Do you remember back in July when we visited Belmond's Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons in Oxfordshire {which just got named The Sunday Times Best Hotel in the World {!!}} for a day at gardening school? We'd always wanted to come and eat dinner, and stay, at the two michelin starred restaurant {a restaurant high on our bucket lists!} but that day back in the summer confirmed it even more for us. Seeing that connection between the two acre kitchen gardens, the passion of the head gardeners who work so closely with the chefs, and of course it's all overseen with such fervor by Raymond Blanc. The way that everything is organically grown and for pure flavour and taste, the way that the menus are designed around what will be ready & at it's very best that day, let alone week. So on Sunday, it really was such a special treat to be able to go and stay at Le Manoir for the night with luxury & service like no other and have an unforgettable dinner in the restaurant which will be very hard to beat from now on. I'd love to share some snaps from our stay below, if you'd like to see.

I've mentioned time and time again how much we love The Grove Hotel in Hertfordshire for special dinners and forever ogle over their landscaped gardens. Just down the road from us, it's a place we've been visiting for years and there's always a lot of hype when the England football team or NFL stay there, one time Obama was in town and we watched him tee off! It's a really stunning luxury hotel which has become known as London's Country Escape and is constantly topping UK hotel lists. We adore the Glasshouse restaurant there but I was especially excited when I saw on their Instagram that they were opening up their walled garden {normally just for hotel residents or members} and creating a pop-up restaurant for the summer in their Potting Shed. I actually looked at this space when we were planning our wedding, it's a greenhouse surrounded by vegetable plots. I booked in a few weeks back for dinner with Ben this summer as it looked our kind of style {we adore The Pig Hotel's restaurants set in greenhouses and this seemed a similar, local food kind of kitchen garden vibe}. But then, a couple of weeks ago, I got an email from their PR team - not aware that I'd already booked - asking if I'd like to attend the launch of the restaurant and stay overnight. You can imagine my joy.  YES PLEASE I replied! I think they were slightly concerned by my over enthusiastic reply. But it's the greatest treat to stay at The Grove and it turned out to be the most beautiful hot summers day to enjoy their outdoor pool during our stay - something I've always dreamed of doing. The new restaurant was even better than I imagined, and ridiculously instagram friendly full of botanicals where all the food is cooked over flames outside or in a wood fired oven. I've shared some more photos below if you'd like to see...

It's Ben's Birthday today. To celebrate we're hosting a big BBQ at ours this evening, there will be lots of cake and a build your own burger bar. I never know what to buy Ben for his Birthday so this year I decided to take him to Whitstable for a night. We've always wanted to go, and on reading the Easyjet magazine that was stuffed into the back of our seat on the flight back from Venice, we read about the Sportsman Pub just down the road from Whitstable. Michelin starred food in a laid back setting. So I had a google and booked us a little fisherman's hut for the night and lunch at what is now known as the UK's number 1 restaurant! It was a lovely short break last weekend with one of the best lunches we have ever had. It's always lovely to escape for to the seaside, even just for one night. Some photos below if you'd like to see. 

One of our favourite places to go for a weekend wander is Richmond. We whizz down the M25 on a Saturday or Sunday morning and head to Pembroke Lodge in Richmond Park where you can park for free. You get all the London benefits like good shopping, a lively town, burritos, sushi, a Wholefoods Store, even red buses! But without going into the actual city. It's a beautiful place with the Thames running through and an abundance of green space. Kew Gardens is just down the road {see this post from last Spring and an autumn visit here}. If we didn't have family and friends here in Hertfordshire we always say how lovely it would be to live down that way. Anyway, it's a beautiful place to visit and we can never resist stopping at Petersham Nurseries whilst we're down that way

I normally write this blog to recommend places that I've loved, so Claridge's is probably a slight exception to this rule. A few weeks ago, the night before we went to Croatia, Ben and I went to dinner at the famous old London hotel with his brother and his girlfriend to celebrate his Dad's 60th Birthday. The hotel itself is gorgeous, and I loved all the art-deco details and class of the establishment but for the food {and extortionate cost} you could definitely find somewhere better. But that's what these kinds of places are really don't you think? More style over substance perhaps? A must see, like Raffles in Singapore. It doesn't claim to be the best in London for food and certainly as a hotel it's second to none. Maybe afternoon tea would be better? Nonetheless it was a nice evening, just not worth the £££. 

I was thinking about our summer traditions this week, suddenly we're a week into July and summer is racing past! Two of my favourite things are eating outside and long evening walks in the sunshine and remembered back to an evening last summer that I haven't blogged about yet - 

Last June, the month before we got married the weather was stupidly beautiful. For about six weeks we had this never ending warm sunshine, it was amazing. {Although this summer is shaping up to be a good one for weather too!} Ben took a couple of weeks off before our wedding so that we could finish all of our DIY projects off and also just make sure we took some time to relax and not get stressed. One warm sunny evening we decided to book dinner at The Grove, a favourite of ours just down the road. They had emailed with a summer dining offer so we got my brother to drive us there and then we walked home along the canal after dinner after looking around the stunning grounds. Such a lovely summery date, and nice to take a step back from all the wedding talk for an evening. I think it may have to become an annual thing, we need to book again. Plus, every girl should have a LWLD - {little white lace dress}, this is one of mine. 

I haven't featured a restaurant on here in a while so let's talk about Barbecoa. It certainly deserves a mention. We went for my brother's birthday last May, he's a big meat fan so my Mum and I thought it would be perfect for him. Fine dining in a sense, it's created by Jamie Oliver and an American barbecue maestro Adam Perry Lang -  but for those who like their BBQed meat {and who doesn't?} The view isn't bad either - it's amazing - looking straight over the dome of St Paul's. 

I liked the open kitchen and the butchers attached. The food was really really good too, overall a real winner that I think we'll go back to.

I had two hen-party's before I got married, one was your traditional bunny-eared, L plate wearing fun night out with a big group of friends. I'll spare you the photos from that, but the second was slightly more sophisticated with afternoon tea at The Grove Hotel, one of my favourite places with my two bridesmaids and my Mum. This post will be all about cake, scones and peonies. What could be better?

They say that a Sunday well spent brings a week of content so continuing on the Sunday walk and a roast theme, one of my favourite ever Sunday's was back in January. Last Winter seemed to have a big storm every week with so much rain. I much prefer crisp days even if they're cold to wrap up and go for a walk in the sunshine. After checking the weather, we finally saw a Sunday that had sun forecast all day and it was a novelty to see blue sky and feel chilly for once. We grabbed our boots and took the dog to Hampstead Heath for a long walk followed by lunch at The Red Lion and Sun in Highgate for one of the best roast dinner's ever. 

I always find that if you go out for a Sunday Roast they will either be really fantastic or so overcrowded and disappointing that you wish you'd stayed at home and cooked. We've been lucky recently and discovered a couple of amazing pubs that no matter how busy, you will have one of the best roast dinners with the biggest yorkshire pudding you've ever seen. And you'll be so glad you went out for a roast instead of slaving over a roast all afternoon then washing up pans for days {even with a dishwasher!}. First up is the Alford Arms in Frithsden, Hertfordshire that's in the Top 20 Gastropubs in the UK and won Hertfordshire's Dining Pub of the Year 2014 award in the Good Pub Guide. 

We'd wanted to visit to the Hand and Flowers in Marlow, Buckinghamshire for a while now but the long waiting list had put us off. Book 9 months in advance just for a lunch, a year for dinner? How good would it be anyway? But after hearing so many good reviews I took the plunge and made a surprise booking for us to go for lunch on Ben's birthday a couple of weeks ago. It was well worth the wait. So before I go any further, get on the phone or online now and book in for whenever you can next get a table because we had some of the best food we've ever tasted.