Review: Jamie's Italian and Afternoon Tea at Bill's

So this week was mine and my dad's birthday, so I wanted to review two places that I went to:

Jamie's Italian

For my dad's birthday, we went out for a meal at one of Jamie's Italian restaurants in our local town. This was a small location so it was the Trattoria version, and had only recently opened. I've been to the Brighton Jamie's Italian for my 18th birthday and the food was amazing (definitely recommended), but I always see it as a pricey restaurant to visit on a regular basis.

As this was a birthday, we decided to treat ourselves and splash out. The Trattoria menu basically incorporates the most popular dishes of the normal Jamie's Italian restaurants, therefore it's a miniature version. Luckily they had the dish I was eager to have again, the Tagliatelle Bolognese. It is basically spaghetti bolognese, and although it doesn't sound adventurous, I can guarantee it's one of the best tasting bolognese I've ever had!
There are other delicious italian dishes that I sampled from the what the rest of my family ordered, such as the Porcini Fettuccine, the special risotto for that day was amazing, and my mum tried the italian beef burger. All of these tasted amazing and I would happily eat any one of these dishes.

So as far as food is concerned, Jamie's Italian is highly recommended for good tasting and flavoursome italian dishes. One thing I was disappointed by was the lack of a cocktail menu. The last time I had visited I had this delicious cocktail called the Florence Fizz, but due to it being a Trattoria restaurant, it wasn't included in the menu. But I did try the non-alcoholic cocktail called Citrus Crush which was soo good and made up for the other drink being absent.

Citrus Crush

Tagliatelle Bolognese

Overall, it was a nice meal out, and the atmosphere as well as the staff made the evening really pleasant and enjoyable. The decor was kind of old fashioned italian, and the toilets were amazing! Worth a visit! This was the perfect place for a birthday meal. My only fault for it are the prices, which aren't that much higher than the usual high street restaurants, but when drinks are incorporated it can become pricey, and dessert was out of the question. For a special occasion, this place is the perfect location to eat.

Bill's Afternoon Tea

Onto the next review, for my birthday I decided to go up to London for afternoon tea but as I had done this before in a fancy hotel, I wanted somewhere cheap. I came across afternoon tea at Bill's restaurant in Covent Garden. For only £9 something, it was perfect as I didn't want to pay excessive amounts for the location. When we arrived the location of the restaurant is in St Martin's Courtyard which is nestled in the side streets of Covent Garden and is in a really prime and pleasant location.

Bill's restaurants are very nicely decorated, and it was pleasant to sit down and enjoy the experience. When afternoon tea came, they gave us two stands for 4 people which included a selection of traditional finger sandwiches (around 3 per person), 4 mini cakes (brownie, strawberry and cream shortbread, lemon and poppyseed sponge and a marshmallow) plus two scones with jam and clotted cream. The food was nice and the mini versions meant we could eat all of it and still feel full up. Afternoon tea is a sugar overload though, so we were buzzing off sugar for the rest of the day!

Selection of mini cakes

Scones

The tea supplied was plentiful (I had 5 cups, that combined with all the sugar was a bad combination), and there is a selection of many different flavours. For £12, you can also upgrade to a glass of fizz.

English Breakfast Tea

It was good for the money and I wasn't expecting anything more, however I felt like because it was cheap then it was what we were getting. The staff didn't really know that we were there for afternoon tea even though we had booked it, and they gave us general menus to start with. We always had to go up to get there attention (we weren't handed any cutlery to cut the scones or cakes with) and I felt like I should have paid a little more for a better afternoon tea experience. Groupon always offer deals for not much more money and having afternoon tea whilst everyone around you is there for lunch felt kind of wrong. The atmosphere was very loud and it was difficult to have a conversation. In a hotel setting, it's usually in a high class restaurant so you do get the high tea experience, and this was lacking.

My advice is as a casual tea place, yes go to Bill's, but if you are looking for the classic and traditional 'High Tea" experience, then do it the proper way and book into a fancier location.