The Giri Cafe – quaint, beautiful cafe by day, amazing restaurant by night! But more on that in a moment…
Instead, let’s step back a couple of hours to The Giri Residence (the most amazing luxury hotel owned by the same people) where we’d decided to try on the 24 hour breakfast. Essentially, rather than you waking up at a specific time for breakfast, breakfast is served whenever you wake up.
Seeing as it was my birthday, I figured long lie-in was not only well deserved but also the perfect opportunity to try the 24 hour breakfast service. 🙂 After a few lazy stretches, I got ready and went in search of our personal in-residence chef who set about whipping up exactly what we wanted for breakfast.
Freshly baked croissants, fresh fruits, orange juice and coffees to kick-start everything…
Lloyd went for poached eggs on toast with bacon…
I went for the pancakes. I typically go for sweet over savoury when it comes to breakfast… (I would if I could with lunch and dinner too – my sweet tooth knows no bounds).
Done with breakfast (which, considering the time, would count as brunch for most people) and unperturbed by the impending rain, we decided to head into town to check out the hippy market!
The Hippy Market has pretty much every single bit of tidbit imaginable which is slightly surprising given its relatively small size (compared to the markets we’re used to in London). My favourite kind of markets are fall into two broad categories – food markets or flea markets.
The hippy market has elements of a flea market but has a lot of commercial stuff (which doesn’t feel quite as hippy as the market is made to sound) so I can’t say I was particularly fond of it. This being said though, there’s a really great atmosphere there and everyone seems really fun and friendly so it’s a nice place to mooch around for an hour or so…
After about 30 minutes, we decided to head to the Giri Cafe for drinks. The Giri Cafe by day, is what you’d expect a cafe to be – a place with fantastic coffees, delicious cocktails (if you’re feeling frisky) and a rather great selection of afternoon meals.
They even have their own gardens where they grow their own herbs and spices to use in cooking and in making cocktails! Talk about that farm-to-table lifestyle, eh?
The rest of the afternoon was pretty much spent indulging in more cocktails, spa time and a lot of lazy pool time (…and perhaps even a little nap 😉 ). Just the perfect laid back day I’d wanted. It’s not often we get lazy days like this so I was absolutely milking every second of it!
That evening however, the clouds decided to keep to their promise of rain. It was the kind of weather where all you want to do is stay in but it was my birthday and, rain or shine, I wanted birthday cocktails! (As if I hadn’t already had enough…)
Thankfully, seeing as The Giri Cafe was right next door, it was again, the perfect excuse to visit for dinner without venturing too far in the pouring rain.
We started off with salmon caviar…
… along with those cocktails I’d ventured out into the rain for. 😉 (All of 2 minutes walking!)
The cocktails are all made with local ingredients and its fairly safe to say that you can taste the difference! There’s just something about having fresh food/drinks that absolutely unattainable with stored ingredients. Even the mint tastes ‘mintier’! 🙂
Lloyd went with a Caesar Salad (though not quite as you’d expect) – it was soooooooooo good though. I think the way the creamy chicken was prepared was pretty much was made this starter. *licks lips*
I went with the avocado and octopus – another big winner!
Mains was lamb for me… (if there’s lamb on the menu I just have to have it).
Coupled with parmesan fries.
Lloyd went for the fish.
Dessert for me was a deconstructed strawberry cake…
…with Lloyd going for the chocolate cake (though that’s probably not surprising, knowing how much Lloyd loves chocolate).
By the time we were done with dinner, pretty much everyone has cleared off, which I used as the perfect opportunity to have a nosey around again…
Dinner over and done with, a very happy birthday boy (c’est moi) and Lloyd headed back to the Giri Residence, pleased as punch. (There’s nowt quite like that ‘just eaten’ feeling – especially so when the good is as good as it is here).
I wanna tell you I stayed up to challenge Lloyd to an intellectual game of chess back at the Giri or that I tried to catch up on emails but that would be one big lie. I just tumbled right into bed, caught up on some of my TV series, and had myself an amazing night’s sleep! Happy Birthday to me indeed!!! 🙂
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