Silken Hotel Diagnol - A review [TRAVEL]

There are plenty of hotels to stay at in Barcelona and as a visitor you are really spoilt for choice. Normally I'd have gone for a boutique type hotel or as I have done before, a self catering apartment.

However, we were attending a wedding and the groom had advised all guests to stay at the Hotel Silken Diagnol. http://www.hoteles-silken.com/hotel-diagonal-barcelona/

And it was a great recommendation. Located near the Glories underground stop and only around 7 minutes by tube to Las Ramblas, it was a pretty central location. It was also within walking distance of the beach down a road crammed with bars and restaurants.

The hotel itself is next to the Torre Agbar, the Barcelona equivalent of the gherkin, which lights up at night in a myriad of colour. The hotel is modern in design with low lit lighting throughout.

The corridors to the rooms are incredibly dark with only modest lighting.

The room we had however, felt light and bright. From the Bang & Olufsen TV and phone through to the see through bathroom and the shutters on the windows, everything felt modern, clean and well thought out.

The other great thing about this hotel was the room terrace with small swimming pool (too small to be used - but it looked nice) along with a bar. The perfect place to end the night before heading back to your room.

All in all, a pretty fantastic hotel for a weekend break or work visit. Perfect for couples...maybe not so much for families.

Credit: Pictures taken from Hotel Silken website

Le Grand 8

A few weeks ago I decided to take a Eurostar trip to Paris with my friend, Rhi.  We decided a girly weekend of much food and drink was in order. My highlight of the trip was definitely the restaurant we fell upon one evening.

We actually ended up stumbling into the most fantastic restaurant near Sacre Coeur. With amazing views across the city, friendly staff and the most amazing food, we felt right at home.

As the restaurant, Le grand 8 was really busy, we were seated with a couple on a table for 4 and this turned out to be the best thing. The couple were incredibly friendly and let us taste their wines, chatted to us and generally made us feel at home.

It turned out that the restaurant was renowned (and is in the UK too) but we didn't know it. Known for it's food and it's wide variety of natural wines, people travel far and wide to go there.

I started the meal with a dandelion, lardon and egg salad. Bitter tasting but the egg took the bitterness away the lardons complimented them perfectly. My friend opted for the Foie gras.

For my main meal I chose an octopus risotto and really wish I'd taken a photo! I was served a good portion of deliciously creamy risotto which was then accompanied with a tentacle of octopus. An absolutely amazing, melt in the mouth dish.

Our friendly neighbours let us try some of their wine too - no idea what it was but it was called L'Insolent and was deliciously fresh and fruity.

What made this restaurant so fantastic is not just the friendly atmosphere that you don't always get to experience in Paris, but also the amazing seasonality of the food. The menu was presented to us on a blackboard.

Fantastic value at just 15Euros for a two course meal and a fantastic and affordable selection of wine, this was the best meal i've had in a very long time. Superb!

I'm not the only one who thinks this place is fantastic. Since visiting i've seen this blog, where the blogger, Wendy also thinks this is an amazing place to visit:
http://www.thepariskitchen.com/2011/02/le-grand-8/

Visit the restaurant's website for more info:http://legrand8.fr