A smartly-dressed waiter was slicing succulent slices of pink beef before us while another server delivered the most enormous Yorkshire pudding. It suddenly dawned on me after more than a decade in London, I’d finally discovered the ultimate Sunday lunch spot. A friend from the U.S. was visiting and I was tasked with finding him the best example of the traditional meal. After asking various friends in the know, I was directed to Richard Corrigan’s eponymous joint in Mayfair. The tucked-away restaurant has been open for more than seven years but somehow I’d missed it. Now I was making ...
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We were zooming down the River Thames with the wind in our hair and the city lights flashing by us at night. I’d lived in London for around seven years but I was doing something I’d never done before – a boat ride from Westminster to Greenwich. I was testing one of Conrad St James’ new 1,3,5 experiential packages which allows hotel guests to access some of London’s more secret spots in a short amount of time. My friend Nick - who had just jetted in from San Diego - and I were trying out the ‘East Meets West’ package on a chilly January night. After checking into our luxurious hotel...
Read more →We could hear the throng of a party next door and a sign signaled there were karaoke rooms upstairs. I'd ventured to the unsuspecting Thai Silk restaurant nestled behind Southwark underground station. It felt like I'd been transported to somewhere outside of London as I wandered into the cavernous barn-like eatery. It was a Tuesday night but the place was surprisingly quiet, a couple sat in one corner of the room, two girlfriends sat in another and a lone diner sat to my left. The staff were refreshingly smiley as we took a perch close to the front door. Given the frigid temperatur...
Read more →If like me you've walked past The Family Jones Project near Old Street but never popped in, I'm telling you now: Pop in. This basement lair is where I devoured one of the best steaks I've had in a long time, maybe ever in London. From street level the humble eatery is unsuspecting, you might mistake it for a basic coffee shop. But walking downstairs or taking the lift - which displays a note telling you you have 17 seconds to make love during the one-floor descent - you arrive in a smart eatery where everything is on point, from the music to the slick interior design. It was rainin...
Read more →While eating out and heavy food might be the last thing on your mind after a month of over-indulgence, there’s a place that might be one to consider when your appetite is back on track. I paid a visit to Simpson’s on the Strand - one of the oldest restaurants in London - just before the overkill of Christmas and I was tickled by the eatery’s old school charm. The dining spot, which opened in 1828, oozes with character. Think parliamentary dining quarters crossed with a school library and the kookiness of your grandmother’s house. It was a chilly night when I stepped into the building ...
Read more →I remember living on Chapel Market in Angel ten years ago. It was well before the likes of Waitrose and vegan bakeries had landed. Instead of swank, the road contained a cocktail of pound shops and bizarre hardware outlets. There was also a menagerie of proper ‘boozers’, many of which I never made it into due to feeling a little intimidated by the blacked-out windows and glow of fruit machines illuminating out from the door. The Agricultural, located at the end of Chapel Market, was one of the pubs I failed to frequent. So when I heard that it had been transformed into a trendy bar and eat...
Read more →'I think it's a deer pelt,' my friend Tom said as I caressed the wine menu at Battersea's newest eatery, the Nutbourne. The attention to detail here is on point and even the tipples of the day are presented in a strokable binder. If you're looking for wholesome comfort food, with a invitingly relaxed atmosphere, then this is the place to pop to. Founded by the same people behind The Shed (Notting Hill) and the Rabbit (Chelsea), the Nutbourne offers the same kind of cuisine using locally sourced ingredients. Oliver Gladwin, one of the three brothers behind the culinary enterprise, i...
Read more →It felt like the first real cold day in London, where a slight chill permeated my spine. What better way to mark it, I thought, than a good old Sunday roast. I ventured to Oslo Hackney to check out their meaty offerings. Located in a former railway station just by Hackney Central Overground, this is a unique space, boasting exposed brickwork, high ceilings and a laid-back vibe. Immediately on walking in I was struck by a quiet calm; warm lighting, the gentle natter of diners and jazz rifts filling the air. Oslo's Sunday lunch menu features a rump of beef, roast half chicken or b...
Read more →Tucked away in the heart of Hackney on the corner of a street, through an unsuspecting door and down an unsuspecting staircase, is a cracker of a cocktail bar that promises to make you warm and fuzzy inside. Behind This Wall inhabits the basement of 411 Mare Street - a skip and a hop from Hackney Central Overground. Complete with a DJ deck, candles and fresh flowers brightening up the bar, there's an air of cool sophistication without trying too hard. One thing they do care about is good drinks. After ordering the £9 Vieux Over Manhattan, I watched mesmerised as the bartender gradu...
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