Things to do in London
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BBC Television Centre
If you’re interested in TV production, this is the perfect chance to visit the vast complex of studios and offices that bring the BBC’s TV programs to the world. Visit is by two-hour guided tour only and bookings two days in advance are essential (no children under nine years, nine tours Monday to Saturday). You’ll see the BBC News and Weather Centres as well as studios where shows are being made; keep your eyes peeled all the while as you’re very likely to spot a celebrity wandering around the corridors.
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Asadal
If you fancy Korean but want a bit more style thrown into the act, head for this spacious basement restaurant next to the Holborn tube station. The kimchi (pickled Chinese cabbage with chillies) is searing, the barbecues (£7 to £11.50) are done on your table and the bibimbab – rice served in a sizzling pot topped with thinly sliced beef, preserved vegetables and chilli-laced soybean paste – are the best in town.
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Inn the Park
This stunning wooden cafe and restaurant in St James’s Park is run by the Irish wonder that is Oliver Peyton and offers cakes and tea as well as substantial and quality British food. The recent addition of extra seating under the trees for the cafe part and the new roof terrace are perfect, but if you’re up for a special dining experience, come here for dinner, when the park is quiet and slightly illuminated. One of London’s most gorgeous structures and locations.
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Oxo Tower Restaurant & Brasserie
The conversion of the old Oxo Tower on the South Bank into housing with this restaurant on the 8th floor helped spur much of the dining renaissance south of the river. In the stunning glassed-in terrace you have a front-row seat for the best view in London, and you pay for this (not the fusion food) handsomely in the brasserie and stratospherically in the restaurant. Fish dishes – confit sea bass with truffle gnocchi, black bream escabèche – usually comprise half the menu.
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Electric Brasserie
Whether it’s for breakfast (£5 to £10) or brunch over the weekend, a hearty lunch or a full dinner, the Electric draws a trendy and wealthy Notting Hill crowd with its Modern British/European cuisine. If you’re feeling decadent, lobster and chips (£36) is the way forward.
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Louis Patisserie
One of London's oldest coffee and cake shops, Louis Patisserie was started by Hungarian immigrant Louis Permayer in 1963 and it hasn't changed a bit since. Eclairs, almond pretzels, marzipan cookies, cream slices and macaroons wink at you from the window, and they're packed in a pretty striped box for you to take away. You can also sit down in the breathtaking little tearoom, best on Sundays when Hampstead's old-skool Eastern European ladies and gentlemen come here for coffee and cake.
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Tower of London
One of London's four World Heritage Sites (joining Westminster Abbey, Kew Gardens and Maritime Greenwich), the Tower offers a window on to a gruesome and quite compelling history.
In the 1070s, William the Conqueror started work on the White Tower to replace the castle he'd previously had built here. By 1285, two walls with towers and a moat were built around it and the defences have barely been altered since. A former royal residence, treasury, mint and arsenal, it became most famous as a prison when Henry VIII moved to Whitehall Palace in 1529 and started meting out his preferred brand of punishment.
The most striking building is indeed the central White Tower, with its…
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Busaba Eathai
The Store St premises of this hugely popular mini-chain is slightly less hectic than some of the other West End outlets, but it retains all the signature features that have made it a roaring success: uberstyled Asian interior, large communal wooden tables, and heavenly cheap and tasty Thai food. You’ll find perfectly executed big hitters such as Pad Thai, green and red curry as well as fragrant noodle soups, exquisite calamari and other delights such as jungle curry. This isn’t the place to come for a long and intimate dinner, but it’s a superb option for an excellent and speedy meal.
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National Maritime Museum
Narrating the long and eventful history of seafaring Britain, this museum is one of Greenwich's top attractions. Museum space increased with the Sammy Ofer Wing, which opened in late 2011.
The exhibits are arranged thematically and highlights include Miss Britain III (the first boat to top 100mph on open water) from 1933, the 19m-long golden state barge built in 1732 for Frederick, Prince of Wales, and the huge ship's propeller installed on level 1. The museum also owns the uniform coat that Britain's greatest seafaring hero, Horatio Nelson, was wearing when he was fatally shot (and the actual bullet), plus a replica of the lifeboat used by explorer Ernest Shackleton and…
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Barrafina
Tapas are always better value in Spain but the quality of the food here and the fact that its popularity just seems to rise may justify the price of what are essentially appetisers to go with your drink. Along with gambas al ajillo(prawns in garlic; £7.50), there are more unusual things such as tuna tartare and grilled quails with aioli. Because customers sit along the bar, it’s not a good place for groups.
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Churchill Arms
This traditional English pub is renowned for its Winston memorabilia, chamber pots, golf bags suspended from the ceiling and butterflies under glass. It’s a favourite of both locals and tourists (what either group makes of the Winnie/lepidopterous connection is anyone’s guess), and you’ll have to fight your way through scrums of punters at the horseshoe-shaped bar for a pint. The attached conservatory has been serving excellent Thai food for two decades.
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Ten Bells
This landmark pub, opposite Spitalfields Market and next to the area’s striking church, is famous for being one of Jack the Ripper’s pick-up joints, although these days it’s about as far from a museum piece as you can get. In fact, ask most of the young and hip crowd about the history, and few will have any idea that this beautifully decorated, airy and friendly place has anything sinister about its Victorian past.
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Back to Basics
There are two or three other options on the menu (see 'Fish not Your Dish'), but seafood is the focus at this superb corner restaurant run by a bevy of affable young Poles in what's become know as Titchfield Village. A dozen varieties of exceedingly fresh fish, and a dozen original, mouth-watering ways to cook them, are chalked up on a blackboard every day. Two-course set lunch is around £10. There's outside seating in summer.
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Mirch Masala
‘Chilli and Spice’, part of a small chain based in the epicentre of London subcontinental food, Southall, is a less hectic alternative to Tayyabs and the food is almost up to the same level. Order the prawn tikka (£9) as a ‘warmer’ followed by the masala karella (£5), a curry-like dish made from bitter gourd, and a karahi (stewed) meat dish.
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French House
French House is Soho’s legendary boho boozer with a history to match: this was the meeting place of the Free French Forces during WWII, and de Gaulle is said to have drunk here often, while Dylan Thomas, Peter O’Toole and Francis Bacon all frequently ended up on the wooden floors. Come here to sip on Ricard, French wine or Kronenbourg and check out the quirky locals.
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Prospect of Whitby
Once known as the Devil’s Tavern, the Whitby is said to date from 1520, making it the oldest riverside pub in London. It’s firmly on the tourist trail now, but there’s a smallish terrace to the front and the side overlooking the Thames, a decent restaurant upstairs and open fires in winter. Check out the wonderful pewter bar – Samuel Pepys once sidled up to it to sup.
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Fish House
This combination seafood restaurant and chippy is just the sort of place you wish you had in your own neighbourhood. The freshest of fresh fish and crustaceans are dispensed from both a busy takeaway section (where a blackboard tells you from where your fish has come) and a cheerful sit-down restaurant. The lobster bisque and Colchester oysters are always good, while the generous fish pie bursting with goodies from the briny deep is exceptional.
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Le Café Anglais
This bustling restaurant has a very eclectic menu (from gigantic roasts to Thai curries) that means to please everybody and usually does.
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Mela
Despite its location in the heart of theatreland, this bustling Shaftesbury Ave eatery serves some pretty authentic dishes from across India (with an emphasis on tandoor) and there is magnificent choice for vegetarians. We love the décor too, with colourful papier-mâché Ferris wheels and naive paintings of carnivals and fairs (mela means 'festival' in Hindi).
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Diwana Bhel Poori House
The first of its kind and arguably the best on this busy street, Diwana specialises in Bombay-style bhel poori (a sweet-and-sour, soft and crunchy ‘party mix’ snack) and dosas (filled pancakes made from rice flour). Thalis offering a selection of tasty treats are £6.75 to £8.50 and the all-you-can-eat lunchtime buffet (£6.95) is legendary.
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J Sheekey
A jewel of the local scene, this incredibly smart restaurant, whose pedigree stretches back to 1896, has four elegant, discreet and spacious wood-panelled rooms in which to savour the riches of the sea, cooked simply and exquisitely. The oyster bar, popular with pre- and post-dinner punters, is another highlight. There is a three-course weekend lunch for £26.50.
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Coco Ribbon
Coco Ribbon is so girly, even Barbie might feel a tad butch when walking into this award-winning boutique. There are chiffon dresses and faux-fur gilets, Calypso Rose's customisable Clippy Kit handbags, light-hearted words of wisdom for newlyweds or new parents and, for your broken-hearted gal pals, 'boyfriend replacement' kits (sugar pills and chocolate, of course).
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Gay Hussar
This is the Soho of the 1950s, when dining was still done grand style in wood-panelled rooms with brocade and sepia prints on the walls. Portions are huge; try the roast duck leg with all the trimmings or the ‘Gypsy quick dish’ of pork medallions, onions and green peppers. A two-/three-course lunch is £19/22.
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Marine Ices
As its name suggests, this Chalk Farm institution started out as an ice-cream parlour (in fact, a Sicilian gelateria) but these days it does some savoury dishes as well, including pizzas and hearty pasta dishes. Be sure to try some of the excellent ice cream (Caribbean coconut and maple walnut come highly recommended); the parlour is particularly popular at weekends when a long line snakes down Haverstock Hill.
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Woodlands
This South Indian vegetarian restaurant, whose rallying cry is ‘Let Vegetation Feed the Nation’, is determined to prove that South Indian vegetarian food can be as inventive as any meat-based cuisine and it does a pretty convincing job of it.
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