Kingsway Hall Hotel, London, UK

Now that I am back in London after arrested in Tokyo for 8 months due to many reasons.  This time is my first ever participating an weekend offsite meeting of a company group, yes, still business but many to learn, many to know and many to come across.  Interesting indeed :-)

And, I won't miss this opportunity lol

The offsite meeting has been held at Kingsway Hall Hotel in Covent Garden, London.  Unlike my preference, no Hilton, no Accor group, but a private family own, a sort of boutique hotel, refurbished from a theatre.

Room is simple but pleasant interior, with fast-speed wi-fi (with no limit of data transmission), so no stress to work at room :-p  But, whirlpool is... just a spa so do not have to bring your goggle for serious swim :-)

Okay, now is the time to talk about breakfast.  Quite British buffet style, so you won't miss black pudding and potato, as well as a range of cereals as usual.  A breakfast included to BB rate serves you two free range egg, say omelette, inclusive (yikes!).

As you see, hum... two-folded style of omelette, with less egg juice, maybe I asked bacon and mushroom in it, or not.  But, thanks to crispy bacon and , you can enjoy mixed textures of crispy, softness and chunky :-)

It may be good to stay at boutique hotel in London, with very private atmosphere like this.

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Radisson BLU Waterfront Jersey, St. Helier, Jersey

And, I at last came back to Jersey, Channel Islands after 18 months of missing, due to a big fact that a year 2012 was an Olympic year in London so that I was anticipated not to work once I came to U.K. so that my smart boss prohibited to come to UK.

After 18 months, I saw many changes in London, and even Jersey too.

My second home in Jersey, Radisson BLU Waterfront Jersey got a big blue sign on the top of the building, replaced its fitness operator, etc., but their pride of "Super Breakfast" remains as it is.

But....  as you saw above, omelette shapes different from what we saw before that I suppose you agree when you saw my past article.  I would say here, innovative shape, however, I wonder if it is comparable with other omelettes around the world...  Let's see how they tweet back to this article.

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Caxton Grill, St. Ermin's Hotel, London, UK

I missed any good excuse to come to London in 2012.  I might have been considered that I should be around Wimbledon during Olympic Games so that I should not be in UK in the year.

But, now is 2013 and I am back to London.  And, booked at a hotel I stayed last time.

There seems no change in any sense, appears classic London hotel, and reality is no difference from your perception when you stood at their gate.  And you feel the same when you approach to the reception of Caxton Grill in the morning.  Very classy interior of bar area to restaurant area, and variety of selection of bread, cold cuts, fresh fruits, etc., any of them claims their impressive tastes as well, and no exception with omelette.

Round-shaped very smooth skin at appearance, and half-cooked inside to enjoy a bit of egg source with stuff.    Yes, I came back to UK now.

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Lounge, Intercontinential Grand Stanford HK

It was almost 20 years after I came back to Kowloon peninsula to stay when I got my first passport in my life to come to HK with backpack, to find and stay backpacker hotel to follow a novel I read at that age.

After I started my career as business person, I have been lucky enough to avoid my first overseas experience to stay at relatively luxury hotels in Hong Kong island every time I came to HK.

This time, as suggestion by one of my friends of hotel woman, I booked at the captioned hotel, in Kowloon side.  This hotel is among other classic hotels in TST East, around 5 to 10 minutes walk distance, and thanks to neighbour of Hotel Nikko, I recognised more Japanese tourists around this area (and I was recognised as Japanese, too).  So, if your meetings are arranged in island side, you may hesitate, as you also need to top up another 5 minutes to cross habour by MTR (and actually I did), but once you start to live there, you realise this extra 10 minutes is comfortably nice to cool you down from heated discussion during meetings.

And, this hotel proudly offer their lounge in 1st floor, whoever can use once you pay a bit of extra cost for lounge.  But it is indeed worth to pay for it.  At the evening cocktail hours, their wine list is quite unique enough to enjoy, and quality of finger foods are yet another enjoyable ones from their kitchen.  SO, you can anticipate its quality of breakfast, too.

Indeed I was surprised when I found a list of dishes to order-to-cook for breakfast.      It is rare to find such arrangement (I only saw at Sofitel Sigon before), and moreover, it includes omelette!  And, again and again, you should surprise that you can see and enjoy seamless, rugby-football shaped well-cooked omelette!!!!  As you know I only saw three-folded omelette in HK, so I believed until then that three-folded ones is the one-and-only standard form of omelette in HK...

I would, no wonder, come back there, worth enough to enjoy their omelette again.

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Park Cafe, Marriott Executive Apartment, Yeouido Park Centre, Seoul, South Korea

This was my second trip to Seoul, after 16 months from my first visit in November 2010, and Marriott Executive Apartment Yeouido Park Centre, Seoul, (MEA, as they call themselves) was my base there. Yeouido is located south-east of Seoul special district and called Manhattan Island of Seoul, and indeed financial regulators as well as well-recognized financial institutes have offices in the island so you may expect convenience for meetings if you work in financial industry. However, to get there from airport by train, there is no direct access even from Seoul's central station (changing Line 1 to Line 4 at Singli station) with 30 minutes, or no direct access to other major cities like Gangnam and COEX area (approx. 50 minutes with Line 9, 3 and 2!) or Myongdong (approx. 40 minutes with Line 4, 1 and x) and... MAE is 10 minutes distance on foot from the closest exit #5. I.e., if you are self-concluded personality like me who prefer to use trains as commuter rather than taxi which you hesitate to speak in Korean to indicate where to go, with a doubt of unclear mis-communication, you might feel a bit inconvenience instead. And... Neighbor of MEA has almost none of shops or restaurants so you need to go back to Yeouido station and beyond business buildings area, but you never expect to communicate in English (or Japanese for me).
BUT.
If you decide to stay within the MEA complex, they have comfortable dining, like Paul's, which you can find in London, Paris (of course) and Tokyo, and Park Cafe, which serves buffet dining from breakfast to dinner like this, as well as SOO spa and gym offering quite pleasant spa like you find in Tokyo, big baths and variety of saunas.
Okay, back to our favorite omelette.
After ordering a familiar "free range of egg, with variety of stuff like mushroom, onion, ham etc.," mine was delivered, yes, you do not have to stand in front of the chief to see how he cooks. See, well-round-shaped, seamless omelette. How nice! If I can say a bit more, bit too well-cooked so you have less egg juice when you chop it with your fork. This is quite depending on your preference, you like egg juice to enjoy half-rare or well-done...
Enjoy!
-- iPadから送信
-- iPadから送信

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