Spending My Birthday At Le Meridien Piccadilly, London

Having a birthday during December kinda sucks, I'm not gonna lie. I'm not a lover of joint Christmas/Birthday presents and I'm someone who just adores celebrating birthdays so it's rubbish that everyones usually either ill, too busy or not got enough money to celebrate December birthdays. This year, I decided to mix things up a little and spend my birthday weekend in London as a tourist for once. Let's see what I got up to...We arrived quite late and checked into our beautiful hotel, right on Piccadilly and minutes from Regent Street (aka the best hotel in London when it comes to shopping location!) 

In our room, a cocktail making kit. A very nice, fun and young touch from Le Meridien. 

The room was so nice, we didn't even want to leave to go for dinner. I could happily move into this gorgeous room. 

The room was clean, modern and plush, with everything you could need (I honestly cannot rave about this hotel enough, it was just perfect in every way).

The decor was really cool and on trend but the room still felt so luxurious. 

 

I always spend my time in London working, so it was really nice to have a romantic weekend away in London and be a tourist. London has so many phenomenal hotels and I am yet to explore any of them really so it was amazing to set the bar extremely high with this first class hotel. 

I got a note from the manager wishing me a happy birthday - such a lovely personal touch and as everyone knows, macaroons are the way to my heart.

I had a few parcels delivered to the hotel for me, one of them was a gorgeous hamper filled with Italian treats from Pulia - a new Italian deli in London. Sadly we didn't have the time to visit but we were lucky enough to get some of their beautiful treats to nibble on from the comfort of our room. 

After a few nibbles, we headed down to Le Meridien's bar, Longitude 0'8. 

The bar was beautiful and they kindly reserved me a table. I was a little late due to traffic and they were absolutely fine with it and still accommodated us with no hassle whatsoever. The cocktails were amazing and made with the finest of ingredients. I could have tried every cocktail on the list as they had such an incredible array of cocktails, I'd highly recommend coming here purely to visit the bar!

We nibbled on some yummy canapés too.

  

 

 

The bar was so lovely and relaxed, I could have stayed there all night.

 

 Matt took his new All Saints jacket out for a spin.

I wore my new LVNDR marble bracelet, Daniel Wellington watch and my new longline coat (online here).

We reluctantly moved on to some bars nearby, I wore my new coat with my slinky dress and obviously, my Burberry bag.

The next morning we woke up with a cup of tea and I honestly didn't want to leave our gorgeous and super comfy bed.

 

We headed to the restaurant for the most delicious buffet breakfast. Sometimes I find buffet breakfasts are pretty rubbish but this was heavenly with such a good array of high quality, fresh food.

 I wore my new dress from Motel Rocks.

I filled up on fruit,

and yoghurt.

 I'm a sucker for a good hotel breakfast and this felt like a real restaurant breakfast rather than a sloppy buffet.

 

 

I stacked my LVNDR rings.

 

The restaurant was absolutely stunning. I could have sat in there all day.

We really didn't want to check out of our gorgeous room. 

Everything about it was just so plush. Plus, I love this dress far too much. 

My Burbs didn't want to leave either, which found itself comfortable on the bed.

That morning, I got a little delivery of travel shampoos from Maria Nila, I love natural hair care products so this was such a nice gesture. I also love finding new brands. 

 I also got this amazing make up bag from Holistic Silk with some Malee hand creams.

After reluctantly checking out of the most gorgeous hotel, we headed to Tiffany to choose my birthday present. I felt like the luckiest girl. 

 London is so stunning at Christmas time.

Seen as we were celebrating my birthday weekend, we headed to Gaucho Piccadilly for lunch.  As most of you will know, Gaucho is my favourite restaurant and I cannot rave about it enough. As someone who adores top quality food and service, Gaucho is always the top of my list. I'd told Matt all about it so I was really excited to try out their new lunch menu and show him the Gaucho experience. I always find that Gaucho is an experience because the service is just so good.

The Gaucho at Piccadilly is huge! 

The lunch menu is good and actually very affordable for such a high end restaurant. I'd love to see some fillet steak on there though, even if there was a supplement charge as I'm a fillet kinda gal. The waiter took our drink order and unfortunately our starters arrived well before our drinks did, I was quite shocked because I've always recommended Gaucho to people as a complete experience - the service truly does make it really special so I was quite shocked that the service we received on that day wasn't at Gaucho standard. 

 

Our bread arrived and was plonked on the table. Usually when I get this bread at Gaucho, they explain what it is but it was kind of thrown at us. The restaurant wasn't too busy but I did wander if it was because we were only having lunch, rather than a full dinner experience. 

My soup arrived and it was quite cold but I didn't want to complain because I felt like I was annoying the staff. I reminded them about our drinks and eventually they did come.

Matt loved his starter which certainly made up for mine.

The drinks were delicious and made up for the wait. 

I wore my new jacket/dress - online here. 

I went for the sirloin which was quite fatty but apart from that it was delicious. 

Matt went for the rump which he loved,

I'm a huge steak connoisseur and have always said that Gaucho is the best steak I've ever had but unfortunately this wasn't the best experience I've had. I wasn't expecting a £40 steak when the lunch menu doesn't cost much but I did expect the food and service to be at Gaucho standard. I was more upset because I'd raved about this place so much to Matt and wanted him to have the best possible experience and the experience I know that Gaucho usually offer.

Luckily by dessert the waiter was much more attentive and topped up our drinks.

We chose to share a dessert because we were so full but the dessert we did have was gorgeous.

Gaucho is stunning and the lunch menu is amazing and great value for money at such a good restaurant. I just wasn't as wowed as I usually am by the service on this particular day. The Gaucho in Leeds is honestly phenomenal, they go above and beyond when serving you and truly make it an experience. I think I'll have to go back there to remind myself just how amazing Gaucho can be.

I'm hoping it was just a bad day for them because the last 4 times I've been Gaucho has been my favourite restaurant. I'd love to take Matt again and prove to him that Gaucho isn't always like that! 

All in all, we had the most amazing first two days whilst exploring London - particularly down to the phenomenal service and comfort of Le Meridien hotel which I honestly cannot recommend enough. The location is perfect, the service is epic and the rooms are some of the best I've stayed in. I'll certainly be heading back.

Have you ever stayed over in London as a tourist? Do you love London at Christmas? Would you like to have a Christmas birthday?

Lots of love, Em x

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