I won this Ginstitute Experience with Portobello Road Gin at last years No House Rules event. It was a get together for interior lovers hosted by the lovely Katie and Amy. With some amazing brands showcasing their products, time to network and a fabulous raffle! For the raffle, they had put post-it notes with numbers on in envelopes and I patiently waited to get mine. After being given two stuck together, I honestly returned one and the one I kept had a prize (karma!)! You could imagine my joy when I found out I’d won what I considered to be the top prize. A gin tasting and making Ginstitute Experience with Portobello Road Gin plus a nights stay in one in their boutique rooms in their Distillery hotel.
It was nice to go and enjoy the experience without it being a press trip. We did have such a fab time I figured I should share it with you as I know even those that don’t love gin would want to hear about it.
The location of The Distillery hotel is right in the middle of Portobello Road, amongst all the market stalls that pop up on a Saturday. The hustle and bustle on our first warm weekend of 2019 was unreal. It was fab and so busy. We hadn’t left much time so rushed to go check in before our Ginstitute Experience. We took these photos in about five minutes as that’s all we had to spare. My recommendation would be to book on a later Ginstitute Experience to enjoy Portobello Road a bit more too.
The room is one of three they have which nestle above the bar right at the top of the building. There’s no lift and it’s about three to four flights of stairs so prepare yourself after allll the gin. I kicked off my heels at the end of the night to help with the climb! It’s worth it for the view though. Just look! its beautifully decorated, with the perfect mini bar- Portobello Road Gin of course! They’d thought of everything in the room with a record player with vintage vinyl’s and pre-mixed and chilled Negroni ready to pour (free!) As you can see the decor is lovely too. Vintage vibes meets clean scandi. Loved it.
So after checking out the room, we rushed to our Ginstitute Experience to learn more about gin. Our lesson started in the History room where we learnt more about the history of Gin (Quelle surprise). It was super interesting and the gin cocktails on the way certainly helped! They even had an old style of gin in this cute barrel which we got to try – it wasn’t to everyone’s taste, to say the least! I won’t spoil it so you’ll have to go try it yourself!
The room is pretty cosy and you get to meet other people who are on the experience too. Speaking to a lot of people they had been given the experience by loved ones. I thought it was such a fab idea for a gin lover! Or even a non-gin lover like me…
It wasn’t that I didn’t love gin before going on this Ginstitute Experience but it just wasn’t the first thing I’d reach for. I’ve never been a massive lover of tonic so think that had contributed too. However, once we got to the second part of the experience I started to understand more about what makes up a gin and how I could create my own that was to my taste.
We came away with both gin’s we made and a 50cl bottle each of the usual Portobello Road Gin. Luke’s is lovely and the good news is that we can reorder it from Portobello Road Gin when we run out. As they keep all concoctions on file! It’s £39 plus delivery for 70cl. (171 Portobello Road Gin is £25 for 70cl for reference.) The whole experience included about 4 or 5 drinks, plus both gins and last 3 hours at a cost of £120 each.
Once suitably lubricated we then popped for dinner upstairs. Classed as a tapas restaurant the food was nice, but not plentiful. It was v dark so couldn’t get many food photos and took the interior shots the day after! We had a fab view outside and all its goings on’s but other than that it was just okay. We had the recommended amount of dishes but were still so hungry we ended up going to the Sainsbury’s around the corner and picking up some snacks! Good to know its there, but not somewhere I would visit again.
Breakfast isn’t included so we booked my fave, Dalloway Terrace. We made our way for an early spot for pancakes. Which were just so yummy. Afterwards, we came back and walked around Notting Hill until it was time to check out. We had a decent nights sleep and it was especially nice not to have to traipse around for food after getting rather merry, and to fall straight into bed after too! It was safe to say some of the other people on the Ginstitute Experience would have loved to have done that!
Overall we had a blast, got pretty merry, slept well and explored the area. thanks, Portobello Road Gin and No House Rules for this experience!
