The eight best bars for dating: We round up the best cocktail bars in London to take a first date March 8, 2016 "Married and bored or single and lonely”. That’s our choice according to Chris Rock, the reigning comedic heir to Eddie Murphy and Richard Prior. Whether Rock’s right is a matter for debate, but having gone through the rigour of dating in the 21st century, I would opt for boredom every day of the week. Back [...]
The eight best pies in London: As British Pie Week gets into full swing, we celebrate some of the capital’s very best examples of baked pastry March 8, 2016 1. Polo Bar Fish Pie, £9.50 Pie Week has even united London’s rival financial districts. The chef at Canary Wharf’s Parlour has created this boozy fish pie for Polo Bar opposite Liverpool Street station. Packed with white fish, salmon, haddock and prosecco, it’s so tasty even the fish are diving in. 167 Bishopsgate, EC2M 2. [...]
Damien Hirst restaurant Pharmacy 2 review: Why this Pharmacy is a cure for your foodie ills March 8, 2016 I feel like I should start this review with a personal anecdote about Damien Hirst. Everybody seems to have one, like the time he pulled his foreskin through a hole in his trousers, pretended it was a blob of chewing gum and got people to try to brush it off. My anecdote would recall a [...]
I See You review: A tense exploration of identity, race and language in post-apartheid South Africa March 8, 2016 Royal Court | ★★★☆☆ Language is all tangled up in history and identity, a thick linguistic rope wound tight around an ancestral flagpole. Set in post-apartheid South Africa, I See You considers what happens when that rope breaks and a language is lost, and asks whether it’s what you speak, rather than what you say, [...]
Best place to stay in Chamonix: Amazon Creek has it all from hot-tubs to a dedicated chef March 7, 2016 The hot tub outside my huge Chamonix chalet has disco lights that make it look like a b-movie time machine. I’ve got a flute of Bollinger in my hand, and can hear the crackle of a log fire from indoors as I gaze through the steam across snowy peaks. This, I venture, is how one [...]
Lexus RX review: Will hybrid SUVs take over the market after VW’s dieselgate? March 7, 2016 Few things are as unwelcome in central London as a big, gas-guzzling SUV. One of them is a big, diesel SUV sporting a Volkswagen Group badge. Anti-diesel resentment has been bubbling for a number of years, culminating in the VW “dieselgate” emissions scandal that rocked (and continues rocking) the motor industry. However, one manufacturer has [...]
The 32 best barbecue restaurants in America: From Austin to North Carolina, we take a foodie tour of the American South’s top grills March 7, 2016 The best way to see America is by car, and the best way to taste America is on a driving tour of the country’s most celebrated BBQ pits. On a three week, six state and 2,500 mile journey from Texas to the Carolinas, I went in search of the best BBQ in the American South, [...]
Further growth forecast for hotel industries in London and other European cities after “bumper” 2015 March 7, 2016 Growth in the European hotel industry is set to continue this year but will not reach the levels of a "bumper" 2015, new research suggests. PwC's European hotels forecast suggests a robust outlook for European travel will continue to drive the industry this year and next. The report also noted that 2015 saw an almost 30 per [...]
London Has Fallen film review and other big releases this weekend March 4, 2016 London Has Fallen (15) | Dir. Babak Najafi ★★☆☆☆ Olympus Has Fallen was a surprise hit three years ago thanks to some old school plotting and a tailor made action hero in Gerard Butler. He returns as CIA Agent Mike Banning, who must protect the President (Aaron Eckhart) when the funeral of the British PM is [...]
This wildly reimagined A Midsummer Night’s Dream is riotously fun March 3, 2016 Hammersmith Lyric | ★★★★☆ There are few things more tragic than Shakespeare’s comedies. The plots are silly, the pacing is woeful, and what jokes there are are usually buried in such antiquated language and stale cultural references that you need a degree in early modern literature to have a chance of properly appreciating them. But Filter [...]
