The Time Out London blog team

There’s a brand new number one in Time Out’s list of the best London restaurants with views, and it’s a newly-opened joint just by Hyde Park. Congratulations to Shanghai Me, which opened last year on the 28th floor of the London Hilton on Park Lane. The same address was once home to Galvin at Windows, which closed in 2024 after 18 years of trading. Our four-star review of the high rise Chinese-Japanese fusion restaurant praised the extensive menu, which features the likes of wagyu dim sum, cod and miso, and black truffle yellowtail.  ‘There was a desire to be cynical about Shanghai Me. But it’s actually fun,’ wrote Joe Bishop. ‘The dishes are enjoyable, the people watching is second to none, the view is stunning, the mainly Italian serving staff were jovial and had character. If you’re going for a silly, opulent date night to rub shoulders with London’s anonymous elite, you could do a hell of a lot worse than this.’ The review also mentioned the scale of what you can see from the restaurant windows: ‘Our view was punctuated magically by the fireworks from Wembley Stadium at the end of an Oasis concert’. That’s a solid eight miles away.  Our full list of the 18 best London restaurants with views also includes Forza Wine’s spot on the South Bank, and Tate Modern’s in-house eatery on the 6th floor, which boasts views of St Paul's Cathedral.  🌅 London restaurants with the best views, according to Time Out.  Plus: this fancy north London pub has been crowned the third best...

We have some good news for tote bag hoarders, unusual haircut lovers and aspiring Frieze shoppers. The Courtauld has announced it will open two brand new galleries dedicated to contemporary art in the next few years.  The Blavatnik Contemporary Galleries are expected to open in 2029 inside Somerset House, displaying contemporary art through special exhibitions, commissions and events.  The impressive new galleries will be located on the top floor of the North Wing of Somerset House within the new Courtauld Campus, and will form part of the Courtauld’s transformation of its historic Grade I-listed building. They will be housed inside a restored 18th century display room with full accessibility and public access from the East Wing.  With a focus on modern day art, working artists and education, the galleries will also provide a space for artists creating new projects, while students on the Courtauld Institute’s MA in Curating will be largely responsible for delivering the programme.  Elena Crippa, senior curator of Contemporary Art: Exhibitions and Projects at the Courtauld, said: ‘The new galleries will be a site of possibilities for artists to present exceptional artworks. These new spaces will help us connect past and present art and ideas, engage students and bring living artists to the core of our activities.’ Turner Prize-winning sculptor Anthony Gormley said he was looking forward to the new galleries too. He said: ‘Wonderful to have, in such a lively intellectual...

You know the drill by now: large scale immersive exhibitions have gone from nowhere to ubiquity in London, with the last year alone bringing us big, tech-augmented, family-facing shows devoted to the likes of Tutankhamun, the Titanic, and the destruction of Pompeii. Most of these shows already existed – they’re generally made by European companies – but have started touring to London since the opening of a series of large-scale immersive event spaces, notably ImmerseLDN and Dock X. It’s to the latter destination – replacing The Legend of the Titanic – that the latest such exhibition is heading. Vikings: The Immersive Exhibition does exactly what it says, ie it’s about Vikings. However, it’s actually about quite specific Vikings, telling as it does the story of – and I quote – ‘King Ragnar Lodbrok, the wise Queen Kraka (Aslaug), and their world-conquering sons, Ivar the Boneless, Bjorn Ironside, Hvitserk and Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye, as they assemble the Great Heathen Army and change the course of European history’. Photo: Morris Mac Matzen Vikingologists may note that the exact historical verity of these figures is at best ‘variable’ but immersive exhibitions love a change to get giddy with a bit of mythology. We’re told the exhibition will put a particular focus on Kraka, rather than simply glorifying Ragnar’s pillaging, which is fair enough, though presumably most audience members will be hoping for at least a bit of pillaging. There’s a decent chance Kraka didn’t...