Much like a celebrity couple (think Dua Lipa and Callum Turner, Posh and Becks), a bougie London hotel finds no better marriage than with a celebrity chef. Gordon Ramsay at the Savoy, Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester, Heston Blumenthal at Mandarin Oriental – there are many. Tom Kerridge’s spot at London’s glorious Corinthia hotel is getting a bit of an overhaul, and a brand new bar.

Tom Kerridge’s new bar at the Corinthia will sit alongside his existing restaurant, Kerridge’s which is also set to re-open soon after a revamp. The new bar is called Georgie’s, named after Kerridge’s beloved boxer pooch and opens up on 5th September.

The restaurant has been redesigned with Georgie’s in mind, with the new space split into two distinct destinations, a velvet partition separating the 57-cover dining room from the bar.

It’s an upmarket London hotel restaurant / bar so obviously you’ll be in for a pretty tight menu of carefully curated classics, as well as all the house favourites so you don’t need to leave the premises for that one pale ale you’ve been craving. Drinks at Georgie’s will offer a collection of classic and signature cocktails, as well as spirits, wines, beers and ales, with a draught selection including Rebellion Lager, Hazy Pale and IPA from the Marlow Brewery (where Tom has a couple of dinging spots including his two-Michelin-starred gastropub The Hand & Flowers and fellow Michelin spotted The Coach).

It will also have Georgie’s Martini Club, which offers guests a sort of martini flight. There are four Martinis to try out: a dry, a wet, a dirty, and the steak which is a twist on the classic Gibson martini, finished with a house-smoked pickled onion. You’ll also find tipples like a French 75, Cosmopolitan, Hemingway Daiquiri, Negroni, Old Fashioned, Manhattan and more on the cocktail list.

Food wise, there will be a range of elevated snacks like pork scratchings, beef jerky, frickles, and buttermilk fried chicken. Larger plates will include cheeseburger with BBQ brisket, pink shellfish brioche rolls with bloody Marie-rose sauce, and haddock fritters with matson sauce – another Kerridgian riff on a classic.

In terms of what the interiors will look like, it’s going to be in keeping with Corintiha’s MO of soft, quietly plush decor, with plenty of warm wintery tones. Burgundy leather, dark joinery and marble-topped tables will feature in Kerridge’s, while Georgie’s Bar will see navy and warm gold alongside antique brass, as well as ‘Steve’, a full-size bronze figure of a man in a suit, by sculptor Beth Cullen-Kerridge.

Kerridge’s at Corinthia London first opened in 2018, with head chef Tom Childs continuing to oversee the kitchen in partnership with Kerridge when it opens up after the refurb.

Tom Childs explained: “The food is still all about great British produce, proper cooking and generous flavours, but we’ve created a more intimate feel in the restaurant and a completely new way to experience what we do at Georgie’s. Whether you’re coming in for dinner, dropping by for a Martini or a beer, or settling in for the evening, we want both spaces to feel relaxed, welcoming and unmistakably Kerridge’s.”

You can head to the new, revamped restaurant and bar from 5th September at Corinthia London, 10 Whitehall Pl, London SW1A 2BD.

• The best exhibitions in London this summer: From Escher to Bowie to Marilyn Monroe

It may sit in the mind alongside the eras of impressionist paintings and romantic poetry, but London’s Royal Opera House is both a historic institution and modern icon. Always changing with the times, the conservatory-cum-Gallerie-Lafeyette looking building has hosted some incredible performances from royal-attended operas to free lunchtime concerts. Now, it’s time for something a little different as it opens up for a series of exclusive after hours tours.

Covent Garden’s Royal Opera House will be hosting new late-night experiences which will feature talks, tours, demonstrations, installations, and other activities in a first-of-its-kind project. The evenings will finish with a silent disco in the Paul Hamlyn Hall – although presumably the playlist is more pop anthems than Pyotr Tchaikovsky. Who knows though, maybe you’ll be throwing shapes to Mozart’s greatest hits.

Currently it’s a one-night only kind of event, which will take place on 21st August, where, similar to the usual day-time tours, you’ll be invited to step behind the scenes, exploring rehearsal studios, costumes, and production workshops which are usually off limits to the public. The evening will kick off at 5.30pm, running until 11.30pm where you’ll take in the historic wanders of the space. The evening will be split into four separate pillars: stories, stage, screen, and style. Guests will be treated to a programme of different snippets from the Opera’s history, including: a fight choreography demo, live music score performances, a discussion on ballet’s influence on fashion and a demonstration of how iconic costumes are maintained, restored and reused.

There is also a pretty incredible line-up of creatives from inside some of the Opera's recent productions. Uzma Hameed who has worked on Woolf Works and MADDADDAM will explain how she transforms literature into dance. Costume designer Esther Bialas will reveal how she comes up with costumes and brings them to life, and chorus director William Spaulding will highlight how important the ensemble is to opera productions.

Tickets cost £60 per person, which includes a welcome drink as well as access to the Hall for the disco. You’ll get to choose two of the four tours – you get to pick whether to learn about the props department, the rehearsal rooms and side stage areas, the costume and jewellery department or the sound and broadcast department.

You can book tickets and find out more here.

• 50 years of punk: Why the DIY ethos still matters five decades on (and why the punk spirit is needed now more than ever)

The idea of a Martini Tester job feels up there with a swimming pool full of lemonade or a house made of chocolate; the kind of ridiculously extravagant invention that doesn’t seem quite real. However, one lucky (and slightly inebriated) person will get the gig of official Martini Tester for London based event page DesignMyNight, giving them a chance to drink their way around some of the best bars in London.

There has been a martini boom over the last year, with the sophisticated tipple having a resurgence as Gen Z cosplay as being a functioning adult rather than the broke trainwreck they are (at least in my case).

• How to make the perfect martini: 10 top tips from an expert

The martini is sort of like the Victoria Sponge of the cocktail world: with stripped back ingredients, you have nowhere to hide. Martinis (and Viccy Sponges) are all about the quality of ingredients, and the little twists each chef or mixologist has which makes their signature serve unique.

That might help explain the quiet rivalry across plenty of London bars all claiming to make the best one. Bob Bob Ricard serves up the world’s coldest martini at -22 degrees; Dukes Bar in St James’ has a long legacy of serving up perfect pours from its iconic tableside cart; newer kid on the block and Topjaw favourite Three Sheets is a strong contender, and that’s before we get to all the adventurous twists on the classic from a Spiced Okra Martini at Chishuru, Caviar bump accompanying tipples, and Rita’s coveted £9 mini martini with a touch of lemon oil in Soho.

With interest in the classic martini growing (dry martini orders surged almost 20% year on year), events listings site DesignMyNight is looking for someone to separate the wheat from the chaff – or the vodka(n) from the vod...kant. The job isn’t exactly your usual LinkedIn salaried affair, instead it’s a position worth £1,400 in food and drink tabs, as well as an overnight stay in one of London’s most luxury hotels. They’ve also got your travel covered so you don’t even have to be a local to do it.

You’ll be testing martinis across five different top rated bars, including: The Egerton House Hotel, Bob Bob Ricard, Hawksmoor Martini Bar, Archive & Myth, and Murder Inc. You’ll be treated to an overnight stay and fully decked out breakfast at Egerton House Hotel, as well as taking part in a martini masterclass so you can replicate your favourite sips after the gig’s up. Egerton House Hotel is one of those traditionally, discreetly bougie red-bricked hotels in the heart of Knightsbridge. You’ll get a three-course meal for two at Bob Bob Ricard, the same at Hawksmoor, and three rounds of snacks and drinks at Murder Inc, rounded off by yet another couple of rounds of drinks at Archive & Myth – and hopefully a couple of aspirin before bed too. Not a bad day on the job.

There are no qualifications or restrictions to apply for this job. Candidates have to be aged 18 or over but that’s about it. Hopefully you actually like martinis too, but there’s not actually a stipulation that you have to be enamoured with the serve… This gig would certainly be a kind of martini-drinking boot-camp of sorts if you didn't. Applications are now open and will close on 14th September. You can find the application here.

• This tiny South London boozer has just been crowned the best in London

London has a plethora of markets, forming a delicious spider's web across the capital with local spots in Peckham, Dulwich, and Hackney to name a few. The markets really do a fantastic job of highlighting how multi-cultural our city is, bringing flavours of home for some and a world culinary tour for others without having to leave their postcode or drop dough on transatlantic flights. But as much as the slew of stunning spots try to rival the big kahuna, Borough Market remains the undefeated King of London’s food markets. Now, it’s flinging open its doors after hours for a full on party all about the art of barbecuing.

Evocatively called Flame & Smoke, the evening will take place on 10th September – presumably after the nationwide barbecue ban has lifted — between 6.30pm and 9.30pm. The evening will include live demonstrations, fire pits, masterclasses, Q&As with chefs and producers, a live DJ, and of course plenty of good food. In fact there will be a range of small plates specifically created for the evening showcasing exactly how good flame grilled food can be.

It’s not the first time the Market has put on an after hours foodie rave, having hosted an evening of fish back in May, as well as a festive special celebrating all things cheese. The idea behind the evenings is to do a deeper dive into a specific ingredient or food category, with expert advice on how to prepare, cook, and eat it. This time, it’s the tempestuous barbecue that’s coming into the spotlight, or, flame.

Forget the days of burnt burgers and sausages which are blackened on the outside and dangerously underdone and suspiciously pink on the inside. The Borough Market BBQ bonanza is all about righting those scorched wrongs. The idea is to make your grilled goods more gourmet, learning how to go from charcoal-tastic to perfectly cooked fare.

The evening will showcase “just how exciting, skilful and versatile cooking over fire can be.” Flame & Smoke celebrates the theatre, versatility and irresistible flavour of cooking over fire – the oldest cooking method we have.

Confirmed vendors so far include:

• The Black Pig
• Kolae
• The London Cider House
• Mei Mei
• Oak & Smoke
• Padre
• Porteña
• Utobeer
• Wyndham House Poultry

As Bethan Davies (head of the market) explains: "Our traders draw on traditions from around the world to create bold flavours and make exceptional produce sing. This is barbecue, Borough Market style.”

Tickets need to be booked for the gig, priced at £7 for standard admission, and on sale now. It's set in Green Market and the open-air space beside Southwark Cathedral, but presumably once you get to the general Borough area, you can just follow your nose (and your rumbling stomach) like a cartoon character following a trail of smoke. You can book tickets here.

• This tiny South London boozer has just been crowned the best in London

Love ‘em or loathe ‘em, we’ve all nipped into a Wetherspoons pub for a quick, cheap pint at one point or other. But a new rule rolling out across the budget-friendly bar chain might make a round at your local Wetherspoons more tempting than ever before.

Wetherspoons pubs have announced that they are banning the act of playing music, videos or taking calls over a smartphone loudspeaker in its bars.

“Following complaints from customers who are being driven nuts by other people’s videos and amplified phone conversations, Wetherspoon has asked customers to switch their phones to silent or to use earphones,” reads a statement from the chain.

I never thought I’d find myself agreeing with Wetherspoons’ chair and founder, Tim Martin, but we can’t help but respect the move. He said: “In a world dominated by other people’s music and amplified sound, Wetherspoon pubs are an oasis of tranquillity and contemplation. In order to avoid customers being driven chicken jalfrezi by a cacophony of sound, we are kindly asking phone users to pipe down.”

Can we get him to enforce the rule on buses and trains, too?

The best thing Wetherspoons has ever announced?

Wetherspoons pubs have a reputation for being a bit soulless — few play music to keep licensing costs down, and there’s a canteen-like approach to the layout of many of the chain's locations, rather than the cosy feel of more intimate pubs.

Wetherspoons has a knack for finding grand old buildings and reviving them, if not recapturing the original magic of the venues, while low prices pile pressure on independent pubs nearby that can’t be matched.

And yet, is there anywhere better in London for a pre-drink? Or an affordable breakfast? If Wetherspoons does manage to ban disturbing, obnoxious phone use in its bars, all the power to them, and it’s something I’d like to see other bars enforce.

Will Wetherspoons actually be able to manage it though? Seeing how busy its bar staff usually are, I’d be surprised — and I personally wouldn’t fancy telling a punter a few pints in that they need to turn down their TikTok feeds.

• The 11 best craft beer bars and pubs in London

The kind of Mayfair that seems to exist in all 2000s American films about the big smoke can feel like it barely exists in 2026, between the hyped TikTok spots and natural wine bars that are made fun of in all sitcoms. It can be rare to wander around Belgravia’s bougie backstreets, walking the embassy-lined crescents and stumble across a spot that blends a family taverna feel with some of the best and freshest dishes around.

Luckily that’s exactly what Ishbilia in Belgravia / Victoria does, serving up the largest menu of traditional Lebanese dishes which will leave you both feeling like you’ve indulged in some kind of fairytale-esque kingly feast, and like you’ve hit not just your five a day but your 30-a-week.

One of London’s longest-standing Lebanese restaurants, Ishbilia has just re-opened in Belgravia following a big old refurb and a slightly refreshed menu. We escaped the sweltering London streets, swapping the tube for the terrace and tested out some of the marvellous mezze and traditional dishes on offer.

Where is it?

Tucked down a Mayfair side street, Ishbilia’s closest station is Knightsbridge, but it’s just a short (and scenic) walk from Victoria station too. It's conveniently placed for people trying to meet halfway between both their home and their office, or people coming into central for the day.

What’s special?

As mentioned, Ishbilia is one of London’s longest standing Lebanese restaurants and the broadest menu serving up almost every traditional (and reimagined) Lebanese dish you can think of. Seriously, the menu is like the culinary equivalent of War & Peace, but less daunting to get stuck into and less Russian to learn. It’s proper, authentic Lebanese food done ridiculously well. No gimmicks, no tricks, no fancy collabs, just the kind of high quality food from knowledgeable lovely people that reminds you why food is community.

What's new?

After kicking off way back in the late 90s, Ishbilia recently took a quick break as it had a wee spruce up and refreshed its look and feel. So although it’s not a new new place, it’s got that just-opened feel without any of the teething problems that can come with the realities of going to a freshly opened spot.

Who should you bring?

There was a bit of a mix when we went, from families of four to friends catching up with cold glasses of wine, and even a date or two. From our visit, it seems like a lovely spot to catch up with a friend, where you can actually hear each other talk (no thumping music, no noisy car engines) and the atmosphere is that alchemistic mix of calmly laid back but gently busy so that it’s not devoid of a vibe.

What should you wear?

Like most haunts in the more affluent areas of London, the general dress code seems to go up a level. In translation: no ripped jeans, no tracksuits, no outfits that you wouldn’t wear to see your Gran who still gets a blow out every week.

Whilst jeans are okay, you want to lean toward the smarter end of the jean spectrum with a nice top. If you’re coming straight from the office which requires smart-casual attire then you’ll be grand. It's a low-key classy place so tailor your 'fit to match.

What will you pay?

It’s not a cheap spot, and there is a minimum spend of £50 per person for dinner. Whilst that sounds pretty steep, you’ll find it (perhaps too) easy to reach; cold mezze like Hummus, Labneh, and Moutabal are priced around £11 and £12 per plate. Hot mezze like grilled halloumi, falafel, and lamb or Makanek (lamb sausages) range between £13 - £17 per plate depending on what you’re going for, with veggie options on the lower end.

Whilst you’ll probably associate traditional Arabic cooking with a lot of mezze style plates, and fresh vegetarian dishes, there are plenty of meaty mains from their BBQ, and their mixed grill is priced at £30 to give you a ballpark of how much these will set you back.

What should you drink?

For a spot that is known for its food, Ishbilia’s drinks are not to be overlooked. They keep the cocktail offerings short and surface level simple: a trio of classics were on the menu when we visited, but they all had their own twist. We kicked off with a Saffron Negroni and a Pomegranate Margarita, both of which were as fresh and flavourful as each dish we ate. There’s an attention to detail in the cocktails and a craft that you don’t often find in restaurants. Or some London bars, even.

Cocktails aside, the drinks menu spotlights beers and wines from the Levant, like a Palestinian golden beer, and a Lebanon Pilsner. We tried Massaya – a traditional Lebanese Rose, which comes by the glass. Whilst it's not something we would naturally go for, it complemented the food well, with a darker colour and stronger taste than the more floral blush Rosé's usually downed by the magnum.

Three must try dishes

Okay, we’re going to sound like that basic girl coming back from her gap year and asking everyone if they’ve tried Pad Thai and Mei Goreng before. However, there is a reason these particular dishes get talked about so much — they were incredible. Honestly, we could recommend everything we tried, so narrowing it down to just a couple was difficult enough. When we arrived, our wonderful server Mahmood gave us the option of ordering for ourselves, or he could select a range of their bestsellers for us to try – and obviously, we went with his recommendations over our own stabs in the dark.

It felt borderline illegal to go there and not try some of the classic cold mezze, and now we have sampled it, our opinion is only heightened. You have to try their hummus which comes topped with toasted honeyed pine nuts, and has the texture of silk. Dip in their fresh, claybaked pittas and you’ll start hearing angels singing. Moutabal was another winner – it’s a little like a Baba Ganoush as its hero ingredient is aubergine, but unlike Baba Ganoush Moutabal is much smokier, thanks in part to the char-grilling used on said aubergine. It’s like the mezze equivalent of mezcal after only trying tequila. The final jewel in our saucy trio was Muhamarah – a blend of mediterranean nuts which get blended with red peppers and chilli. Imagine a red pesto but with far more flavour and chunky texture. Don’t underestimate the punch it packs too, thanks to the chilli you’ll get a wave of fresh spice which brings a little bit of fire to the plate.

The star of the show (and by that we mean the plate we fought over who got to finish) was the Fatoush. Although we were somewhat au fait with Fatoush thanks to a Mob style salad recipe hastily experimented with during lockdown, this Fatoush put our concoction to shame. For those not in the know, Fatoush is a traditional Lebanese salad, which uses the leftover lebanese bread and toasts it with plenty of spices and oil in small chips to bring a crunchy, aromatic kick to a base of tomatoes, cucumber, radicchio, cabbage, and mixed leaves. This was our number one "do not forget to order” dish.

Otherwise, our final must try would be the falafel – again, don’t think us basic bitches and forget any memories of supermarket discounted tubs of bready, cold, starchy balls. This falafel is a croquette style offering blending chickpeas and fava beans with a delicious tahini dipping sauce, hot and fresh straight from the oven. Our only complaint was now they have ruined all other falafel for us.

The lamb in particular was the star meaty dish, with the Koftas just pipping the post for the favourite. We had them alongside some traditional Lebanese vermicelli rice (10/10) and a veggie moussaka which was reminiscent of a spicy bean stew (again, excellent).

If it was legal to marry a food, I think I’d probably present a ring to Ishbilia’s hummus and pitas. And Fatoush. And Falafel. Polygamy has never looked so good.

Get on the Guestlist?

Ishbilia is one of those smart and sophisticated places that you’ll be pleased to know about. It’s not trend-chasing, it’s not hyped, and somehow it’s all the better. It’s unassuming in decoration, and on first glance you might think you know what the menu will hold as familiar names like hummus and falafel wash across the page.

However, the food is stunning, and the quiet hubub, plus knowledgeable whilst incredibly attentive staff, elevate it from “this place I know” to this “seriously underrated gem”. No gimmicks, just joy — it has stood the test of time for a reason.

(The Fatoush. That’s the reason).

Sometimes you just can’t be bothered to cook for more than 10 minutes. And sure, deliveries are great – whether you reach for Deliveroo, Uber Eats or others, there’s never been a better time to be a lazy person. But, but, once that delivery arrives, between the odd mix of soggy yet lukewarm fare, all the added service fees, and amount of time you had to wait (I swear food delivery took a leaf out of washing machines to devise their timings) it doesn’t quite hit the same.

It’s that desire for a home cooked meal that doesn't require you to actually make said home cooked meal. We've all felt it. Luckily, living a big beautiful city means we’re greeted with a bounty of brilliant alternatives.

• How to become a Michelin chef in 30 minutes: Indulge Dining meal kits can make anyone a master cook

Apart from the sheer quantity of banana bread, at home meal kits were one of the few good things to come from the Covid pandemic, with a lot of seriously gourmet London restaurants turning some of their most ordered dishes into easy-to-make at home kits. With them, you can have all the joy of having made a seriously impressive and tasty meal without any of the lingering in the aisles of Tesco having a minor breakdown on where to find Ketjap Manis or shelling out £78 on some obscure flavoured vinegar which you only use a teaspoon of.

Think handmade pasta made from Croydon, fresh buttery pastries, and Michelin starred fare, all being made in local London kitchens and just a careful bike courier away from being dropped at your door. The big smoke is packed with local companies offering up a cheat code: home cooked, pre-prepared foodie goods which basically deliver an almost-made meal to your door. We’ve rounded up a few of the best ones, for when you don’t feel like cooking but still feel like being cooked for.

1. Nonna Tonda

You may have seen the pretty blue bikes parked up around affluent areas of London doling out leaflets that will make your mouth water. Husband and wife duo James and Rebecca French started it back in 2020, and it delivers fresh pasta and homemade sauces straight to your door, giving you the feels of having gone out to a nice Italian restaurant whilst being able to eat it in your towel / pyjamas / in the nude (but be careful of hot sauce).

It’s not your average spag bol either, but a range of different options from Devon crab ravioli to a creamy Bucatini. You pick your different dishes every week from the listed options which update frequently, making the best of the seasonal produce. There are also pizza options and desserts to add on if you fancy it.

Each dish is fully pre-prepared, and you only need one pan to boil the pasta in (for three mins) before reusing it to heat the sauce and mix. It costs around £6.75 per head for two different dishes a week.

• Prices start at £8.25. Find out more here.

2. Butter & Crust

If you thought bougie foodie deliveries were reserved for dinner, think again. Butter and Crust are the patron saint of people who want to lie in on a Sunday, but also want to be the early bird who gets the bougie, 24-hour leavened pastries.

From signature sourdough, to pain au chocolats and artisan juices and coffee, you can build a bundle of your favourites, and wake up with it dropped at your door. It’s sort of like Father Christmas, but better: solely for breakfast goods and more than just once a year (should you please).

Each delivery will arrive before 9am, and similar to Nonna Tonda, the delivery day depends on your postcode to maximise efficiency. Prices depend on whether you’re doing a one time purchase or subscribe and save (AKA a weekly drop). The range is fairly simple but broad enough to make you feel like you’ve got lots to choose from without being overwhelmed – the Goldilocks of size. The simplicity of Butter & Crust makes it a great (and creative) new home / new baby gift for friends who need anything but yet another mug or babygro.

• Prices start at £25. Find out more here.

3. Modern Milkman

Remember the days of getting a lovely glass bottle of whole dairy milk being delivered to your door? And, if you listen carefully, that’s the sound of a hundred thousand Gen Z’s fainting in shock at the thought of both dairy milk, and unsolicited strangers with whom they have to make eye contact / small talk with.

But they’ll likely get back up off the floor when they hear about the cute and sustainable glass bottles. Modern Milkman does what it says on the condensed milk tin, bringing back that old-school breakfast delivery system, but with a suitably hipster upgrade, delivering oat, soya, almond milk and premade non dairy iced coffees too.

Since starting up in 2018, they’ve expanded their range, dropping off everything from homemade milkshakes, fresh coffee beans, and even small batch jams and spreads. Basically, imagine everything cutely organic, fairtrade, and villagey that you’d find in a garden centre or farmshop in the Cotswolds and that’s basically the range on offer at Modern Milkman.

Rather than a direct delivery kit, it’s more like a bespoke Deliveroo, perfect for bougie brunches and curated foodie collections without having to move from bed.

• Prices start from £5. Find out more here.

4. Aktar

Imagine Michelin starred Indian food that you actually made yourself. At home. Sort of.

Like many beautiful creative projects, Aktar was born out of lockdown, after chef Aktar Islam was awarded his first Michelin star for his restaurant Opheem. Seeing all the bland, overpriced takeaways on offer, Aktar at Home was created, and it will ruin your weekly at-home microwaved curries for good (in a good way).

From curry boxes for the family to tandoori boxes for your next big barbecue, Aktar At Home has it all and for the quality and quantity, the prices are staggeringly good.

• Prices from £9.45, minimum spend £35. Find out more here.

5. Riverford Organic

The OG crunchy-almond-family crew have been bringing their meal delivery kits to front doors for years now, but they remain some of the best.

Rather than just dumping a whole load of earthy veggies on your doorstep in a recyclable box, Riverford has a surprisingly large range of different ready-to-cook meal kits, with different accolades like “quick” “super quick” and “seasonal star” to help signpost you to what will be best for you.

There are plant based, veggie, and meaty options which all sound suitably indulgent yet healthy. Most of their recipe boxes are £15 for two, so roughly £7.50 per person.

• Prices from £15, minimum spend £25. Find out more here

6. Koya

Koya made a name (and queue) for themselves thanks to their delicious bouncy udon noodles which have reached pretty cult status in Soho. The wait times for a seat at the restaurant speaks for itself.

Luckily, you can bypass the queues and also have the inbuilt smugness of feeling like you’ve cooked for yourself by opting for Koya’s at-home udon kits, which come with noodles for two as well as all the ingredients for some of Koya’s most popular broths.

• Find out more here.

• This tiny South London boozer has just been crowned the best in London

A very different kind of Italian restaurant is coming to Soho, one where all the “food” is knitted.

Kate’s Knitalian is taking over Soho’s Air Contemporary Gallery later this year, featuring croched and knitted creations inspired by Italian food. No, you can’t eat them, but you can buy them.

Kate Jenkins’s exhibition opens on 30th October and as a commercial gallery, it’s free to visit. Kate’s Knitalian will be on display until 5th December.

Jenkins’s work is not all food-related, but her pieces typically have a funny, characterful bent. And in this latest exhibition, the Air Gallery will effectively be turned into a deli.

“She turns her attention to the flavours of Italy, building a mouth-watering world of pasta, pantry staples, plates piled high, and details you’ll catch on the second look,” reads the gallery’s blurb on the exhibition.

“Think lasagne with a basil flourish, tangled spaghetti, ravioli, farfalle, tins and treats.”

The price of a plate

Her larger-scale works sell for a few thousand pounds, but plenty smaller ones go for under £100, while she also produces a series of keyrings at £12.50 a pop. It’s not clear if they’ll be part of Kate’s Knitalian, though.

Air Contemporary sits in Ham Yard, nearby Piccaddilly Circus. It’s open 10-6pm Tuesdays to Fridays, and from 10am to 5pm on Saturdays.

The gallery is currently hosting Summer Hang, which features the work of an array of works “chosen to reflect the energy, warmth and optimism of the season.” It’s on until 29th August.

It’s not Jenkins’s first exhibition in the space either. In 2025 she had another called Fishy Business, which featured a display made up like a fishmonger’s.

• The best exhibitions in London this summer: From Escher to Bowie to Marilyn Monroe

London is getting a new dessert option this week: frozen yogurt from Yo-Chi.

Yo-Chi was established in Australia more than a decade ago, and it opens its first UK branch on 20th August, as the brand revelaed on Instagram.

Yo-Chi Notting Hill Gate will live at 81–85 Notting Hill Gate. That’s right by Notting Hill Gate station, on the former site of a Le Pain Quotidien branch.

It will serve six-plus flavours of frozen yoghurt, which is gluten-free and low in fat compared to normal ice cream, and you can load it up with all sorts of toppings to undo all those initial health benefits.

Yo-Chi has been around in Australia since 2012, but it only became massive after the brand was taken over in 2020 by Oliver and Riley Allis. At the time there were just four Yo-Chi stores, but there are now upwards of 70.

Pay as you weigh

One of the more unusual parts is Yo-Chi has a self serve model, and you pay by weight. You take your cup, pick your frozen yoghurt flavour(s) choose your toppings, from fruit to mochi and cookies, and then pay. We haven’t yet seen the setup to confirm everything will work the same in London as it does in Australia, but the Notting Hill site is bigger than you might guess.

It’s a two-storey location with upwards of 2000 square feet of space. And the idea is to make Yo-Chi into a hang out and date spot, not somewhere you just nip into for a quick treat.

“People go on dates there, mates meet up there, you get every age in the room at once, all having a good time together. That's what we want to bring to Notting Hill – somewhere to actually spend an evening, not just pop into,” Oliver Allis told Broadsheet.

He says the UK expansion is the result of fans of the Aussie chain asking when it would come over here.

“People were messaging us asking when we're opening in London, tagging their mates, sending us videos begging us to come over,” says Allis.

“At some point you can't ignore that. We thought, alright, they want it, let's go listen to them and get over there. So this launch genuinely started with the fans, not with us deciding London needed a Yo-Chi.”

Over in Australia you pay $4.20 for 100g, which equates to around £2.21, although pricing for the London branch is yet to be confirmed.

• Anya Hindmarsh’s whacky Ice Cream Project is officially returning to London this summer

You may have heard Spider-Man: Brand New Day has broken box office records and absolutely raked-in the cash. But our favourite news of the summer blockbuster hype cycle is about Tom Holland’s fave South London pub spot.

As part of an interview with the New York Times, no less, Tom Holland revealed one of his favourite places to eat is a pub in Kingston.

“There’s a pub in Kingston called the Cocoanut. It’s a Thai restaurant, and you can bring your dogs there,” Holland said while describing the place he’d take co-star Matt Damon to in his hometown.

“It’s a bit of a family favourite of ours.”

He gave the place a plug while making pizzas with Matt Damon as part of the press cycle for The Odyssey — it was a while back, but was brought to our attention by Secret London.

The video itself is quite a fun watch, and you get to hear about Matt Damon’s gluten intolerance if that’s your bag.

The Cocoanut sits a short walk from the shop-filled centre of Kingston, but offers Deliveroo as well as takeaway for its Thai kitchen delights.

Its menu covers a familiar array of dishes, including a full complement of curries and stir fries. Most mains clock in at well under £15 too.

One warning comes from exactly the bit Tom Holland seems to love, that the Cocoanut is a very dog-friendly place.

“People let their dogs off, so it becomes a dog free-for-all,” says Holland.

We’re now picturing Tom Holland surrounded by dogs eating a Pad Pak Ruam with his dad Dominic Holland, a veteran London circuit stand-up comedian and author.

Tom Holland can currently be seen in Spider-Man: Brand New Day and The Odyssey. But it may be a bit of a wait before his next big starring roles, which include playing Fred Astaire in a biopic. And if you’ve seen his viral performance of Umbrella from almost a decade ago, you’ll know he has a better chance than most of pulling that off.

• You can officially dine in Bridget Jones’ flat as a new Turkish restaurant opens up in the iconic rom com location

The team behind the beloved Fallow restaurant nearby Piccadilly Circus and Roe in Canary Wharf have taken on a new challenge: the OXO Tower Restaurant.

Restaurant-operating power house trio James Robson, Jack Croft and Will Murray have acquired the OXO Tower Restaurant, the hope being they’ll give it some of the energy seen in their other two current establishments.

Robson speaks carefully about the team’s ongoing plans for the place, though.

He says they want to “empower the current team” and “patiently tweak and give some love back to the operation from 2027 and beyond” rather than starting with a brand new identity.

The restaurant’s current menu features plates including halibut, a mushroom Wellington and lamb shoulder — or there’s the £140 sharing platter of beef Chaueatubriand, with “beef dripping crisp potato cake.” Indulgent.

But it’s clear some changes will eventually be made.

“I’m excited to see how our various media and culinary teams can help bring this beloved site to full potential,” says Robson.

The restaurant sits on the eighth floor of the OXO Tower, offering amazing views across London from the riverbank. And this was all part of the appeal for the team’s site takeover.

“We could not resist this gem of an Art Deco landmark,” Robson said.

“The eighth-floor views are world famous and we look forward to working with the incumbent team and landlord to bring some additional character and energy back to this wonderful site.”

The team’s flagship restaurant Fallow launched in 2021 and has a low-waste “nose to tail” approach to cooking. But it’s absolutely not just for the meatheads, with a “plant” menu section on offer too.

Fallow has made it into the Michelin guide but is yet to earn a star.

The news of the group’s acquisition of the OXO Tower Restaurant follows that of the Frasers group buying up Harvey Nichols. It owned the place, but the restaurant was not part of the deal. Frasers — known best these days for Sports Direct — is after all a titan of retail, not gastronomy.

• 4 amazing new(ish) Michelin Guide-approved restaurants to dazzle your tastebuds this summer

There are few literary characters as beautifully chaotic as Bridget Jones, perfectly brought to life by Renee Zellweger over the years – an allegory for all frazzled, underfunded twenty-somethings trying to 'make it' in London. You may feel like you already walk in Bridget’s shoes to some extent as you dodge f*ckwit workaholics and work bollockings, but soon you’ll *actually* be able to walk in the same sacred grounds of the beloved heroine as Bridget Jones’ former living room is being transformed into a new restaurant.

Cast your minds back to the early films, and you’ll have spotted Bridget’s jealousy-inducing and highly, highly unrealistic one bed flat located just outside of Borough Market, on top of The Globe Tavern on Bedale Street. Without its cinematic history, it’s still an iconic street and building, but add its former on-screen resident and you’ve got a bona fide piece of rom com real estate.

Back in 2025, it was announced that a Thai restaurant would be the latest resident inside the building, and has since been home to a series of delicious restaurant residencies, with different pop ups from West African to Cambodian fusion. The latest instalment is another London favourite which comes courtesy of Dom Handy and Kerian Mustafa. Called Kismet, the latest resident pays homage to the lively meyhanes found in Istanbul and northern Cyprus, bringing the spirit of its traditional local taverns to the Southwark spot.

The menu – as you’d expect – has a strong Middle Eastern and Mediterranean influence. It’s built around Souğuk Meze dishes and Mangal grilled kebabs, whilst the drinks menu features plenty of Turkish wine and spirits. Talk about putting the dish in traditional. Plus, the experience doesn’t end with the food, as every Thursday guests will be treated to live music from traditional instruments like the qaran. Basically, they’re taking a classic night at traditional meyhanes and transporting them to an iconic London landmark.

Whilst you won’t see Bridget’s exact living room interiors replicated (it has been over 20 years), there will be plenty of gorgeous decor from dark wooden furniture to whimsical memorabilia to remind you of the place’s origins.

You can find Kismet at 8 Bedale Street, SE1 9AL.

• This tiny South London boozer has just been crowned the best in London

Chicken Wine is just one of those accidentally cult things thanks to its affordability and its cute graphics – the pair are a lethal combo that acts like catnip to broke twenty-somethings who still have an eye for aesthetics and whimsy. Now, the wine brand (real name La Vieille Ferme) is teaming up with another Brit favourite, KFC, for a one-of-a-kind pop up wine bar, with a twist. It's a Chicken Wine Bar.

For the August bank holiday (and the bank holiday only), the pair are opening the doors to Coq au Vin (100/10 name, give the PR team a raise), a place where two chicken-obsessed brands are coming together to create a wine bar ‘experience’ where KFC’s fried chicken will be paired with classic french wine. Talk about putting the chic in chicken.

The pop up is running from 28th-31st August at Kachette Annex in Shoreditch, just up the road from fellow North London faves like The Blues Kitchen and Gloria Trattoria. The bar will be serving up all your familiar favourites like... tenders and rose? Hot wings and red? Popcorn chicken with glasses of fizz? Count us in.

Plus the favourite limited edition Chicken Wine label will be making a comeback. Clearly, the pair are on hellbent on proving that wine and snacky bits pairings don’t just have to be sophisticated, highbrow slices of cheese you can’t pronounce or butchery-level smoked crackling which comes served in a miniature cement mixer or whatever Shoreditch wine bars usually offer. According to the duo, “it’s less ‘wine tasting’ and more ‘why haven’t we been doing this all along?’”.

You will need to book a ticket if you want to attend, although there are a limited number of walk in spots reserved each day. An individual ticket costs £15 per person, which brings you the “full Coq au Vin experience", which presumably includes getting to try out their featured menu and plenty of wine. Each ticket secures you a spot for 90 minutes in the bar, and you can buy up to four tickets per person.

The official menu includes:

• Popcorn Chicken - Golden, bite-sized pieces of KFC's signature seasoned chicken. Paired with La Vieille Ferme Sparkling Rosé. Strawberry, cherry & lively fizz. Bright, fresh and celebratory - Elegance.
• Hot Wings - The KFC classic. Crispy, spicy and finger lickin' good. Paired with La Vieille Ferme Rouge -  Juicy red berries & cherries. Soft, generous and endlessly drinkable
• Original Recipe Tenders - Tender strips of KFC's iconic Original Recipe chicken, freshly cooked and made for dipping. Paired with La Vieille Ferme Rosé -  Strawberry, raspberry & nectarine. Crisp, dry and made for summer
• La Vieille Ferme Blanc - White peach, hazelnut & melon. Fresh, bright and beautifully balanced
• Dips: Original Sauce, Supercharger, Texas BBQ

You can find Coq au Vin at Kachette Annex, 1 Kingsland Road Shoreditch, London E2 8AA, and it’s open from 12pm-9pm across the bank holiday weekend (closing at 5pm on Monday). You can book a space via Eventbrite here.

The movie Tony arrives in cinemas on 14th August, recounting a formative period in the life and career of chef and writer Anthony Bourdain.

Dominic Sessa of The Holdovers seems perfectly cast as a 19-year-old Bourdain, an arrogant and entitled aspiring writer who washes up in a seaside town due to a crush. There he falls into the cheffing world after he takes a summer job at a seafood restaurant.

The late great food and travel presenter was a frequent visitor to London, visiting the UK capital four times throughout his televisual career – and evidently many more times in between shoots.

He took time during each visit to speak of his abiding love for the city and its distinctive old world energy, not to mention its uniquely rambunctious pub culture and underrated (back in the noughties at least) cuisine.

Bourdain visited a varied selection of the capital’s eateries and bars between 2002 and 2016, and a number of of them continue to operate today – a miracle in itself, given the parlous state of the hospitality industry in 2026.

Here, then, are seven spots Anthony Bourdain rated in London that can still be visited today. Bon appetit – or rather, tuck in.

1. F. Cooke Pie & Mash

Bourdain was well known for seeking out the most authentic, locally significant joints in any city that he visited. For London, there was nowhere more authentic or locally significant than F. Cooke – a proper East End pie and mash shop that had been run by the same family since the mid-1800s. Sadly, the original Broadway Market site that the presenter visited in a 2002 episode of A Cook’s Tour closed in 2020, but you can still visit the Hoxton site, which remains true to the spirit of the first venue and under the guidance of the Cooke family.

2. Sweetings

Anthony’s 2012 London visit for The Layover didn’t yield too many practical recommendations – the star seemed a little frazzled for this one following a bad flight – but Sweetings was a standout. This 130-year-old London institution was introduced to Bourdain by Fergus Henderson himself, and you can detect more than a hint of the St. John chef’s old fashioned English eccentricity in its approach. That includes opening only during weekday lunch times, making it a sort of high-grade canteen for city boys and print journalists. Come here for the British classics, as they’ve been served for centuries, washed down by tankards of black velvet (Guinness and champagne).

3. Pepper & Spice

The presenter’s last televised visit to London in 2016 proved to be a fruitful one, despite the downcast post-Brexit vote tone that pervades the Parts Unknown episode. It supplied several spots that Bourdain evidently enjoyed, including Pepper & Spice – a Caribbean restaurant in North London that was recommended to him by The Kills guitarist Jamie Hince. The two chowed down on curry mutton and saltfish callaloo, which supplied the necessary ballast for a boozy night out that visibly broke our hero. Thank goodness for Nigella Lawson and her restorative fried bread.

4. Rochelle Canteen

Rochelle Canteen is a beautiful East London restaurant owned by Margot Henderson, one half of the London food scene power couple that also includes her husband Fergus, of St. John fame (see elsewhere on this list). Margot takes a similarly stripped back, but rather softer and more European-inflected approach to cooking. During Tony’s 2016 Parts Unknown visit, he sat down with Henderson to feast on vitello tonnato and lamb chops with lentils and green sauce. The combination of hearty food, warm company and good white wine visibly lifted Bourdain’s spirits, and the restaurant is still around to perform the same task for you.

5. Restaurant Gordon Ramsay

Back in 2002, when Gordon Ramsay was an actual working chef rather than a self-promoting meme, Bourdain visited his three Michelin star flagship restaurant in West London. According to the late presenter, it supplied “one of the best things I’ve eaten – ever” in the form of a shin of beef with sautéed foie gras. Ramsay’s eponymous restaurant continues to operate to this day, and has even managed to retain its prestigious three-star status – though it’s now under the command of Chef de Cuisine Kim Ratcharoen, leaving Ramsay free to mug for the camera and advertise food delivery services.

6. Princess Victoria

During his last visit to the UK capital, Bourdain joined his erstwhile The Taste colleague and British national treasure Nigella Lawson at the bar of this posh West London pub for an afternoon pint of Guinness. While there, he was deeply impressed by the accompanying selection of elevated bar snacks, expertly ordered by his classy companion. These included super-crunchy pork scratchings, freshly fried whitebait, and the kind of scotch egg you don’t tend to find at service stations up and down the country.

7. St John

It would be impossible to construct a list of Bourdain’s favourite places to eat in London without mentioning St. John – which is probably why we’ve already done so twice. Fergus Henderson’s legendary Smithfield restaurant made as big an impact on the New Yorker as it did on the UK (and indeed international) dining scene, putting the concept of nose to tail eating firmly on the culinary map. Bourdain called St. John “just about my favourite restaurant in the universe” during his first ever on-camera visit, and the fact that he returned on every subsequent London trip suggests that his opinion barely wavered.

8. Bar Italia

The legendary, family-run Italian espresso bar Bar Italia is a London institution in its own right and hardly needs the seal of approval from anyone, let alone a starry chef. However, great places attract great taste, which is exactly why it made the list with Bourdain being a fan of the Soho spot, calling it "the best cup of coffee, or damn close to it". Bourdain sat down for a round of macchiatos and shots of Fernet Branca (a traditional herbaceous Italian liqueur) with friend and fellow chef Fergus Henderson for a quick refuel during the London episode of The Layover.

• This tiny South London boozer has just been crowned the best in London

Vagabond Wines has announced the opening of its latest bar, in London's Canary Wharf.

It’s found at 12 Park Drive, a less-than-10-minute walk from Canary Wharf Underground station.

Never visited a Vagabond before? A big Vagabond selling point is the place’s epic selection of by-the-glass wines, made possible thanks to enomatic wine machines that stop oxygen entering the bottle as a glass is served.

These are “self-pour” machines, and you pay directly by card as you go.

“More than 100” bottles are ready to go at Vagabond Canary Wharf. And some of the wines will have been produced just over on the other side of the river at its Canada Water winery — whose late 2025 opening we wrote about last year.

But, no, the grapes aren't actually grown a stone’s throw from the Thames. It’s instead all about “bringing grapes sourced from vineyards across England and Europe to London to be made and bottled in the capital.”

Food, drink, and maybe a masterclass?

While Vagabond Wines is yet to publish the full Canary Wharf food menu on its website, we are promised Iberico ham croquettes, padron peppers, pil pil prawns, burrata, cheese and charcuterie boards, and more.

The kitchen is overseen by exec chef Marco Pastoris, who works across the Vagabond Wines sites — and these days there are loads in London. 13 currently operate across the capital, alongside one additional site in Birmingham.

Vagabond Wines’s Canary Wharf spot has two floors, set across 6,000 square feet, and has room for more than 130 diners-slash-drinkers.

It’s not currently holding the Cheese & Wine masterclass evenings you can book at other sites, but we wouldn’t be surprised to see bookings for these pop up before long.

You can, however, book a table today — or for a “hosted” wine tasting if you’re coming with a group of eight or more.

• Can you become a wine expert in 2 hours? We put a quick-fire tasting session with the pros to the test (and get 5 expert tips)

American style BBQ restaurant chain Bodean's has closed all its remaining London sites, suggesting it may be game over for the once-popular meat-flingers.

Soho, Tower Hill and Camden branches of the meat restaurant have closed suddenly. And, as the Bodean's website appears to confirm, this is not a glitch of staffing or a minor blip.

“We’re currently closed,” you’ll see on the Bodean's website, followed by this somewhat opaque apology.

“We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience this may cause and would like to thank you for your continued support and loyalty. We appreciate your understanding during this time and hope to welcome you again in the future.”

BBQ breakdown

It’s not goodbye forever, perhaps, but the wording here suggests the sites will not likely reopen without some other form of business intervention. The Bodean’s Instagram account has also been shuttered.

The chain had eight London outlets at one point, but its Muswell Hill, Balham, Clapham and Fulham restaurants have closed in recent years. While a bit of a shock, this Bodean's news does not come entirely out of the blue.

Bodean's launched in 2002, and at the time provided many with their formative experiences of US BBQ cooking. However, as Grace Dent’s 2018’s review for the Guardian illustrated, the chain didn’t really move with the times — and that review is pretty ancient in its own right at this point.

“Britain has moved on from slapdash hospitality. Someone should tell Bodean’s,” Dent wrote.

Bodean’s day in the sun was some time ago, but headline-grabbing moves were made to try to turn things around in more recent times.

In early 2025, Marco Pierre White understudy and Turner & George butcher Richard Turner took over the role of Chef Director with the aim of giving the brand a bit of a glow-up.

“I’m staying true to what made it special. The new menu delivers on authentic flavours that stay true to the craft and culture of barbecue,” Turner said at the time.

Too little, too late?

A common recommendation for folks who are after what Bodean’s once represented, in London, is Smokestak. It’s found at 35 Sclater Street, right next to Shoreditech High Street Overground station.

It serves burnt end tacos, brisket, pulled pork — or for a real celebration you can get a “whole beef brisket” for the table for £195.

• 5 tips to cook the perfect smash burger I learned at London’s biggest BBQ festival

It can be hard to define what makes a place to drink the ‘best’, but if it’s actually having a decent pint without any gimmicks or accidental forays into your overdraft, then the geezers at CAMRA (the Campaign for Real Ale) are a good bunch to rely on for a recommendation. They have crowned their best London pub for 2026 – and for once, it’s not the usual Devonshire.

Instead, a small independent micropub all the way in Bromley has been awarded the coveted title. The Cockpit, which opened back in 2020, is a tiny old boozer which was set up in the back of Roses Florist in Chislehurst, and still shares the space with the flower shop, serving up cask ales and cider. It also operates a £1 fine for mobile phone usage and foul language – basically it’s like if your grandparents ran a pub which felt like it had annoying rules, then as an adult you realise said rules were not only fair but genius.

As well as serving up fine ciders and real ale, the bar also serves up locally made Wessex gin and Neal’s Yard cheeses.

"Flabbersmacked we are," said the Cockpit team on the announcement.

"Absolutely gobberghasted. Honoured to be rubbing shoulders with such a resplendent arsenal of boozers, let alone to be recognised by CAMRA as top of the pubs for Greater London this year."

Adam Miller, who runs the pub with Paul Steadman, added: "A sea spanning embrace to everyone that has supported us since opening five years ago, so many of you have invested a titanic amount of enthusiasm into what we love to do, it makes every day a joy."

CAMRA has been running its Pub of the Year awards since 1988. Marks are awarded across eight different criteria: quality and condition of real ale/cider/perry, promotion and knowledge of real ale, cleanliness and staff hygiene, community focus, service and welcome, style, décor and atmosphere, sympathy with CAMRA’s aims, and overall impression and value.

There were 12 regional winners selected across London, from central London classics, to Croydon’s Dark Horse. The Cockpit was selected from the 12 regional winners as the overall winner.

The 12 regional winners for 2026 were:

• Bexley – Long Haul
• Bromley – Cockpit (winner)
• Croydon & Sutton – Dark Horse
• East London & City – Cock Tavern
• Enfield & Barnet – Little Green Dragon
• Kingston & Leatherhead – Antelope
• North London – Wenlock Arms
• Richmond & Hounslow – Mitre
• South East London – Hand & Marigold
• South West London – Trafalgar
• West London – Bear
• West Middlesex – Owl & The Pussycat

The overall UK winner for the CAMRA Pub of the Year award is yet to be announced, and will be awarded later this year.

Broadwick Soho is probably the most technicolour institution in the capital, bringing theatrical flair to the heart of the city. And as well as looking like a set from a musical, it also serves up some darn good food and cocktails too. However, change is afoot as its original bar and restaurant Dear Jackie is being replaced, by none other than former Chelsea jaunt Beefbar.

Although originally an import from Monte Carlo, Beefbar is no stranger to London, having previously set up shop as Le Petit Beefbar in Chelsea. This particular location closed in April this year, but the owners had promised they would be finding a new spot soon. Now it’s confirmed its new home will be in Broadwick Soho, opening up on September 10th.

The original bar Dear Jackie (and Bar Jackie) was named after the owner’s mother, and as you can imagine suddenly changing that and getting rid of any homage would be a bit rude, so they’ve incorporated it into the new name, which will be Beefbar at Dear Jackie. Whilst this may make it sound like it’s a residency or pop up, don’t be fooled – it’s here to stay.

As of yet, they the new menu hasn't been fully revealed, but it’s safe to assume there will be a fair bit of beef on it. As per Beefbar’s usual MO, you can expect various locally sourced cuts alongside Japanese Kobe and Australian Wagyu as well as its famed croque sando – 45-day cured beef striploin prosciutto, mozzarella and their signature sauce – which will be on there. There are a couple of new creations that they've announced unique to the new Soho spot too, including a Wagyu shepherd’s pie and a reimagined Chicken Cordon Bleu infused with truffle.

Broadwick Soho confirmed the menu will "move between exceptional cuts, street food and dishes made for sharing, with Jackie's love of Italian dining running through it." Diners can expect "Beefbar favourites" alongside Pizzette, Wagyu and Veal Bolognese and "a few London firsts, including Ispahan Bloom, a Chilean Sea Bass dish with rosewater, lychee and raspberry, debuting here before travelling to Beefbar tables around the world".

The original Beefbar restaurant started life in Monaco with multiple outlets across the world. The new London iteration will take over both the ground floor bar in Broadwick Soho and the lower ground restaurant. Whilst we don’t know to what extent the team will be renovating and putting its own spin on the existing style, we’d imagine the interiors will be staying largely the same.

Beefbar's founder Riccardo Giraudi said, "For me, a restaurant is never just about the food - it's the flavours, the energy, the design and all the small details that create an emotion. Dear Jackie at Broadwick Soho immediately felt right. It has a creativity and spirit that naturally fits with Beefbar, and gives us the freedom to be playful with the menu while creating an experience that I hope people will remember."

You can visit Beefbar at Dear Jackie on 20 Broadwick Street, Soho, London, W1F 9NE from 10th September.

The Barbican’s Conservatory greenhouse jungle often feels like a bit of surprise given the building's steely, brutalist exterior. It’s sort of like when you find out that a mild mannered accountant who dresses exclusively in grey suits is a drag queen on a Saturday Night with a penchant for rock music. It’s one of the city’s most distinctive green spaces, spanning over over 2,000 square metres and houses around 2,000 different plant species. Ahead of its closure at the end of 2026 (as part of a major renovation rather than a complete shut down) it will be handing out more than 2,000 free plant cuttings to the public.

The Conservatory’s horticulture partner, Wayward Plants, has already started taking cuttings from the whopping collection and has been propagating them into small, healthy plantlings to give them new life. These newly-burgeoning plants will be given away to the public at official “plant adoption” events which will be taking place inside the glasshouse. You don’t need any credentials to be an adoptive parent as far as we can tell – no need to bring evidence of having kept previous houseplant alive in order to get one. Although you may want to make sure you own some kind of watering can before taking it home – consider it the carseat equivalent for the horticulture world. The adoption evenings also include a short tour and talks about the Conservatory and its future.

If you want to get your green fingers on a cutting, you’ll want to mark out the 19th August on your calendar as that’s when the first session is running. Further sessions will be taking place on September 13th and 2nd December, running from 12pm until 5pm. You will need to book a ticket to secure your spot (and your plant) but they are free to book. August's slot will see 40 people per session, whilst the other two dates are capped at around 125 – plants that is, rather than people.

It’s all part of a big restoration that the Conservatory is undergoing, spanning three years from 2027 until 2030.

Conservatory improvements as part of the refurbishment include:

• 100% step‑free access, up from 30%, by reconfiguring planters, beds and walkways.
• A new lift and stair to open up the fly‑tower balconies, adding new viewpoints and increasing public space by around 25%.
• Upgraded mechanical, electrical and horticultural systems, plus more sustainable environmental controls to protect the collection long‑term.
• A shift to free, near‑daily public access when it reopens in 2030, rather than limited weekend openings.

You can find out more information about the plant cuttings and how to get one via the Barbican's website.

For all the immersive experiences and live spin offs of beloved films and TV shows (we’re looking at you Crystal Maze and The Traitors) London is yet to get a Pirates of the Caribbean style adventure where you can do the Jack Sparrow run across the deck of a historic Square Rigger and down some rum. However, thanks to The Golden Hinde and the returns of its Thirsty Thursdays, this might be about to change.

Whilst you might usually head to the local pub or a trendy bar or even just the side of a road for your usual (cherished) post work pint on a Thursday, this summer you might end up swapping your local watering hole for the waterside. The Golden Hinde is not just a fancy Etonian sounding family crest but the name of one of London’s oldest (intact) ships moored in London Bridge. The floating piece of (reconstructed) history will be welcoming guests aboard for more than just a tour this summer as every Thursday the ship will transform into a pub. Its Thirsty Thursdays will be running weekly from 5.30pm until 10pm, with no booking, plank walking, or rig climbing required.

Entry to the ship is usually £6 for a standard whip round, but for Thursday pints, entry will be completely free and even better, it promises to serve up some of the “best value drinks in SE1” so hopefully you won’t be dishing out the golden galleons for a singular sip. Plus you’ll be able to drink in some stunning views of the Thames without having to be on a rooftop drinking a £16 cocktail. The bar will be on the main deck, but you’re invited to have a nosy around the ship itself whilst you enjoy your tipple. You’ll be able to look around inside the main cabins, duck under the low beams, and even have a look at the armoury.

The Golden Hind isn’t actually the original ship that sailed back in the 1570s but a full-sized recreation of the Elizabethan galleon painstakingly constructed in 1973. The original ship was the first English ship to circumnavigate the globe and was captained by Sir Francis Drake. Its original name was Pelican but Drake later changed it in honour of his patron, Sir Chirstopher Hatton whose crest was a golden hind (that’s a female red deer for the un-Attenborough-educated amongst you). The original Golden Hind was also staged for public gawping at Deptford from 1580 until around 1650 when it eventually rotted away and was broken up. Some of the original wooden timbers were reused in structures that still exist today like at Drake’s Devonshire home.

As well as transforming into a pub, The Golden Hinde also hosts plenty of events including live music sessions and pub quizzes. And if you’re really into cosplaying as Jack Sparrow, it even hosts sleepovers where you can stay overnight on board the ship.

You can peruse all the events at the ship's website, including all the details for Thirsty Thursdays. Currently, Thirsty Thursdays will kick off on 20th Aug, running until 24th Sep.

• London is getting a new immersive gaming experience this September that will bring your favourite arcade video games to life

There are already a few 24-hour McDonald’s restaurants in London, and it looks like the Leicetser Square branch is about to join them.

McDonald’s Leicester Square has been granted a license to operate 24 hours a day. And it’s actually less of an upgrade than you might guess, as at present the place is only closed between 2:45am and 5am each day.

While the license has been granted, it’s not yet clear when the restaurant will switch to a 24-hour model — there are no doubt some logistical and staffing hurdles to surmount before that happens.

The move to grant the license by Westminster Council was reportedly made despite warnings from the Westminster Police that the extension would “likely contribute to an increase in crime,” as the Caterer reported.

This McDonald’s is less than a 10-minute walk from the already-24-hour McDonald’s outlet on the Strand, though.

Other 24-hour destinations for the franchise include Liverpool Street Station, Kensington High Street, King’s Cross and St. Paul’s, among others.

Looking for something a little classier that stays open all night? You have a few options in the capital.

There’s Duck & Waffle in Bishopsgate, VQ Bloomsbury on Great Russell Street or — if you can make it to Old Street way — Beigel Bake offers bagels any hour of the day.

We’re not going to lie, we’d much rather frequent any of those, having experienced late-night McDonald’s antics first-hand.

McDonald’s central London locations are operated by Capital Arches Group, which since its first opening in 2016 has grown to run 38 locations across London and surrounding counties.

The Leicester Square branch is considered London’s flagship, and apparently largest, McDonald’s.

Not visited the golden arches in a while? McDonald’s is currently going through its hot honey moment, serving a Hot Honey McCrispy burger as well as a hot honey dip — intended to be served with its new mozzarella dippers. There’s even a hot honey mini McFlurry.

No idea why only mini ice creams are available with the honey sauce, but you can also pick up full-size Cornetto McFlurrys — classic and strawberry — for a limited period if you’re lucky enough to find a McDonald’s with a working ice cream machine.

• 4 amazing new(ish) Michelin Guide-approved restaurants to dazzle your tastebuds this summer

If there’s one London burger spot likely to show up on any top 10 list, it’s Bleecker Burger. And now its much-loved patties are expanding out to Camden.

Bleecker Burger’s Camden restaurant will live at 45-46 Middle Yard, which is found within Camden market, around a five-minute walk from Camden Town tube.

The site already has “coming soon” advertising up on its windows, and is expected to open this Summer — says Bleecker’s own website.

The Camden site will be the tenth Bleecker Burger location in London, if we include the “delivery only” Battersea branch.

What’s all the fuss about? We have no doubt some of you could argue all day about the best burger spots in London, but Bleecker Burgers received quite the eye-opening accolade last month.

The World’s 101 Best Burgers rated Bleecker the number one pick in not just London or the UK, but the entire world. And that’s pretty mad, isn’t it? London snagged the first two spots, with Bleecker trailed by Black Bear Burger.

They were also celebrated at the National Burger Awards earlier this year.

It’s a good idea to turn up to Bleecker Burger with the right mindset, though, if you have not before. It’s a no-fuss kind of establishment, where burger and fries are served without much ceremony, on paper plates.

The menu is simple too. Meat eaters can get a cheeseburger or bacon cheeseburger — single or double patty — while the blue cheese Blue Burger is the one nod to something more exotic. There’s also a veggie version of Bleecker's cheese burger with a Symplicity patty made of mushrooms, beetroot and onion. Burgers start at £10.50.

Bleecker Burger’s upcoming Camden branch sees it reach into North London further than ever before, and we have no doubt it will prove a hit.

“I’m still feeling the same butterflies I felt at Old Spitalfields 11 years ago when we opened our first site. So much is the same, like our food and menu, but much has changed and developed,” says Bleecker Burger founder Zan Kaufman.

“Camden opens in late summer. We are looking forward to welcoming our old customers and some new ones too.”

As well as serving burgers in person, this opening sees Bleecker Burger’s delivery zone expand to include “Kentish Town, Tufnell Park, Belsize Park, Swiss Cottage, Hampstead, Highgate, Archway, Holloway and Arsenal.”

• Some of the finest smash burgers in London are getting a new Soho spot

The paradox of London’s eating and dining scene is sort of like that scene in Gilmore Girls where Lorelai says: “Do you know that if the entire population of China walked past, the line would never end due to the rate of population growth?” and sure, here’s she’s referring to her ceaseless to do list, but it could just as easily apply to the numerous bars, restaurants, and corner spot cafes that pop up across the capital.

Each month, the guys over at Michelin sift through different spots to find out which are worth your time. Unlike the coveted Michelin stars, the Michelin Guide is a more informal list - although just as prestigious - sort of like a 'Ones to Watch' list of restaurants on their radar. If you’re not wanting to take out a mortgage to eat at a triple starred spot, the Guide is worth perusing to see what eateries are earmarked as a good time.

Last month, there were four new spots added to the list, covering a different cuisine each: Japanese, Greek, Indian, and British.

Here's what's worth booking...

Aki, Marylebone

First up is the glamorous and gorgeous Aki in Marylebone. The Japanese restaurant is located on Cavendish Square in a Grade II listed former bank, and only opened up back in October.

The space is split into two different halves; upstairs you’ll find the restaurant which serves up modern farm-to-table Japanese dishes like Miso Soup, Fuji Wagyu Beef Tataki, and of course plenty of fresh sashimi. Downstairs is a more lively affair, with the bank’s former vaults transformed into Kiyori, a Japanese inspired bar serving up a range of delicious and innovative cocktails from lime, yuzu, rum concoctions to a matcha-infused martini.

• Make a booking here

Clio, Marylebone

Just down the road from Aki is another Michelin worthy spot: Clio, which made the list after just one month of opening. It’s a modern style Greek spot which you’ll find in the very swanky Chiltern Place apartments.

As a modern Greek menu, it’s all about fresh produce, and you can expect to see plenty of fresh grilled fish on the menu – think Prawn Saganaki, Charred Cuttlefish, Grilled Octopus and Whole Blue Lobster. Served up alongside it are greek salads, tomato and feta dishes, and obviously the essential oregano chips.

• Make a booking here

Koyal, Surbiton

If you’re trying to recall where exactly in London Surbiton is, you’re probably not alone as the suburb sits on the very edge of the city, usually passed in a blur as you shoot from the leafy countryside straight into Waterloo. However, apparently Koyal is well worth trekking to the outskirts for, sitting on Brighton Road, and serving up fresh twists on Indian street food classics.

It’s led by chef Nand Kishor Semwal who has previously helmed fellow Michelin joints including Gymkhana and Trishna. On the menu are smaller dishes like Pani Puri, Koliwada Fish, and mains including Masala Butter Chicken, Ghost Saagwala, Malabar Fish Curry, and Paneer Makhanwala.

• Make a booking here

Willett's, Chelsea

The final spot to make the list is the brand new restaurant and bar at The Cadogan hotel in Chelsea. Willett’s is a seasonal British bistro which offers up modern interiors and a menu which puts a spotlight on nostalgic British flavours. Chef Michael Turner brings a menu rooted in seasonal ingredients and “simple cooking” that honour classic recipes, so you’ll see things like Beef Wellington, Chicken and Girolle pie, Orkney scallop scampi, and Isle of Wight tomato salads on the menu.

Plus, there’s a whole pudding menu which will have the 80s flashing before your eyes, with old school favourites like Rice Pudding, Bread and Butter Pudding, Lemon Posset, and Eton Mess all up for grabs. The Signature Cocktails are worth a mention too with things like a Granny Smith & Melilot, a Bloody Mary Martini, and a Pimm’s Royale.

• Make a booking here

• Pop, pots and prints: V&A museums' full exhibition schedule for 2027 and beyond revealed

Living or even just visiting London can sometimes feel like you’re in an immersive gameshow, as you dodge between historic buildings, avoid people filming down Carnaby street accosting people with a mini mic, and see all manner of outfits from cosplay to corporate. Now, London is getting an arena entirely dedicated to bringing your favourite video games to life.

Arcade Arena will be bringing iconic arcade classics to life, where you won’t just be playing the games, but you’ll be in them. Three iconic gaming worlds will be brought together all inside the one arena space. There will be retro favourites you'll remember from rainy days inside your local arcade spending your life savings on another attempt at a high score in 2p installments. Plus, there will be new next-gen challenges, brining the kind of adventure you won’t just watch but can see, hear, and feel. There is an exclusive new game, Alien Invasion, which will be launching at the Arcade, bringing a new world and host of challenges into the experience.

It’s the first arena of its kind in London, being helmed by Little Lion Entertainment – the company who brought other immersive experiences like the Crystal Maze Experience, and Maze Runner Live to hundreds of guests. Basically, it brings all the best of gaming with the fun of doing it irl with your mates – without any of the Jumanji style sci fi implications. The new London arena will span roughly a whopping 15,000 square feet, blending the digital world with huge projections bringing the games to life.

Currently, the London arena will host Chaos Karts where you’ll be go-karting around a projected track which will make you feel like you’re racing around your favourite on-screen routes. It uses state of the art technology to combine real-life racing (see: Go-Karts) with augmented reality to immersive racers in a variety of track designs, drivable karts, and even usable in-kart power-ups which will allow you to battle all the way up to the finish line.

There will also be the PAC-MAN Live Experience where you’ll take on the game IRL, navigating through a life sized glowing maze as you transform into the PAC-MAN himself. You’ll be dodging ghostly pursuers, collect Power Pellets, and chase high scores in the big recreation of the world’s most famous arcade game.

Whilst the Arcade Arena is new to London, it’s not its first rodeo, having launched permenant sites in Manchester and Dubai. The London iteration will be opening up in September, but you can already book tickets, which start at £30 for an individual entry.

• Four London pizza spots have been named the best in Europe – with one West London joint crowned number one

If London proves anything, it’s that you don’t need to hop on a flight to Italy to scran some seriously good pizza. Only the other week a London joint was crowned the best pizza in the whole of Europe, but to the shock, faints, and cries of Italian nonnas everywhere. Now, there’s another new kid on the block, and it’s heading to Bermondsey this September.

Called Five Feet Pizza, the new pizza joint will be helmed by a trio of dough-wielding heavyweights: Jay Patel - co-founder of Legare and Luna and Jack Ellingham who is ex London bakery Royalty having been a chef and baker at Dusty Knuckle. The pair will be working with founder and CEO of WatchHouse Roland Horne. The question is, with a name like Five Feet Pizza, is what style of pizza will they be serving up – NYC style crispy pizzas? Proper Italian style? Deep dish? The answer: a bit of a blend.

The trio will be leaning into pan pizzas – not enough to be classed as deep dish but a definite move away from the popular thin-crust NYC style. According to them, the pizzas will have a centimetre-thick crust, meaning you’ll get a nice spongy dough. Similarly, the flavours sound like a bit of a mash up too, with a lot of classic toppings given a modern spin to create something a little bit more unique. Five Feet Pizza’s main menu will include a hot sausage pie with vodka sauce, pickled chillies and hot honey; pepperoni pie with fior di latte and parmesan, and white potato pie with caramelised onions, scamorza, aged cheddar and white sauce. Vegan pies will also be on offer.

Side dishes will be equally blended, with a mix of familiar foods from fancy restaurants as pizza joint classics. We’re talking polenta fritta with vodka sauce and scamorza cheese, chicken wings or focaccia di recco, a flatbread filled with creamy stracchino cheese. Desert wise, it’s a pretty stacked line up too with seasonal gelato, double chocolate cake, and a cinnamon crunch doughnut served with milk gelato all on the menu.

Across the whole menu, something that’s consistent is the produce; the team are using the best sourced ingredients, with everything from Suffolk’s Pump Street chocolate and Jersey dairy in their deserts to bespoke stone mill flour that’s ground on site.

The site itself will be opening up on Tanner Street in Bermondsey, just of Bermondsey's main street and a couple of minutes from its boozy beer mile. Five Feet pizza will be throwing open its doors in September, open Tuesday-Saturday evenings. And if you want a flavour of the type of grub you'll be headed for, it's worth having a light stalk of their Instagram.

• Four London pizza spots have been named the best in Europe – with one West London joint crowned number one

Get a firm grip on your lattes: The price of a cup of coffee could reach £40.

“Yes, people are willing to pay that for a coffee now,” says Peter Dore-Smith, of Fitzrovia’s Kaffeine, which he founded back in 2009, making him one of the pioneers in London’s independent coffee scene.

“Of course, a price like that is down to the coffee and the expertise and time of the barista who has to make the drink. It’s not like a sommelier recommending a great wine and then just opening the bottle. But demand for such extra-special drinks is also a testament to how interest in coffee — its origins, its flavours — just keeps growing”.

That’s not to say more accessible prices won’t still be around: the industry is constantly flirting with the £5 latte, a psychological barrier for many drinkers but perhaps a coming necessity given the growing coffee cultures of the global south, where coffee has historically been grown and sold at suppressed prices to the global north. Yes, like any commodity, the price of coffee is in no small part a matter of geo-politics.

More so, it’s suggestive of how the retail landscape for the black stuff was pretty much non-existent 20 years ago — “back then most people had no idea what a flat white was,” notes Dore-Smith — but now encompasses an estimated 12,000 independent coffee shops across the US. People, says Dore-Smith, want more of an experience from their coffee, both in terms of the drink and the environment in which it’s served, than ever before. No wonder more specialty shops are rotating their coffee menus, offering specials and even coffee classes.

Peak coffee

But might we be at peak coffee? It depends where you are, suggests Maxwell Colonna-Dashwood, founder of Leather Lane’s Colonna Coffee, three time winner of the UK Barista Championships and author of The Business of Specialty Coffee and the forthcoming Coffee Lovers’ Guide. Coffee shops compete not by area but by street, so while some streets are seeing the business seemingly eat itself (unless the shops can stand apart by being distinctly speciality in their own way) others remain under-served. It’s like those weird clusters of Turkish barbers, or vape shops.

Still, Dore-Smith expects some contraction, especially among the big chain brands. But, in no small part down to the increased access to knowledge made possible by YouTube aficionados, he also expects a second wave of coffee appreciation. Of the 600 of so coffees he makes a day, more than 10% of them are now filter or cold brew. That may not sound like a lot, but it perhaps marks the beginning of a trend for appreciating coffee as an ingredient in its own right, focused around origin and flavour, and maybe not so much drowned in milk.

“Milk and sugar — all the drinks formats that are heavy on both — have in some sense detracted from appreciating the most important ingredient: the coffee, the quality of which has counted for less as a result. Milk got in the way,” says Colonna-Dashwood. As have, he concedes, some of the industry’s own obsessions: a ‘good’ crema, for example, meaning the velvety foam on top of a fresh espresso.

“Crema was popular because it looked pretty and suggested an intense espresso, which encouraged people to connect it with quality,” he says.

“But it doesn’t actually taste very good and acknowledging that is a sign of how the coffee industry is moving away from being prescriptive to being more culinary”.

Coffee's creative future — and a replacement for pubs?

None of this is to say the latte is over (it’s still the UK’s most popular coffee drink) even if Colonna-Dashwood thinks the oat milk boom is. More that, “as with all fields that we like to label as a bit snooty because they’re complicated, interest in coffee is growing precisely because it’s a subject you can get your teeth into."

Certainly coffee isn’t just coffee any more. Expect more experimentation. Coffee might be made from a dose that’s been kept frozen, for example, for added freshness. Meanwhile, former World Espresso Champion, Ian Kissick, of Victoria’s Formative, for instance, has developed a Fizzy Apple coffee using a co-fermentation technique, repurposed from beer brewing, with green apples added to the mix. Kissick has also come up with Parma Violet and Lollipop-influenced coffees.

OK, so Colonna-Dashwood might not have much time for ‘flavour notes’ (“they’re rubbish,” he offers) but undoubtedly coffees are being appreciated for their very particular aromas and tastes. Cognac, anyone, or tropical fruit?

And these, in turn, are being foregrounded thanks to an ever-shorter gap between coffee farmer and consumer. With greater transparency to the coffee production chain, farmers are more able to play an active part in shaping the coffees being produced.

“People are even starting to know the names of coffee farms now,” Colonna-Dashwood adds.

“But there’s no way round it: as with wine or cheese, to appreciate ‘gourmet’ coffee now you have to put the time in. The fact is that there’s still a huge mass of customers who are only just now catching up with the idea of coffee being gourmet, and that will take several years yet to filter through. Chocolate is even further behind coffee.”

In the meantime, record prices are being achieved for all kinds of rare coffee micro-lots: if a typically average coffee wholesales for anywhere between £9 and £40 per kilo, £8,000 per kilo isn’t unheard of these days; last year a rare lot from the legendary Panamanian estate Hacienda La Esmeralda was bought by one cafe in Dubai for a record-setting £22,804 per kilo. “Every year the numbers just go up,” says Colonna-Dashwood.

These though, are outliers - and shouldn’t encourage you to feel too resentful at paying what seems to be an ever rising price for a coffee, even if we’re some way off the £7 — “what you’d pay for a nice pint in a nice pub,” as Colonna-Dashwood puts it — that he suggests as being the tipping point that would give many coffee drinkers pause for thought. That’s especially so with technology, with subscription models for unusual blends, allowing for ever better coffees to be made easily at home.

Most drinkers are not aware that it’s still remarkably hard to make any money from a coffee shop while people aren’t much minded yet to cross that £5 latte hurdle. It’s a volume business: You have to sell a lot of coffees to make a decent profit but, to drive sales, that requires keeping cup prices artificially low relative to the cost of production.

But then, Dore-Smith argues, a coffee isn’t really about a coffee anymore anyway. Even as they get more high-end and curated, coffee shops are increasingly about filling the role of community hubs once served by pubs, and especially as younger generations are shunning alcohol in greater numbers.

“The coffee shop is an integral part of any high street now,” he suggests. “It’s a place for people to gather. But we still need to give people reasons to go to coffee shops, no matter how good or interesting the coffee itself may be”.

• Four London restaurants added to the Michelin Guide in globe-trotting update

London’s The Cinnamon Club is offering a special kind of throwback this August, letting you pay the equivalent of 2001 prices with its special Retro menu.

From 10th to 22nd August, the Cinnamon Club is offering the discounted menu, which reflects the sorts of dishes the restaurant served at its original opening 25 years ago.

This isn’t the first time the Retro menu has popped up. It was offered first in January this year, for two weeks. But apparently this is its last hurrah.

“This August, The Retro Menu returns to The Cinnamon Club for a final two-week residency, giving guests one last opportunity to experience some of the dishes that helped shape the restaurant’s journey over the past quarter of a century,” says The Cinnamon Club team.

We’re promised “additional dishes and new additions” this time around, and here’s what the restaurant has teased so far for this promotional period:

• Sweet potato cake with crisp okra and spiced yoghurt —£5
• Home smoked lamb kebabs — £6
• Seared calf’s liver with masala mash and spiced onion chutney — £6
• Sandalwood‑flavoured tandoori chicken — £6.00
• Baby aubergines in pickling spices with curry leaf semolina — £10
• Vindaloo of pork chop with pilau rice — £15.50
• Pan seared breast of Gressingham duck with sesame tamarind sauce — £16
• Steamed mango rice cakes with wild berry sorbet — £6

How different is this to The Cinnamon Club’s main menu, when £15.50 may sound like a fairly normal amount to pay for a main at an Indian restaurant?

The A la Carte menu lists meat mains at around £24-34, so we are looking at a healthy discount here.

Select cocktails will be offered at £5 a pop too. Bargain.

You can book a table for the 10th-22nd August promo period now, and select the “Retro menu returns” option as part of the booking process.

The Cinnamon Club is found nearby Westminster Abbey on Great Smith Street, which is roughy a 10-minute walk from Westminster Tube station.

• Four London restaurants added to the Michelin Guide in globe-trotting update

Smash burger specialist Dumbo is getting a second London restaurant, following its Shoreditch location, which opened in 2025.

Dumbo’s soho spot will live at 37 Berwick Street, and the current plan is to open up shop in September.

“The response to our first London restaurant has been incredible, and opening in Soho feels like a natural next step,” says Dumbo’s Charles Ganem, who co-founded Dumbo with Samuel Nataf.

That happened all the way back in 2019, in Paris. The idea was to build a more refined kind of fast food burger, in part by smashing the heck out of the patties.

Dumbo’s simple menu includes a cheeseburger, nuggets, veggie burger and twice-cooked fries. And that’s about it on the food front.

The original London site was a big hit on social media, with its layered, thin patties sticking out from the crowd. And from the bun.

London's burger battles

Dumbo’s new site is a 550 square feet space, backed by Shaftesbury Capital. It’s going to have to compete with plenty of other eating options within just a hundreds metres radius, but should have no trouble picking up some buzz early doors.

“We’ve always had an eye on Soho; we did a collab with fellow lovers of modern American food Rita’s earlier this year, and that only enthused us more to be part of the neighbourhood,” founders Ganem and Nataf said in a statement.

Nearby there’s Fatt Pundit and Grasso, although it’s a little further into the heart of Soho we find Dumbo’s more direct — and hyped — rivals, like Bleecker Burger on Old Compton Street, alongside the ever-reliable Honest Burgers on Meard Street.

But if only a smash burger will do, you’ll have to head to somewhere like Spitalfield’s Junk or Manna in New Oxford Street’s food hall for your fix. Or, of course, Dumbo’s Shoreditch burger shop.

We expect to see Dumbo soho open its doors within the next couple of months. Its Berwick Street location was once home to Tommi’s Burger Joint, which opened in 2017.

• UK's best burgers crowned following London's Burger Fest event

Is there anything better than a tiramisu? It combines the stunning trifecta of coffee, chocolate, and Italian excellence. After a record breaker for the longest tiramisu ever made earlier this year, Brits still can’t get enough of the literal pick me up, and the big smoke’s first ever cafe entirely dedicated to the Italian treat will be coming to Soho very soon.

Here to satisfy all the sweet teeth, Marrone will be sweeping into Soho ready to give Londoners a little lift during their daily grind. The cafe comes from second gen Italian Giancarlo Fanigliulo, answering Brits’ prayers for a spot entirely dedicated to our ever growing obsession with the treat. He’s not just offering up your standard tiramisu; in addition to the classic original, he’ll be serving up a DOP pistachio flavour, and a Valrhona dark chocolate and Maldon sea salt version too. Plus, for people who are off the sauce there will be non alcoholic versions of each variant as well as the standard boozy bake.

Each is made with proper top quality ingredients, bringing the best and creamiest to your tastebuds. The original style tiramisu uses Estate Dairy cream, dark roasted espresso with “notes of stone fruit, caramel, and milk chocolate”. The DOP Pistachio will be made with Sicilian Bronte pistachios from Mount Etna, topped with pistachio drizzle and a nutty crumb. Giancarlo has also teased a range of seasonal flavours and limited edition tiramisu puds too.

Marrone will be opening up in central London, taking over the site of the former coffee shop Old Spike Roastery on Sherwood Street, just up the road from the Devonshire – so you can go straight from elevenses to a midday pint.

The central location was a deliberate move from Marrone – who initially planned to serve up tiramisu roadside from their dinky retro style 1972 Piaggio Ape but changed tack to a more permanent site. As Giancarlo explains: "I wanted to open somewhere that people felt welcomed like it was an Italian restaurant where you’d known the owners for years. When you walk into Marrone, I hope you’ll feel like family." That, and also the parking sounds like it would have been a nightmare. However you can still spot the cute Marrone-banded three-wheeler outside the new spot for now.

Marrone will open up on 15th August, and will be opening Saturdays from 12pm until they sell out, and Sundays from 10am-3pm.

• Four London pizza spots have been named the best in Europe – with one West London joint crowned number one

Good news for the burgeoning London pizza scene: one of the city’s buzzy favourites has returned, this time with a permanent location in the heart of the capital.

Lenny’s is opening up a pizza shop in Covent Garden later this year, following a stint away from the pizza oven.

Pizza chef Max Lewis announced the new venture through the Lenny’s Apizza Instagram account. A teaser says the new restaurant is “coming soon” although the finer details on timings and exact location are a mystery at the moment.

“It’s great to be back in the kitchen. It’s been a long time,” Lewis says.

Lenny’s gained a following in London for its New Haven style pizza, dubbed Apizza — which you pronounce “a-beets” if you really want to seem you know what you’re talking about.

You can expect a significantly charred base, with a good amount of both chewiness and crispiness to it.

Lenny’s pizza made its mark in North London, with a residency at The Bedford Tavern in Finsbury Park.

It began almost two years ago in August 2024, but after a roughly year-long residency we haven’t heard too much from Lenny’s since. And that was slightly heartbreaking for what many consdiered to be among the best pizza found in London.

This Covent Garden return is part of a partnership with MJMK Restaurants, which also works with London favourites Kol, Luso, Anglothai, Fonda and Casa de Frango.

Lenny’s isn’t to be confused with Lenny's Pizza in New York, which briefly appeared in Saturday Night Fever but closed in 2023. And according to a review by Bald Flavours — worth a read if you’re keen for this one to open — Lenny’s is named after chef Max Lewis’s dog.

During Lenny’s stint at the Bedford Taven pizzas started at £10.50, and with both Crust Bros. And Vashinko charging £12.50-12.95 for a Margherita nearby, we hope not to see too epic a price jump when the Covent Garden restaurant opens.

We’ll be on the lookout for more information, but you can expect fresh details to appear first at the Lenny’s Instagram account, followed by its website.

• Four London pizza spots have been named the best in Europe – with one West London joint crowned number one

London is an eccentric city; you can get your aura photographed, have a rager in a sauna, have a pint in a prison, and sleep in a lion enclosure. Now, there’s a new entry on the list involving everyone’s favourite summery spritz – and it’s all for a good cause.

Seven Dials Market is teaming up with charity The Felix Project to give away 100 free Aperol Spritz. On Saturday 1st August, coinciding with National Spritz Day, for one-day only Londoners can ‘buy’ an Aperol Spritz with an orange. Yup, you read that right. The market (run by KERB) will be giving away 100 free Aperols, in exchange for a singular fresh orange which will get donated via the charity.

Guests wanting to snap up a free Aperol can bring a fresh orange to Bar Nana, the upstairs bar inside the covered Seven Dials foodie market, and receive a complimentary Spritz in return. Whilst the cocktails are limited to one per person, visitors are encouraged to bring more than one orange to maximise their donation.

If you’re wondering how an orange is relevant, The Felix Project originally started out as a food waste charity, expanding to support local communities, schools, and help end food poverty. They work to save great food and get it to the people who need it, working alongside 16 other independent volunteers and thousands of volunteers. They work with hundreds of supermarkets and restaurants to help close the food waste gap and divert to communities that need it most.

The event kicks off at 11am when the bar opens on Saturday, and it’s running on a first-come-first-served basis so the earlier you head there the better your chances at securing a spritz – although even if you don’t make it in time for the freebie you could still drop off some orange donations.

Whilst you're in the market, you could make a foodie day of it and explore some of the other (highly Instagrammed) spots, like Pick & Cheese - 40m of rotating rounds of expertly chosen cheese pairings - Bad Boy Pizza Society, and Bleecker burgers.

You can find the market at Earlham St, London WC2H 9LX.

• This East London spot just got crowned the best cocktail bar in the world

It’s easy to forget that London with all its inherent city-ness is actually pretty aquatic – or at least we really make the most of the waterways to hand. Whether it’s a floating spa or a floating community theatre, there are plenty of events kicking off across the capital to take you off dry land and give you all the best parts of pirate life (i.e. being on the water and drinking). Called Round the Dock, this brand new festival is heading to Canada Water for the ultimate summer unwinder.

Round the Dock is a free six week waterside extravaganza which is all about putting a spotlight on South London’s creative scene. It’s kicking off next week on 6th August, with live performances all taking place on the new floating stage. Hopefully there are no sudden man overboard-s. All the events that are part of the festival are free to attend with no tickets or pre-booking required.

Tuesdays will see Spit Nights taking to the stage, for an unforgettable evening of live spoken word and music experience. Kicking off at 4.30 on 11th, 18th, and 25th, Spit Nights will be bringing bold poetry, live jazz, and performances to the stage.

Each Wednesday there will be a series of lectures and pints courtesy of London faves Pints of Knowledge. They will be covering everything from a deep dive on the psychology of raving to nerding out over shark films, taking your usual pub-side chats from “did you catch the game?” to uni-level smarts.

On Thursdays the snake-hipped salsa dancers will descend, taking to the docks as free Latin dance classes are running. Mo Touray and Baila Urbana are running free open air latin dance classes that are suitable for everyone, even those who feel like their hips are severely in need of a good spray of WD40 in order to meringue. Whether you are taking your first (rhythmic) steps or are already the friends notorious for being the first to the dancefloor, you’ll be able to learn the basics of salsa in a relaxed environment (i.e. no Craig Revell Horwood throwing a 2 paddle your way) with experts helping you out.

The party kicks up a gear on Friday with live music from Steam Down Presents who are bringing Sounds of Diaspora to the Dock, along with a different guest artist every week. Steam Down is an Afro-Punk band from South East London who blend live music with ritual and cultural movement, all rooted in improvisation, community and the (aforementioned) Sounds of Diaspora. You’ll hear a mix of jazz, grime, afrobeat, funk, and electronic music in every performance. They’re the kind of artist your mate who swears they were the first ones to ever listen to Ezra Collective will bang on about, and then you’ll get annoyed when you do listen, and realise they had a point. Steam Down will be performing from 5.10pm on the floating stage every Friday from 7th - 28th August.

The party continues on Saturdays with like Jazz and Soul music in partnership with another London favourite, Sofar Sounds. Known for showcasing incredible and criminally undiscovered local artists, Sofar Sounds will be taking over the stage from 8th-30th. Every date begins with a live warm up performance featuring Sofar Sounds before the headline act. There are a couple of Special Takeovers on the last two weekends of the festival to help round the whole thing off with a very soulful bang. It's a pretty cool lineup so it's worth taking a look at who's on.

As well as the festival, Canada Water Docks will still be hosting its regular roster of events like its craft market, flea market, and Garden Fair, as well as plenty of foodie pop ups.

Head to the Canada Water website to read all the details, including the full line up and timings for each day.

• This legendary London music joint is bringing a street party to Soho this summer

Chronically likeable singer James Blunt has bought a London pub, one found in Hammersmith.

The Carpenter’s Arms in West London shut up shop on 17th July, and we now know why. It was subject to sale negotiations with no less than You’re Beautiful singer James Blunt.

Blunt announced the pub’s acquisition on Instagram.

“It’s an honour to be the custodian of this beautiful and important local landmark. I know how much it means to the residents, and I hope we can serve them as well as they have been by Jack and his team. I look forward to seeing you there!” he said.

This is not Blunt’s first rodeo. He has owned Chelsea’s Fox and Pheasant pub since 2017, having bought it from Greene King. It is by most accounts one of the area’s better boozers.

The Carpenter’s Arms was previously under the stewardship of Wren Pubs, which refurbished the site having owned it for just two years. Their whole game is to leave the pubs “handsomely renovated to reframe their original character for new generations of drinkers and diners.”

It is of course a tough time for hospitality, which may have factored into Wren Pubs’s decision to let the site go.

“This sale was a difficult decision for us, but we are so pleased with what we have achieved to date. It has been an honour to play a role in such a wonderful community and getting to know the locals,” says Wren Pubs founder Jack Greenall.

“Having worked hard to bring this beloved venue back to life, it felt like the perfect moment to pass the pub into new ownership. I couldn’t think of a better team to continue its legacy.”

The Carpenter’s Arms has been around since 1871. And while it is currently closed, with any luck with announcement should mean its doors reopen before long.

The pub is found at 91 Black Lion Lane, nearby the Stamford Brook and Ravenscourt Park Tube stations.

It joins a host of generally well-regarded London pubs owned by celebs, including Sir Ian McKellen’s The Grapes in Limehouse, Ed Sheeran’s Bertie Blossoms in Notting Hill and Rick Astley’s Mikkeller Bar in Shoreditch.

So while shilling for a crypto and AI companies is a sign of a celeb on the make, owning a pub in London is clearly a sign of being a good egg.

• The 11 best craft beer bars and pubs in London

There are hundreds of cocktails bars across London, from sky high spots with panoramic views, to floating bars which put on a damn good show. Sometimes however you just want a darn good cocktail without any of the gimmicks, and that’s where London’s hotspot bars come into play. Cue Topjawian favourites like Three Sheets, Swift, and Equal Parts springing to mind. One such east London bar has just proved its brilliant and boozy credentials by being crowned the Best International Cocktail Bar. And yes, that’s international as in, best in the entire world.

Satan’s Whiskers in Bethnal Green just picked up the coveted accolade at the 2026 Spirited Awards which took place in New Orleans this week. The spot originally opened up in 2013 and has served up classic cocktails alongside delicious innovations for over a decade. The Cambridge Heath spot operates a daily changing menu that means even if you live in the neighbourhood and are a certified Satan’s Whiskers regular, there will always be something new for you to try. Since it opened and started mixing, it’s been recognised both across London and the world for being a truly fantastic spot.

From the outside, it looks as though you’ve stumbled upon a proper old-school graffitied dive bar, but as soon as you step in, you’ll find the bar’s signature hip hop soundtrack, and a mix of moody and modern decor.

As well as a rotating roster of over 400 cocktails which always have new innovations, Satan’s Whiskers also run classes sharing the cocktail creating wisdom with the general public. Although no matter how good you get, chances are you’ll never *quite * reach the prowess of SW’s bartenders and will inevitably be going back for new tipples.

It’s not the first award the bar has received recently, but more is the latest one in a slew of titles. Just in the last year, it's been named the best cocktail bar in the capital and the third best in the UK at the Top 50 Cocktail Bars awards . It was also named Bar of the Year and Best Bar in London & the South East in the CLASS Bar Awards 2026.

If you are heading down, we’re not even going to bother giving you a recommendation, as the bartenders will point you in the right direction, and you should definitely ask for their recommendations. If you’re partial to whisky though, you can’t go wrong with the bar’s famed Satan’s Manhattan – a twist on the classic. But to be honest, just by heading to Satan’s Whiskers, you can’t really go wrong.

• A Restaurant Festival is heading to West London bringing deals to some of the area's best eateries
  

Camille snuck into the top 20 of this year’s National Restaurant awards, and its team are now set to open a second site.

The first Camille lives within Borough Market, and is a French bistro style establishment that serves top quality foodie-pleasing plates within a short walk’s distance from London Bridge station.

Its next spot will be up in Farringdon.

57 West Smithfield is the address of the new restaurant, set to open some time later year year in the Autumn. But the angle of approach will be entirely different to that of the first site.

“With strong influence from Elliot’s grandmother, we will delve into old regional British and Irish cooking using ingredients from the Isles. Victorian tradition and celebrating regional cuisine will be at the forefront of this new space,” says the team.

The “Elliot” mentioned here is Elliot Hashtroudi, Camille’s head chef.

Hashtroudi is a proponent of “whole carcass” butchery, where as much of the animal as possible is used during cooking. It’s why Camille’s dishes do not shy away from incorporating offal elements.

You’ll find “snout cassoulet” on the menu of the original Camille, for example.

Hashtroudi’s follow-up restaurant won’t have a finalised menu for a while, we imagine, as it’s currently in the stage of staffing up for the opening.

Camille opened in February 2024 as a partnership between Hashtroudi, Clare Lattin and Tom Hill, who were also behind Soho wine bar and Mediterranean restaurant Ducksoup. It is open to this day.

Before his head chef role at Camille, Hashtroudi worked at “nose to tail” restaurant St. John as a sous chef.

A rising star of the London food scene, we’re keen to see what he gets up to next. And we have a suspicion some offal may still be involved.

• A Restaurant Festival is heading to West London bringing deals to some of the area's best eateries
  

Dishoom has been sweeping though the city in a waft of delicious black dhal and spicy aromas since it opened up its first site in 2010. Since then, the Indian inspired restaurants have spawned a further 9 branches across the UK, helping convince more, ahem, traditional diners that they do like Indian food and it’s not too spicy. Now, it’s set to head to London’s (definitely not official) foodie capital: Borough.

Dishoom will be popping up right next to Borough Market later this year, having submitted plans to the council last year for permission to build a brand new venue inside the former Hop Exchange building. The proposed site was originally the location where the Brewing Industry stored their raw materials and traded hops back in the early 1800s, hence its name.

The Grade II listed building was most recently a Bavarian-style beer hall which closed in August 2025. Called Katzenjammers, the bar occupied the basement of the building. Since then, it has been used mainly as office space, but Dishoom has proposed for the space to be developed to house its new venue which would sit in the building’s West Wing, and also make use of the covered verandah.

The original building is known for its dramatic glass ceilings (real rather than metaphorical) which Dishoom will no doubt be putting to good use, given its history of transforming its venues into stunning spaces which put a plush twist on traditional Irani cafes.

There’s no exact confirmation on what will be on the menu, but no doubt the cult classic Black Dhal, Gunpowder Potatoes, and Bacon Naan Roll will be making a feature. Dishoom tends to keep the menu relatively similar across their branches, but each location usually has a unique site-specific special so there could be a new addition to the dish roster soon.

The Borough outpost will be the chain’s eighth site in the capital, and its 11th overall, after launching sites in Birmingham, Oxford, Cambridge, Brighton, and most recently Leeds. Currently it has restaurants in Carnaby, Shoreditch, Canary Wharf, Kensington, Battersea and King’s Cross, as well as the original King’s Cross location. The first stateside outpost is also set to open up soon, in New York.

We don’t know exactly when the Borough site will open, but it’s expected to start serving up around autumn / winter 2026.

• This famed London pizza spot is launching a new tasting menu

London’s late night venues are always in the news, from new openings to forced closures, and a few grumpy local residents in between. Usually, when it comes to politics and parties, it’s mainly doom and gloom with cuts, taxes, and illegal raves. However, thanks to the UK’s new PM, London nightlife might just be getting the lifeline it desperately needs.

Burnham is set to cut business rates for pubs, cubs, and live music venues by a whopping 20%. This new move towards slashing business rates is one of the latest moves in a whole slew of policies since his new reign.

In practical terms, these cuts would save your average pub roughly £1,100 a year, with around 32,000 businesses that will qualify for the cuts. Some business won’t qualify for the cuts, like some of the capital’s largest music venues.

The cuts will ocst about £100m a year, but are saud to be partly funded by reviewing reliefs for anti-social businesses, like vape shops in particular. Vape shops are among the list of businesses which have been singled out as enterprises that “do not make a positive contribution to local communities”. The government are also set to look at raising further tax from “businesses that sell through online marketplaces but do not comply with their tax obligations”. Burnham has previously promised to raise taxes on out-of-town warehouses for said online companies like Amazon to help pay for cuts to rates for hospitality firms.

More details are expected to be outlined in the budget which will confirm the parameters of the benefits. Talking about the cuts, Burnham said that "For too long, governments have stood by while cherished venues have disappeared from our local high streets. So today I am changing that.

This government will back the businesses that people want to see in their communities. I said I would protect pubs and local high streets – the beating heart of our communities – and that’s what we will do. What we’re announcing today is just the start as we work to bring back hope across the country.”

Hopefully, this will mean London venues will be able to battle a little more easily against the cossie livs crisis, keeping their doors open for local Londoners and visitors alike. It follows London Mayor Sadiq Khan's plans to extend licensing back in February in a bid to boost night-time economy which is still recovering post-pandemic.

• A brand new live music venue is heading to North London

London knows how to do festivals, from summer staples like LIDO Fest and Cross the tracks to slightly more niche celebrations like Picklefest and Burgerfest, London knows how to do a festival. Now a new festival is heading to West London and it’s all about restaurants.

Plated is a new festival for 2026 which will take place this August, a bit like Fringe but more plates than plays. Running from 1st-31st, the festival brings together over 30 different venues for a month of food, drink, and exclusive offers on multiple spots across the borough – including spots on the King’s Road. The festival will include a month of festival-exclusive menus, complimentary cocktails, chef collaborations, tasting experiences, and exceptional-value dining.

More than 30 different venues are already signed up for the fest, including big hitting names like The Ivy and Hawksmoor. At Hawksmoor (the Knightsbridge branch) they’ll be offering up a discounted run of their set menu, with two courses £25, and three at £30 which includes a complimentary drink on arrival. There’s Mexican restaurant Ixchel will be serving up its two-course lunch offering for £28. Italian gem Azzurra in Sloane Square offering a complimentary glass of champagne, you’ll get a welcome spritz at Heston Blumenthal’s gaff, and a rather fancy glass of Laurent Perrier at The Lanesborough.

There are loads of offers up for grabs, with discounts across both lunches and dinners, which means that you'll be able to dine out for less at some seriously stunning spots that are worth a visit. In the words of the organisers, it's "no membership, no fuss - just the best of summer in the city, one reservation at a time."

All the venues taking part in Plated 2026

• Azzurra
• Big Easy
• Chelsea Grill
• CLAP London
• Harry’s Dolce Vita
• Harvey Nichols
• Hawksmoor Knightsbridge
• Ixchel
• Kahani London
• Rabbit
• San Carlo
• SETTE at Bvlgari Hotel London
• Signor Sassi
• Sticks’n’Sushi
• The Cadogan Arms
• The Chalk
• The Ivy Asia Chelsea
• The Ivy Chelsea Garden
• The Lanesborough Grill
• The March Hare
• The Mayfair Chippy
• The Pig’s Ear
• The Trafalgar
• Tom Brown at The Capital
• Willet’s at The Cadogan

You can find a full list of exactly what’s on offer at the festival’s website.

• The BIG London gig list 2026: Your guide to this year's very best shows, festivals and concerts

Supper Clubs made a huge comeback post Covid and are still popping up across the city as Gen Z desperately look for some kind of connection and some quality screen-free time (which they later post obsessively about). Whilst you may be used to seeing them as the next mini pop up from a foodie influencer, the latest London supper sipper club comes from a slightly boozier place: Sipsmith Gin.

Sipsmith is opening the doors of is Chiswick distillery for its first Sipper Club – a new, intimate and theatrical dining experience that will be nestled amongst its copper stills (the big distilling vats, but you know, prettier). It’s a pretty limited run for the event, with the first event launching on 29th July, and a second date on 26th August where 28 diners will be treated to cocktails, a three course dinner, as well as mixology masterclasses, and after hours access to the distillery grounds.

On arrival (around 7pm) you’ll have a (very civilised) welcome cocktail on an actual converted bus – a vintage style Sipsmith one. Then you’ll be heading to a three-course dinner which has been created by Chef Guiseppe Trezza who is cheffing up straight from The Ned – and if you couldn’t tell by the name, the menu will be Italian inspired. And whilst you usually get curated wine pairings with each course, for this iteration, you’ll be getting a paired cocktail with every dish.

The evening also promises an immersive, theatrical experience as diners are seated in the heart of the distillery, whilst the hosts of the evening will be guiding you through storytelling, presumably about the dish’s provenance, but you never know they might whip out a copy of Harry Potter. At one point during the night it will be the guests’ turn to try their hand at cocktail making, getting hands on with the shakers and spirits to create their own sippable creation. And as a little reward for being sociable with strangers, you get your own little goodie bag to take home.

Like all supper clubs, they ain’t coming cheap, but at the same time for what you’re actually getting (four cocktails and a three course dinner) it’s actually a pretty good deal. The Sipsmith supper club is £90 per person, with the whole evening lasting around three hours. You can book tickets over at Sipsmith's website where there's plenty of information about the limited-run of events.

• This famed London pizza spot is launching a new tasting menu

Pizza isn’t exactly a unique thing to be dishing up, and there’s famously a whole heft of competition across the city over who plates up the best doughy delicacies, from traditional trattorias, to NYC style innovations. However, food aficionado or not, you’ll probably have heard of Napoli on the Road, a west London spot which recently got crowned the best ‘za in Europe for the third year running.

Now, the spectacular spot has launched something a little more unusual: a pizza tasting menu. Traditionally, you’ll hear “tasting menu” and immediately think of tiny portions in a glitzy Michelin starred joint, with words like sous-vide, seaweed foam, and emulsion, feeling like you need a dictionary as well as Grace Dent in the corner translating it all for you. Napoli on the Road will be doing it a little differently though, serving up a celebration of “slow eating, childhood memories, and the versatility of an Italian favourite.”

The tasting menu will launch at Napoli’s latest branch in Soho this August, which only opened up in February 2026, and is the chain’s third branch to date. The tasting menu itself starts with one of the most crucial parts of Italian food: the tomato. The first course kicks off with a glorious celebration of the humble and juicy tomato, showing it at four different stages of preparation, highlighting how proper good produce changes as it cooks, in true Jamie Oliver / Hugh Fernley Wittingstall manner. According to Napoli, this is to help guests slow down, and appreciate how time can transform the simplest of ingredients. Sort of like watching endless TikTok videos of people making sun-dried tomatoes and other dried fruit on their balconies in these recent heatwaves.

The next courses showcase a selection of fritti, pizzas, palate cleansers (think sorbet) before rounding the evening off with dessert. The tasting menu will include four different kinds of pizza as well as a range of other dishes, authentically Italian of course, and close to founder Michele Pascarella’s childhood memories.

As well as a delicious tasting menu which will no doubt leave you more stuffed than a cannoli, there will be a carefully paired wine menu which has been curated to compliment each dish. The menu will explore reds, whites, desert wine, and even a drop of sake.

Talking about the creation of the tasting menu, Michele Pascarella said that it was “not created with the idea of making something complex or “starred.” We did not want to impress with techniques for their own sake or build a journey that feels distant from people, but to do exactly the opposite. We want to tell a story made of memories, seasonality, ingredients, and flavours that everyone can understand from the very first bite.”

Given they were going for classic and delicious over complicated and fancy, it’s perhaps not surprising (and a welcome relief) that the tasting menu isn't in the eye-watering price bracket that a lot of them can be. It will cost £65 per person for the standard tasting menu, with the wine pairings an additional £40 if you fancy it. It’s only running at their stunning Soho site, and you can head to their website to find out more information, including when bookings open up.

• Cook like The Bear: We tried to make the show’s signature dishes

We’re almost getting whiplash between the number of exciting new openings gracing London's streets and the amount of iconic institutions having to shut their doors. All in all, it’s nice to know the UK music and arts scene is not entirely effed, and the new arrival of a community-built arts venue is further proof that it’s not all doom n' gloom, but rhythm n' blues.

Based in Tottenham, Radial is a new grassroots venue, inspired by and built for its local community. It’s all about championing arts, music, and culture through a varied and inclusive roster of live events, creativity, and collaboration. The space is set to open up on 5th September, with a decent 250-capacity.

The team behind the new site is ten87, a creative studio hub with 50 recording studios across the capital. Funded by the public, it works with the music industry to help new creators within the community. Radial marks their first move into live performance, taking their groovy, tuned music-making into a cultural event for all. Over the past decade, the studios have supported artists from Fontaines D.C to Wolf Alice and many more, who you’ll have snapped up tickets to recently.

Unlike a lot of spaces you can currently boogie the night away in across the capital, Radial is “a space developed around sound”, putting quality music at its core. In terms of what that’s going to look like, their programme is set to be rooted in active listening, expect intimate performances, eclectic club nights, as well as artist-led experiments like workshops and sound-based wellness. According to the team, the radial concept shapes every aspect of the physical experience - from how people arrive and gather, to how they move through, watch performances and connect with one another. It’s all sounding very art school tbh, but in the best possible way.

On the inside, it has capacity for 250-300 standing, or up to 80 seated, with the main space decked out in flexible Japanese-style loungers so they can keep switching up the look as needed. The main space is centred around a main performance room featuring a 10-point custom-built system with precisely designed acoustics, which has been headed up by renowned acoustician Nick Whitaker, whose work includes the legendary nightclub Plastic People.

Romy, who's also a recording artist, said: "Smaller venues are essential to London's musical ecosystem. Sadly, we’ve watched so many closures over recent years. We just want to give people a new space for culture and connection. Which feels important now, more than ever."

Although radial is set to open up on 5th September, they're running four one-off club nights across July and August. The nights boast sets from DJs and artists including: Jacklyn, Adult Woman, Meg Ward, Sub Basics, nohexcode, and plenty more.

You can find Radial at 39b Markfield Rd, N15 4QA.

• The BIG London gig list 2026: Your guide to this year's very best shows, festivals and concerts

The latest dozen restaurants to be added to the Michelin guide have been announced.

Four London restaurants are among the July 2026 additions to the Michelin Guide, covering the gamut from British cuisine to curry and Greek eats.

Here’s a quick primer on this quartet, which may become slightly harder to get a table for if you’re not quick.

Aki

• Opened: October 2025
• Cuisine: Japanese
• Where: Marylebone

This Canvendish square outfit may be Japanese but it still serves afternoon tea, with a twist. That means mini dorayaki pancakes instead of scones, and Japanese sandos in place of tired old sandwiches. From £45 a head, while the normal menu includes sashimi, tempura, larger meat dishes — and an amazing-looking £95 signature menu.

Clio

• Opened: April 2026
• Cuisine: Greek
• Where: Marylebone

No falafel plate in sight here — this Marylebone Greek restaurant’s menu includes items like an £80 blue lobster, grilled octopus and a sea bass fillet. The wine list is far more stuffed than the food menu here too, with a huge collection of bottles from across Greece and the mediterranean. A more limited by-the-glass menu is also on offer.

Koyal

• Opened: September 2024
• Cuisine: Indian
• Where: Surbiton

This one has been open longer than the rest. But it clearly takes more time to catch the attention of the Michelin folks in Surbiton than Soho. Its à la carte menu includes classics and a few slightly more exotic picks like wild boar vindaloo and asparagus biryani with cranberry and jackfruit. Tasting menus are available too, at £45 (veg) £55 (non-veg) a head.

Willett’s

• Opened: April 2026
• Cuisine: British bistro
• Where: Chelsea

Found inside Chelsea’s Cadogan hotel, Willett’s serves traditional fare like beef Wellington, sirloin on the bone and chicken and girolle pie. If you’re down for something more casual, turn up for the 6-7pm happy hour, where you can pick up a pint of the house lager for £6, an £8 cocktail, and £1 sausage rolls. Or oysters for a quid. Bargain.

Here’s the full list of establishments added to the Michelin Guide in this latest July 2026 update:

1. Aki, London
2. Chagford Inn, Chagford
3. Clio, London
4. Ela, Stoke Holy Cross
5. ELM, Sheffield
6. Inlamentation, Boston Spa
7. Eleven Fifty Five, Glasgow
8. Koyal, London
9. The Cock, Hitchin
10. The Falls Restaurant, Kenmare
11. The Two Pigs, Barton-under-Needwood
12. Willett’s, London

• £5 Michelin star meals in London? A new guide addition offers cheaper eats

Sometimes you feel like you see London from a completely different angle, like when you stumble upon a quiet corner you’ve never seen before or when you cross one of the grand old bridges just as golden hour sun is bouncing off the Houses of Parliament and you feel that ingénue, big-city wow-factor all over again. The new exhibition at the beloved Ally Pally is putting a different spin on the idea of seeing things from a new angle, giving Londoners the chance to see the city turned on its head.

For nine days, arts organisation Pinhole London is offering visitors the chance to see the famous view from Ally Pally’s Terrace turned on its head. The view from the north London building spans over some of the city’s most iconic landmarks, like the Shard and the BT Tower. They’ll achieve this effect by using a camera obscura, which any art students or history buffs will recognise as a pretty ancient technique.

Camera Obscura means dark chamber, and uses the historic technique which was vital in the creation of photography, all the way up to modern-day cameras as we know them. Cast your minds back to physics GCSE, and a small hole is made in a dark room or box, which means images from the outside of the box get projected onto the box’s opposite wall. Voila: you have a perfect inverted view.

Whilst Alexandra Palace is mainly known for being a performing venue and has hosted countless headliners, including Queen and Pink Floyd, the new exhibition Upside Down London will bring a fun twist to the venue, whilst celebrating the 200th anniversary of the first photographs.

Running from 1st until 9th August, the event is completely free to attend, although it’s recommended that you book a session to secure your slot.

Ally Pally’s pinhole camera isn’t London’s only obscura, with one over in Greenwich’s Royal Observatory in its Meridian Courtyard, which offers up an inverted view of the Thames, the Royal Naval College, and more. There's also the Photographer’s Gallery in Oxford Circus, which shows the views from its neighbouring Sohoian streets.

You can find more information about the new installation on Alexandra Palace’s website.

• The best exhibitions in London this summer: From Escher to Bowie to Marilyn Monroe

Festival of all things J-culture and beyond, Hyper Japan, returns to London this weekend.

Running from 24th to 26th July at Olympia London, this year's event marks 16 years since the show was first held in 2010.

Still wondering whether to pick up tickets or not? Here are the details, and what you can expect from this year’s show.

What's on at Hyper Japan?

Merch is a massive focus of Hyper Japan. Olympia London will be packed with stalls selling all manner of toys, bits of memorabilia and crafts.

Before planning your day, you should also check out the timetable of stage acts too. There are bands, dance groups and string ensembles throughout each day — a good way to break up the day and take a breather from bustling through crowds.

Headliner acts later in the day include Queen Bee and Upiko on Friday, Chaidura and Press X on Saturday and Re:0 plus avantgardey on Sunday.

There will be plenty of places to grab some food at Hyper Japan, but entry rules are thankfully a lot looser here than at most of the “festivals” we write about, letting you eat elsewhere too.

You can leave and come back, as you get a wristband on entry, and are welcome to bring drinks and snacks in. Just leave the booze at home as that won’t be allowed.

If you want to save some cash — as food is never cheap at these things — there is a Tesco Express nearby, as well as a Londis and Sainsbury’s within a few hundred metres of Olympia London.

Oh, and while cosplaying is welcomed, leave out the weapons as they aren’t allowed, alongside “adult fetish attire.” And, as an odd specific, vuvuzelas.

Last year, in 2025, Hyper Japan took place in both London and Manchester, with that more northern version held in November.

According to the organisers, more than 53,000 came to the London edition in 2025, with more than 90 per cent being UK residents.

Hyper Japan 2026: Tickets and tips

The biggest of fans can pick up a weekend ticket for £78.75, including all fees. But if you want to save some money, and can take a half day or more off work, it’s Friday that gets you the best deal on entry.

A day ticket for the Friday session, 12-8pm, costs £28.25. Saturday costs £41.55 while the shorter Sunday session, 10-5pm, is £31.50 a head.

Two-day tickets are also available, for £69.30 a head, but that only really represents a saving if you’ll visit Saturday and Sunday — a minor one at that.

• The best exhibitions in London this summer: From Escher to Bowie to Marilyn Monroe

The Bear deserves to be in the conversation as one of the best TV shows of the 21st century - if not all time - alongside The Wire, Fleabag, The Studio and Severance but I think it might also be my favourite show. Which is something else entirely. Christopher Storer’s five-seasons-and-a-movie is funny and stressful and sweet and chaotic. It’s a hang-out show, a foodie show, a competence porn show and a grief show.

Sure, it’s not always perfect: those restaurant industry cameos aren’t always the most natural, hey. But when The Bear slaps, it really slaps. Richie singing along to Taylor Swift in his car in Forks? Carmy melting down cos he’s stuck in the fridge? The “I’m not like this because I’m in Van Halen, I’m in Van Halen because I’m like this.” The beef, the sauce, the snow, THE FAKS. Pure television magic.

Beyond the iconic shouty scenes and the calming kitchen montages, the show’s whole project of taking a group of pretty normal, working-class people and seeing what they’re capable of, with the right care, attention, time, money and ambition, is also just really fucking moving, too. Look at where Sydney, Tina, Marcus, Sweeps, Ebra, Richie - even Neil! my heart - start in the first episode and where they end up. (I think Richie’s S1-2 is possibly my fave character arc of all time, kudos to Ebon Moss-Bachrach for his magnificent performance).

Storer’s genius, bringing us back to that walk-in fridge, is to set all this in contrast to both Mikey, who gave most of them work in the first place, and his brother Carmy, the character who sees all their potential but has an intensely love-hate relationship with being a chef himself. The post that’s doing the rounds on social media of the first and last stills of Carmen Berzatto’s face in the series says it all.

The Bear is also the thing that made me start to think I’d been wrong about food. I’ve always had quite a lot of fun declaring to friends with better (culinary) taste than me that food can’t be art. It’s too practical and functional for starters: like Brian Eno says, a knife handle can be art but not the blade itself. You. Eat. It. Without it, we starve etc. And the people who pay silly money to eat in tyre-starred restaurants are just elitist wankers. Food isn’t democratic enough to be a true, universal artform. Poor people can’t access the best stuff at cheapo-cheapo prices, unlike books, cinema, music, theatre. OK, a Van Gogh might cost millions but you can probably go see it for free in a public museum. So food might be pretty, it might taste new and innovative and it might be pretentious but it simply does not equal art.

Then I watched The Bear. I watched the Berzattos, and the people they gathered around them, make food for each other “family style” before each shift in the restaurant. I watched Carmy and Syd make the same dishes over and over, illustrating them, tweaking them, tasting them, perfecting them, teaching them. I watched Tina and Marcus get schooled in fancy cooking and pastry techniques; Sweeps developing his sommelier tastebuds and “cousin” Richie mastering the delicate arts of conversation, ambience and front-of-house hospitality with his surprise-and-delight specials.

Most of all, these characters - who made me laugh a lot and I wanted to hang out with - were expressing themselves, their ideas, family histories, relationships through the dishes they were dreaming up and then making real. Sydney’s Coca Cola-braised short ribs, Marcus’ box of mints, Carmy’s seven fishes.

For sure, part of it was the novelty of watching these processes: I’ve never really watched Masterchef, Bake Off or any cooking shows unless someone else has it on and so, I’ve lost the TV battle. Another element is that The Bear’s packaging around these ‘food stories’ is much more my thing - rather than awkward conversations, regional British accents and pat sob stories, The Bear offered up rapid-fire screwball scripts, an immaculate soundtrack, editing that swings and subtle blink and you miss them call-backs which reward conscientious viewers like me. It’s all my jam.

The Bear hasn’t turned me into a chef-in-training or anything. And I’m still very much a future candidate for a robot cook. And yet, something shifted. A few years ago, I got intrigued by the whole endeavour. I started cooking by myself, for myself (with some Hello Fresh help) and actually enjoying it for the first time in my life. Essentially, kinda like how standing in front of Rothko’s Yellow Square, tipsy, at the Royal Academy one night unlocked the abstract expressionists for me, The Bear unlocked food for me, after decades of not getting it.

Two other things increased my food-is-art suspicion around the same time: Roadrunner, the 2022 Netflix doc about Anthony Bourdain which is genuinely inspiring, despite how it all ends and Tran Anh Hung’s beautiful 2023 film The Taste of Things, which shifted my perspective on the thorny ‘women doing the cooking’ feminist quagmire of it all. The film made me want to try out some of the course-making. The doc just made it all look quite rock ‘n’ roll, creative and world-expanding. Of course, I’m sure Pixar’s seminal 2007 masterpiece Ratatouille laid some of the structural framework for all of this deep contemplation in my mind.

Just to be clear - and very much SPOILER ALERTS from now on - Sugar and Richie have a chat late on in Season 5 about how $190 feels like a special occasion dinner but $200 is pushing it too far. So I could very much not afford to go to the fictional Chicago restaurant The Bear (unless I’m not paying). And when someone is sitting in the other room getting hungry, cooking still very much feels like a chore to be completed before steam starts coming out the top of my head like a Looney Tune, rather than an act of expression. But this TV show about small, ordinary transformations also had a small, ordinary transforming effect on me and a pretty unexpected one.

All of which is to say, to honour the show’s finale (which phew, sticks the landing with some characteristically lovely moments) I made six of The Bear’s signature dishes. Bear in mind, I’m much better at writing than cooking. Every second counts.

Sydney’s French Omelette for Sugar

OK in season 2, episode 9, Natalie ‘Sugar’ Berzatto is knackered and pregnant and bumps into Sydney. Syd’s like “let me make you something” and what she makes is this awesome french omelette with yummy Boursin inside. The omelette gets to the heart of literally nourishing someone you care about with food you’ve prepared. So simple and sweet. Again, something I used to think of as maybe slightly retrograde and to be avoided getting sucked into if you’re a good feminist who doesn’t want to get stuck in the kitchen.

Syd’s omelette is a perfect little ‘elevated’ dish, you know, that feels achievable but also on rewatch of the ep, there’s bougie but fun details like Sydney carefully rubbing butter along the top of her slim, folded up omelette, before finishing it off with chopped-up chives and broken-up sour and onion crisps sprinkled over the plate.

Even I couldn’t fuck this one up. My sister did say my first attempt was perhaps a little pale but definitely cooked enough to still be tasty. I followed this recipe - there are tons of people’s versions and tweaks of The Bear recipes online by now.

Confession: I did have to go with Pringles as the Big Sains didn’t have any other sour cream and onion-flavoured crisps but you know what, they worked. I stuck plenty of Boursin in there. And I used two eggs rather than three, just personal preference. Sydney’s French Omelette is quick, light, delicious and feels a bit special. Low effort, high reward.

The Original Beef of Chicagoland Sandwich

Hoo boy, this was a bit of a production but worth it and I couldn’t not do the OG braised-beef sandwich.

First of all, it’s a ‘cook the night before and then fridge it overnight’ situation, a fact which reminded me that I should always read through the whole recipe - in this case the LA Times version - at the start rather than randomly guessing how long things take…. Soooooahh, second, I’m not spending £12 on beef sirloin and risking drama and disaster so I enlisted my sister again to take care of flipping the beef in the pan. While she did that, I added all the herbs and spices and whatnot - oregano, dried basil, chilli flakes, paprika etc - into the sauce/jus/broth.

This and the chicken piccata felt the most like quote-unquote cooking of the whole lot, for the sheer amount of jars I had going, plus some shallot (a swap-in for onion), garlic and beef stock. Then our beef went in the oven for an hour, cooled down on the side before it was time to go in the fridge overnight.

I had a train to catch the next day so I had real Berzatto bro energy as I sliced the hunk o’ beef into thin strips and put the whole thing back in a pan on the hob again for ten minutes. Baguette, beef in, spoon over the sauce, my take on giardinieri on top, wrap it up and boom - an elite train sandwich. Plenty left for the rest of the fam who said that it was good, “like really good”. Could I be living my life like this all the time?

Mikey’s Family Spaghetti (Carmy’s Version)

So Mikey’s spaghetti sauce famously only has four ingredients: basil, tomatoes, oil and 10 cloves of garlic. San Marzano tomatoes and the small cans taste better, specifically. Like if you finally open up the cans, as Carmy does at the end of Season 1, you might find Mikey’s secret restaurant-saving cash stash. So I was pretty stoked when we found small tins of San Marzano tomatoes at the supermarket; suddenly it wasn’t an intimidating suburban soul-drain but a magical place full of treasures. Result!

Then I remembered Carmy’s version of his brother’s recipe, which adds butter and onion and I danced back and forth between the two - even after I started! - about which version to do. (My allegiance to this fictional family needs to be studied.) I went with Carmy’s in the end because I was cooking for others. Turns out that after you halve the onion, fry them, then leave them in the tomato sauce while it simmers for 20 minutes - you Take Them Out before you serve. Thank you for your service, onions. Italian cooking!

The ‘fancy’ bit of this recipe involved pureeing the basil (pre-soaked in olive oil, so chic) and smashed garlic with a handheld food processor - mine still looked quite bitty so I strained it too - then adding this oil to the tomato sauce midway through the simmer sesh. While I was perfecting my sauce, because with quick-cook spaghetti what else was I gonna do, I took what I reckon is my most Bear-coded pic, of the San Marzanos bubbling away in the pan with big dollops all around on the hob. You can feel the heat coming off it, right. My chef’s whites ( a t-shirt) was also pretty destroyed.

Less chic and more basic: the sauce was tasting a little acidic so instead of baking soda, I did add some sugar at the end: listen, I had dinner guests. Tastefully sized portions and a few basil leaves to garnish: another quick-ish success. Oh and bonus, I accidentally made enough for like a week.

Carmy’s Chicken Picatta Masterclass

Another classic Season 1 callback, Carmy teaches The Beef’s staff how to make a perfect Italian lemon chicken picatta pretty early on. A couple of things: carefully slicing chicken breasts in half horizontally (rather than, say, dicing them) and then bashing them flat felt super cheffy, similar to rubbing the salt and pepper on the beef for the sandwich. I’m not a huge meat-eater, particularly at home, so that was interesting to discover. And, obviously, it means they fry way quicker.

For the sauce, it was lemons, capers, shallots, chicken stock, grapeseed oil, white wine, butter and garlic - I followed this recipe - and to finish, parsley sprinkled on top. For my first batch of parsley, I did chop before I took the stalks off because this instruction was not in the recipe - fail. I also made my Mum hyperventilate with laughter over a misunderstanding about how many stock pots I needed.

Otherwise, it all went without a hitch, if it took ages as all my cooking does, but when I plated the picatta up with some new potatoes and greens and took my first bite of chicken: all I could taste was lemon. I’d completely forgotten to taste-test it towards the end, horror-show. All was not lost though, it was a little on the lemony side overall but you could still taste all the other flavours and it got thumbs ups around the table. With both this lemon chicken piccata and the simple-ish spag, I could see myself trying out new versions of these too. (Food is art/ is food art?) Lessons, lessons everywhere.

The Haribo-Style Plum Gelée

One example of Carmy’s NYC kitchen lore that he shares with dessert chef Marcus is the plum gelée that took a year to perfect, requires veal fat to get the Haribo-style consistency right and takes twelve people to prep. I’d not made jelly since I was a kid so I thought I’d try a simplified version with, for instance, no Japanese plum wine and unsalted butter in place of the veal fat.

So, I’m not sure what I made could be classed as jelly, let alone a gelée. It was a sort of slightly chewy, half-frozen plum thing. The instructions said to strain the plum mixture and leave the mushy remains behind but if I’d have done that, I wouldn’t have had much left at all… ohhh, right, yeah tiny restaurant portions. I guess that was my main mistake.

My jelly wobbled a little when… how should I put this, forced to… but overall, yeah, too dense a texture for the brief. My thinly sliced plums on the side looked pretty, though, and while the flavour was quite intense, it wasn’t bad exactly. And I did buy some jelly pots as a back-up. Which is good because this one will mostly be going in the food bin, I think. The biggest fail in terms of taste, though not on presentation...

The Frozen Chocolate Banana for Uncle Jimmy

At the end of Season 2 when The Bear opens for friends and family, we get one of my all-time Bear moments: Richie presenting Uncle Jimmy, who stumped up half a million dollars to help the restaurant get off the ground, with a frozen chocolate banana, wrapped in plastic and finished with a bow. It’s a sweet callback to the most stressful TV episode of all time, S2 ep 7 ‘Fishes’, set years earlier, when a younger Jimmy mentions to a younger Richie at the Berzatto’s house how his dad used to take him to a chocolate-covered frozen banana stand when he was a kid.

There’s no getting round this: my two attempts both kinda looked like poop-on-sticks. The first try, with melted dark chocolate chips, an improvised metal skewer and a not-quite-frozen-enough banana, was a total clusterfuck. Choc dripping everywhere, the banana almost splitting in two over the bowl as I dipped and dripped.

Before the second go, I went out, bought and ate a Twister for the lolly stick, made sure the banana was 100% frozen enough, bought some more chocolate (Dairy Milk) and it was... pretty similar to the first attempt, if maybe a teensy bit neater. The chocolate just sets so, so quickly, another near-impossible art for me to practice. I think perhaps having a lot more chocolate might help too. We did find a bow for it. So there’s that.

There are a few of these moments throughout the show where the staff get to serve their family and friends: Carmy pouring broth over frozen grapes for Claire or Sydney explaining to two diners that the Coca-Cola ribs were something her mum used to make. Or Marcus’ final touch: cutting the candle on the table in half as it’s hiding the caramel sauce for his banana ice-cream sundae (with brioche crumbs!) But Jimmy’s reaction to the chocolate banana is my favourite and sums up The Bear in one simple scene: everyone’s allowed to get emotional about all kinds of family when they step into this restaurant, even curmudgeonly old uncs.

• £5 Michelin star meals in London? A new guide addition offers cheaper eats

Usually you’d associate a street party with union jack bunting, a bank holiday, warm beige dips that no one is sure the provenance of, and kids riding a dangerous sugar rush. Legendary jazz club Ronnie Scotts is putting a classier spin on the old street party affair, opening up the streets of Soho this summer with a syncopated beat and a slew of good times.

On 1st August, Ronnie Scott’s Street Party is officially kicking off, bringing some of the most exciting and tuneful names in jazz, soul, R&B, and hip-hop to Soho’s auspicious streets. The iconic London joint will be setting up across two outdoor stages on Frith Street bringing a packed schedule of beat and tunes to the public. And like any good street party, it’s completely free to attend, just turn up – or make a wrong turn and vibe with it – and you’ll be able to sway, swing, and sing along.

The street party will span across five hours on 1st August, with a mix of different artists and entertainment filling up the day, kicking off at 11.30am and wrapping up around 5pm.

The concerts will feature DJ-sets, solo artists, plenty of al-fresco bars and grub up for grabs, as well as activities for grown-ups and kids alike. Artists set to perform at this year’s street party include Blue Lab Beats, Daniel Casimir Big Band, Shae Universe, Guvna B, Summer Pearl, Marlon the Pannist, and the Ronnie Scott’s Gospel Choir.

The whole shindig is being presented in partnership with the Music Venue Trust (MVT) and Save our Scene, supporting grassroots venues and underrepresented artists, giving them a platform and entry into performing and creating. Basically, you’re doing good by showing up, and all you have to do is party along.

Whether you plan to turn up, or you end up wandering through Soho and are drawn to the music, it’s one of those free events which reminds you why living in the big smoke can be so good – free, cultured, and the kind of summer scenes you’d see in a romcom montage, what more could you ask for?

Fred Nash, Managing Director at Ronnie Scott’s said: “Before the festivals, the awards and the headline tours, there are independent venues where musicians can experiment, find their voice and connect with audiences for the first time. Those spaces are absolutely essential to the health of British music. The Street Party is our way of opening Ronnie Scott’s up to everyone. By bringing free live music into the heart of Soho, we want to celebrate the incredible artists performing today while recognising the wider network of grassroots venues that helps make careers like their possible.”

You don't have to grab a ticket to secure your slot, but if you're keen to go, it's worth snapping up a free ticket via Ronnie Scott’s website.

The line up for both stages includes:

• BLUE LAB BEATS
• SUMMER PEARL
• NEONE THE WONDERER
  GRAMN
• JACKSON MATHOD
• DANIEL CASIMIR BIG BAND
• SHAE UNIVERSE
• GUVNA B
• RONNIE SCOTT’S GOSPEL CHOIR
• MARLON THE PANNIST

• The BIG London gig list 2026: Your guide to this year's very best shows, festivals and concerts

Ever been in a club and got hungry? But also thought that a quick round of chips and a kebab wouldn’t quite hit the spot? Either way, a five course Michelin starred menu isn’t probably quite what you had in mind, but that’s exactly what a new evening will be serving up.

Ministry of Sound will be launching a new evening called Last Orders, a new immersive dining experience featuring a powerhouse DJ and a Michelin Starred chef. Brad Carter will be helming the food side of the new evening, with DJ Ralph Lawson on the decks. The five course dinner will trace three decades of house music through food and sound, celebrating the club’s 35th anniversary.

It will be taking place right on the heart of the legendary dancefloor with a huge table at its centre. Dubbed a “sensory feast”, the five course menu will draw inspiration from house music's Chicagoan roots as well as a carefully curated cocktail menu to pair with each dish.

The takeover will be happening on 9th and 10th September, celebrating Ministry of Sound's 35th anniversary, giving the club’s main room (The Box) a proper makeover. Each dish and track will reflect a pivotal moment in club culture. Plus, after dining, you’ll be treated to a post-dinner private DJ set from Ralph Lawson, although it may be more of a soft shuffle than a high-jumping raver given how full you’ll likely be.

As for the dinner itself, you’ll start out in Chicago with an elevated take on the city's iconic deep-dish pizza to honour the birthplace of house music. The menu unfolds deeper into the lore of the genre, taking guests on a playful journey through the sounds, cities and late-night food cultures that shaped house music as we know it. Highlights include the deep-dish pizza which will be filled with braised squid and spicy nduja, and a New York-inspired lobster and prawn roll that fuses the classic East Coast favourite with Cantonese-style prawn toast.

Tickets are pretty steep for Last Orders at £250 per person, but you are getting a five-course michelin starred meal, along with a private music set from one of the UK’s leading DJs, alongside just a handful of others (okay, around 90). Each event will kick off at 6.30 and wrap up around 10.30 each night.

You can find more information at Ministry of Sound.

• Get hyped for Nolan's The Odyssey with these 8 epic Greek mythology movie and TV adaptations

If there’s one universal hobby amongst Brits, it’s snooping. From judging houses you pass on your commute through boroughs you can’t afford to live in, to taking tours around palaces and historic houses, we love a good nosey around somewhere new. Luckily, a festival basically dedicated to this particular pastime is heading our way. The London Open House Festival will be returning to the capital city this September, giving the average Joe access to some of the most private postcodes across the city.

The festival does the impossible: letting mere mortals cross into buildings which are usually strictly off limits to the public. Unlike most times you try and (legally) enter a bougie building, the Open House Festival will be completely free to attend. Running from 12th September until 20th, the lineup has just been revealed, boasting hundreds of sites which are usually locked and bolted to avoid the ruffians traipsing through.

It’s not just a self-guided tour and a quick Wikipedia scroll as you go sort of event, with guided tours, workshops, walking tours, talks, and drop-in sessions all kicking off throughout the week’s festivities.

The lineup is bursting at the historic seams with plenty of stunning sites, from underground chambers to towers and old theatres. Highlights for 2026 include The London Archives, who are offering behind-the-scenes tours of its site, as well as drop-ins at Blythe Hill House, Broadcasting House (home of the BBC), Chelsea Psychic Garden, and The Smallest Gallery in Soho. There are private residences throwing open their doors, as well as historical homes, gardens, theatres, community centres, cultural sites, farms, hospitals, libraries, observatories, and more. It makes sense that the festival is all about championing accessibility, inclusivity, and community given the breadth of its lineup. In fact, you’ll probably struggle to find something that you don’t like the look of.

This year’s talks span multiple unique sites across the capital, including ones at St Bartholomew’s Hospital and at the “overlooked gem” ST Aldhelm’s Church, Edmonton. The prestigious Morris + Company is also opening its doors for an exhibition on Materials and the Circular Economy, as is Bewck Road Studios, who are hosting an Open Studio and Exhibitions throughout the festival.

The festival spans across every London borough, championing all the gems of London rather than solely the ones with a gift shop and museum. It’s a great chance to learn a little more about the goings-on of your local area, as well as having a good old looksie around some of the buildings you always wander past and wish you could sneak in.

You can peruse the full list of sites taking place in the Open House Festival here.

Is your idea of hell a sugary cocktail which tastes like the liquid version of a pack of Haribo sweets? Is your dream drink garnished not with a cherry, but a pickle or a tomato slice? If so, you’re in luck, because savoury cocktails are taking London by storm. Yes, certain bars have dabbled in the world of savoury sips before, but this time around, the cocktails in question are very different beasts, crafted by a growing number of mixologists approaching their art with the skill of a scientist, analysing flavour profiles, tweaking ingredients and relying on tech such as sous vide machines to create savoury cocktails which are deliciously drinkable.

And if you’re still not convinced, Nick Jackson, cocktail connoisseur at Spanish tapas brand Barrafina, which has five venues in London, suggests starting with a martini. “Dirty martinis are currently paving the way for a lot of people, as both olives and brine are pretty familiar savoury flavours to most palates these days,” points out Nick. “It’s a drink which once seemed inaccessible, but which now seems to sit in much more familiar territory.” As for his theory about the sudden popularity of savoury cocktails? “It’s largely down to the development of imbibers’ palates,” says Nick. “People are more open to a breadth of savoury flavours for various reasons, including the growing popularity of kombucha to the current thirst for to matcha and martinis. There’s certainly a sense that there isn’t the same appetite for fruit-forward and sugary drinks.”

The best London bars for savoury sips

The Bar Below, Piccadilly

This subterranean sanctum, the brainchild of legendary mixologist Oskar Kinberg, is a thing of beauty, with a museum-like display of bottles behind a stunning bar carved from acacia. Tech plays a large part in the creation of the cocktails, which are seasonal, spectacular and, most importantly, delicious. Savoury sips have always had a starring role on the menu, and one of the newest additions is the Barometer, made with Mikolasch vodka, chervil and walnut, although we’re also huge fans of the Cross-Eyed Mary, a vodka-based tipple made with olive oil, tomato, sherry and a hit of spice. Sounds weird, but it works.

Bar Antoine, Mayfair

The mixologists at the Four Seasons Hotel London at Park Lane’s Bar Antoine have a serious passion for savoury cocktails and, more importantly, a knack for packing them full of flavour. Our favourite examples include the Peach & Mustard Margarita, made with tequila, peach eau-de-vie and mustard tincture, the Bond-worthy Cornichon Martini with olive oil vodka and the Fig-Affair Paloma, served with a beautiful Comté tuille garnish. Bar manager Leon Gasco is a huge fan of pickles in cocktails – but not just any pickles. “I always have to go the French route and opt for a cornichon,” says Gasco. “It strikes the perfect balance between savoury and bittersweet, while its crisp crunch keeps the palate refreshed with every sip of our martini. For the Cornichon Martini, we fat-wash the vodka with olive oil, giving it a richer texture that lets the cornichon's flavour shine through beautifully.”

Fitz’s Bar, Kimpton Fitzroy, Russell Square

The cocktails at this funky bar, with its potted ferns, velvet-clad booths and Grecian columns, don’t just taste amazing – they look truly spectacular too, thanks to the team’s decision to base the latest cocktail menu on synaesthesia, a condition which causes people to see colours when experiencing certain senses, whether it’s hearing a certain musical chord or tasting a certain flavour. The good news? You don’t need to have it to enjoy the bar’s cocktails, which are especially popular with fans of dark spirits. Highlights include the Mezcal-based Black Hole, made with sherry, mushrooms and walnut, the deliciously dark Caduceus, made with Macallan Double Cask, peanut butter spirit, porcini mushroom and cherry vinegar, and the ruby-red Taboo, made with whisky, tequila, chili and pineapple.

PocketSquare Skyline Bar & Terrace, Whitechapel

This bar’s cocktails are as stunning as the view you’ll enjoy – the bar is on the ninth floor rooftop of the Hyatt Place London City East. The cocktail menu is inspired by East London’s creativity, as well as the capital’s architecture. We recommend starting with the Gherkin. And yes, gherkin juice features on its ingredients list, but bear with us. The addition of chipotle and lime brings a gorgeous balance to this tequila-based drink, created as a modern twist on the margarita. The passion for savoury drinks doesn’t just apply to the cocktails, either – gin and tonic fans can upgrade their G&Ts by opting for Edinburgh Gin’s Rhubarb & Ginger gin, and the bar is also one of the few to stock FAIR Quinoa Vodka - the world's first certified Fairtrade and organic spirit distilled entirely from Andean quinoa.

Hausu, Peckham

For further proof that menus filled with sickly-sweet tipples are a thing of the past, head to Hausu, a cosy, minimalistic bar famous for its savoury concoctions. The most popular drinks include the Salted Iberiko Tomato Martini and the Mezcal & Sesame Old Fashioned, although the Fennel Negroni, made with 13 Gin, Cocchi, Dry Vermouth, Caracão, lemon and toasted fennel, and the Vodka, Plum and Yoghurt Sour are equally moreish. The beauty of Hausu’s drinks is their drinkability – the cocktails are a labour of love for the crack team of mixologists, and the Vodka, Plum and Yoghurt Sour is a great example. “We vac-pack our plums in vodka to intensify the flavour, then fat-wash the liquid through yogurt to clarify it,” says Tom Middleton-Joseph, co-director at Hausu. “It’s such an easy-going drink - although it’s quite strong it feels very light in alcohol. It sort of tastes like an adult squash!”

Bar Daskal, London Bridge

Now for something completely different (but just as delicious). Bar Daskal is a Spanish wine and cocktail bar, and its drinks are a flavour-packed tribute to some of Spain’s most famous ingredients. Take the Asados, made with Herradura Plata tequila, Campari, grapefruit soda and roasted red peppers – but not just any peppers. These ones are cooked over coals, hence the cocktail’s wonderfully smoky depth. For martini fans, it’s got to be the Con Sal y Humo, a punchy thirst-quencher made with Gin Mare and La Copa extra dry vermouth and livened up with smoked piparra brine for a hit of savoury smokiness.

La Petite Maison, Mayfair

A tomatini is a great entry drink for those dipping their toe in the world of savoury cocktails for the first time, and the one at La Petite Maison is legendary. First served at La Petite Maison Dubai, fans of the bar’s version (made exclusively with Ketel One Vodka) include Charli XCX, Harry Styles, Tom Cruise and Beyoncé, and La Petite Maison subsequently spearheaded the campaign for a National Tomatini Day, which now takes place every November. “The tomato provides an elegant backbone that complements the smooth-yet-peppery profile of Ketel One Vodka,” says bar manager Tibor Krascenics. “Fernando Pensato balsamic vinegar helps tie all the ingredients together, while a touch of salt and pepper brings the savoury dimension to life. The result is a cocktail that is distinctive, refreshing and highly approachable. It strikes a unique balance between savoury and refreshing, making it incredibly easy to enjoy.”

• Viral New York bagels are coming to North London

There are a lot of doors we’d like to snoop in collectively, that’s probably why Rightmove is such a thriving website. It’s not because there are so many people looking to buy houses (in this economy??), but because we all love having a snoop around fancy houses we can’t afford and criticise the designer interiors and decide it’s not for us based on the kooky layout of the kitchen rather than the £3 million price tag. Luckily, this summer you can go one step further than an online snoop and step inside one of the most prestigious postcodes in the country.

Buckingham Palace is throwing open its lavish doors gates and letting the public into the gorgeous gaff. On selected dates between 9th July and 27th September, the pretty palace will be letting Londoners run wild (okay, walk and gawp in an orderly fashion) through some of its most closed-off areas, gaping at some of its swanky regal rooms.

You will need a ticket to head inside the royal residence, and they’re already on sale for both self-guided tours and the official guided Palace tours, which take place from October to May every year. If you want to opt for the self-guided sejourns around the Palace, you may want to be speedy about getting your hands on a ticket as plenty have already been snapped up as Londoners apparently can’t wait for a sneaky peek behind the royal curtain. In advance, tickets for a standard adult are £33, with on-the-day tickets being £37.

If you’re wondering what bang you’ll be getting for your buck (or bank), then cast your minds back to Primary School projects on vague history details. Buckingham Palace has a whopping 19 state rooms in total, each decked out to the royal hilt with lavish interiors and plenty of golden fixtures.

Visitors will be able to check out highlights like the Throne Room, which, aside from The Crown, you’ll recognise from plenty of royal wedding photos over the years. As well as the Throne Room, guests will be able to wander through the Music Room – home to many royal Christenings, the Blue Drawing Room, the stunning Picture Gallery, the Ballroom, and the Grand Staircase, which will make you feel like a member of the landed gentry just from laying eyes on it.

The self-guided tour, despite the name, won’t let you wander off into King Charles’ bedroom, in fact, there’s still quite a few areas that will be off limits. If you find you do want to keep snooping, I mean, exploring, then you might want to add on a guided tour which will take you through the East Wing (yes, the home to that famous balcony) as well as the stunning Palace Garden.

You can find tickets for both tours here.

• This new app shows you a map of every hidden set menu across London’s best restaurants – including Michelin starred spots for less than £30