Miss. Delicious #59 : London's Carnaby Street - A swinging food festival and an Oyster Bar to match!

Dear Steemit friends :

When people think of places to go shopping in London, the first places that come to mind are probably Oxford Street, Selfridges (on Oxford Street) and Harrods.

But there is one street just three blocks long that people often overlook, that street is called Carnaby Street.

Located in Soho, London, Carnaby Street is known largely for it's independent fashion boutiques, the first of which was opened in 1957 by John Stephen called His Clothes.

In 1973, the local council pedestrianised the street during day time, and this resulted in an approximate 30% increase of visitors, helping the street flourish.

It's not all about fashion

Although Carnaby Street sports mostly fashion boutiques and lifestyle retailers, it's also home to a growing number of restaurants and bars - 60 and counting!

This weekend, Carnaby Street hosted a Street Eat food festival. Many of the restaurants put food stalls outside to give the many pedestrians an opportunity to eat on the go, or take advantage of the street seating they purposely put out for this event.

Unfortunately, I came a little late and by the time I arrived, there wasn't too many street food options to choose from. Never the less, there was still quite a street party going on.

Let's take a closer look.

Lovely Mexican Trio serenading the public

I love the multi-coloured column of houses on the main street.

The glitzy British flag seems very appropriate for the feel of this place.

I was told that this street stall serving Acai Berry smoothies is worth trying out. With so many health benefits, I thought why not?

As expected, it tasted extremely rich, very thick in texture and full of fibre. At-least my consciousness is eased!

Here is the mini-van handing out some free merchandise for the street eat event.

As you can see, the main street is packed full of people today.

This lady is being painted with some body paint. I'm not sure what the final result is meant to be, but her expression is pretty striking. She looks like a zombie doll. Very cool!

Some very tastefully done graffiti.

Carnaby spelled out with multi coloured letters. Everything is so colourful!

Even Diesel's store has vibrant colours on the outside.

On this off-street, some artificial grass was laid for people to sit down and chill whilst eating their street food.

These long pink tables and stools were set up all along the main street for people to sit down and eat.

Look at this fantastic mosaic painting on the face of this wall!

This was one of the few stalls still offering food by the time I came.

It looks like I have a choice between some home made Bacon Cheese Burgers, or Deep Fried Dough Sticks.

Bacon Cheese Hamburger it is.

Actually, this was one of the better burgers i've had in my time. But you know me and my appetite... Surely just a burger can't satisfy me?

This is Kingly Court, home to many independent fashion boutiques and also 20 restaurants and bars.

I take a walk through the entrance to investigate.

In the courtyard, there are already a tonne of people sat down and eating all assortments of food.

I've never seen a London bus like this, but I do love the patterns and design.

#KinglyCourt food is apparently very social media friendly.

Of all the restaurants in Kingly Court, I decided on Wright Brothers - Soho Oyster House.

This restaurant specialises in Oysters, my favourite seafood!

It's not often that I stumble across Oyster Bars in London, so this was my first opportunity to try it out!

There were tables outside but they were all occupied. Instead, I was offered a seat inside. The area in front of the bar has high tables and stools which remind me a lot of the layout of pubs and bars.

With so much alcohol at the bar, this could have easily been mistaken for a straight up bar!

I was led up a short flight of stairs, to a more familiar dining arrangement. Seeing the decoration on this wall reaffirmed to me that I was indeed in a seafood restaurant and not just a bar.

This is a picture of the original Wright Brother's Oyster business, which focused on wholesale of Oysters to seafood restaurants throughout the UK.

It wasn't until 2005 that the first Wright Brother's restaurant officially opened.

On the shelves you can see some of the items they used early on for farming their oysters.

These pictures on the wall show the different kind of oysters that they specialise in and farm.

This is a map of Helford river, which is where the Wright Brother's oyster farm is located in the South West of England.

Finally, I get to sit down in the area just a bit further in from the bar.

So, without further ado, let's get straight to the seafood!

When dining somewhere new, you often aren't sure what is the most appropriate dish to order.

Luckily, the restaurant had a 'Full House' platter which has an assortment of nearly everything.

In the platter, we have:

Oysters, Whelks, Cockles, Mussels, Prawns, Crayfish, Razor Clam and a Crab!

I'm used to eating the smaller kinds of crabs in China, but this one looks absolutely delicious.

Look at the size of those claws!

As always, I like to have some side vegetables or salad to go with my main course.

This is the Heritage Tomato Salad.

My favourite seafood from the platter has to be the Crab, not only was it very meaty, it tasted like a wash of the sea on the tongue !

Of course, the well reputed oysters tasted every bit as good as I've heard. Who would have known that oysters from the South of England measure up to the quality of those from Ireland, Scotland and even France?

My only reservation on this platter was the Whelks which I wasn't particularly fond of. Some people love them, some people hate them. Kind of like Marmite and Durian?

Overall, a very satisfying meal and I was happy to find out that from 12-6pm on weekdays, the restaurant offers Oysters at £1 a piece! That is quite a bargain and my next visit will definitely be quite the oyster-fest.

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Hope you enjoyed this post on Carnaby Street and Wright Brothers Oyster Bar.

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