South Bank Days, Shoreditch Nights

I had a pretty busy weekend, spending the whole day in the cinema yesterday, attending a film blogging workshop, followed by preview screenings of five movies (which I will review closer to their UK release dates). On Saturday, Maman was in town and we went for brunch with The Bro and The SIL at the Surrey Docks City Farm. It felt a little bit cruel walking past some very cute piglets, only to order some bacon in the farm's restaurant, Frizzante, but I couldn't resist the Canadian brunch, which also included scrambled eggs, banana bread and, of course, maple syrup. The food was really good and not bad value at £7.50 for my brunch.

All the fun of the city farm...

After lunch we went to check out some of the animals. The piglets, which were only a couple of weeks old, were adorable, but the mini goats were pretty cute too. We then walked our way along the Thames path, through Rotherhithe and Bermondsey, via Borough Market to the Tate Modern, where we managed a little bit of culcha before taking afternoon tea in the ground-floor cafe, watching what would have been the sunset had there been a decent one that day.

SOTR navigation training

Maman had to head back to the Shire but the rest of us caught the Overground to Shoreditch, where we contemplated a Brick Lane curry, but couldn't face the hard sell of the restaurant touts, who seemed even more persistent than usual on such a cold, rainy evening. Instead, we went to The Love Shake, a diner-style cafe at the bottom of Kingsland Road, where you could get a hot dog and a beer for £5. I had a peanut butter shake instead of a beer, and we all ordered fries too, but £23 for the three of us seemed like a reasonable bill. The Love Shake is tiny inside, with only a handful of tables and the kitchen, such as it is, tucked behind the bar. With its US license-plate-decorated walls and mix of '90s and '80s music, The Love Shake is a cool, chilled out and surprisingly unpretentious place to hang out over some unhealthy food. The chips were a little too salty, but my dog was good and I'm rarely anything less than euphoric when I have a PB shake in my hand. They do also do hard shakes for the more adventurous.

The Love Shake in Shoreditch

Frizzante. South Wharf, Rotherhithe Street, London, SE16 5ET (Tube: Canada Water). Restaurant website. Surrey Docks Farm website.
The Love Shake. 5 Kingsland Road, London, E2 8AA (Tube: Old Street / Hoxton Overground). Website.