London 2015 Day 9: Les Mis and Ottolenghi

5/2/2015
London 2015 Day 9: Les Mis and Ottolenghi

We had brekkie in the Thames Foyer this morning (the same area we had High Tea in a couple days prior). I had a corned beef hash that was amazing.

Then a few quick photos of the room since I hadn't posted any of these yet.

Pretty sweet eh?! Today we walked to TKTS to try to get cheap day-of tickets for Les Miserables. Michal was excited to see it and I had seen it in London about 20 years ago at the same theatre! So we were hoping to get it sorted. We tried a shop near TKTS.... nope. Next we tried the theatre itself... WIN!! They had some available and we got day-of tickets for the 2:30 matinee. Awesome. Spring was so excited.

We wandered and were getting pretty close to ILM London so I figured I'd go check it out... as I walked by, I realized, wait a minute, I have my work Wifi!! That was useful to download a Google Map of the area :) We went inside and I chatted to the security guard as I was going to be meeting with some folks and training some people there over the next couple weeks. Super exciting office setup and awesome front desk area.

Next we wandered Oxford St. and went into a huge Zara there. I remember from my 2007 trip to Europe that Zara in Europe was really amazing for dude's clothes (and much much better than it is in the US). We checked out some stuff and Michal LOVED the sport jacket combo I tried on. I will probably buy it later during the trip and have been trying to find one for ages. These weren't colours I would have guessed but she loved it!

Ahh British Candy store... takes me back :)

Funny, a Ted Baker barber?!

Then off to Les Mis! Do you hear the people sing?! Such an excellent show, the longest running musical in the world. It was super excellent and Spring loved it and had an amazing time. The song "I love him, but only on my own" was one of the best. So great. What an amazing round of songs.

I started to feel a bit of a cold coming on so we stopped in a Boots to grab some Sudafed so that I could enjoy the rest of the evening. After the show, we walked past my office (!) to get some Wifi for a moment again! This was so we could call an Uber to take us to Islington. Apparently you can't take the bus because they don't take cash, and you need to get a bus card in advance. So we used the work wifi to get an Uber to Islington. Need an Oyster Card for the bus, stat!

Our plan in Islington was to go to Ottolenghi, one of the restaurants by the amazing chef and cookbook master, Yotam Ottolenghi. This was a cool family-style seating and dining. Tapas style, it was hot and cold options. We started with salad and then Aubergine (which was epic, as expected -- his Eggplant dishes are pretty legendary in his cookbooks). We had Brocollini, Golden Beet salad, tuna tartar, pea/mint croquettes, sweet potato tempura, and an awesome Passion Fruit Tart for dessert.

It was fun to be able to share family-style and try lots of different things. The food was all of excellent quality and it was a super fun night out with some close friends.

Back we wandered along Islington and found a fun pastry shop, but we were stuffed and din't have room for another bite.

We got a cab back to the hotel, and saw a sweet Lambo (a real life version of that RC car we'd seen in the toy shop a few days ago) outside of the hotel and driving around the circle in the front! Very cool :) Another great night.

After all this fun, it was time for a nice warm bath, and to try out this funny clawfoot tub!