London W1, a bit of WC2 & a few strays.
This guide is for our friends who live abroad, just in time to plan for the Olympics…
We spend a lot of time traveling, and luckily for us have been to and eaten in many of the great cities of the world (and many of the most obscure back waters too, the back waters are usually our favourite).
We have many favourite cities, in our current top three is Mumbai. Recently however, we unanimously concurred (I was in a bit of a bad mood, made this statement and everyone agreed) that London is the best city in the world.
Yes the weather is particularly shitty, but bad weather makes everything else better, and the sun, when it does shine, is better in London than anywhere else in the world, the city smiles and so does everyone in it.
(yes, that’s London).
And varied weather makes fashion better. It just does, fact.
Thankfully in London we only have to put up with flip flops a few days a year and the rain means it’s also too wet to wear uggs…yay…uggs should be banned…correction, uggs and flip flops should be banned (especially from food establishments), the shoe of the lazy person (although arguably neither are actually a ‘shoe’).
(that’s who you get when you search Ugg Boots…)
FOOD:
At Somesuch & Co. something we all have in common is our passion for good food, we even make it for each other and so do some of our Mum’s (yum, thanks Margaret Tan, we loved your Malaysian Curry, better than any restaurant, can we have it again soon please)…
We can argue with you about which city offers the best food, we can argue for hours, we can probably fall out over it, but this is our blog and it’s about things that make us happy, so here London is the best, do your own blog if you want somewhere else to be better.
Tokyo has some of the best food we’ve ever eaten, but that is consistently Japanese food.
Rome/Milan/Naples the best Italian food one will ever eat, but like Tokyo, the best food is of the country’s origin.
Ditto for Paris actually not ditto for Paris, we think the Parisians are getting a bit lazy in the food dept…go to Lyon instead.
New York offers great casual fare, a slice, a meatball, an udon noodle, a (hideous bloody) cupcake (we won’t be talking about cup cakes here other than WE DON’T GET IT, cupcakes are for children and should stay that way) or that red cake…what’s it called? linen? silk? Oh thanks Google - ‘Velvet’. People seem very excited about velvet cakes and drinks and other things… I digress, my point is that NYC’s strength’s lie in casual food (forgive us Babbo, you’re still one of our favourites).
Where London can whip its competition is in variation AND quality and London is getting better and better.
Here are our favourites. We hope we’ve remembered them all:
Soho:
Barrafina does the best tapas in London, Barrafina does the best tapas we’ve had outside an amazing experience in Spain. Yes you may have to queue and what you wanted may have run out, but fuck it’s worth the wait, and there will be an alternative that’s just as good.
Bocca Di Lupo is on Archer St, which thanks to Bocca di Lupo and it’s partner Gelupo, has gone from being one of the last streets in Soho frequented mostly by drug dealers, addicts and prostitutes, to rather a gastric street still often frequented by drug dealers, addicts and prostitutes. (However, thanks to the hotel being built and the refirb of Smiths Court to another Kingly Court we are sure the cleansing of Soho will soon be complete and the drug addicts will be moved to another part of London.) Bocca Di Lupo is an Italian restaurant which serves some of the best Italian food we’ve had. Anyone that has eaten there will enthusiastically endorse their shaved radish & celeriac salad with pomegranate, pecorino and truffle oil. Perhaps it’s ‘just’ a salad but many restaurants are lazy with salads, so a beautiful salad that people specifically go back for is a very good sign for the rest of the menu if you ask us, and the rest of the menu lives up to the salad. The other lovely thing about BDL is the service. Ernest is our out and out favourite, but all of the staff are delightful.
Across the road, next to the salubrious Windmill…
is BDL’s casual partner Gelupo. Gelupo serves gelato, sandwiches and baked yummy stuff. Their donuts are especially good.
On Frith St Koya does delicious Japanese noodles, hot, cold, hot and cold. They are all wonderful.
Ducksoup, a newcomer, does a bloody good lunch and the menu changes daily, and even if it doesn’t the fact that it’s hand written makes it feel like it does.
YUMMY, I’ll have the chicken liver pappardelle please.
Of course Soho & Covent Garden have Polpo and all of Polpo’s friends, who keep multiplying at such a rate that it’s clear lots of people like the ease of Polpo & Friends. We think they are all more suited for lunch.
Pollen St Social delicious for lunch or dinner, and we like its relaxed approach to lovely food. On their site they have a title for ‘Experience’…modern…
If you have done our favourite pre-recession or during-recession-but-in-denial wander down Bond St into Grafton St then Dover St shopping along the way, you’ll be hungry and tired. Where better to rest and pretend the recession doesn’t exist than The Wolseley, possibly one of the most beautiful restaurants in London. To sit in the main dining area you need to book, but at odd times of the day you will get into the salon which is just as lovely. The Wolseley does delicious food any time of day, but The Wolseley is about more than it’s food. The Wolseley is about denial. The Wolseley is about pretending. The Wolseley is a fantasy-land where you are rich and everything is ok.
The Delaunay is the younger sister to The Wolseley, or the less rich relative, the relative that didn’t inherit quite as much. Great menu and delicious too, but the fantasy doesn’t quite fulfill.
Mon Plaisir is not the choice of many, but we love it; the grumpy service, the funny clientele, the 1980’s menu, all good. We stick loyally to snails, steak & chips and cheese from the trolley and reckon you should too.
Kikuchi is one of our favourite sushi places. It’s on Hanway St near Hakkasan, but nowhere near Hakkasan if you get what we mean. Kikuchi doesn’t have a light dimmer, it doesn’t have lychee cocktails, nor does it have its own Hotel Costes style CD, and it definitely doesn’t do black cod, but it does exceptional sushi and the chicken livers are to die for.
If you’re after some good coffee and a custard tart or pork roll Fernandez & Wells is a great filling station. Our favourite is the St Annes Court branch, especially for a glass of Cava on a Friday evening.
Dean St Townhouse does comfort food really well and it’s a cosy place to eat in the winter.
Scotts in Mayfair is our favourite of Caprice Holdings holdings. It sells jolly good fish. They also have The Mount Street Deli which does a good brekkie.
On the Scotts website there is a great little key to Mount St, very helpful. Thanks Scotts.
If you can get in Nopi, owned by Ottolenghi, is very good indeed. Just book in advance because they seem to enjoy saying ‘no vacancies’ (at Somesuch & Co we prefer the word ‘yes’).
In Chinatown C&R Cafe is our overwhelming choice. It’s Malaysian not Chinese, but we’re yet to be blown away by great Chinese in Chinatown so the Malays win it. C&R is down a stinky alley off Wardour St and looks rather unappetizing. It’s the opposite. If you don’t eat the Roti Canal you’re daft.
We have to stray East to list 5 of our favourites in London; we have more favourites East (you can see a few of those in our Dalston Guide), but these are so good we couldn’t leave without them:
St John’s, both St John St John (as we call it) and St John Bread and Wine are 2 of the best restaurants around, beautiful produce, beautifully cooked, a menu that reads as no bullshit but is so cleverly put together it hurts. There have been many a try hard replica but none are as good.
Gourmet San on Bethnal Green Road like C&R looks a little basic, take no notice, the food is anything but, and don’t be a pussy, order out of your comfort zone.
Here are some suggestions from our very own Daniel Wolfe:
Cold dishes
Spring onion mix of leg steak
Spicy mix of ox tripe
Patted cucumber with garlic sauce
Hot dishes
BBQ lamb skewer
Poached sliced beef in hot chilli oil
Fried pickled peppers with baby cuttlefish
Braised shredded turnip, vermicelli & streaky pork
Old place sautéed crab with dry chilli
Viajante in the old Bethnal Green Town Hall has exceptional food and the service is perfect, neither uptight nor relaxed. It’ll set you back a few bob, so make it a special treat. Oh and have a cocktail in the bar first.
Here’s what Viajante say about themselves: “Viajante is a singular restaurant set in the beautiful urban landscape of East London. We are young and restless, driven by emotions, and inspired by a long journey of discoveries in food.” LOL.
Brawn on Columbia Rd is a pork based restaurant, but if you don’t eat pork don’t let that put you off, Brawn has one of the best pea risottos in London and does delicious seafood.
Hotels:
Sadly because we live here we don’t get to stay in London hotels, but for ‘research’ we have tried a few.
Our favourites are:
The Connaught in Mayfair, it ain’t cheap, but it is luxurious and you get your own butler. The Connaught also has a lovely spa and the bar makes a mean martini (worth a visit even if you’re not staying the night).
Claridges is posh like the Connaught and you also get a butler. It may need a spot of paint in places, but it makes up for that in charm and service. When we stayed there we were upgraded to a suite. A suite with a cloak room and hallway. A suite so big we needed to stay a week to use it all. A suite that we would happily live in. Sadly we couldn’t.
At Claridges if you can’t stay a week or forever it’s worth staying for an afternoon tea.
The Covent Garden Hotel is our favourite of the Firmdale Group; the rooms are lovely and it has an honesty bar. We love an honesty bar and have spent a few rather legendary nights enjoying the Covent Garden Hotel’s.
For something more affordable in central London we really love Hazlitt’s, just ask for a quiet room. (How we wish those walls could talk.)
We put someone up in the Dean St Townhouse recently and they seemed happy, with the exception of room service stopping at 10pm, but the bar and restaurant there are lovely.
Our favourite London members club The Groucho Club has rooms, but only for members or friends of…
If you have friends or business in east London and fancy staying there The Town Hall in Bethnal Green is the loveliest East London hotel. It is a 5 minute walk from the central line, so easy to get to and from, plus the bar there makes the best cocktail in east London.
Shopping:
Our shopping advice is get Timeout Guide to London, it is the best.
As you may know we like shopping and are rather skilled at it, so here’s a brief guide to our favourite posh shops…
Opposite The Covent Garden Hotel are some lovely shops and Covent Garden appears to be getting better. Our friends Opening Ceremony are opening there in time for the Olympics, which we are ecstatic about.
Mount Street (the Connaught) is the Sloane Street of W1, but more mellow. On it is one of our favourites Lanvin. It’s rare that we can afford Lanvin these days sadly, but you can buy a notebook there for £40 or just browse the beautiful clothes. Also on Mount St are Balenciaga, Louboutin, Marc Jacobs and more.
In between Mount St and Soho are Margiela, Stella McCartney, Westwood, Issy Miyake, etc just drift up and down the streets between and you will see them all, or use a map.
Between Mayfair and the Wolseley are Vanessa Bruno, Acne and The Dover Street Market. As mentioned in food, one of London’s loveliest shopping walks consists of a wander from Fenwick (below) down Bond St, to Grafton St then onto Dover St. Bliss.
Browns on South Molton St consists of a rabbit warren through several interconnecting buildings. If you look like a serious shopper you may be followed by a lady hoping for a commission. Don’t feel pressured, usually they are lovely, and if you are after something specific, they know their shit. Opposite Browns is Browns Focus, the younger, groovier, ‘cheaper’ sister to grown-up Browns. We’re not sure about cheaper, but Browns Focus is where you can find clothes from our beautiful friends Surface to Air and Opening Ceremony (woo hoo they’re opening a shop here soon) so we are big fans.
Our current favourite department store is Fenwick on Bond St. Yup, you might think Fenwick is just for old ladies, but you my friend are incorrect. Fenwick has the best hosiery dept in London. Its make up department sells everything most others do but is civilised. It has a wonderful selection of lingerie and Fenwick sells pretty good clothes too, yup just go and look, mark my words you’ll like it too (if you’re a woman and over 25).
Soho seems to be having a renaissance of late, more in food than shopping, but there are some great shops. Liberty (of course, didn’t you see the Christmas hamper they sent us? we reckon we own part of Liberty), B Store which has recently moved to Kingly Street and the original (we don’t know that for sure) Agent Provocateur on Berwick St next to Space NK. Gorgeous undies with gorgeous staff.
If it’s food you’re after Lina Stores, Soho’s wonderful traditional Italian deli that was sold and closed much to our upset, has reopened staying fairly true to its former self and now does a good sandwich too. I Camisa and Son on Old Compton St is still family run and sells a great sausage. Gelupo on the now gastric crack and prostitute Archer St (above) sells pasta sauces made by their chefs that are so good you can get away with pretending you made them yourself to great acclaim from your guests (if that’s the type of person you are). Gelupo is famous for its homemade ice creams, but we prefer its wine and produce, and it’s the only place I know outside NZ to sell what us Kiwi’s know of as whitebait. It’s frozen, but it’s the real deal.
(Now THAT’S whitebait. It’s white and good bait, talk us through your version…)
Berwick St Market seems to be shrinking sadly, but the produce there, although probably not organic, is good and cheap and if you smile (and are a woman) you’ll probably get something free.
One of our favourite butchers in London is Allens of Mayfair (opposite the Connaught). Allens sells meat of exceptional quality and the service is a delight. If like us, you don’t live in Mayfair Allens also has a great website and delivery service.
The The Ginger Pig in Marylebone also has exceptional meat and service, plus you can do a butchers course at The Ginger Pig, which we did and thoroughly enjoyed. Next to The Ginger Pig is La Fromagerie which reckons it’s one of the best cheese shops in the UK. Possibly it is but we really love Neals Yard Dairy over in Covent Garden for cheeses too. La Fromagerie differs in that it also sells lovely produce and has a good cafe so they are both beautiful in their own ways.
(There’s La Fromagerie with the Ginger Pig right next door.)
Selfridges isn’t our favourite department store (although its website reckons it’s ‘the best in the world’), but the foodhall is pretty good especially if you’re after fish or kosher. (Although if you want the best fish in London, as we’ve said before, Steve Hatt on Essex Rd is the place for you.)
If it isn’t raining and you want to sit down and relax, London has a lot of really beautiful parks and squares, all beautifully cared for, whether it’s Hyde Park or Soho Square, you’re never far away from somewhere pretty to sit. Just look for the green bits on the map…
So there is a needle in the haystack that is London, a tiny taster of what makes London the best city in the world…
