date night – sarah fynn

If you have ever thought about getting a Virgin Experience days voucher but thought it was a ‘scam’, you won’t be a lone. I was the same. I used to think they were too good to be true and perhaps the service won’t be the same if you went without a voucher. I finally took the plunge last year and got a voucher for friend’s birthday and I haven’t looked back since!

Before I tell you what I have done so far with Virgin Experience Days, I should dispel my earlier thoughts: they are excellent value for money vouchers and the services I had received so far are amazing. I also did some double checking and some of the vouchers are actually just offers from the individual service providers: most, are the same prices( or double for 2 people) so no they are not ‘too good to be true’!

Tip: Always search for a discount code: there’s always one (sign up for their newsletters) they also offer student discounts. There’s also sales most of the time

How it works

Buy your chosen experience
Activate your voucher following instructions in your email confirmation
Book your experience following instructions once your voucher has been activate
Enjoy your experience and go back and look for more!

Below are some of the experiences I have done so far with Virgin Experience days vouchers, all paid for myself:

The View from The Shard and a Three Course Meal for Two at Marco Pierre White’s London Steakhouse Co

The first experience I booked! It went well and there was no confusion/issues with any of them. This one takes some coordination especially if you wanted to book both experiences in one day. The service at the MPW’s Steakhouse was impeccable. There was no confusion on payment at the end. (note they will still add service charge so depending on whether you ordered any extras (we did) you will have a very affordable bill at the end)

Tapas Style Afternoon Tea with Free Flowing Cocktails and Prosecco for Two at MAP Maison

This was so worth it and truly a free flowing experience for the duration of your slot. Our glasses were not empty and there was a good selection of cocktails to choose from. The afternoon tea/tapas were delicious too and quite filling. You will definitely leave slightly tipsy

Tropical Cocktail Masterclass for Two at Laki Kane

This one really is for cocktail lovers. For snippet of what went down. Check out my instagram reel here

There’s a few more experiences have done! Watch out for more in a second blog post.

Catch you later

I can’t believe 2017 is over! This year has gone by so quickly but I am thankful for all the lessons I have learnt and I am really happy for 2018! So my girls and I decided to head out to celebrate the end of year and we decided to go to Sake No Hana in Mayfair

We started the night at Mahiki in Mayfair as we have always wanted to go there. They don’t allow bookings for smaller tables so we got there early, 8.00pm to get a table. We have heard a lot of Mahiki so we were super excited to finally go in (we tried once before but there was no available table that night). We just got drinks, they have a huge range and actually cheaper than what we thought, £8.50 for a cocktail. We got the Mahiki and Pina Colada (served in a pineapple) cocktails, we stayed here for a bit then headed to Sake No Hana which was 5 mins away.

Sake No Hana

Our table wasn’t ready when we arrived so we were told to wait by the bar as they get it ready. The bar downstairs is quite small but I love the ambience of it. We tried Sake, a Japanese rice wine I have always wanted to taste. By the way, it’s super strong, like I could even finish my tiny glass of it lol. It wasn’t long till we were called upstairs for dinner.

The main dining room was small but had lovely décor. We didn’t wait too long for our orders to be taken and it was a little while for foods to arrive. It was fairly busy so I didn’t mind this. For starter, we each ordered a portion of sushi for sharing and deep fried squid. For sushi we ordered the Ebi Red Prawn Tempura, Crunchy Kani Maki (snow crab, avocado, kanpyo), Salmon Avocado Maki. Sushi was amazing, I think I like it slightly more than the sushi at Chino Latino although the portions here are slightly smaller. We also loved the squid

For mains, we ordered the Rib Eye beef with tofu & shiitake mushroom Sukiyaki which is cooked at your table, the Tori Sumiyaki which is miso chicken with sesame chilli miso and tuna & salmon sashimi. I loved my rib eye beef sukiyaki and I thought it was super cool it was cooked out our table. it was flavourful and the beef was really nice too. I didn’t like the tofu- it was my first time tasting tofu tbh. The Miso chicken was really nice too. Miriam didn’t like her sashimi, she said it was overcooked. I thought our rice was bland, could have used some salt.

Overall thoughts

It was a lovely dinner with good service and somewhere I would go back to. My sukiyaki beef was amazing and enough to share between us. Sushi rolls were amazing too although I wish the portions were slightly bigger. I loved the décor and ambience and the service provided by all staff both from of house and wait staff