offer two types of classes, spinning and reshape. Both classes are done in dark rooms with night club like lighting and tunes mixed by internationally acclaimed DJ Jon White. The vibe is chic, sexy and fun. We signed up for the Reshape class with Tiago on Sunday morning and I have to say I was a little bit nervous as I made my way to the city. I am quite fit and like to train hard but this class sounded hard core with treadmill sprints paired with weight training in one.

I found a door with just a simple R and stepped through plush curtains to the reception area. I was greeted with friendly receptionists and given a large towel and a bottle of water. I headed downstairs to the changing rooms and was seriously blown away. These changing rooms are something else, super cool industrial luxe design with copper details, spacious getting ready areas with anything you might need for getting ready, blow dryers, ghd straighteners, lotions, cleansers, hair spray etc. I was looking forward to showering and getting ready there before the class had even started.

The reshape studio was dark and very cool, high tech treadmills and weight stations with dumbbells, medicine balls and exercise bands, flashing blue lights and pumping tunes. The girls and I had booked 5 treadmills next to each other which was great, we could cheer each other on and have a bit of a dance on the treadmills. The class was lead by Tiago who was energetic and fun, he seemed enthusiastic about teaching. We started off with some treadmill sprints, changing speed and incline according to our levels of fitness. You then jump off for exercises at your weight stations, then back on the treadmills and so on. The exercises consisted of step ups, jumps, squats and lunges for legs, press ups, chest press, tricep press, lateral and front raises for upper body and jack knife crunches, planks and medicine ball twists for abs. I believe we did 4 sets on the treadmill and 4 sets of exercises and a short cool down and stretch. You are also given two face towels to wipe off all that guaranteed sweat.

This photo has been borrowed from the 1Rebel website

All in all I enjoyed my reshape class but there were a few negatives as well. I thought it was slightly disorganised in the sense that we weren't told how long each sprint would last or how long we would for example be chest pressing for. If its a shorter set you can go for heavier weights etc and there is a big difference in how hard you can push yourself for 30 seconds compare to a minute. I also felt my upper body got more of a work out than my lower body and would have enjoyed more leg exercises.
I workout a lot, so to be honest it wasn't the toughest class I have ever done. I left feeling like I had fun but could have done more. This is probably partly my fault as I could have gone for heavier weights on some of the exercises. I would suggest a short explanation of how the class is structured and the length of the intervals might be beneficial at the beginning of the class.

Sweaty but happy we giggled our way to the changing rooms for a spin on their awesome make up chairs. The showers were lovely and spacious with lovely products and we took our time getting ready and taking full advantage of the beautiful facilities. I only noticed as I was leaving that they had a fridge with cool towels for after the workout, nice touch!

Check out these amazing chairs, I need one so bad.

The classes range from £17-25 depending on how many you book, so it's not cheap but it is fun, different and you are not tied into a contract of any kind. 1Rebel is definitely worth a visit, I would love to hear what you thought if you have been!

Visit the website here and book yourself onto a trial class.

Sorry I have been a bit quiet on the blog front, we have had lots of trouble with our internet but should be back on track this week.

Ethiopian Food in King's Cross

Ever since living in Ethiopia as kids, my brother and I have been obsessed with Ethiopian food. Our whole family loves it, and ask any of us what our favorite food is, Ethiopian will be the answer. Luckily for us, London has some great Ethiopian restaurants. Last week my brother and I caught up over Ethiopian food in King's Cross. It's a restaurant he has been to lots of times, but a new one for me. I was so excited for dinner I only had a light lunch to save space, I couldn't wait to try the delicious, spicy dishes.

Ethiopian food is a mix of spicy meat and vegetable stews, served on injera, a sourdough flatbread made from teff flour. The food is served on one big dish and you usually share your food and always eat with your hands. Even to this day I maintain that all food tastes better when eaten with your fingers, much to my mother's dismay.

The restaurant, Addis, was about a 5 minute walk from King's Cross station and when we arrived it was very busy. We sat on some stools with small tables while we waited for our table and had a drink. The crowd was a mix of families, groups of friends and even a small hen party. The interior of the restaurant was basic but authentic and it had a nice buzzing vibe.

 We ordered our favorite dishes of kitfo (spicy minced meat) , ye beg wot (meat stew) and doro wot (chiken stew). We also got a small portion of spicy spinach with cottage cheese. The food took quite long to arrive, and by the time it did we were starving and tucked straight in. It was to die for, really really well spiced and balanced, the injera was light and delicious and the portions were large. We had 3 dishes and it was definitely enough, we ate it all but mainly because it was so good rather than not having had enough. We were very pleasantly surprised when the bill arrived and I have to say it was one of the cheapest meals I've had in a long time.

As the night was still young we thought we would find somewhere nice for dessert. My brother has been wanting to go to the Renaissance hotel so we headed to the cozy warmth of the Gilbert Scott Bar and Restaurant. The building itself is stunning by the way and a lovely place for dinner or some cocktails. There was an excellent pianist and and the service was great, I have a feeling I will be back, maybe for a special occasion. I had a warm ginger cake with cinnamon cream and ice cream and my brother went for warm chocolate with yoghurt and lemon ice cream. Both were delicious and completely finished us off. Happy and full I headed home on the northern line, glad made the trip to the other side of town.

Coat: Guess

Shirt: Terranova

Leather Jeans: Rio Beach

Boots: Rio Beach

Handbag: Michael Kors

Scarf: Cashmere from Nepal

Did you notice our matching outfits by the way? So not planned.