The Time Out London blog team

Esteemed restaurant guide Harden’s has revealed its list of the UK’s 100 best restaurants for 2026. And while no London restaurants ranked in the top three, the capital cleaned up quite nicely across the rest of the list.  The ranking, which is based on 30,000 reports from a survey of 2,500 diners, features 38 London institutions this year. And the highest ranked of the lot was The Ledbury in Notting Hill. Placing fourth on the ranking, diners hailed The Ledbury for its ‘head-to-toe near perfection… from the the owner, to the staff and especially to the tasting menu’ and ‘wallet-scorching but exceptional’. It received a ‘very good’ four out of five for its food and ambiance and a ‘good’ three out of five for service.  The luxury institution from chefs Brett Graham and Nigel Platts-Martin has been around since 2005 and has been showered with accolades over the past few decades. It’s been named the UK’s best restaurant on multiple occasions, earned two Michelin stars by 2010 and picked up its third Michelin star in 2024. The Ledbury closed for two years after the pandemic but since returning in 2022 has gone from strength to strength. One reviewer called the dishes ‘genius’ while another said it has ‘unquestionably the most impressive front of house staff’ they’ve ever encountered.  Being so highly decorated, eating here doesn’t come cheap. If you were to stop by The Ledbury for a three-course dinner plus half a bottle of wine and coffee, you’re looking at spending around...

Flying from Heathrow sometime soon? You’re going to want to be aware of changes to the major flight hub’s drop-off policy. In short, you’ll only be able to wait for a certain amount of time, and will have to fork out a bit more money.  In the New Year, the UK’s busiest airport will introduce a strict time limit on drop-offs for the first time ever. Bosses at the airport said this would be to ease congestion in the zones outside the terminals. They added that free drop-offs using the Park and Ride were still available to all terminals, should you not want to pay the fee.  Here’s everything you need to know about the changes.  When is Heathrow changing its drop-off rules? The new rules come into force on January 1 2026.  How much is Heathrow increasing the drop-off fee by? The fee to drop off a passenger at one of the Heathrow terminals in a car will increase by only £1, from £6 to £7.  How long will drivers have to drop-off passengers? People dropping off will only be allowed to wait for 10 minutes before they will be issued a Parking Charge Notice (PCN). This should still give you plenty of time – the Heathrow spokesperson said that 95 percent of drop-offs are currently under 10 minutes.  How to pay the drop-off charge Visitors to the drop-off zones can pre-pay online or by phone. Alternatively, if drivers are paying after using the drop-off areas they must do it before midnight the following day otherwise they could be charged an £80 fine. Did you see that London Heathrow...

London puts on all sorts of fantastic things to keep our spirits up during the dark, cold days of winter. But with all the Christmas crowds and general city hustle and bustle, you’d be forgiven for wanting to escape it for a while. If you’re in the market for a winter day trip within easy distance of the capital, look no further – we’ve put together a list of places less than two hours from London that are particularly worth a visit this time of year.  One of the best day trips just outside of the city right now? The Making of Harry Potter Warner Bros Studio Tour in Watford. Obviously, it’s a fantastic day trip for Potter fans year-round, but there’s something extra magical about the Warner Bros Studio Tour during the coldest months.  From November 15 until January 18, the studio puts on ‘Hogwarts in the Snow’. For the festive season, the Great Hall is decked out in dripping icicles, silver decorations and flaming Christmas puddings straight from the Yule Ball, while the Gryffindor and Slytherin common rooms will fill with actual decorations used in the movies and Christmas cards made by the crew during filming.  Photograph: Shutterstock The Forbidden Forest and Diagon Alley will also be dressed up for Christmas and the Hogwarts castle model at the end of the tour will be coated in snow using the same technique used in the films (with teeny tiny snowmen dotted across the sculpture, too). A tonne of gifts and stocking fillers will be also be available in a pop-up...