There’s a lot going on at Kings Cross. Not only is the station itself newly revamped and fabby, but the surrounding conurbation is under huge development too.

First there was Eat Street and now the whole Granary Square area has opened up with Central St Martins taking centre stage and a wonderful new outdoor space in support. This is one of those secret places that once discovered, is a welcome escape to find solitude and calm in a mad busy London world.

I had another reason to visit this area with my work hat on, but more of that anon. In the meantime, it was a great excuse to drag mate JR out with me to explore the new streets of Kings Cross.

The Filling Station at an old petrol station

Naturally where there are trendy developments going on so there are trendy restaurants to support. And who better to represent that definition but the boys from Bistroteque and their new concept Shrimpy’s. This pop up in a former petrol station is funky and cool with a menu to match. I am told the soft shell crab is the thing to have here but today I had other places to visit.

Caravan Kings Cross opened 3 weeks ago and for those of you who know the Exmouth Market one well, this is more of the same with added space and its own coffee roastery to boot.

Great open space, urban design and funky lamps, scrubbed tables and perch seating

The obligatory open kitchen framed with wire screens and rustic storage. Perfect.

Caravan has found the right balance of casual menu, tasty food, relaxed yet efficient service plus cool environment. We browsed our way through really well made coffees, St John sourdough cheesey toast with onion marmalade and then JR tried to move onto the hard stuff, but sadly all the tap beers were sold out. It was a shame and perhaps these guys were a victim of their own success but hopefully they will sort those blips out. This place is here to stay.

Back outside in Granary Square we tripped over the Kings Cross Ice Cream Festival which was a little sad in the murky grey weather but that didn’t seem to put anyone off. The queues for ice cream were crazy long and everyone seemed to be getting into the mood with beaches to lie on, goats to stroke, cows to milk plus much more.

Mad Cap Charlie was mad and had a cap of sorts and was certainly entertaining with his stories of liquid nitrogen ices.

We liked Custom Creams branding and they too were “powered by liquid nitrogen”

Ice cream wise, the favourites seemed to be salted caramel, hazelnut and a variety of fruit based flavours. But the overall winner was most definitely the whole liquid nitrogen ice cream revolution. In years to come we will look back and wonder how we did it any other way.