Breakfast review: Bill's

Going for breakfast at Bill's has become a little bit of an obsession for us over the last few months.

I've visited Bill's loads of times for lunch and dinner, but we'd never got around to going there for breakfast until the end of May. We were missing our American breakfasts after coming home from Florida with a particular craving for pancakes, and we'd heard that Bill's was a pretty good substitute.

There's a Bill's in Cardiff city centre and in Cardiff Bay, and I've been to both restaurants several times over the last few years. However, when we go to Bill's as a couple, we always go to the one in Cardiff Bay as it's more convenient for us and is set in beautiful surroundings, especially on a sunny day.

On our first visit to Bill's back in May, I ordered the banana, strawberry and blueberry pancakes. You can choose between a 3 stack or a 5 stack, so I opted for the 3 stack to be on the safe side. I've got a hefty appetite but, for some reason, I REALLY struggle to finish all my food when it comes to American pancakes. 

I think you'll agree that this is a very instagrammable breakfast. The pancakes come with a decent helping of Bill's 'pancake syrup', which is basically their own branded maple syrup. The fruit adds the sweetness that's needed to break up the texture of the pancakes, and the whole dish just works perfectly. These pancakes are slightly thinner than their American counterparts which means they're more manageable for me, and I can comfortably clear my plate as long as I order a 3 stack. 

On our second visit to Bill's for breakfast in June, I chose the smoked streaky bacon pancakes. I think I marginally prefer the fruity variety, but that bacon really was cooked to perfection. My only slight issue with the bacon pancakes is that they come with a big dollop of very rich butter as well as the pancake syrup, and this meant the meal felt a little too rich for me towards the end. 

Bill's has plenty of options for breakfast if you don't fancy pancakes, but I don't think I'll ever be able to order anything else just in case I'm disappointed! There are also plenty of beverages on offer including tea, coffee, orange juice and a very tasty apple, carrot and ginger juice. 

Our breakfast usually comes to around £22, and Bill's will also add an optional 10% service charge to your bill. I think this is pretty reasonable for a good quality breakfast, and it's always a lovely experience with great service. We definitely need to plan our next visit soon. 

Have you been to Bill's for breakfast recently? What did you think? 

Restaurant Review: Moksh

If you've read my last blog post, you'll know that I had one of my three monthly check ups at the hospital last Friday. We always make an effort to go to a special restaurant in the evening after these check ups, and this time we decided to try somewhere brand new based on lots of positive recommendations from various friends - Moksh in Cardiff Bay.

We booked our table for 7pm and it was pretty quiet when we arrived. We'd already decided that we'd spoil ourselves and go for a three course meal as the starters and desserts sounded just as amazing as the main courses. I also treated myself to a glass of Prosecco as it was technically a celebratory meal, and it wasn't much more expensive than a soft drink!

I was torn between quite a few starters, but I finally decided on the Chicken James a la Indiana with CO2 Essence. What on earth is CO2 essence, I hear you ask? I wondered exactly the same thing... 

Don't ask me about the science behind it, but the waitress poured water into the container above and it erupted into an impressive steam show which smelt of cinnamon. I am quite easily impressed, but I thought this was a great spectacle. The food itself was really good, and was a deceptively large portion for a starter. There's half a naan bread hiding underneath all that chicken and sauce!

For my main meal, I decided to go for chicken again and ordered the A.D.I.D.A.S. (All Day I Dream About Spherification). It came with rice which meant I didn't have to worry about side orders, and it sounded very intriguing. 

It was completely different to what I was expecting, but it looked absolutely amazing. The spheres were visually impressive and full of fruity flavour, and the chicken was beautifully flavoured too. Oh, and there was LOADS of it. It also came with a chilli Cantonese inspired sauce which was a little spicy, but not overly so. The sauce meant that the meal wasn't too dry and 'samey' and was the perfect accompaniment. 

We also ordered a garlic and coriander buttered naan to share which was really tasty. It was quite thin which suited me fine as I didn't have room for a big wedge of naan bread on this occasion!  

Although we were very full after our main course, we heroically decided to go ahead with our original plan of ordering desserts as they sounded so unique and unlike anything we'd ever had elsewhere. I went for the Arabian Nights dessert which came with pistachio mousse, curry ice cream, dates meringue, gold dusted sweet hummus macaroon, edible sand and the magic lamp. 

There aren't many things I love more than an instagrammable dessert. The magic lamp was similar to CO2 essence I had with my starter, but even more aesthetically pleasing as the steam came out of the spout and tiny little holes on the lid to give a bit of a mystical effect, The pistachio mousse was probably my favourite element of this dessert, closely followed by the macaroon and the meringue. The curry ice cream didn't do it for me unfortunately as I didn't think the combination of flavours worked very well. However, I've heard others raving about it so it's just down to personal taste. 

The service was quite slow when the restaurant got busier towards the end of the evening, but the staff were all polite and we weren't in a rush so we didn't mind. The restaurant is quite small and doesn't feel overly crowded, and I loved it that everything was colour coordinated (orange, in case you were wondering). This was one of our more expensive meals in the UK at £78 but, considering the quality and quantity of the food and the special atmosphere, as well as the unique nature of the experience, we thought it was worth it.  

I also appreciated the opportunity to get dressed up and to put some make up on... I've been struggling lately and hadn't made an effort with my make up on for about a month, so it was nice to spend some time getting ready for a nice occasion! 

Have you ever been to Moksh? What did you think? 

New thing every week in 2016 #3

Welcome to the third post in my 'New thing every week in 2016' series! You can read the first post here and the second post here.

The ten weeks I've focused on for this post went from some big highs to a pretty big low which meant it was a difficult post to write. I turned 30 on 4th June which resulted in a lovely few weeks where I felt truly happy but, unfortunately, my health nightmare started on 15th July.

Read on to find out what I got up to between 20th May and 28th July...

Week 21: Drove around North Wales on my own for a few days on a work trip

Week 22: Ate at the Bear Inn in Clarks Village

Week 23: Got the bus to Cardiff Bay (and turned 30!)

Week 24: Did a Future Learn course on the European Union 

Week 25: Went bowling with a 3 year old

Week 26: Ordered a takeaway from Prezzo

Week 27: Went to Kaspa's

Week 28: Did my first Weekend Warrior challenge on the Fitbit

Week 29: Went to Southampton with Neil

Week 30: Received my first pair of earrings from Clogau 

I already know the next ten weeks will be difficult ones to look back on because I'm painfully aware of what happened next in the rollercoaster ride of 2016. However, on the bright side, the next post will include a holiday to Florida! Check back for the next instalment in a few days. 

New thing every week in 2016 #1

Last year, inspired by Liz at Distract Me Now Please, I started my 'new thing every week' series. I really enjoyed recording the new things I'd done every week, both big and small, so I thought I'd continue the trend for 2016.

I'm not always very good at making a conscious effort to do something new every week which means that the entries aren't always particularly exciting. However, I'm still impressed that I've somehow managed to do a brand new thing every single week for two years!

I'm going to split this series into five instalments which I'll publish over the next few weeks.

So, to begin with, here are the new things I got up to between 1 January and 10 March 2016.

Week 1: Tried adult colouring books

Week 2: Bought a star-shaped bowl

Week 3: Went to Locke and Remedy

Week 4: Played Cards Against Humanity

Week 5: Went to Five Guys Burgers and Fries

Week 6: Got up early on a Sunday and watched a film instead of reading in bed!

Week 7: Walked to The Captain's Wife

Week 8: Had afternoon tea at the Cutty Sark in Greenwich

Week 9: Had a hot chocolate at the Wales Millennium Centre

Week 10: Marched to Cardiff city centre as part of the Homes for Wales rally 

It's definitely been a nice varied bunch for my first instalment... check back in a few days for the next post in the series! 

Favourite wedding suppliers #5 - Fabulous Welshcakes

Yes, I realise that this is a ridiculously delayed blog post... I got married 15 months ago! However, I ate a welshcake from the lovely Fabulous Welshcakes a few days ago which reminded me that I still hadn't got around to blogging about our beautiful wedding favours.

We spotted a Fabulous Welshcakes stand at a wedding fayre fairly early on in the planning process and decided (after eating too many samples) that welshcake favours would work really well at our wedding. I arranged everything by email with Jo at Fabulous Welshcakes and all my questions were dealt with quickly and efficiently. We decided to go for a sealed bag of three heart-shaped welshcakes for each guest, with three different flavours - traditional, lemon and white chocolate, and dark chocolate and orange. We also ordered gluten free favours for our guests with dietary requirements - nothing was too much trouble for Fabulous Welshcakes.

We collected our favours from the Cardiff Bay store the day before the wedding and took them home to tie on the ribbons. Although Fabulous Welshcakes offered the option of supplying and tying the ribbon themselves, our colour theme was very specific so we sourced the ribbon ourselves. We did have a 'wedding panic' moment when we ran out of ribbon halfway through tying the favours, but luckily we found an identical shade in Cardiff Market!

Our favours looked beautiful on the day and everyone commented that they were a nice touch and something very different (and very Welsh!). Most importantly, they tasted amazing.

I'm now craving a welshcake... why isn't Fabulous Welshcakes open at 6pm on a Sunday evening?

My August in Instagram squares

August was a super busy month, as you can tell from my lack of blog posts (again). How is it September already?! However, all is not lost. As my Instagram feed has been kept faithfully up to date, I thought I'd write another monthly update using my Instagram photos as it's such a good way of summarising in squares. It turns out that I did (and ate) quite a lot in August... 

1. We went to Bar 44 in Penarth for the first time. As we went on a Sunday, we decided to go for the Sunday roast sharing platter. It was spectacular, as was my Nutty Brazilian cocktail and my cheesecake. It most definitely needs to become one of our regular haunts.  

2. I went away to North Wales to work at the Eisteddfod for six days. I was surrounded by beautiful views! It unfortunately rained nearly every afternoon while I was there, but the evenings were gloriously sunny. 

3. We did lots of painting in our house... we now have four freshly painted rooms. I love my pink living room wall the most!

4. I went for a lovely walk on one of my days off when we had a rare day of sunshine. I took about 40 photos but I think this one is my favourite...

5. I finished off my holiday shopping in trusty New Look and Primark. So many bargains in this photograph!

6. We visited Clarks Village for the first time and I loved it. I saved £54 on the goodies below which was actually more than I spent, so I definitely can't argue with that.

7. We went for a meal at my favourite curry house... Balti Cuisine! They love us there because we just keep coming back... and back... and back.

8. We went for a long walk to a very cloudy Cardiff Bay Beach... it was pretty cold and my short dress and flip flops certainly weren't appropriate for the occasion. 

9. We spent a less cloudy day in Cardiff city centre and I bought myself a new Pandora charm! It's becoming an expensive obsession and probably deserves its very own blog post at some point.

10. I went home to my parents' house for a few days. I spent hours chatting and laughing with my parents,  spent time in their beautiful garden, and met up with my best friend from school and her handsome little boy.

11. I went out for my friend from work's leaving do... I was driving so had lots of fruity (and sugary) mocktails! I used the occasion to wear one of my favourite dresses.

12. Neil and I had a little treat in Costa... sometimes I just can't say no to their tiffin.

13. I had a lovely date night with Sarah which consisted of food, an epic catch up, and Trainwreck at the cinema. We go to Bellini's every time!

14. Neil and I went to Nando's for the first time since our wedding. It's more expensive there than we remembered, or perhaps we're just more tight these days. A mortgage will do that to you.

15. I went to London for the day to visit Ice Bar and to see the Alice's Adventures Underground show. I absolutely loved every minute of it (apart from the tedious bus journey there and back), and I won a £40 gift voucher from Ice Bar as a result of my photos and enthusiastic captions! 

16. We hosted our first ever dinner party at our house which meant I got to use my beautiful heart shaped dipping bowls. They're possibly the most Instagrammable pieces of crockery I own.

17. We finished off our freshly painted bathroom with this pretty set of canvases. Very calming and bathroom-y!

18. Lastly, we celebrated our first wedding anniversary at the end of August... that deserves a post all to itself so I'll blog about it when we get back from holiday at the end of September (if I ever have some free time!). 

What did everyone else get up to in August? Did you also write a blog post which summarised your month into Instagram squares? Send me your links if so :)