Scribblings from the Mitchy Side

At this rate, i'm going to be the size of a Blue Whale by March :P Went out again last night for food, this time to celebrate the ever lovely thalinoviel's birthday. We went to Trojka in Chalk Farm, a Russian Tea Room/Restaurant.

It's not a big place but the staff seem to be convinced that optimism is enough when booking large parties and that somehow the total lack of enough seats and tables will be resolved. There were 22 in our party and barely room for 18 at the tables. But somehow we got everyone squeezed in. So maybe the staff are right, who can say :)

Despite the over-crowding, I have nothing but praise for the menu or the food. I got to the restaurant absurdly early, having heard there were problems on the Northern Line and thus allowed time for the journey. However, if there were problems, they didn't affect the northbound service and so I got to the restaurant for 8pm. This gave me half an hour to peruse the menu and slurp some tea. I need the time, I could NOT decide what I wanted to eat! Too many yummy things! See here to see what I mean.

Gradually, people arrived, and there was squees of recognition and many introductions. The birthday girl looked fantabulous as usual and received many hugs and pets. I was able to catch up with d_floorlandmine and cookwitch, bibliogirl and rotwang and, all too briefly, the ever lovely smokingboot who was sadly sat too far away for gossip and catching up. There were many other fine people there that I did not know, some of whom, strangely, did not have LJs, but we tried not to hold that against them *grins*

It took a long while to get our starters but all the food came at the same time. I chose the chicken liver, which was seriously yummy, despite bibliogirl's assessment of it as looking like concrete. In fact, it was soft and very tasty :) The rye bread was also extremely delicious - I've only had rye bread before that was too dry but this wasn't at all. I may have to re-evaluate my opinion of rye bread. There was another long pause between courses but again, all the main courses arrived at once. I should note that due to a miscommunication, maviscruet got his main course with our starters. Oh well. :) However, as far as I know, everyone got what they ordered and the food was hot and tasty. I had the Gypsy Latke which was deceptively filling. I thought the portion was too small but when I finished it, realised I was seriously full. Not so full that I couldn't rob d_floorlandmine of the last portion of apple charlotte *grins* Yes, yes, I was rather full, why do you ask? :D

There was more chattings and bill sorting - that took a while - before we finally started wending our way home. At Chalk Farm, I was left in the company of cookwitch and d_floorlandmine who extracted a promise from me to text them when I got home. They hopped on the first Charing Cross train and I caught the next Bank train to Kings Cross. Happily, I got to KX just in time to catch the 12.36, which last express train home. Note to self - if you miss the 12.41 all stations train, you will have to wait an hour for the last train home. Don't do that. I was home by 1.30, having got a taxi from the station.

A lovely evening but I'm glad not to have any more food-related outings planned just yet. Ooof. Need time to recover! :)