The Time Out London blog team

I’m pretty sure I have said ‘this is the best thing I’ve eaten all year’ at least 25 times over the past 12 months, making the task of choosing the actual single best thing I’ve eaten this year extremely difficult. There were the crunchy/sloppy mutton fries at Khao Bird, addictive wontons at Ling Ling’s, sweetie-like slow-braised pork belly nuggets at Lai Rai, Tasca’s naughty tomme de chevre and smoked maple ham bikini sandwich (RIP), and an outrageously juicy devil on horseback at the opening of the new St John wine bar in Neal’s Yard. London, you have spoiled us. Here are the best things team Time Out ate in 2025.  The 8 best London restaurant dishes of 2025 Leonie Cooper for Time Out The Lavery’s asparagus fonduta I’ve eaten a lot of rich, heavy things this year. Things drenched in butter. Things swimming in cream. Things layered with lardo. No complaints, but sometimes I crave something light and semi-healthy. The Lavery’s asparagus fonduta managed to elegantly straddle the line between both worlds. This good cop/bad cop dish offered exceedingly decadent and artery-destroying cheese sauce glooped over saintly steamed veg. The restaurant, a Nigella Lawson fever dream in a Georgian townhouse in South Ken, is sophistication personified, and this simple dish the very apex of its classiness. Leonie Cooper, Food and Drink Editor  Liv Kelly for Time Out Tollington’s scallops  After a handful of visits to Tollington’s it’s easy to see why scallops (in some form or...

In a city as enormous as London, you can’t possibly do all of its best bits in one trip. That means that you want to make sure everything on your itinerary will actually be worth it. That’s what Time Out’s guides to the city’s best restaurants, theatre shows, museums and more are for. But to get the best out of your trip, you should also be aware of which parts of London you might want to avoid.  Like in any city, the Big Smoke has its fair share of tourist traps. Now, the Telegraph has included one London popular spot in its list of the top 10 worst tourist attractions in Europe – or, more specifically, the continent’s ‘most naff attractions where no discerning tourist would be seen dead’.  Leicester Square, home to the Hippodrome Casino, the ODEON Luxe, the Lego store and M&M World, landed in second place. The central London plaza is one of the most packed areas of the city and apparently attracts more than 2.5 million visitors every week. Add to that the neon flashing screens and music blaring from businesses and passing rickshaws and you’ve got the perfect recipe for complete sensory overload.  The paper’s travel expert Rob Crossan wrote: ‘There is no finer act of charity that a Londoner can bestow upon a visitor than to drag them away from M&M World, the Hippodrome, the Hard Rock Café and everything else that makes Leicester Square feel like a vision of what Las Vegas would be like if it was run by [Ryanair CEO] Michael O’Leary.’ What a burn.  Other landmarks on...

2026 looks set to be the year of robotaxis here in London. That’s right – cabs without human drivers will be cruising around the Big Smoke as soon as next year. Last week, we shared a first look at Waymo’s autonomous vehicles, which are due start picking up passengers in the next 12 months, and now another company has entered the mix.  Chinese AI company Baidu is set to launch self-driving taxis in London, too. Working in collaboration with Lyft and Uber, it plans to begin testing the vehicles on London’s roads in 2026, pending regulatory approval.  Baido’s Apollo Go vehicles already ferry people around cities across China. The cars are fully electric and have been designed from the outset to operate without a driver. That means they’ve been built with enhanced passenger experience in mind with features like reclining seats with massage features, panoramic sky roofs and mood lighting options.  Lyft, which only launched in London this year, said that its partnership with Baido is part of its mission to create a ‘hybrid network’ of self-driving vehicles and human drivers to meet London’s transportation needs and revealed that work is already under way with Transport for London, regulators and local communities.  In an announcement on LinkedIn, Lyft CEO David Risher wrote: ‘Over the weekend, Lyft and Baidu signed a definitive agreement to bring autonomous vehicles to London. We’ve been working around the clock to make it happen, and now it’s official. ‘Riders in London will...