The first thing we did on our second day in London was to have lunch with Seamus. We picked K10 because we wanted Seamus to experience the whole sushi train thing. Kaiten zushi in Japanese means rotating sushi, hence the name of the restaurant, and this one seemed to have gotten good reviews. Unfortunately, we also selected the one branch that was located in the heart of the financial district, so when we got there, the place was packed with the lunch time suit crowd. Most of the customers there that day were in groups of twos, and whenever a group of two left, they filled the space with two other people. As we were a group of three, we had to wait for almost an hour, while people behind us in the queue proceeded to get seated first because they were a group of two. To their credit, the very nice guy organising the seating did apologise and offered complimentary drinks while we waited. When it was time to pay the bill, he even took a few items off as further compensation. But the damage was done. The food was OK; nothing really special to make me want to return.

After lunch, B and I headed off to our first sweet pitt stop. Minamoto Kitchoan is a Japanese confectionary shop specialising in wagashi – sweets usually eaten during the tea ceremony. We picked a persimmon and yuzu flavoured sweet each. Both were jelly based. The yuzu one was my favourite. Light, citrussy and not too sugary sweet.

Then on to La Maison next door where we sampled some champagne chocolate truffles and bought a palm sized macaroon and a bag of truffles to take away. There’s an air of being all very exclusive and hush-hush in there – it felt as if I had stepped into Hermes by mistake. They declined my request to take photos of the chocolates. I took some exterior pictures of the Halloween-themed window displays instead, but can’t seem to find them on my camera anymore, and have concluded that they must employ some sort of secret camera scrambling technology to thwart Intellectual Chocolatory Theft. Woah!

Since we were already in the Piccadilly area, we continued to walk around checking out the different shops – most notably the Apple Store on Regent Street which is meant to be the world’s largest Apple store, and Hamley’s, a toy store. Note the $8640.00 giraffe, and the Butterscotch the Pony display still makes me laugh. Realistic breathing!

Next : Day 2 – Part 2.. – Just when you think it’s not possible to fit anymore into the day, we visit Parlour at Sketch, Laduree at Harrods and St. John.

K10 City
20 Copthall Avenue
London EC2R 7DN

Minamoto Kitchoan
44 Piccadilly
Piccadilly
London, W1J 0DS

La Maison du Chocolat
45-46 Piccadilly
Piccadilly
London, W1J 0DS

Godiva Chocolates
247, Regent Street
London W1B 2EW

Hamleys of London
188-196 Regent St
London W1B 5BT