Pineapples and coconuts at our favourite, the Mango Tree

Our second day back in good old London and we were feeling the jet lag, I mean really feeling it.

I slept in until 1pm, and I wasn’t the least bit sorry.

It was a good thing that we had dinner reservations for 7pm at a place that’s fast becoming one of my London favourites, the Mango Tree.

Set in Belgravia, it was a quick ride on the tube to get there and honestly, it’s very unassuming from the outside. Classic Belgravia buildings lined up, restaurants tucked inside every so often.

We ventured in wide eyed and ready for a feast because we were shockingly awake and it truly felt like lunchtime to us. The hosts at the front reception gave us the option to go straight for dinner or pop into the bar for drinks. I’m sure you can guess which we picked, am I right?

Drinks it is!

The fabulous staff helped us select our cocktails and OMGZ. Look at what came out.

They were so beautiful and well presented and we were completely taken aback, in the best way.

In the pineapple is the Mango Colada, comprised of Zacapa rum, dash amaretto, fresh pineapple, fresh mango juice, pineapple juice, coconut cream and double cream. I ordered the Funky Coco, which came complete in a hollowed out coconut and contained ALL of the Malibu rum, fresh thai coconut water, lychee liqueur and lychee juice. As someone who rarely orders cocktails (I’m a wine and champagne girl, what can I say), these might be the ones to change my mind. They are most beautiful drinks I’ve ever seen.

(P.S. these are my snapchats, follow along for all my daily adventures @kellyprincew)

Of course, when presented with these as our drinks of choice, we went for a few photo opps. I’ve actually never drank from a coconut or pineapple in my life. I know, who am I? I need to vacay more, and better, apparently.

OK OKAY. One more. I’m SO excited about these, I can’t even. Joe and I have said we’re going back specifically to hold our giant drinks in hand and pretend we’re away on a beach living the life.

Once we drank our gallons of cocktails, we decided to settle into the restaurant for dinner.

With a hint of more decorum, we stopped giggling about our amazing drinks long enough to study the menu.

The Mango Tree has an incredible section. They have everything from luxury set menus, through to sharing platters and everything in between.

As we decided on our orders, prawn crackers and these little salad starters arrived.

Yummy cucumber, onion, strawberries and an acidic sauce was a nice kick start to the palette.

After, we decided to order from their a la carte menu, and started, well with the starters.

Crispy crab legs, aka Poonim Yum Mamuang, soft-shell crab tempura served with thai mango salad and thai citrus soy sauce along with an order of the Mango Satay chicken skewers.

And look how these babies come to the table! Open flames at tables are something that I strangely enjoy.

The chicken skewers were served with a salad and dreamy peanut sauce. I’m really not able to eat peanuts, but for special occasions, I go for it. I wasn’t sorry either because this sauce was out of this world good. I’d order it again in a heartbeat.

The tempura crab legs were as we expected, crunchy and delicious. You really can’t go wrong with tempura can you?

After our starters, we sipped on our drinks (a Pinot Grigio for me, and a Singha for Joe) before our mains arrived.

I picked adventurously with one of the spiciest dishes on the menu, the Pad Kee Mow Talay, which included spicy stir-fried fresh thick noodles with mixed seafood, garlic, chilli, carrots and holy basil.

They don’t kid when they say it’s spicy. I was reaching for the water with every bite. But I’m odd, and enjoy eating food that burns my tastebuds off.

Joe, who can’t eat spicy things in any way, shape or form, ordered the Royal Pad Thai, including Thai rice noodles, stir-fried with lobster, Alaskan King Crab, Chinese chives, crushed peanuts, bean curd and bean sprouts in a special homemade sauce, topped with their signature egg net.

Just look at this beauty.

We ate so much of our meals, and yet hardly made a dent in them. The Mango Tree is definitely one of the rare places in London that give you massive portions and are all about indulgence.

After eating three times our body weight, I though there was no way we could do dessert. Our server was exceptionally convincing and before we knew it we were trying a dessert platter.

Seriously.

I’m actually glad we did because I really had the full experience at Mango Tree.

You want to hear about the desserts? Course you do! There’s the Honey Mango Sticky Rice, Banana and coconut pudding with caramel sauce, a dark chocolate cake with a cream sauce for drizzling and dipping and last but not least, the yummiest ice cream there ever was but I can’t remember exactly what it was. Green tea? Coconut? I haven’t a clue, but when you’re in, be sure to order it because it was heaven in a scoop.

Our trip into the flagship Mango Tree location was the best way we could have spent our second night back in London. We got a taste for the amazing food when we visited their Harrod’s location, but this trip in was beyond excellent.

I can’t recommend it enough you guys. I’ll be back (with Joe, obvs) for another couple rounds of cocktails. So hey, if you can’t afford a super glam summer holiday, grab a cocktail at their bar. It’ll definitely perk you right up. And think of the Instagram.

Kelly xoxo