The Time Out London blog team

London is easily one of the best food cities in the world. Its seams are practically bursting with brilliant cafes, great gastropubs, swanky small plates places and bougie restaurants. Plus, the Big Smoke is now home to a grand total of 88 Michelin stars, the fifth-most of any city on the planet.  It comes as no surprise, then, that the capital is now officially home to the best restaurant in the world, according to a recent awards ceremony. Every year, Food & Wine polls more than 400 chefs, travel experts, writers and wine aficionados on their top culinary travel experiences for its Tastemakers Awards. The results are then turned over to its Global Advisory Board, which compiles lists of the best bars, hotels, airlines, cruise lines and, importantly for food fanatics, the world’s top restaurants. London’s Ikoyi, on the Strand, nabbed the international culinary crown in 2026. Named after the affluent Lagos suburb where co-founder Iré Hassan-Odukale was born, Ikoyi debuted on the London scene in 2017. In the years since, it has transitioned away from its west African concept, and now focuses on ‘spice-based cuisine’, though a handful of Nigerian-inflected dishes remain on the 14-ish course set menu. Leonie Cooper for Time Out Dining at Ikoyi will set you back a pretty penny, but, as Time Out’s food & drink editor Leonie Cooper will tell you, it’s well worth the hefty price tag.  ‘A meal at Ikoyi is an otherworldly experience,’ she says. ‘From the flavours (phenomenal) to...

Does action-packed Japanese cyberpunk dystopia sound like your kind of film? The iconic 1988 sci-fi anime Akira is back in cinemas from April 17. Digitally remastered in 4k, and with hundreds of screenings across the city, there’s really no excuse to miss it. From the mind of director Katsuhiro Otomo, Akira is set in a near-apocalyptic imagining of 2019 neo-Tokyo, following the aftermath of World War III. It follows biker-gang ringleader Kaneda tearing through neon-lit city streets, racing against his rivals, until a fateful encounter with a mysterious boy leads to the kidnapping of his best friend, Tetsuo. Kaneda will stop at nothing to get him back, and torturous military experiments and spiralling madness ensue. The film is based on Otomo’s manga masterpiece of the same name. Its influence has spanned decades, so much so that the image of Kaneda racing down the streets of neo-Tokyo was recreated in Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One (2018). Tickets are selling fast (it's already sold out at BFI IMAX). But you can still catch Akira at over 30 London cinemas if you're quick, including The Garden Cinema and Regent Street Cinema, as well as chains like Picturehouse, Odeon and Vue.  Not about town? Screenings run for the next couple of months, with Prince Charles Cinema showing it through June 13. Time to rally the group chat, or try your luck and catch it a second time if once wasn't enough. You can watch the trailer and get your tickets here. The best sci-fi movies of all...

A giant stuffed shark toy, a desk lamp or a plate of meatballs and gravy – there are very few things you can’t buy at Ikea. And now, thanks to a somewhat surprising collab, sports gear can be added to its long, long list of goods. Yep, the DIY mecca’s Croydon outpost has joined forces with sports chain Decathlon to supersize its offering. The French chain sells equipment and clothing for everything from mainstream racket and ball sports to swimming, running, surfing, fishing, horse riding, mountaineering, ice-skating, skiing, even archery and pétanque. Fair enough, who wouldn’t want to tick a pair of galoshes and a bathroom bin off the shopping list in one fell swoop? The new Decathlon, which opens on Friday (April 24), will cover 1,188 square metres of space inside the 25,000-square-metre Croydon Ikea. It’ll offer more than 5,000 products and even has its own entrance, in case you want to avoid having to worm your way through the Swedish home store’s maze of display rooms to get to the athletic goods. The new space will also feature Decathlon’s buy back scheme, so you can trade in pre-loved gear for store credit. The Croydon shop-within-a-shop is the first pilot of a partnership between the two companies, meaning that if it’s successful, we could see more Decathlon/Ikea hybrids in the future.  Photograph: IKEA / Decathlon As for how they're marking the marriage, the first 100 customers through the doors on Friday and Saturday mornings will get a free Quechua NH100 10L...