Sunday Brunch: Lunch Club VIII @ Velvett Grill Lounge and Bar

So, the 8th lunch club was yesterday at Velvett. 

Velvett is usually kind of pricey. So when I saw the lunch club menu, I knew I was getting a bargain!

At the beginning, we had lovely surprise cupcakes from 

honeys cupcakes

 from her new ...line?...collection? whats the right word for new food, which we got to try and review.

Obviously bread wasn't on the menu, but when the waiter put this basket on the table, I nearly wept in gratitude. The bread was really fresh. When he took it away, I almost grabbed the basket out of his hand.

I'm sure you could tell from the menu that it was going to be an appetiser platter. It was missing the plantain, but I can't say it would have added something different- just more food. Everything tasted good to me, tbh. I did wolf everything down at scary speed, so most of it probably missed my tastebuds.

I ordered my steak medium well because you just can't be sure how you're going to get your meat cooked in places. I ordered medium rare one time and they basically slapped the dead cow on my plate with sauce. Fola ordered medium rare and it was perfectly medium rare, so with Velvett, I guess you can trust that they understand how to cook steak. The meat was really tender and the black peppercorn sauce was great. This course came with a discussion of Nigerian cows and why steak cuts are imported.

Oh and the mash was great. Creamy, smooth and made from real potatoes. I pretty much scraped the bowl.

The chicken looked really good and was massive!

We had the brownie and tiramisu for dessert. I have to admit, this fell a little flat for me. The tiramisu was much too creamy with little or no sponge fingers. The custard was tasty, don't get me wrong, but the dessert isn't just custard and mine was basically that. The brownie was dry and most of mine was burnt. After the rest of the meal, I was a bit disappointed, but also full, so it was fine.

Velvett Grill Lounge and Bar is located at 19b Idejo Street (beneath Izanagi).

To join the lunch club mailing list, go on 

eat.drink.lagos

Throwback Thursday: Lunch Club V @ Mansilla

So...another lunch club is coming...seems like the perfect time to write about the last one! 

These have to be my favorite name tags yet- stuck in macarons!  People left their macarons on the table, but I ate mine. Typical. Sigh.

The menu was PAAACKED. Eek. But I've never been scared of a packed menu and I wasn't going to start being scared now.

They brought out this fancy water, but the cover destroyed the look. Why can't brands just follow through design to the end?! I excluded the cover because it made me sad.

The Quinoa salad was AMAZING. Delicious and fresh, slightly warm. The pomegranate seeds added a little extra flavour. This excited me for what was to come...

A palette cleanser, is well, just that.

These duck spring rolls were everything spring rolls should be. Crisp and ducky. They were also really small so the portion wasn't overwhelming.

The two drinks were...disgusting. There's no other word. The mango margarita with the chilli rim sounded exciting and looked beautiful and that was it. It tasted of only tequila. So, a chunky tequila drink. I couldn't drink it.

After the disastrous drink, my high kind of dropped. This ravioli was okay. The pasta was a bit chewy and the sauce wasn't enough, but it was very okay. It wasn't bad. It was just one of those 'this can be rice at home' moments.

So the owner? manager? came round and noticed my drink was virtually untouched so she offered a different cocktail and it was delicious! Yay! She basically got new cocktails for everyone so that was nice.

This curry dish was okay! The vegetables were seriously undercooked (so healthier, I guess). The curry was lumpy. Sigh. There was just no 'I'm eating out' feel from this. It was like it came straight from my kitchen on a regular day.

Steaky steak steak. 

The final palette cleanser which was nice.

Double dessert! I hate cheesecake (except chocolate cheesecake because the chocolate basically masks the flavour of the cheese) so I didn't even bother. sigh. The chocolate cake was okay. The dessert was misrepresented on the menu tbh. It was an okay end.

This was a really good lunch club. The crowd was great. The conversation really flowed and we ended up being there for absolute ages. I would go to mansilla again for the quinoa salad and the duck spring rolls- so starters. I've also heard they do a good breakfast. For mains or drinks? nah nah nah nah nah. 

Questions about nosa and folly: the lunch club at sakura

We've had our second lunch club now. I say 'we' because famz. I got there early and helped Folly make some key decisions. Anyway, it's funny that the first question everyone asks isn't 'so what's the relationship?' Maybe someone asked and I wasn't listening...

Anyway, the second lunch club was great for a few things;

1. It was more intimate 

2. We had less food which should sound positive but the food coma last time was something else

3. I got my own name tag! 

4. I liked the fact that there were a lot of the same people again. I think it also let the newer people feel more comfortable. I went with my cousin and she's already decided to go for the next one. 

my cousin, she blogs at www.oyimesmusings.blogspot.com

this tuna was delicious. 

This is one of the better miso soups I've had, but it's miso soup for goodness sake!

this salad was too fresh, I know it's salad, but chill

I'm not usually down for fried gyoza but this was good tbh

The lady gave me free ice cream! I guess I'm just cute like that :)

Sake shots- which actually are gross and taste too strongly of rice

Folly gave us these stickers and tried to convince me that my laptop was the best home for it (it's still in my bag but I'm going to put it on a notebook sha