BLOGUST | Visiting Little Amsterdam

Hello my lovelies and welcome to Blogust day five! I hope you're all doing well and have been having a wonderful day. Now firstly I just want to say a massive Happy Pride Weekend everyone, I hope everyone is having an amazing weekend who is celebrating. Sadly I'm not as there is not a Pride event close enough for me to just go to easily. But like I said, I hope everyone is having an incredible weekend and always remember that love is love. Now in hindsight as I'm sitting here typing this post I totally should've uploaded a rainbow makeup look this weekend but you know what, never mind, let's not focus on what could've/ should've been. 

So I am actually typing this the day (more like night, it's 10:15pm right now) that it is going up. So this wasn't actually meant to be a post at all really but I was looking at my Blogust schedule and there was just nothing really calling to me off of the list to post today. And I feel like everything has been highly summer related which it is as I would relate August to the summer time, even though over here, the weather in August is always a hit and miss and today is a perfect example of that. Today it has been sunny, cloudy, a bit dull, windy, and rainy but despite it all we got a rainbow at the end. Which I suppose was kind of perfect timing in relation to pride this weekend. As I guess it symbolised the acceptance of every type of weather which could relate to every type of person in the world which feels really nice. I love it when things like that happen; you know when the world itself matches up to the time of what is happening in our world and it feels like it's not quite a coincidence. I just think it's oddly satisfying.

But anyway, moving onto what this actual post is about. So first note, no I am not in Amsterdam, despite what the title claims. So if I'm not in Amsterdam, where am I you ask? I am actually at home and Little Amsterdam is the cutest little cafe I have ever been into. 

So this little hidden gem is in my local town and I never even knew until last week. The reason I discovered this beautiful little cafe was actually because my girl Heather and I wanted to try this new dessert restaurant called Puddinghams that opened about a month or so ago in our local town and in typical fashion, they day we decide we're going to go and try it out we find out that it has shut down. Which was a shame. So then we decide we were going to go to another cafe called Sweet Tooth which we have been to many times before, only to find out that sadly, it has also closed. So at this point we were running out of luck and Heather was craving some pancakes. Her dad was actually the one who mentioned this place and so we had a walk up past our high street and across the road and that is where this little gem is. So for the two years we were at college we walked past it and never knew it existed.

First impressions, on the outside it is very understated and you don't notice the details until you go up close to the cafe. So as you can see from the images above it's got one of those wooden sign posts out the front with either chalk written or painted on words out the front just to tell you short and sweet all of the different types of foods and drinks they do. As you can see they have a great range of options from savoury and sweet which is great as not everyone wants chocolate pancakes for lunch unless you're me. One thing I also love is on the windows it has a clear matte outline of buildings that I would assume to be in the city of Amsterdam. If any of you reading are from Amsterdam, let me know in the comments if this is what the buildings/ shops/ cafes etc look like. 

And then you walk inside and it's just the cutest little place ever with nicely painted white walls and has this brown and white theme with the furniture and the accents of the shop like this brown section of tree which makes it feel really cosy and autumnal in my opinion (I'm unsure if it is an accessory or if it was real). They also had all of these really cool phrases on the walls in, I'm assuming the Dutch pronunciation, and the meaning in English underneath. This one above means "nice cup of coffee" and there were a bunch of these all around the cafe on lots of different walls all related to food, drink, and lunch time. Which is a really nice decorative touch. One thing I was really surprised about was actually the size of the cafe. It's honestly like a tardis; on the outside it doesn't look absolutely massive, just a really nice little cafe and then you go in and it literally extends all the way back. I did not expect it to be like that judging from how it looked on the outside. Which always proves you should never judge a book by it's cover. 

So when you walk in to your right you have the tables and then further back there is a little step and then more but slightly larger tables. And to your left there is the big ice cream freezer with loads of flavours for their delicious milkshakes, ice creams to have in, and ice creams to go. And then next to that there is the tills and the bar to make all the drinks. So by this point I was already sold and I hadn't even tried the food yet. 

The first time I visited with Heather we both had a vanilla milkshake which was absolutely to die for. They were proper thick vanilla milkshakes with whipped cream on top and were nicely crisp and cool. Honestly, one of the best vanilla milkshakes I've ever had. As you can clearly see by the photo above, we both had pancakes. Heather had nutella/ chocolate sauce with strawberries and cream and I had just a nutella pancake with icing sugar on. And all I have to say is oh.my.god. 

Literally the best pancake I have ever had and I am not exaggerating. With this pancake, it's pretty clear to see it's massive. Which is great considering it is £6.95 so I truly got what I was paying for. It was also not overly thick, it was really thin which meant that I was full up by the time I'd eaten it all. I've been too other pancake places where the portions are so big which is great considering the prices they charge but then because the actual pancake/ pancakes are so thick you get full up so quickly and can't finish it all. Which is obviously so annoying because you're paying full price for only a half eaten portion. But these pancakes are the perfect size and perfect thickness to feel full once you've eaten it all. The pancake itself also had the perfect amount of crisp around the edge and softness in the middle. It's pretty clear to see I was extremely satisfied. 

Today when I visited with Chloe, I had the exact same thing. That's the thing with me when I try out new restaurants or cafes, once I've had something from there and I really liked it I always have to order the same thing each time I go. It's like every restaurant or cafe I go to has a specific drink and meal I always order, does anyone else have that? 

This was actually Chloe's first time visiting and she said to me she really wanted to come and try it out because I raved about it to her. So today she visited for the very first time and loved it as much as I did. The pancake she had was a banoffee with cream and these cinnamon crunchy granule type things. I tried a bit of her pancake and she tried a bit of mine as we always do that when we have a new muffin or something. Her's was really nice and the crunch of the granules gave it a little something extra. She also said she liked mine too. We also both had vanilla milkshakes and again still the best vanilla milkshake I've ever had and the best pancake I've ever had. 

I also would just like to mention the staff were absolutely lovely the both times I've been. So welcoming the minute you step in the door to the minute you step out. They always make sure you are okay and ask if you want anything else. They are also super easy to talk to. The first time myself and Heather went the girl who seated us and served us told us how it was actually her first day and we just had a really nice conversation and the milkshakes she made us were actually the first she's ever made. I sadly didn't catch her name and I doubt she is reading this but if she is, she was honestly so lovely and really welcoming and the milkshakes were phenomenal girl. And all the staff that were looking after us today were so lovely and welcoming, so a massive thank you from Chloe and I. 

I think this is one of my new favourite discoveries in my home town. It's crazy how you can live somewhere for so long and not discover every part of it. Although I will always love Costa, it's nice to change it up and go to a cafe that isn't a massively big franchise. It's so nice to support a little business and help the people who made it be able to keep it going. People supporting people is something I really love and always try to do in any kind of form. If you guys do live in or near Banbury I'd highly recommend going to this little cafe, it's incredible and is extremely underrated for what it is. 

If you guys want more information and want to see their menu here is a link: http://littleamsterdam.co/  and they also have an Instagram, if you follow me I tagged them in one of my posts not too long ago. But their Instagram name is @littleamsterdambanbury if you want to go and check them and give them a follow. 

And that is actually it for this post today my lovelies. Sorry that it's being uploaded quite late but I hope you enjoy nonetheless and enjoyed something a little different to the last few posts I've done. 

As always don't forget to follow me on Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and Bloglovin' all linked in my header above, it'd mean so much to me you guys. 

And of course thank you so much for reading and I shall see you all again tomorrow for another brand new post. Bye for now my lovelies. 

Love,

Katie