For a Night with a Bang!

Thousands of people will head to Central London for the fireworks display but if you don’t want to stand outside, there are plenty of places to watch from indoors. Many restaurants and bars offer great views and special menus, including:

• Giraffe, South Bank: Dinner, live DJ and a glass of fizz. £85
• Feng Sushi, South Bank: Sushi, a Champagne cocktail and access to the Royal Festival Hall Terrace. £95
• Min Jiang, Royal Garden Hotel: A five-course Chinese banquet with a glass of Champagne, dancing til 2am and a view of the fireworks from the tenth floor. £160
• Royal Festival Hall: Gabby Young and Other Animals headline this huge party with live music, silent disco, cabaret and access to the Royal Festival Hall terrace for the fireworks. £80

Glide Into 2012

Book a New Year’s Eve skate session at Somerset House Ice Rink. Keep warm and energised with hot chocolate and cupcakes from Tom’s Skate Lounge and enjoy a free glass of Champagne at midnight (tickets £50 for skaters, £35 spectators).

Enter the Jungle

A chance for big kids to take over the Rainforest Café at the restaurant’s New Year’s Eve party. Get stuck in to a three-course dinner in the colourful jungle setting. There’s live entertainment until midnight and dancing till 2pm (£65 including a glass of bubbly on arrival).

Spice Things Up

Head to Dishoom for a “Bombay Vintage Glam Party” with a five-course feast, henna artist, impressionist and DJ set from Cornershop. (£85 including a chocolate cherry Champagne cocktail).

Check out our New Year page for more ideas and let us know if you have any more in the comments below.

There was a new addition to the family of giraffes at London Zoo this weekend – but for one day only.

Giddy the Giraffe, a cuddlier version of his mammalian relatives, made a special appearance at the world-famous animal park in Regent’s Park on Sunday. No prizes for guessing which popular restaurant chain Giddy is the mascot for. Struggling? It’s Giraffe of course.

The occasion was the restaurant’s first ever family fun day, held in a private enclosure at the zoo. Restaurant bosses treated their staff and 100 website competition winners to a fantastic day out at the popular London attraction. My sons – 2, 4 and 6 – are all big animal lovers and so were thrilled at being included on the VIP guest list.

Besides a free entry to the zoo, Giraffe laid on a bouncy castle, face painters and an entertainer who taught the kids a few nifty circus skills. There were drinks, drinks and more drinks, and a Giraffe-style buffet lunch laid on for all the guests. Once lunch was over we had a lovely wander in the sunshine around the zoo. We visited the gorillas, zebras, reptiles, penguins, meerkats and more.

And then it was back to the enclosure to find out if we’d won any prizes in the raffle. Sadly not, but it was money well spent as our cash goes towards supporting ZSL’s vital conservation projects in Britain and around the world.

The event marked the start of an on-going partnership between the restaurant chain and the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), which runs the zoo. The chain aims to raise  £50,000 for ZSL this year. Customers can help their efforts by ordering a Falafel Deluxe Burger when they dine out at Giraffe. The restaurant will give 50p from every sale to support ZSL’s critical work. From working to save the British house sparrow to making sure the newly-discovered population of okapi (the closest known relative of the giraffe) are safe, the money raised aims to make the planet a better place.

Have you visited London Zoo recently? In the comments below, tell us what your (or your kids’) favourite animals are.

The sun was shining on London’s most picturesque riverside tourist spot, and as I was strolling past The Royal Festival Hall with the great London Eye rising up in the background, I noticed a hive of activity going on outside the colourful Giraffe restaurant and wandered over to see what all the hype was about.

I was welcomed with a warming pot of Rude Health porridge and then treated to a live feast for the eyes whilst competitive hopefuls cooked up porridge oats on mini stoves, adding all manner of exotic ingredients.

Crazy concoctions included, sweet maple porridge with sausage and bacon, Boozy Breakfast – white chocolate, macadamia nuts and brandy-soaked cranberries, and my particular favourite Porrichino – a layered attempt to win the porridge crown – made up of espresso and rum-soaked sponge fingers, rum-soaked sultanas, Greek yoghurt, caramelised almonds and chocolate dusting.

The overall winner was a spicy take on the popular winter breckie: Mexican Mole Porridge containing lime, chilli, chilli paste, ginger, cumin, coriander and lime zest.

Anyone still hanging around then got to see PorridgeLady (winner of the world Porridge-Making Championships), cook her award-winning Spotted Dick Porridge Pudding and then sample it with hot custard. Yum!

Finally, I got out of the cold and ventured into Giraffe for a stack of fine blueberry and banana pancakes with maple syrup, before wandering off to hunt down some free lunch…

What do you fancy for breakfast? Scrambled eggs on toast? Healthy muesli? A traditional British fry-up?

How about something a bit different? I headed to two London restaurants to see what they had on offer.

First up was Cinnamon Kitchen, a modern Indian restaurant in Liverpool Street.

I sat outside on the decked terrace and ordered Bombay scrambled eggs with tawa paratha (£7.00).

What arrived was a very generous portion of scrambled eggs with spices and onion, served with fried Indian flatbread. Yum!

Other options included an Anglo-Indian kedgeree with smoked haddock and poached egg, and a classic English breakfast.

Next on the list was Giraffe in Marylebone, where I tried the Mexican breakfast: huevos rancheros (£6.95).

The dish consists of a warm tortilla covered with fried or scrambled egg, chorizo, black beans, jack cheese, avocado and salsa. (There’s also a veggie option with field mushrooms.)

As you can see from the picture, it made a colourful and very tasty start to the day.

Other highlights on the Giraffe menu included an enormous stack of American-style pancakes with bananas and blueberries, and the “rude health” porridge with bananas, strawberries and honey.

Why stick to cereal and toast when there’s so much more on offer?

What’s your favourite breakfast in London?