Hotel Viu Milan

Last week I visited Milan, Italy for the first time. The hotel I stayed is located in the North of Milan very close to Chinatown. To travel to the centre of Milan there are a few metro stations located near to the hotel. The metro is very easy to understand and the journey doesn’t take long.

The Rooms

The rooms were lovely and spacious. When I woke in the morning I had a wonderful view of the sunrise over the city, as dawn broke the room was filled with amazing light. The bathroom had excellent bright lighting and all facilities that you expect and more, bathrobe, slippers, hairdryer, etc. In the bedroom there was an Nespresso machine and also a kettle. We were given complimentary bottles of water every day and there was also a mini bar in the room with snacks. The bed was very comfy and plenty of wardrobe space for all the clothing I had taken.

The Breakfast 

The Breakfast room is located on the Viu Terrace which is on the top floor of the hotel. During the summer months you are able to have breakfast outside on the terrace and during the winter it’s inside. The views are spectacular. In this case we sat inside and it was absolutely lovely. The pancakes were delicious and the coffee was one of the best I have ever had.

Swimming Pool 

The swimming pool is beautiful and would have loved to have sat around it for a few hours. But sadly on the occasion it was too cold. As we visited in the month of November. Hopefully when I  return it will be warm enough to take a dip whilst enjoying this amazing view of Milano.

If you’re planning a visit to Milan then I would truly recommend Hotel Viu Milan for your stay!

Hotel Viu Milan 
Via Aristotile Fioravanti, 6, 
20154 Milano MI, Italy

+39 02 800 10 910
info@hotelviumilan.com                                                                                                     

Morgan & Mees

 

On the 25th of May 2017, I went to try Morgan&Mees which is a hotel with only 9 rooms available and they also have a restaurants for guests staying at the hotel and visitors who are not staying, which is great. This is honestly one of my favourite places as I have been a couple of times. They do breakfast, lunch and dinner. At the moment I have only been coming at breakfast time which is before 12PM (12:00) because after that you are not able to order anything of the breakfast menu. If you come for breakfast I definitely recommend the ”Paulie’s Pancakes” which are sooo goood. One of the best pancakes I have ever had, they are small but worth it. Also I would recommend the ”Scones” they are also very high in quality. What is so good about it is there are no raisins in it and I absolutely hate raisins, so this is absolutely brilliant. The iced latte which I always have when I am there is very nice but quite strong and that’s why I always ask for some extra milk. I would definitely start and try coming for the lunch and dinner menu to. The staff are very friendly and helpful. But the downside is when they are busy you cannot get their attention very easily. They have a lovely outdoor terrace when it’s nice weather. Some of the tables are out on the street and the others are inside a little inclosed from the street. The atmosphere is very pleasant and isn’t too noisy even outside. If you love the sun this is definitely the place to be because the sun is there from 11AM as far as I know. For the none loving sun people there is also shaded areas don’t worry. If you are in Amsterdam with good sunny weather then definitely come and take a look here. I would rate this a 5 out of 5.

★★★★★

Morgan & Mees – Tweede Hugo de Grootstraat 2-6, 1052 LC Amsterdam

Jansz

On the 22nd of May 2017, I went to try a restaurant with my mom called Jansz which is part of the Pulitzer hotel in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. I had reserved a table because it was nice weather and we weren’t sure if it was going to be busy or not when sitting outside. When we got there we sat down on the corner of the street. We had ordered a small still water and a glass of wine. We waited about 15 minutes and still didn’t receive our drinks which is weird because it wasn’t busy at all and drinks normally don’t take long to get. After asking again they came with a big bottle of still water when we had asked for a small one. So they after came back 10 minutes later with the water. We also ordered food and I ordered a portion of fries to go with my meal which was Ricotta on toast. Then after 30 minutes our food still didn’t come and we asked where it was and some woman told us our food never got placed in the system of it being ordered. We were not happy about this at this point and after we re-ordered we got it in about 10 minutes. The food it self tasted very good but the service wasn’t even when it wasn’t that busy either which was a shame and a disappointment but what was weird is that we were the only people which had this situation. Next time we will try again and see if we will have the same problem or if it was a one off. The atmosphere itself was very nice because we sat outside on the terrace along the road with good weather and watched people, cars and bikes go by. I would rate this 4 out of 5 because after all the disappointment we had a waiter decided to take off the drinks and the fries from the bill because we did get our food but the fries never came till like 10 minutes after we finished our meal.

★★★★

Jansz – Reestraat 8, 1016 DN Amsterdam

Benji’s

 

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On the 20th May 2017, I went to try Benji’s with my dad. Which is located outside of the city centre of Amsterdam near the outskirts where many collages and universities are. It was a nice and spacious place has a lot of glass windows and makes it very nice and bright from inside. There was plenty of seats to go and sit at and especially when it’s nice weather you are able to sit outside on the terrace to. We decided to sit inside because we were not sure if it was going to rain or not. As we sat down we got a menu and then you had to go and order at the bar. I ordered as drink a juice of the day which was a green drink with spinach and other green vegetables. As my meal I ordered the ”Buddha Bowl Salad” which had Quinoa, Chickpeas, carrot, red cabbage, avocado, homemade hummus, cucumber and sweet potato. But I ordered my dish without cucumber because I am not a big fan of cucumber and prefer it without. Then when the meal came there was a mistake made and in my dish they had put cucumber in and with my dad’s dish they left the cucumber out so they had no problem with sorting it out and bringing the orders back to solve the problem. The staff are very friendly and helpful. The food was really good to and great atmosphere not too noisy and you could probably come and study here while eating something. I would definitely come again because the service was great and they solved the situation out with the cucumber and with no problem. We came also around 12PM on a Saturday and there was no que, not sure if it gets busy at any time when you have to wait but I know for sure there are plenty of seats available.

★★★★★

Benji’s – Wibautstraat 196, 1091 Amsterdam

 

Marbella – DA BRUNO a Casa ristorante

 

On the 24th of April 2017, for dinner we went to one of my dad’s most favourite restaurant when we come to Marbella, Spain. Which is called ”DA BRUNO ristorante”. It has a variety of different choices with Spanish and Italian food. The atmosphere is pleasant and not too noisy. The staff are friendly, speak english and are easy to understand. I suggest if you are thinking of coming to this restaurant during the summer to book because you won’t otherwise get a table and would probably have to wait a long time until you get one. To start with I ordered ”Prawns Pil Pil” which is a spanish dish meaning spicy prawns and they are really good and one of my favourite dishes when coming to this restaurant. It’s also a well known dish in Spain. Then as main course I went for the ”Ravioli with Pumpkin” and with a butter sage sauce. This was really tasty and basically I always order these starters and main courses when I come here.  I will definitely come back (Always have so far). Most people eat here quite late if you like to have atmosphere of more people around. Also you can sit outside or inside depending how the weather is. There are many other Da Bruno’s in Marbella but the one we went to is linked down below. I would rate this a 5 out of 5

★★★★★

DA BRUNO a Casa ristorante – Urb. Marbellamar, Local 1, 29600 Marbella, Málaga, Málaga, Spain

THE AVOCADO SHOW

 

Today, Saturday 13 May 2017, I went to try The Avocado Show with my parents. Last time I went I was there with just my mom throughout the week but because it was Saturday my dad joined too. The food last time was really good thats why we came back again today to also try new dishes from last time. The Avocado Show was opened around March 2017, since then it has become a very popular hotspot place of Amsterdam with many tourists that know about it to because of the Instagram Page that was set up. The menu has a reasonable amount of choice with every dish being different. Because it’s new and a lot of people know about it. There is also a waiting que at the moment which can lead up to 1 hour and 30 minutes (It’s worth the wait when you get inside for the food). The atmosphere is very pleasant inside and the staff are friendly and all speak good spoken english. As drink I ordered a Iced latte which was very nice but a bit too strong for me. As a starter dish we ordered nachos which comes with cheese on top and 3 dips which are salsa, guacamole and sour cream but its a big portion. We also ordered Yakitori skewers which was very good. As our second dishes we all had 3x a poke bowl which is my absolute favourite because I had it last time and remembered how good it was. As last we had a dessert which was ”The Blind Date” It’s a avocado split in half thats like cake but it’s hard to describe what is in it or what it actually is but I had it last time as well and it was very good. I would definitely come again and always will probably but the only downside is the waiting que but you have to wait to receive good food. I would rate this a 5 out of 5

★★★★★

THE AVOCADO SHOW – Daniël Stalpertstraat 61, 1072 XB Amsterdam

Marbella – PAN & MERMELADA

 

On the 24th of April 2017, we had some lunch just 10 minutes from our hotel. To a place which is called Pan & Mermelada. I have been to this place almost every year since I was little as I have been to Marbella a lot and the food is very good but this time it was owned by different people to what the owners were last year which was a disappointment. The atmosphere is always nice because you are sat outside (or you can sit inside) when its nice weather and sat next to a walking way where you can watch people go by. Also you can have breakfast, lunch and dinner here. We came to have lunch around 12PM but there lunch menu didn’t start till 1:30PM so we had to take food off the Breakfast menu but that was not a problem for me as they had American pancakes on the menu which made me really happy because I love having pancakes for breakfast or brunch. In the end I ordered to drink an Avocado which had some other fruits&veg mixed in, it was presented nicely as it came in a mason jar which is quite trendy at the moment which I thought was very nice. With my drink I ordered American Pancakes with chocolate chip. It tasted quite nice but different to my expectations because they were far too big and I wasn’t able to finish it all. The new staff were reasonable and friendly.  I would come again to try the lunch menu as I saw online they had some things which caught my eye but the Lunch menu is quite late which is a shame. I would rate this a 4 out of 5

★★★★

PAN & MERMELADA – Marbella Real 16, Avenida Bulevar Principe Alfonso de hohenlohe, 29600 Marbella, Málaga, Spain

Paris – Miss Ko

 

On the 16th of April 2017, after going up the Arc de Triomphe. We went for some dinner at Miss Ko. I recommend to book or reserve as it gets very busy and just to make sure you have a table I would book online which is very simple and easy to do, only its in french so make sure you are able to understand with what you are doing. we came in at 7:45PM and it was absolutely packed. We were given a table near the entrance which was very nice as you could watch people go by and walking in and out. The staff were very friendly and helpful explaining everything. The interior was fascinating and different to what you would see in a restaurant because they made it look like you were in Tokyo with having all these symbols and bright light colours. I am a massive fan of Asian food so this was really good and tasted like good quality. The atmosphere was pleasant and not too noisy with background music playing which I liked. I have been here 3x now and never have had a bad meal or bad experience. As starter I shared some dishes with my family and we had some sushi (which I absolutely love) also we had some edamame, Gyzos and a seaweed salad. As main course we had are own dishes and I had a noodle salad with chicken which tasted really good. Then as last as a dessert I took a funny and different type of thing which were mini doughnuts with 3 special surprise chocolate sauces. I didn’t expect it to be that good and loved the white sauces which was given. If you want a fun night definitely come here. I will always come back here when I am over in Paris. It’s also in a very good location as its just round the corner from the Champs-Élyseés and next to the Louis Vuitton store. I would rate this a 5 out of 5

★★★★★

Miss Ko – 51 Avenue George V, 75008 Paris, France

Paris – Ladurée

 

On the 16th of April 2017, after a day of looking around the Louvre. We decided to go and have something sweet to eat at Ladurée as a late afternoon snack. When we got there, there was a pretty long line but some how we only waited for 10 minutes until we got a table and the table we had been given was pretty nice as we could watch people walk and stand by. The atmosphere was very pleasant and not too noisy. The place at Ladurée on the Champs-Élysées is huge theres around 3 floors where you can sit and eat and also there is a take out, which means you can buy chocolate or macaroons to take out with you. While we were there I ordered an ice coffee but it was quite strong so I kindly asked for some extra cold milk, also I ordered 4 mini macaroons to go with the ice coffee which was very nice as you can choose a variety of your own flavours which you want. It was really good and I recommend if you want something sweet or typical french to try to definitely come to this place as the service is very good even when they are absolutely full in the whole building. They don’t only serve sweet dishes here but also breakfast and lunch if you are interested. I would rate this a 5 out of 5

★★★★★

Ladurée – 75 Av. des Champs-Élysées, 75008 Paris, France

 

Paris – Le Café Marly

On the 16th April 2017, We had an early breakfast around 10:30AM and because we had a reservation booked we were able to get a table, there was actually no need for a reservation because there was barely anyone there but normally this place is busier in the summer and for lunch as you have an amazing view of facing the Louvre while eating. I am sure they also serve dinner which is nice to see in the dark and having a nice atmosphere of people constantly walking by from different corners and areas. The waiters and staff were friendly and some could speak better english than others. Because we had the Louvre booked at 11:20AM and we thought we were going to be late because we had to be there 20 minutes before hand. We told one of the waiters if the food could come a bit quicker and they were very polite and sorted this out for us. I ordered Toast with 2 different types of jams and a pot of honey, this was very nice and I enjoyed a lot. Along with the food I ordered a Iced Coffee which was really good and I wanted another one but didn’t have time for it. I would come again but the choice for breakfast was very small and I didn’t have much to pick from. Maybe for lunch it might be a different story. I would rate this a 4 out of 5 because of the lack of choice there was on the menu for breakfast.

★★★★

Le Café Marly – 93 Rue de Rivoli, 75001 Paris, France