Joe Mackertich

Shoreditch is a dining destination for hipsters, tourists and ravenous city workers alike, so it’s no wonder that there are restaurants of all cuisines and price ranges in the always-buzzy area. But which of the many options deserve your time and money? Let us tell you, with our list of the best restaurants in Shoreditch and Spitalfields, which only features places that we know will hit the spot. From Michelin-starred favourites for big spenders to stellar street-food joints. Go east and feast. RECOMMENDED: The best bars, pubs and rooftops in Shoreditch. Leonie Cooper is Time Out London’s Food and Drink Editor. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines.

Once upon a time, the only reason to grab a bite at King’s Cross was if you were waiting for your train. But this once-grimy post-industrial area has undergone an enormous regeneration, and these days it’s packed with fine restaurants. Be it the lofty, warehouse-sized joints around Granary Square, the trendy cafés in Coal Drops Yard or the hip little spots around lower Pentonville, and a selection of Cantonese cult classics, there’s something for all tastes (and budgets, high or low). Check out our list of the best. RECOMMENDED: Dine further afield by trying out the best restaurants in London.   

Every week, a frankly silly amount of brilliant new restaurants, cafés and street food joints arrive in London. Which makes whittling down a shortlist of the best newbies a serious challenge. But here it is. The 20 very best new restaurants in the capital, ranked.  Go forth and eat, featuring everything from Fallow offshoot Roe in Canary Wharf, Oma's Greek-ish cuisine in Borough Market, to hyped Mayfair spot The Dover, the Whitehall wonder that is Kioku, French bistro bangers at Josephine in Fulham, fire and fish at Lita in Marylebone and Med sharing dishes at Morchella in Clerkenwell. We also show some love for the sublime small plates at Hackney's Sune, modern Malaysian cuisine at Mambow in Clapton, tasty sausage at Bistro Freddie in Spitalfields and Filipino sharing feasts at Donia in Soho.  Leonie Cooper is Time Out London’s Food and Drink Editor. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines. RECOMMENDED: The 50 best restaurants in London.

There are a million podcasts out there, and 2024’s releases are showing no signs of slowing down. There’s already been a load of bangers since the beginning of the year, and here at Time Out, we’re determined to listen to them all. After all, how else are you going to know which one to choose? We’ve rounded up our favourites, from political podcasts that look behind the news to comedy podcasts with your favourite funny people, and plenty of those all-important investigative whodunnits to keep you up at night. If you’re looking to dig deeper into one genre, we’d recommend trying our specialist lists on for size (you’ll find them below). But for a full list of good, addictive podcasts of every genre, read on.  We update this list with brand-new podcasts every month, so check back for more fabulous podcast recommendations from the Time Out team. Happy listening! RECOMMENDED:🎧 The best news podcasts😂 The best comedy podcasts 🗞️ The best history podcasts

Nothing sums up the best of London’s balmy, thriving summers quite like the noble sunflower. The clue’s in the name, after all: during the part of the year where we’re blessed with the most of those sweet, sweet rays, that’s when we see the most of these golden, spindly, great-vibe giants. For those not so in the-know, sunflowers usually hit their custard-yellow peak from August to September. And while, sure, you can see sunflowers in countless gardens and parks throughout London, there are few things quite so joyous as seeing an entire field of ‘em – and, obvs, picking your own to take home. There are plenty of dazzling pick-your-own sunflower fields within very easy reach of London. Before you head off on a sunny adventure, make sure to check in with these sites in advance to be sure of fresh crops and full blooms – Mother Nature is an unruly and unpredictable force. RECOMMENDED: 🐝 The best lavender fields in and around London💐 The best day trips from London for flower lovers🌸 The best places to see cherry blossom in London

Looking for a great Indian dining option in London? Well you aren't just in luck, you're actually spoiled for choice. London has heaps of fantastic local curry houses as well as a host of high-end fine dining restaurants. Discover a fabulous mix of great neighbourhood spots (with many centred around Drummond Street, Brick Lane, Whitechapel and Southall) and Michelin star-scoring Mayfair purveyors of South Asian cuisine with our definitive list, where you'll find the full range of regional styles and specialities – from Bombay biryanis to Punjabi grills and Keralan curry. Get ready for a full symphony of fantastic flavours. RECOMMENDED: The 50 best restaurants in London. Leonie Cooper is Time Out London’s Food and Drink Editor. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines.

Looking for the best restaurants in Mayfair? You're spoilt for choice in this extremely swanky central London neighbourhood. There are enough Michelin stars to feed a village here and prices are fittingly fierce. But if you're after some indulgence or looking for the perfect celebration spot, then this is where you should be taking your hard-earned cash, with hotel joints such as The Ritz and Claridge's in-house eateries some of the area's finest. A tip: look out for set lunch menus, which many Mayfair fine-dining restaurants such as Pavyllon and Murano offer, and make the whole experience that much more affordable. Go forth and feast: these are Mayfair's most impressive food spots. Recommended: The best restaurants in London. Leonie Cooper is Time Out London’s Food and Drink Editor. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines.

London’s ever-growing Mexican food scene offers far more than platefuls of tortilla chips heaped with salsa, guacamole and jalapeños and smothered in gooey cheese. You'll get incredible nachos if you want them, but there's also quality quesadillas, tip-top tostadas and exemplary enchiladas on offer across town. You’ll find all these and more at London’s very best Mexican restaurants. RECOMMENDED: London's best street food. Leonie Cooper is Time Out London’s Food and Drink Editor. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines.

Breakfast is truly the most important meal of the day, and luckily for London, the city caters to every possible whim. These days, London isn’t just home to the fry-up, but the ubiquitous smashed avocado on toast, the shakshuka and many more besides. In fact, London genuinely might be the best place to eat breakfast in the entire world. Whether you’re the kind of person who favours a posh restaurant over a greasy spoon, or who champions a caff over a swanky hotel, we’ve rounded up the ultimate list. From morning mezza to croissants and udon noodle bowls – it’s all here. RECOMMENDED: Breakfast’s a little too early for you? Try one of London’s best brunches instead.

There’s honestly nowhere in the world like Soho. The haunt of poets, gangsters, trendsetters and many a louche genius, the seedy, sleazy and impossibly romantic heart of London’s West End is also home to loads of great independent shops, cafés, bars and, most importantly, restaurants. Its culinary diversity has been fuelled by centuries of immigration and cultural cross-pollination. From rustic French fare to Mediterranean small plates and tasty tapas, here is Time Out’s list of our absolute favourite Soho restaurants. Whether you fancy a slap-up meal or are just in the market for a mid-town pitstop, we have you covered. RECOMMENDED: Here are London’s best restaurants. Leonie Cooper is Time Out London’s Food and Drink Editor. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines.

The humble brunch is perhaps one of the greatest inventions of the modern age. Breakfast is too early to really get stuck into, while eating eggs and downing buckets of coffee at lunchtime seems odd. Brunch, then, is the one true morning-ish meal, especially if it incorporates pancakes, bacon and those aforementioned eggs – or a totally vegan take on proceedings like at LD's at The Black Heart in Camden or WAVE in Hackney. London is particularly well stocked with places to indulge in the famous breakfast/lunch hybrid. Let us guide you to the best restaurants in town for a fabulous brunch in our city, from a traditional full english to innovative twists on the majestic meal, such as a bacon bao brunch. And it’s not just a weekend treat; some of these spots serve brunch every single day.  RECOMMENDED: Like unlimited fizz with your fry-up? Here are the best bottomless brunches in London.  Want to brunch for less? Check out the awesome selection at Time Out Offers. Leonie Cooper is Time Out London’s Food and Drink Editor. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines.

Want a drink? Well you've come to the right place. This is Time Out’s list of best bars in London, our curated guide to London’s drinking scene, featuring the buzziest booze dens in the capital right now. If it’s on this list, it’s excellent. These are the 50 places we'd recommend to a friend, because we love drinking in them and have done many times over. From classy cocktail joint to delightful dives, hotel bars, speakeasys, bottle shops, rooftops and wine bars, London's got them all. The latest additions to our list include the new Three Sheets in Soho, Bar Lina, an Italian aperitivo spot underneath the famous deli, Moko hi-fi listening bar in Tottenham, Oranj's vertitable wine warehouse in Shoreditch, and Helgi's, a suggestively Satanic rock bar in Hackney. Now go forth and booze. RECOMMENDED: Like bars? Then you'll love London's best pubs.  Leonie Cooper is Time Out London’s Food and Drink Editor. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines.

Since opening in 2013 Gymkhana has been charming London restaurant-goers with higher-than-high-quality Indian cuisine and slicker-than-slick Mayfair magnetism. Its name rings out, seductive music to the ears of everyone from solicitors to soap stars, footballers to food snobs. Gymkhana’s reputation was earned at a time when places like Hoppers, Kricket and Gunpowder didn't yet exist. Indian restaurants generally came in two varieties: cosy but bog-standard curry houses and incredibly stuffy, stultifying luxury dining rooms. Gymkhana pioneered the concept of an elevated Indian experience in London, one that was stylish and vibesy (dark wood floor and ceiling) as well as posh. These days the ceiling fans and tasteful clubhouse lighting doesn’t feel so unique, although Gymkhana’s prices do remain uncompromisingly high. Which begs the question: if the food’s twice as expensive as Dishoom, is the experience twice as good?  A dark and sexy pork cheek vindaloo created a lasting impression, looking like an alluring velvet puddle The food is, of course, good. It’s so good. The kid goat keema, served with salli (enlightened shoestring fries), diced onion and miniature buns, remains one of London’s great dishes, a colossus rooted both in comprehensible cooking, and also in the kind of alchemical spice-and-seasoning genius that only great chefs can accomplish. Also effective were the tandoori prawns (meaty, zingy) and the frankly startling tiger-striped aloo chat. The latter was a beaut

First came Berber & Q, all thumping music, saucer-eyed energy and yoghurt smears. Then there was Carmel in Queen’s Park, a more genteel, well-heeled affair that turned out Middle Eastern dishes that managed to be both complicated and tasty. It ended up being so popular, attracting visitors from all over London, that locals got the hump. That was their charming little secret spot. And now it’s overrun with foodies. Those same, resentful north-west London curtain twitchers will be relieved; a new, much larger Carmel has opened slap-bang in the middle of central London. Everything that Carmel does well is replicated here, in a bigger and brasher context. This is a fun place that combines Berber & Q’s lusty Balearic gaiety with its sister restaurant’s more mannered, polished plating. As usual it’s all about the dollops and sauces, the teetering constructions and the myriad multi-coloured bits. The hispi cabbage side dish, perfectly caramelised, studded with macadamia dukkah and perched on a labneh cloud, makes most - if not all - other hispi cabbage sides look decidedly half-arsed. The bone marrow chute would not be caught dead merely being a bone marrow chute, so instead it arrived on shards of rosemary, densely packed with chilli and garlic pangrattato. Sensationally extra.  The bone marrow chute would not be caught dead merely being a bone marrow chute The aforementioned OG Queen’s Parkers have a new reason to grumble however: one Oxford Circus-exclusive dish was absolutely b

What can you say about Claridge’s, really? That it’s historic, grandiose and imposing? That it’s grounded in tradition, baked into London culture and unremittingly uncompromising with regards to standards? Yes, to all of this. But you already know all that. How about this: Claridge’s is also good value for money. Value for money? Surely not. Only a culturally blinkered, oblivious aristocrat could think such a thing. But it’s true. If you want to splash out on a special meal or a magical hotel stay, Claridge’s gives you genuine bang for your buck (it’s just in this case there’s more than the usual amount of buck). Unlike a lot of expensive hotels, Claridge’s pulls off high-end luxury with an alarmingly easy-going, joyful expression. A lot of the staff have been there for decades, and the sense of communal affection for the hotel is infectious. Yes it’s expensive. But so is loads of stuff. Inarguably one of Europe’s finest hotels, Claridge’s has a top-to-bottom vibe that exudes art deco glamour, historical significance and smoky old-world naughtiness. The 269 rooms are as comfy and as elegant as you’d imagine (and if you’re ever in a position to stay in one of the ones with the balcony, you should, as there are few flexes that compare to drinking your morning espresso looking down on Bond Street). Also worth pointing out that Claridge’s also now has a mahoosive basement (that was dug out by hand, no less) featuring a subterranean spa, wine shop and extremely swanky gym. Meanwhi

Big call: the Langdale Valley might just be the nicest bit of the Lake District. Remote enough to feel otherworldly, but human and welcoming in a way that makes any weekend break there a memorable experience. The Langdale Hotel, and its super-special Brimstone bit, is an absolutely ideal base of operations for it. The Langdale Hotel & Spa is a few different things. A brilliant hotel. A load of very smart self-catering chalets, cottages and lodges. A posh spa. And a kind of super-duper, elite hotel called Brimstone, contained within the same development. The whole thing’s been pulled off extremely well. Much of what you’ll find there is made with locally sourced materials, which - in less capable hands - might sound like a kind of typical bit of meaningless eco-twaddle, but here you can genuinely feel it. Yes it’s slick, yes it’s flash, yes it’s upmarket. But Brimstone, and the surrounding development, do feel of the area, thanks mainly to the effortless integration of locally sourced timber, glass and the all-important black slate.  A fine breakfast is served at Stove, the hotel’s friendly and welcoming restaurant, every morning. Dinner’s a fairly casual affair, and if you feel like mixing things up, the town of Ambleside is only a short taxi ride away (and the excellent food of the Wainwright’s Inn is even closer). It’s the accommodation and the spa that are the real draws here though. With a totally open balcony that looked out over the development’s woodland, a free-standi

With charming streets, nice shops and more than a few properly great pubs and restaurants, Rye is inarguably one of the south east’s favourite getaway towns. What’s more, it’s right next to miles and miles of beautiful sandy beach. If that last bit sounds good, then the Gallivant hotel might be your idea of heaven on earth (or at least Sussex). The boutique-y bolthole is situated opposite (like directly opposite) one of the areas’s nicest beaches. If your idea of heaven is rolling out of bed and onto the Camber Sands, the Gallivant has you covered. Lots of effort’s gone into making the Gallivant Rye’s most modern, most comfortable, most stylish hotel. The sitting room area, which spreads out from a big fireplace, feels expansive and luxe, without being up its own arse and stuffy. People hang out, read the paper, play board games in a way that feels more in keeping with the Hamptons than the British seaside. Meanwhile the restaurant’s kitchen has been home to a number of top chefs over the years. The seasonal menu, supported by an exhaustive English wine selection, reflects that quality.  We stayed in the luxury garden room, which featured sliding doors that proudly revealed a standup bath in the middle of the room (from which, yes, you can watch TV while waiting for dinner). It’s easy to forget that, on the most basic level, the Gallivant is esentially a single-storey roadside motel, because so much work has gone into making it feel upmarket, pleasant and breezy. The grounds

This energetically gaudy and unapologetically OTT pasta place within Soho’s Ilona Rose House development could be seen as the antidote to our city’s dispiriting predilection for anaemic, self-consciously cool small plate restaurants. Daroco is a big fun room full of mirrors, weird lights and massive plates of Italian food. And you know what? It works.  Channelling the vibe exuded by lots of c.2003 Manhattan restaurants visited by Carrie Bradshaw and her mates in ‘Sex in the City’, Daroco is an outrageous spot, perfect for anyone who wants a big, dumb fun night out or messy lunch. When we visited the best bites were actually found in the antipasti and aperitivo section of the splashy menu. The montanarine fritti were sort of Pizza Express dough balls, dressed to the nines in steamed porchetta and stuffed with gorgonzola. Likewise the trio of arancini, filled with leek and sausage, topped with pecorino, deserved to be considered strong title contenders in the London Arancini Ball Premier League.  Was the pasta exceptional pasta? Not really, but the restaurant’s pizza oven is embossed with hundreds of shining blue butterflies! So, swings and roundabouts. Daroco sets itself out to be a good time, a multicoloured, velour-textured limoncello kiki right in the middle of tourist town. With sourdough pizzas that could easily go toe-to-doughy toe with most of London’s most-hyped pies, Daroco just might be the perfect birthday party location for the overgrown child in your life. The vib

Good restaurants are easy to describe. The food is served at the right temperature. Staff don’t roll their eyes when you ask what a ‘boquerone’ is. Ordering wine by the bottle doesn’t necessitate a remortgage. All of these things suggest a place is decent, and can be articulated plainly with words and pictures. Great restaurants, however, are harder to describe. With greatness ‘quality’ is a given. There has to be some other ineffable presence that remains constant day in, day out. We love great restaurants for reasons that are illogical, personal and elusive. Trullo is a great restaurant. There are days when I think it might be the greatest. Trullo’s reputation is built on consistently excellent food and its expertly calibrated atmosphere The Highbury trattoria hasn’t got any flashy gimmicks or TikTok-friendly marketing ploys. Its upstairs and downstairs dining rooms have no obvious ‘features’ (although by this point its net half-curtains are at risk of becoming iconic), and the well-trained staff aren’t heavy-handed or dressed in corduroy workwear. Instead, Trullo’s reputation is built on consistently excellent food and its expertly calibrated atmosphere, neither of which have slipped an iota in the restaurant’s 13 year history. Bravissimo, lads.  Trullo isn’t all about the pasta, but at the same time it is all about the pasta. The primi section of the menu is a stockpile of reasonably priced, culinary WMDs. On our most recent visit we forewent their legendary beef shin ra

Akoko, the smooth-as-silk Fitzrovia restaurant that glided onto the London restaurant scene, blew everyone’s mind and then won a Michelin star, has spawned a child under the arches of Borough Market.  Akara replicates its parent restaurant’s ingenious and critically acclaimed take on west African cuisine and brings it to a more casual, less-intense place. Off the bat: going to Akara isn’t as good as going to Akoko. Which is like saying seeing Prince perform in an arena isn’t as good as seeing Prince perform in your living room. One of those things is more feasible than the other. At this stage getting into the rightfully popular Akoko is a task fit for Restaurant Hercules. Not to mention, you might not feel like dropping hundreds of pounds on its tasting-menu-or-death sole option. At Akara - get this - you can choose what you want to eat.  Special shout out to a coy side of plantain cubes, all jumbled up with lookalike pieces of grilled octopus And you may well choose to start with a few of the titular akara. It’d be lazy to call them ‘the west African bao’, but that would give the uninitiated an idea of what to expect. Fluffy-yet-cakey balls, delicately fried and perched magisterially on stone cubes, each one bifurcated then ladened with stuff like prawn, ox cheek, mushrooms and scallops. Like most things Akoko-related, they’re accompanied by a bit of psychedelic scotch bonnet sauce. Like most things Akoko-related, said sauce works as a kind of culinary particle accelerator

'Rooms with a restaurant' is how Updown Farmhouse modestly bills itself. But that’s doing the farmhouse located near Deal a real disservice. Yes, the restaurant is a total babe of venue (especially if you choose to eat outside in the beautiful, heated pergola) but the rest of Updown, the hotel-y bit, should not be taken for granted. Nestled within seven acres of genuinely magical land, Updown offers four comfy bedrooms, each one uniquely designed and spacious, featuring king (or superking) beds. There's also the Gate House, a self-contained cottage by the vegetable patches that has two bedrooms (and a room with bunkbeds), and a charming and secluded Gardener’s Cottage (in which we stayed) which has its own kitchen and living room area. All of it, including the communal lounge and library areas, is unified by a kind of friendly stylishness that puts Updown firmly on the comfortable side of cool. Anyone desperate for an old-school country pub visit could make a break for The Five Bells Eastry, a traditional boozer with a cosy vibe and great community spirit, but to be honest the quality of the food and drink on offer at Updown means you’ll struggle to find anything that compares in the whole region. The menu, as you’d expect is seasonal, focused on local produce and ever-changing. Roasts are served on Sundays. It’s all very elegant, very accomplished and - crucially - very delicious.  The owners, Oli Brown and Ruth Leigh, have done a bang up job transforming and restoring what

I hope you’re hungry, because 64 Goodge Street wants to feed you up good. So nourishing and potent is its essence, I imagine people walking past its sleek frontage might feel full from a culinary contact high. This elegant Fitzrovia bistro bangs out old-school, hearty dishes, proper meals. As you’d expect, pan sauces at this place appear to be sacrosanct. I can imagine all the chefs hanging out in the open-fronted kitchen, taking turns to show off their most banging reductions.  ‘Maaate, the opacity on that consommé is fucking sick, not going to lie.’ The preponderance of sick jus can only mean one thing: French fine dining is back, baby. But this time some of the chefs have tattoos and moustaches. Escargot orbs were smushed with bacon, fried in breadcrumbs and served like aristocratic Scotch eggs 64GS does what it does with aplomb. The night’s show-stopper was an unctuous seafood bisque, boasting a depth of flavour that bottomed out somewhere in the planet’s core. In its centre, a single volcano-like ravioli object, erupting a magmatic plume of crab meat and apple. Hyper-rich boudin noir cylinders - like hockey pucks made from the world’s most extra black pudding - looked uncharacteristically demure served alongside a trio of contrasting smears. Part dish, part artery-clogging playset; every carefully assembled mouthful a new experience. There were brazen anachronisms, too. Caper-studded remoulade with ham, and smoked salmon with blinis both totally justified their being br

An atmospheric, noisy spot off Marylebone High Street, Alley Cats is an ideal place to indulge in those New York-style (as evinced by the wipe-clean gingham tablecloths), crispy crackly pizzas that are way lighter than their comparatively doughy Neopolitan cousins. The menu’s short, but who needs choice when the standard offerings are so effective? There are seven styles of pie on offer, all served at a hunger-busting size of 14”, including a fantastic pizza take on the classic penne alla vodka that’s every bit as moreish and comforting as the dish that inspired it. If you are in the market for starters, both the candied bacon and sauce-slathered meatballs should not be missed. A great addition to London’s varied and ever-evolving pizza scene.

Ah, Bistro Freddie. Or ‘B-Fred’ for short. What a mensch of a restaurant. What a relief. Bistro Freddie is a London rarity: a knowingly ‘cool’ vibehouse that doesn’t make you want to dash your brains out on the edge of an understated white table. B-Fred should be annoying. It’s in Shoreditch, for a start. It’s small enough that it’s always going to be egregiously busy. The decor is pointedly, performatively, undeniably white. The hand-written menu features ‘classic, unpretentious, bistro-style dishes’ including mains that cost 25 quid. As I said, it should be annoying. But, much like Rush’s epic 11-minute track ‘Xanadu’, which also should be annoying, B-Fred is just too good to resent. Let’s hear it for the skate wing; an inverted golden arc, perched imperiously over its lake of curry sauce Bossing it from within the open-fronted kitchen is head chef and flavour magus Anna Søgaard. The spare, paired-back menu belies the erstwhile Erst cook’s talent for concealed pzazz. Many of the dishes, on paper, appear mundane. Søgaard, the Danish-American thaumaturgist, has deceived you. Nothing leaves her kitchen underpowered in the wallop department.  A slick radicchio diadem, studded with chunky walnuts and pungent blue cheese, simply refused to be ignored. And amend the London snack tier list: Freddie’s glistening, glowing rhombuses of ‘house sausage’, served with punchy (and homemade) brown sauce, deserve a place somewhere near the top. A-tier (at least). The on-trend, mollusk-of-th

AJ Odudu first came to London with big dreams of making it as a prime-time telly star. The Blackburn-born presenter may have taken her sweet time getting there, but it’s safe to say that these days she’s considered a staple of the small screen. We asked her to forget TV for just one minute and tell us about the best thing she’s ever seen on a London stage. ‘Ronnie Scott’s is my five-star venue. And I saw Prince there,’ she said on this week’s episode of the Time Out podcast. ‘It blew my mind. It was when he was doing those pop-up, secret surprise gigs around London. I was in Soho, I’d had a meeting, and was just passing. I saw these people queuing in the rain, so I just joined it and ended up paying 25 quid to see Prince. If you’ve ever been to Ronnie Scott’s you'll know it’s tiny. So it was like having Prince perform at me, in my living room. It was bonkers and nothing can top it.’ Prince came to London in 2014 and played a series of secret gigs in iconic venues. As well as Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club Prince also appeared (often with almost no notice given) at Koko, King’s Place, Electric Ballroom and the Shepherd’s Bush Empire. ‘He was majestic and indescribable,’ said Odudu. ‘No one that was there could believe that he was in the room, playing these actual classics. He was petite but beautiful.  Want to hear AJ Odudu chat about her love of London while giving Time Out a guided tour of her favourite restaurants, parks and pubs? Have a listen to this week’s episode of ‘Love Thy

Iain Stirling is known by millions for his idiosyncratic, sardonic voiceovers on ITV’s ‘Love Island’. He’s the Scottish guy who talks in a very deliberate, some would say brutally sarcastic, way. But he is of course much more than that. He’s a stand-up comedian, sitcom writer, podcaster and, for a long while, a lead presenter on CBBC.  It was while appearing on CBBC that Iain first become acquainted with Mr Falafel in Shepherd’s Bush Market.  ‘This is the greatest food on the planet,’ said Iain on this week’s ‘Love Thy Neighbourhood’ podcast. ‘Mr Falafel in Shepherd’s Bush Market. Oh my god. It’s where I used to go for lunch three or four times a week. Honestly of all the places I’ve taken to you today, this is the one where I’d say you should come. The food is genuinely amazing. The extra large here is absolutely ma-hoosive. You wouldn’t get through a king size unless you were a rabies-ridden maniac.’ If you want to understand the rabies reference you might want to listen to all of this week’s podcast episode, in which Iain shows editor Joe Mackertich around the neighbourhood of Shepherd’s Bush. Guinness, Westfield and Iain’s abiding love of Spaghetti House all get discussed.  Subscribe on SpotifySubscribe on Apple PodcastsSubscribe on Google PodcastsSubscribe on Amazon Music Each week on ‘Love Thy Neighbourhood’, someone interesting gives Joe a personal tour around a neighbourhood that means a lot to them. Four locations, with a bit of chitchat en route

Comedian Jon Pointing, best known for his Bafta-nominated starring turn in Channel 4’s ‘Big Boys’, has revealed his London tourist attraction of choice. And it’s not an obvious choice (sorry London Dungeon fans). ‘I would say the Crossness Sewage Works,’ he says on this week’s Love Thy Neighbourhood podcast. ‘You can book it and you get a tour around these sewers that were built near Abbey Wood in Victorian times. An unnecessarily beautiful cast-iron interior that’s being slowly restored by die-hard retired maniacs. They’re down there scraping rust off iron bars.’ The Crossness Pumping Station was designed by legendary British architect Charles Driver in 1865. Described as a ‘masterpiece of engineering’ the Grade I-listed sewers are the subject of ongoing restorations.  ‘Look,’ he says. ‘There is a smell. But you learn a great bit of history, about water. It’s all connected to clean water and cholera. People used to come off pleasure cruises on the Thames and die because the layer of air above the water was so incredibly toxic. I learned all that down in the sewer.’ Want to hear Jon chat about his favourite neighbourhood of Deptford? Tune in to this week’s ‘Love Thy Neighbourhood’ podcast. Subscribe on SpotifySubscribe on Apple PodcastsSubscribe on Google PodcastsSubscribe on Amazon Music Each week on ‘Love Thy Neighbourhood’, someone interesting gives Joe a personal tour around a neighbourhood that means a lot to them. Four locations, with a bit of chitchat en route to ea

Noomi Rapace is a bit of a global citizen. The actor, who rose to international prominence playing Lisbeth Salander in the original, Swedish-language ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’, has lived all over the world. Which is why it’s so flattering she’s chosen to call London home (most of the time).  So where’s her favourite venue in the capital? In the latest episode of our podcast 'Love Thy Neighbourhood', we asked Noomi where in London really floats her movie-star boat right now. ‘I've been going to House of Koko, a lot,’ she says. ‘I love it there. It has four floors, it has little vinyl rooms, I’ve been bringing people there who visit me from LA or New York, friends who are coming to London where we need to have a work dinner, and then have some fun. It’s a beautiful venue.’  House of Koko is the new, swankier incarnation of the notorious Koko nightclub in Camden. Synonymous with rock and indie throughout the naughties, Koko closed down for a bit (and suffered a fire), got a revamp, and reopened as House of Koko in 2022.  ‘I saw Nas perform there last year, at the Koko Theatre, which was epic. And I saw Little Simz there too, she was magical.’ If you want to hear Noomi wax lyrical about her adopted neighbourhood of Portobello (including diversions into squirrels, Premier League football and the film ‘Notting Hill’) do check out this week’s ‘Love Thy Neighbourhood’. Subscribe on SpotifySubscribe on Apple PodcastsSubscribe on Google PodcastsSubscribe on Amazon Musi

Bafta-winning writer and actor Allan Mustafa (who you might know as Seapa) is serious about food. Best known for creating and starring in the phenomenal comedy series ‘People Just Do Nothing’, the born-and-bred Londoner is also deep into his food. So deep that he and two pals started Taste Cadets, a show where they travel around the world eating. But what about eats that are closer to home? In the latest episode of our podcast 'Love Thy Neighbourhood', we asked Seapa what his favourite pizza in London was. Because everyone likes pizza. ‘I'd say Crisp Pizza, in Hammersmith,’ he says. ‘But, by the way, I’m not one of those people that are just now jumping on the trend. We [the Taste Cadets] were some of the first people to go there, really, and the first people to properly document it. You can ask Carl down at Crisp.’  In the last year Crisp Pizza became a word-of-mouth phenomenon after various influencers started calling it the best slice in London. Owner Carl McCluskey does however, credit Seapa and his mates with being the first to raves about his cheesy wares. ‘It’s very thin, very crispy,’ says Seapa. ‘It’s a New York pizza that’s has been, for some reason, really hard to get in London. And he [Carl] has done it so well. He basically did it as a lockdown thing. This pub is called the Chancellor’s in Hammersmith. And he knocks them out of there. He went to New York, he got obsessed, and he came back and just started nerding out on it so much. He got it wrong so many times,

The latest episode of ‘Love Thy Neighbourhood’, our very good podcast about London and the people who love it, has landed. This week comedian and writer Phil Wang is showing us around his ends (aka Nunhead). One of the stops of the journey just happens to be Phil’s favourite eatery in the area. We are talking, of course, about the magisterial Kudu Grill on Nunhead Lane. The former pub (that still has some of the old signage) serves South African small plates. ‘It’s a beautiful restaurant,’ says Phil. ‘Fancy South African food with amazing flat breads and meats and stuff. To me, there’s no better flavour in all cooking than that slightly burned taste. That’s braai grill, and you can’t get quite the same flavour with anything else. ‘I filmed an episode of “The World’s Most Dangerous Roads” in South Africa. We stopped at these rondavels, which are like traditional round houses, and they had these grills outside that were free to use. The crew bought all these steaks and sausages and started grilling and it was the most delicious thing. They’re just so good at meat, I don’t think anyone grills as well as the South Africans, and Kudu Grill reflects that.’ Phil also describes the restaurant’s stylish interior as ‘a millennials’ wet dream. Forest green, mid-century chairs and lots of wood. Distressed walls, a bit of piping and ceiling fans that are definitely never turned on.’ Want to hear Phil hold forth about Kudu Grill, and loads of other places in Nunhead and beyond? Have a list

We've been banging on about 'Van Gogh: The Immersive Show" for what feels like forever. With good reason! The retina-battering, virtual-reality post-Impressionist extravaganza that's taken up residence at 106 Commercial Street has all the qualities needed to make it a post-pandemic smash. Why not utterly lose yourself in a load of lush brush-strokes for a few hours? Sounds nice. Studio Melrose How does it work though? Is it projections? Are head-sets involved? Do they play depressive music to recreate the feeling of being inside the famously morose artist's head? We went along and found out. As you can see from the photos, Van Gogh's paintings are beamed hyper-sharp all over the floors and walls, using dozens of cutting-edge projectors. The all-encompassing sight of iconic works like Starry Night and Wheatfield with Crows (complete with flying birds, natch) knock a lot of socks off (particularly when augmented and combined with VR headsets). Studio Melrose The exhibition is in three parts, each one dedicated to a different section of the Dutch artist's life.  Be forewarned: the VR part of the exhibition (which takes you on a trip through eight Van Gogh paintings) is included in the price of VIP tickets, but anyone with a standard ticket will need to stump up a bit extra to experience the head-set bit of the exhibition.  Photo: Studio Melrose Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience’, 106 Commercial St, E1 6LZ, Jul 29-Feb 2022. Tickets from £19.90 (adult), available here. The

Mark it in your diary: June 20 (aka ‘this coming Monday’). This is the day on which Time Out’s all-new, daily newsletter hits eager inboxes all across London and beyond. It’s called Out Here. And it’s wonderful. You like Time Out? Of course you do. You adore the way we sort the wheat from the London chaff, rising above the noise and hype to recommend and highlight only the tastiest dishes, crispest pints, weirdest (in a good way) exhibitions and, uh, least-boring plays. Our jokes amuse and delight you. Your friends consider you clued up about culture, trends and vibes because you frequently pass off our opinions as your own. And we’re fine with that. Really. Out Here is everything you love about Time Out, condensed into a five-minute morning read. You’ll be bowled over by its brilliance, its usefulness, its humour and its charm. It’ll tell you what’s good, with daily bite-sized reviews of film, art, food and all the rest, and also provide recommendations from the capital’s best chefs, artists and makers. Daily London news? But of course. We’ll even find time to rate the city’s park benches and stuff like that. Don’t waste even a single second of your time. Subscribe here. Eating, drinking and having fun. We’ll show you how it’s done. Out Here is a daily email from the Time Out team. Subscribe to it right here. A massive, immersive dinosaur experience thing is coming to London. The 30 best rooftop bars in the city (according to us).

Name a cool London brand. Good. Now name another one. Okay. Chances are you just said ‘Um, Yard Sale.... Top Cuvée?’. Because both of those are cool London brands. We like them both. Good news: they're teaming up for a bit. The pizzeria and natural wine specialists are joining forces to create a kind of ultimate London food Voltron restaurant. Vin-Yard is the pop-up. Hackney Road is the place. May is the month. From this Friday (until May 25) the Yard Sale basement will play host to this collab of dreams. As you'd expect, Top Cuvée is handling the booze, while Yard Sale will be slinging their hot, hot pies. All the classics will be present, as well as Yard Sale’s game-changing cheese and Marmite garlic bread. See you there, basically. 184 Hackney Road London, E2 7QL, May 6- May 25. The absolute best bottomless brunches in London. Yo, Bone Daddies be collab-ing with Ivan Ramen.  

You a fan of rock and/or roll? Then you will definitely be interested to learn about a new, sexy boutique hotel, named Chateau Denmark, perhaps unsurprisingly located on Denmark Street in central London. Denmark Street was, of course, famous for its music shops. If you wanted to buy a guitar in London, that was where you went. The Chateau’s owners are no doubt hoping the hotel offers a similar level of attraction to the city’s music-loving populace and rock-steeped visitors. View this post on Instagram A post shared by CHATEAU DENMARK (@chateaudenmark) Excitingly, the hotel, which features loads of themed rooms, is set across 16 buildings (including some grade II-listed eighteenth-century townhouses). That’s loads. Interior designers were asked to ‘imagine a time where punk rock and vintage gothic meets modern psychedelia with a timeless grandeur’. Erm, right…  Several of the buildings which make up the Chateau Denmark are veritably drenched in rock and pop history. Maybe the best fact of all is that the Rolling Stones (who are celebrating their sixtieth anniversary this year) recorded their eponymous debut LP in one of these buildings. Chateau Denmark, Denmark Place, WC2H 0LA. Coca Cola’s opened a flagship shop in Covent Garden. Blackhorse Beer Mile is kicking things off with a free party this Sunday.

Craft beer heads in the city know that Blackhorse Lane is probably London’s most vital and exciting booze location. Signature, Exale, Beerblefish, Hackney, Wild Card and Truman’s all have massive taprooms there. It’s a fun place to have a drink (and do pub quizzes, eat pizza and all that other beer-adjacent stuff). Well, this Sunday, all day from noon to midnight, the aforementioned breweries will be throwing a big old shindig, featuring exclusive beers, live music, street food and brewery tours. Entry is absolutely free. The cause for all the celebrating? The official launch of the Blackhorse Beer Mile (aka the name that people have been using for the area, unofficially, for absolutely ages). But nice that it’s now legit!  Blackhorse Lane, E17.  Check it out: a new retro arcade bar is opening in Soho. The Ukraine Freedom Orchestra is playing at the Proms this year.

On August 1, the Proms (celebrating its 150th anniversary this year) is going to break a few barriers. An orchestra consisting only of kazoos? No. A programme made up entirely of incidental music from cancelled soap opera ‘Neighbours’? Also no. Instead, the annual series of classical concerts is dedicating a whole show to soundtracks from video games. The concert, titled ‘Gaming Prom: From 8-Bit to Infinity’, will feature music from the entire history of the medium. So not just the modern stuff that sounds like a film track. We’re talking bleepy-bloopy music, but played by an actual orchestra. Titles confirmed for inclusion so far: ‘The Legend of Zelda’ (sick), ‘Shadow of the Colossus’ (very atmospheric), ‘Pokemon’ (crowdpleaser) and ‘Battlefield 2042’ (don’t know it). The concert has been curated (and will be conducted) by one Robert Ames, who was also responsible for a 2009 sci-fi Proms concert that focused on film and television soundtracks. His Twitter profile image shows him scowling in the Barbican, which is quite cool in our opinion.  ‘The nostalgia of gaming music is very much part of our lives,’ Ames told the Guardian. ‘The fanbase is massive and gaming music, since its inception, has been ahead of the curve in terms of diversity. I really believe somebody like [‘Kingdom Hearts’ composer] Yoko Shimomura should be celebrated at an international music festival alongside composers like Brahms and Mahler.’ Too right, Mr Ames. Mozart did some solid work, but did he ever c