Jewel And Ruby Blue

Last week had yet another birthday in the diary and to celebrate ten of us went off to Jewel Bar in Piccadilly for a few cheeky after work drinks before heading out to eat. Their website really couldn’t say it any better when they described it,

“Jewel Piccadilly is a chic, luxurious bar & Club located in the heart of the West End. It has become a regular haunt for both celebrities and beautiful people alike to socialise, party and unwind.”

As soon as you walk in your eyes are immediately drawn to the luxurious décor and beautiful chandeliers. Surprisingly, the bar was pretty full, even though it was a ‘school night’ and it apparently gets packed over the weekend due to its huge popularity- you have been warned! They have the usual happy hour offers with half price drinks between 5pm and 8pm Monday to Friday.

We originally planned to head off to Cha cha moon for dinner, which is a wagamama style noodle bar, however we couldn’t book and due to the large size of our party we didn’t want to have to wait a long time for a table. After racking our brains for somewhere else to go, we headed towards Leicester Square and Ruby Blue who seated us immediately.

Ruby Blue is a restaurant, bar and club all in one and is tucked around the corner of Leicester Square. As you climb the stairs and enter the restaurant on the right, you’re greeted by a stylish, girly and light décor which is very welcoming, we all commented on how nice the art work was! If you go off to the bar on your left it looks like a totally different venue, decorated in red and black with leather sofas perfect for a classy place to go for a drink.

The food here was delicious with a wide and varied menu, which was perfect for such a large party with varying tastes. The camembert to start, with Fajitas as a main was a real hit with the girls however, I opted for Italian bread and oils with BBQ ribs for my main, which were equally tasty choices.

The restaurant was very accommodating to the birthday celebrations, as we brought our own birthday cake and they kept it in secret, bringing it out instead of dessert with no hassle whatsoever.

The best part was the price! The menu is pretty reasonable with an average main course costing about £11 however we had a Taste London card meaning that we got 50% off food, add this to half price wine before 8pm and we were on to a winner! We had six bottles of wine between us and two courses each; it all came to just £13 each, which is a pretty amazing price for a merry evening in the West End!

I would recommend Ruby Blue to anyone, particularly for a birthday like this or for a cheap pre theatre meal.

Jewel Bar Picadilly

Wicked!

For one of the girl’s birthday’s  last week we thought we’d do something a little bit special as it was for a 21^st . So five of us went out for dinner in Victoria at Prezzo (Check out the cake we bought her!) and then went off to the theatre to see Wicked!

We luckily managed to find tickets for just £20 from Lastminute.com and used our Taste London cards to receive 50% off at Prezzo, part of a chain of great Italian restaurants. So it wasn’t a particuarly expensive night out at all!

I’ll be honest, I’ve never really fancied seeing wicked in the past, despite hearing lots of good reviews from friends, however I’m never one to pass out on a good night out like this and I was pleasantly surprised!

The musical is based on the book Wicked by Gregory Maguire and is the pre story to the famous Wizard of Oz and tells the story of Oz pre Dorothy detailing the stories of the Good Witch Galinda and the wicked witch of the west, Elphaba.

Here’s a little summary of the story: the pair were sent to the same boarding school as teenagers and at first despised each other until they become unlikely friends despite Elphaba being a bit of an outcast due to the colour of her (green!) skin, in an atmosphere of political unrest and where diversity is silenced (as in the case of the goat). Throughout the show you learn more about the characters and who really is good and bad.

The sets and costumes are remarkable, lavish and impressive ensuring that the  story moves slickly and smoothly from scene to scene.

This show makes you show lots of emotions and has you laughing out loud and certainly left me in awe of Elphaba’s amazingly powerful voice, which tells the story of: the Emerald City, flying monkeys, levitating witches, with a touch of romance and the odd tear jerker, absolutely superbly.

My favourite performance in the whole show was Elphaba and Galinda’s ‘Defying Gravity’, which left me singing for a good few days after.

Wicked is perfect for the not- so- typical musical goer and is a great one for the boys as its not so ‘stage school’ and camp as some of the other musicals I’ve seen. An absolute must see!

Tiger Tiger- Picadilly

In recent months I’ve regularly been found on a Friday night letting my hair down after a week of hard work at Tiger Tiger in Picadilly. We love this place for its great atmosphere, easy location and most of all cheap drinks!

The thing I like the most is how versatile the venue is, primarily it’s a bar which has a fantastic 50% drinks offer before 8pm Monday- Friday which is perfect if you’re going straight from work! I recommend booking a table in advance as it gets VERY busy and it’s annoying not having anywhere to put your drinks down etc. In busy periods (e.g. before Christmas) you may need to pay around £20 for the table, but usually its free.

Later on in the evening the music gets going and there’s plenty of room to dance the night away in a club like party atmosphere playing the usual chart hits with space to dance both upstairs and downstairs.

A particularly nice thing about this place is the food. When I first ate here I was expecting it to be cheap pub food equivalent to your local wetherspoons but I was very pleasantly surprised when a delicious plate of Moroccan lamb and sweet potatoes was presented to me beautifully and tasted even better than it looked! The restaurant in Tiger Tiger is quite reasonably priced too which is always a plus, one thing to note is that they do accept taste of London cards so bring it along and you can get 50% off your food.

The only downside about the restaurant in Tiger Tiger is the service; we were put on a table in the corner and out of the normal line of site of the waitresses, so it was very hard catching their attention making it slower for them to take our orders and when we needed fresh drinks etc. However once we did receive our food it was great!

Overall, Tiger Tiger is the perfect place to go after work at the weekend to relax, have a giggle and dance the night away =)