~*El Rancho de Lalo & Lutong Pinoy in London!*~

One of the things I love most about London is the amount of choice there is of places to eat. London is a melting pot full of incredible restaurants, cafes and eateries, and there is always somewhere for everyone.








When I went to visit J in London last weekend, we visited a couple of amazing restaurants, which I will be telling you about in this post.










The first place we went to was a fantastic little Colombian eatery called El Rancho de Lalo. Situated in Brixton Village Market, it is a small, simple looking restaurant that is always jam-packed with people because the food is just too damn good! Reasonably priced, fresh and with VERY generous portions, it is the perfect place to get your fill on high quality grub. It was the second time J and I visited El Rancho de Lalo - we loved it the first time and we loved it even more the second time around!!
 

J with his Club Colombia beer!

On this visit, J ordered a Cazuela de Mariscos, which is a seafood soup with mussels, squid, octopus and shrimp. This was served with a portion of rice, salad, a couple of croquettes and cornbread. I was grateful for J sharing some of the seafood soup, because it was quite possibly one of the best dishes I have ever tasted!

Cazuela de Mariscos

Yes, I'd be happy with that dish too!

I ended up ordering the same dish as I had done on my first visit - the Bandeja Paisa, which is Colombia's national dish. The Bandeja Paisa is an absolute man meal (as you can see in the photo!) made up of different meats (grilled beef steak, fried pork belly and Colombian sausage), grilled plantain, rice, fried egg, beans and corn bread. I didn't finish everything as the portion was so huge (I shared most of it with J), but it all tasted amazing - the plantain, especially, was a nice way to break up such a protein-heavy meal!









La Bandeja Paisa!

The second restaurant we visited over the weekend was Lutong Pinoy, a cosy little Filipino restaurant on Kenway Road, about a 2-3 minute walk from Earl's Court tube station.

Upon walking into the restaurant, the whiff of cooked white rice made me feel very much at home - it smelt like a typical Filipino house, which made me feel super hungry!! I absolutely love the smell of Filipino food in the air, as it reminds me of being at home with my family.

The menu was full of amazing Filipino dishes at decent prices. We opted for Filipino Longanisa sausages with garlic rice (me) and Dinuguan with egg rice (J). Dinuguan is a Filipino savory stew of pork offal (typically lungs, kidneys, intestines, ears, heart and snout) and/or meat simmered in a rich, spicy dark gravy of pig blood, garlic, chilli, and vinegar. Needless to say, I was impressed with J choosing this as I thought he'd be put off by the ingredients, but he's very open-minded about food and he ended up loving it!

For drinks, I ordered a fresh Mango juice (my favourite!) and J enjoyed a bottle of Red Horse beer, which, along with San Miguel, is the Philippines national beer.

And for dessert...Halo Halo for both of us!! And it was delicious!!

Overall, I think we had a pretty awesome weekend of brilliant food and getting fat...I look forward to visiting both places again in future!