Speedboat

I went shopping this morning for the weekly food shop. I haven’t done this in a while and it felt a bit strange. I bought some flowers - like I used to in the lockdowns - and, hopefully, I enough food to get us through the week. As we will both be in the office for some days next week there is a need for less. Waitrose is clearly having stock difficulties with milk as there was almost none. I guess it matters less than it did during our lockdowns as we can head out anytime but it still felt frustrating not to come home with everything on the list. 

I spent the remainder of the afternoon doing admin until it was time to catch a train to Waterloo. We walked up to the Prince of Wales Theatre, near Leicester Square, where we had tickets for The Book of Mormon.  I bought the tickets for PY’s birthday and, later, added a couple of small bottles of Prosecco to a bar pre-order. When we arrived we made our way to the bar to collect our drinks and then ordered for the interval.  I thought we had been to the theatre before but I really didn’t recognise any of it. We were in the circle which had quite a steep rake but, unlike many theatres, the seats weren’t squashed in and it was very comfortable. I’d bought seats on the end of a row, assuming there was an aisle, but it turned out that we were near the wall but had a good view of the stage (only one scene had a portion that was hidden from us due to the angle we were looking from). 

Jez & Miriam had bought us tickets before lockdown but those performances were a victim of COVID so I was glad we were getting to see the show. In spite of having a previous trip cancelled and booking this one, I knew nothing about the story. This week, I learned it was written by people who created South Park and Avenue Q and I could see the influence of those shows on the songs. It also became clear why only one - or maybe two - of the songs are ever performed outside of the show or played on the radio. Arguably, NSFW would be a good label. I throughly enjoyed it even while thinking some of it was inappropriate. I am not sure they would get away with most of the comedy if it was not so overtly satirical. And even with that caveat, I am unsure. 

I’d wholeheartedly recommend booking interval drinks as the queue was very long. I am glad we did. 

Afterwards, PY had booked dinner at a restaurant, The Speedboat Bar, in Rupert Street. It’s, apparently, quite the ticket and it was thronging when we arrived but they had a table for us even though we were 15 minutes early.  Jay Rayner in The Guardian said,

Taken dish by dish, it’s obviously huge fun. To keep to the retro 60s vibe, each one is like a frame from an old Batman comic fight scene: Kapow! Wham! Biff! The problem is that cumulatively, like the bar upstairs throbbing and thronging with young people necking those whisky sodas, it can all become a little relentless. Wave after wave of sweet and fiery and sour crashes on the wilder shores of your tongue. // source

It was loud, vibrant and fun. Is it authentically Thai? I don’t know. Hot, spicy and delicious food, promptly served. I avoiding the cocktails and stuck to the beer but the set menu - £40 per person - initially seemed small but turned out to be filling. The second amazing restaurant experience in seven days.