David Clack

Just like the espresso martini, this punchy drink is the invention of recently departed cocktail legend Dick Bradsell. Given that the whole thing is made in the glass, this is a good option for people lacking in proper cocktail kit. And if you don’t own a spoon, chances are cocktails aren’t your thing anyway. Bramble recipe: Ingredients:50ml gin25ml lemon juice12.5ml sugar syrup Directions:Add crushed ice, stir in glass, add more ice, pour over 10ml crème de mûre, garnish with blackberries. RECOMMENDED: See America’s best cocktails

According to booze legend, the first espresso martini was poured right in London in 1983. Working at a bar in Soho, cocktail king Dick Bradsell was asked by a customer to mix up something that would 'wake me up, then fuck me up'. With its generous measure of vodka, this version from Jamie Jones from The Blind Pig in London has certainly got the second part covered. Espresso martini recipe: Ingredients: 25ml espresso 25ml coffee liqueur 45ml vodka Instructions: Shake with ice, strain into a martini glass, garnish with coffee beans. RECOMMENDED: See America’s best cocktails

  According to booze legend, the first espresso martini was poured right here in London in 1983. Working at a bar in Soho, cocktail king Dick Bradsell was asked by a customer to mix up something that would 'wake me up, then fuck me up'. With its generous measure of vodka, this version from The Blind Pig has certainly got the second part covered. Espresso martini recipe 25ml espresso25ml coffee liqueur45ml vodka Shake with ice, strain into a martini glass, garnish with coffee beans.

This is it: you’ve spent the whole year eating like a saint (right?), but now it’s December and that means it’s time for some seriously hearty, gravy-slathered stodge. Below are five great London restaurants you can count on to serve food that’ll have you letting out a gentle groan as you settle the bill, all picked by Quandoo. Spot something that takes your fancy? All the restaurants listed below are bookable through Quandoo – simply click the booking button and get that res in your dinner diary.

Polish those lenses and sharpen those pencils – Time Out’s Eye-Openers is back for another round of up-in-the-air action on the London Eye and this time, it’s all about sketching and snapping. That’s right – after our latest sell-out run in April, we’re taking over the Eye’s capsules once more, for a series of sessions that are ideal for creative folk and Insta addicts. Now, as artistic muses go, the London skyline during the summer is about as photogenic as they get, and gliding above it during a half-hour rotation on the London Eye means you can admire the little stunner from a variety of interesting angles. So whether you’re all about sunset hashtags or you like to make your mark with charcoal, ink and pen, all you have to do is pick your sesh, bag your ticket and go make some masterpieces.

Ever been on a date with someone who was utterly gorgeous but duller than a Belgian politician listing their favourite types of rice? Well London is full of architectural equivalents – buildings that we wouldn’t expect would get our pulses racing, but that are hot stuff in the looks department. You can find loads more in a new book called ‘England’s Post-War Listed Buildings’ by Elain Harwood and James O Davies (published by Batsford and Historic England), which you can buy right here.

If you’ve found yourself emerging from winter in a slightly roly-polier state than when you entered it, don’t panic – you’re not the only one who’s been mainlining gravy since October. But now it’s spring, which means, when you’re not spinning through meadows with flowers in your hair, it’s time to slip into some Lycra, break a sweat and get those energy levels up. And when we say ‘up’, we mean right up, 135 metres in the air. That’s right, after a sell-out stint last year, we’ve taken over the London Eye for another round of yoga classes with awe-inspiring views. This time round though, the programme is bigger and better than ever, with five different flavours of stretchy fun on offer – everything from traditional classes to super-sassy Voga and even the totally paw-some Doga. Whichever you pick, book your place today and you’ll be ready to bound into spring feeling bright-eyed and bushy tailed.

Last year, one of Time Out’s wildest dreams came true when we were handed the keys to the actual London Eye. After an autumn season of yoga sessions, kids’ singalongs, live comedy and more, something even cooler has happened – we’ve been allowed to take London’s most unique landmark out for another spin. Well, several, spins, really – we’ll be programming four stints of activities on the London Eye throughout 2019, so expect more life-affirming fitness classes, family-friendly fun and the odd curveball before the year’s out. Oh, and stunning, constantly transforming views as you move over the city. Those come as standard. The first series of Time Out’s Eye Openers this year is happening in March – the perfect time to take flight over the gently blooming city and maybe even catch a stunning spring sunset. To celebrate World Book Day (Thursday March 7), all of March’s events are inspired by classic stories, from sensory singalongs to puppet shows (yes, dressing up is very much encouraged). Tickets for all events are available right now, so read on, head online to bag your passes and let your imagination take flight.

If Buddy the elf went out for dinner in London, you can bet he’d be jingling in the direction of these ultra-festive restaurants, all picked out by Quandoo. Here, the holiday season is embraced with uncommon enthusiasm, resulting in menus that are big on Christmas flavours and the twinkly ambience of a Santa’s grotto. Spot something that takes your fancy? All the restaurants listed below are bookable through Quandoo – simply click the booking button and get that res in your dinner diary.

Remember earlier this year when you spent Valentine's Day comforting a weeping partner outside a chicken shop? Avoid a similarly woeful scene next year by booking a table at a romantic restaurant before they fill up. Here are five great options, as picked by the peeps at Quandoo. Spot something that takes your fancy? All the restaurants listed below are bookable through Quandoo – simply click the booking button and get that res in your dinner diary.

As much as we hate to make assumptions about anyone’s parents, we’re willing to bet that when it comes to going out to dinner, there’s a certain type of place they like. It probably doesn’t involve banging tunes, the food probably isn’t brain-meltingly spicy and the booking policy definitely isn’t ‘walk-ins only’. So, whether they’re visiting for a special occasion or just an overdue catch-up, make a reservation at one of these great London restaurants – as picked by Quandoo – and they’ll definitely appreciate the thought. Spot something that takes your fancy? All the restaurants listed below are bookable through Quandoo – simply click the booking button and get that res in your dinner diary.

A lot has changed in London in the six years since the Euston Tap opened, shifting the city’s beer scene away from Camra-pleasing alehouses and towards new-age, high-ABV brews in the process. Thankfully, the Tap team has excluded half a decade’s worth of craft beer tropes from the aesthetic of its new outpost – you’ll find no filament bulbs or scruffily chalked-up beer lists here. Okay, okay, so it’s in a railway arch, but given that it’s just a short dash from Waterloo station, we’ll chalk that one up to architectural necessity. Though European and American big-hitters (Konig, Lagunitas) do feature, the beer selection is British-focused, with the North especially well represented (no surprise, given the original Tap is in Sheffield). If it’s on, try anything from Manchester’s Cloudwater Brew Co, whose one-off, seasonal brews are never around for long. The 20-strong keg selection (plus six on cask) is presented on big TV screens either side of the bar – a good idea in theory, except that each only displays half the list, so anyone ordering from the end of the bar may miss out on something brilliant. Still, the Waterloo Tap is a bar that encourages a lingering visit, so there’s plenty of time to explore what’s on offer. Got a train to catch? Start thinking of excuses for your tardiness now.

At Lupins, a seasonal British small plates restaurant just outside SE1’s Flat Iron Square, each dish that comes is just as stunning at the last. Of the three ‘snacks’, five main dishes and two desserts I tried, every single one was outstanding. Not a single weak link. All Lennon, zero Ringo. Roast hake with ’nduja risotto was packed with a subtle but invigorating heat. Lamb rump with smoked aubergine was deeply comforting, the meat edged with a soft seam of fat and a crisp rind. The earthy smoke of chipotle roast pigeon breast worked beautifully with blackened baby gem and chilli yoghurt. A chocolate mousse was a total misnomer – lacking any sort of airy lightness, it was more like a thick ganache, but all the better for it. Dark, rich and sprinkled with black sesame honeycomb, it’s the sort of dish that’d make Gregg Wallace salivate like a famished basset hound; a decadent conclusion to a flawless meal. The quality of the cooking at Lupins is even more astonishing once you’ve seen the space in which it’s prepared; that a kitchen no bigger than you’d find in the average Londoner’s flat should be turning out such fantastic flavours is little short of sorcery. I paused for a full minute on my way out to check dishes weren’t being posted through a secret hatch from some sort of gleaming super-kitchen around the corner, right under the noses of the diners at the bar. When I inevitably return, I’ll pull up a stool, just to double check.

Please note, Spike + Earl has now closed. Time Out Food editors, February 2019. You’d probably expect ordering a coffee at the home of south London’s most revered roastery to be an absolute nightmare. There’ll be beans to choose, surely, then 40-odd types of milk to pick from and – oh god – brewing methods to consider. Can someone remind me what the hell a Chemex looks like? Luckily, though, the coffee geekery is kept to a bare minimum at Spike + Earl, a new café brought to you by bean-slinging social enterprise Old Spike Roastery. While you’re welcome to be more specific, the options for a cup of joe are simply ‘with milk’, ‘without’, ‘cold brew’ or ‘filter’. It makes Costa look like a pretentious hipster café – and that’s meant as a compliment. Aesthetically, though, it’s every bit the modern brunch spot. Set within a gallery-like space on the ground floor of the former Southwark Town Hall, it’s decorated with sturdy cinderblock, granite furniture and a strict monochrome colour scheme, with a smattering of potted succulents the only concession to colour. Though more substantial dishes are served after 5pm (along with cocktails and local beers), daytime is primetime, when food choices amount to a small selection of classic brunch dishes and sandwiches. The latter came in the form of a ‘Dutch crunch’ – a bun with a dry, crunchy exterior and a regularly changing line-up of fillings that are substantial for the price. That USP bread, though, can be a bit hit and miss – on one v

Just as you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, you shouldn’t judge a restaurant by its Instagram account. But in the case of Meet District, it’s very tricky not to. Full English breakfasts served on slates; tiny Kilner jars full of steak sauce; cocktails served in those little jam jar/handled mug hybrid things that make absolutely no fucking sense – is Meet District a knowingly ironic tribute to all the naffest restaurant toss of the past 20 years? As it turns out, no; no it’s not. It’s not that the slates and bloody jar-mugs are so bad in themselves, it’s that they point to a basic lack of awareness of what Londoners want and expect from a neighbourhood restaurant. I honestly don’t care how on-trend the crockery is, as long as the food and service are up to snuff. But at Meet District, they aren’t. Though a round of cocktails (the ones we tried ambitiously priced at £9.50 each) was good and boozy, the starter, a sharing board of cheese and cured meat, simply didn’t arrive. An apology was offered, an explanation wasn’t. What followed suggested I may have dodged a bullet. Twenty quid’s worth of rib-eye steak arrived grey and undercooked on the outside, overdone in the middle, suggesting the surface on which it was cooked wasn’t hot enough. Accompanying it on its slate was a sad blob of the sort of overly wet coleslaw you’d expect from a Harvester salad cart. Dining companions ordered burgers and were similarly unimpressed. The fries, admittedly, were great. With its cheery p

My favourite illustrative factoid about the perpetual shitshow that is the London housing market is that it’s cheaper to live and commute into London from Madrid than it is parts of London. Well, when I’m inevitably priced out of my chosen pocket of the capital, I’ll have one up on everyone else relocating to Spain because I know how to fly a bloody plane. Well, sort of.  Flight Experience London offers the kicks of being airborne without the actual altitude, home as it is to the city’s most sophisticated flight simulator. Forget the joystick-controlled nonsense of your Amiga 500 – this faithfully remodelled cockpit is fully decked out in instruments, panels and switches from a real Boeing 737, all of which work, and all of which were, as recently as a year ago, attached to an actual aeroplane.  There are two different types of experience on offer – there’s hand flying, which is all about grappling with the controls for twisty, technical flights. The other is a sector flight – a faithful recreation of an actual passenger journey between any two airports in the world (there are 24,000 faithful recreations programmed into the simulator). The latter may be lacking a little adrenaline from the casual enthusiast’s perspective, but it’s a pure planegasm for hardcore aviation nuts, as you’re left in charge of everything from programming the autopilot to flicking on the seatbelt signs. Coolest of all is that the sim reflects the precise weather conditions and air traffic happening ab

As business no-brainers go, putting a blissed-out spa in the middle of noisy, rowdy Soho is right up there. But just because Soholistic sits right in the busiest part of probably the most stressed-out city on Earth that doesn’t mean it’s taking the easy supply of tense-shouldered punters for granted. Like at the Ham Yard Hotel above it, the five-star treatment starts at check-in, when you’re handed a cleansing juice shot to take into the changing rooms. Fluffy white robe donned, it’s into the waiting room, where there’s a heavy seaside theme at work; pebbles, shells and wicker-backed chairs create a breezy mood that’s the antithesis of West End trendiness. The menu of treatments focuses on the traditional and eschews gimmickry: straight-up body scrubs, facials and massages rather than the latest in celeb-backed, pseudo-scientific weirdness. To really test my masseuse’s mettle, I plumped for the hour-long signature massage; a full-body going-over applied with invigorating oils and chilled-out tunes. Far from phoning in a simple rub-down, my masseuse took the opportunity to analyse and evaluate problem areas, and offered post-treatment advice for keeping aches and pains at bay. Such was her might that I made it a considerable distance – almost to the end of Old Compton Street – before stress levels returned to their default above-average levels.

There’s an ongoing pubby phenomenon that can’t have escaped your notice. What happens is that a slightly tatty boozer will shut down for a bit and when it reopens, it’ll look a bit less tatty, the beer will cost more and the barman will have grown a moustache. In the case of The Chandos, it’s like the reboot process got stuck early, in a good way: enough to place the chalkboards and hairy staff, but without eschewing the original character completely. Which is great, but it’s slightly weird that all the original salt-of-the-earth bits have been preserved within one sectioned-off room – where you can neck Amstel and watch the footie – though the bigger, rejigged bit has a lot going for it. On tap there are familiar craft beers from brewers giant (Camden, Brewdog) and small (Weird Beard, By the Horns), plus a few challenging options in the fridges. The food’s good too, with a natty line in large, crunchy-crusted pizzas with inventive toppings. There’s no denying that The Chandos MkII has broadened its appeal, but whether lured in by craft beer or fizzy lager, do everyone a favour and explore the whole place.

The problem with reviewing restaurants is that it’s easy to get a skewed impression of the place by ordering the wrong stuff. This is a risk that’s all but eliminated at Babette, a new casual restaurant in an old Nunhead pub, where the menu is so brief that for groups of four or more the choice is simple: ‘Everything, please’. What you’ll get in return depends on when you visit, as the two sharing boards (one meaty, one not) and the short selection of shareable plates, sides and desserts, all chalked up on a pair of blackboards, change as and when stuff runs out. French influence (Babette is named after its cheerful, welcoming Gallic owner) is prominent, but the overall remit is more ethnically diverse than a university prospectus – expect everything from mushroom arancini and goat’s cheese couscous to sausage rolls and Welsh rarebit. It’s a potentially frustrating set-up should you happen to fall for a particular dish, but the spectrum I sampled revealed no glaring weaknesses in the kitchen. Particularly worthy of note were the slabs of deep-fried mac ’n’ cheese – crisp and crunchy on the outside, soft and gooey within – the melty-tender braised pig’s cheek and the home-made jerky; rich, beefy with bang-on chewiness – worlds away from the over-desiccated bullshit found behind bars across the city. The small beer list showcases the best of the Bermondsey Beer Mile, while cocktails are short, punchy and photogenic as fuck. Basically, then, Babette is everything a neighbourhood

There’s a touch of ‘Stranger Things’ about this lo-fi indie horror. Inquisitive young ’uns on choppers investigating disappearances in small-town America, supernatural shenanigans and a nervous wreck of a single mother all make it feel like a second cousin to the Netflix show. But while ‘Stranger Things’ is a precision-tooled nostalgia-fest, this adaptation of Dan Wells’s young adult thriller is a touch more mature, weaving a mental health message into its gently twisted story of suburban monstrosity. Max Records (the young scamp in ‘Where the Wild Things Are’, all grown-up) is impressive as likeable diagnosed sociopath John Cleaver, whose unhealthy interest in killers is piqued when someone starts offing local townsfolk and keeping bits of the bodies. Familiar teen-movie standards (a meeting in the principal’s office, a showdown with a bully) are all present and correct but take on an enjoyably dark edge thanks to John’s messed-up mind. Supporting characters rarely make their presence felt, with the exception of Christopher Lloyd as the creepy codger-next-door who John pegs as the prime suspect. Given his own aggressive urges, though, we can never be sure that things are truly as they seem and, sure enough, things only get odder as the body count mounts. The icky, well-teased, nightmarish climax is visually stunning for a low-budget project, though perhaps a touch too straight-up strange for some.

Following the recent opening of the hip, stylish new ME London hotel across the road, you might expect to find One Aldwych – open as a hotel since 1998 – in midlife-crisis mode. But while it caters well to the demands of twenty-first century travellers, there’s no down-with-the-kids awkwardness here either. Housed in an ornate Edwardian building that once served as the HQ of the MorningPost newspaper, there’s certainly a more mature feel to the place than its fresh-faced competitors. It’s conservative yet stylish – exactly how you might expect the home of a banker with a subscription to Wallpaper magazine to look.  The high-ceilinged lobby bar is an ideal spot to get a feel of the place – sipping a cocktail to the sounds of a live pianist as buses and taxis thunder past outside makes a great warm-up for a first-night wander around the West End, all of which is just a walk away. For the crowd-averse, there’s good food on your doorstep – on-site restaurant Eneko is the first London venture for Michelin-starred Spanish chef Eneko Atxa, whose Basque-region dishes – though a little on the fussy side – will delight those who enjoy seeing simple ingredients transformed into dainty, exciting plates of food. Breakfast, meanwhile, is served on the mezzanine, and includes a first-rate full English, plus a larger-than-your-usual menu of hot and cold alternatives, including a dedicated section of gluten-free options. Rooms are spacious and comfortable, though could feel a touch corporate

Bar staff with see-through legs. It’s not a totally unreasonable request, especially when the most interesting beer at this City Road pub isn’t on the taps. Instead, it’s down in the fridges – which are impossible to get a good look at without intimating an ankle fetish. Thankfully, not only are the 100-odd beers available on a neat list, but staff actually know what they’re selling. I ordered a Zodiak IPA from Swedish brewer Omnipollo and it appeared without issue. No praise due there, you might think – but it does come in a bottle with no text on the front. Despite the well-curated menu, pints of Sierra Nevada and Camden Hells were the order of choice when I visited. It’s to be expected, really; this is a pub that sits at the border of Shoreditch and the City, after all. If you want to pore over a third-pint of Danish imperial stout you can, but the set-up caters just as well to those looking to smash a couple of quick pints and some meaty ballast (the cheese and bacon burger – well priced at £12 – is great) before jumping on a train back to the ’burbs. It’s a lovely place to sit awhile, though. Victoriana may not be as thrilling an aesthetic as it once was, but given the building was once the HQ of Singer sewing machines, it at least feels authentic. The volume of the music isn’t conducive to gentle conversation, but there’s a separate cocktail bar downstairs for anyone seeking a little more intimacy. Even so, the beer list is still the reason to pop in – there are bottles

Bold claim alert: this just might be the best-located hotel in London. Soho has the city’s highest concentration of brilliant bars, red-hot restaurants, unique boutiques plus a whole lot more, and the Firmdale group’s Soho Hotel couldn’t be more in the middle of it if it tried. No need to pack earplugs, though – even staying in a street-facing room on a Friday night, we heard not a murmur of the revelry outside. Either London’s party animals had collectively decided to have a night off, or the hotel has invested some serious dosh in soundproofing. The only disturbance was the steel-on-steel clang of ongoing construction work for Crossrail the next morning. For those intimidated by the breadth of choice outside, in-house bar-restaurant Refuel (a horribly cheap-sounding name for a hotel restaurant, but let’s not dwell) is a more-than-solid backup plan. Modern British dishes and pub classics come with a dash of fine-dining flair, service is the correct side of overbearing, and the cocktails are a strong match for those being shaken up at Soho’s best bars. After you’ve seen off the complimentary glass of champagne gifted to first-time guests, try their smooth and zingy Smokey Sour - a mix of mezcal, lemon juice, tea syrup and egg white. Looks-wise, Soho Hotel is light on the razzle-dazzle of the five-star hotels in London. It’s still certainly far from shabby – from the giant obese cat sculpture by Colombia’s Fernando Botero in the lobby to shelves filled with vintage motor oil c

It isn’t often we feel jealous of London’s pigeon population. Sure, it must be rubbish surviving on a diet of discarded sandwich crusts and fag ends, but those disgusting feathery dudes sure get a better view of the city than we do. And, as this dreamy drone video shows, at this time of year, way up in the air is the best place to admire London’s Christmas trees, ice rinks, Christmas markets and other twinkly bits. You win this round, vermin-birds. Thanks to Black Bee Films for shooting the video, and to Winterville, Somerset House and London in general for being so damn pretty.

Stop moaning about how expensive London's craft beer is. With booze, you get what you pay for. And so do the rest of us. Hello, my name's David and I have a drink problem - I only like the pricy stuff. I'm the guy who keeps you waiting at the bar while I try three different samples before committing to a full pint. The one who interrupts conversations about football to sing the virtues of US Citra hops over British Goldings, and whose idea of a wild night out involves heading to a 'meet the brewer' event and demanding the hosts give me feedback on my homebrew. The weird thing is that, a good decade or so after London's craft beer scene exploded, these things still have the power to make me the most unpopular man in the pub. So why do some Londoners tut at the idea that beer's for the savouring, not the swilling? Seriously - the wine world has been getting away with this shit for centuries. The main complaint from the fizzy-lager faithful is, of course, that craft beer is just too expensive. From a certain perspective, you can see why: depending on what part of town you're in, a pint of Beavertown's seminal Gamma Ray APA, for example, could set you back as much as £7. But so what? That's only twice what you'd pay for a pint of Stella. As with wine (or any other premium booze, for that matter) it's all about appreciation over intoxication - I'd rather have two pints of wonderfully aromatic, locally brewed IPA and stumble home feeling a bit giggly than spend the same money on fo

Way, waaaay, back in 2013 we revealed that plans were afoot to reopen the Mail Rail and grant access to the public, as the star attraction of the new Postal Museum. Well, the wait is finally almost over. The museum opens next week, on July 28, at which point you’ll be able to learn about the oddly fascinating history of the British postal service. Then, from September 4, you'll be able to venture deep under London through the Mail Rail tunnels. Starting in 1927, Mail Rail was used to shift envelopes and parcels and whatnot between various London sorting offices, but by 2003 had fallen into disuse and was abandoned. Much of what remains there today – staff members’ personal effects and all – hasn't been touched for the past 14 years. It’s more than a little bit creepy (but fascinating too). Check out the video about for a taster of what to expect, then pop on over to the Postal Museum’s website to get your tickets.

Ah, Valentine’s Day – the day all of London goes out for dinner and then some of them get to have sex. Here’s who you can expect to be sat next to as you enjoy a compulsory romantic meal on February 14.   The still-smitten smoochers You know the ones – hands held across the table, constant eye-contact and massive, passionate snogs like one of them is heading off to war or something whenever they nip to the bogs. Thankfully, they won’t be around long – she’s just done something frankly obscene with a spoonful of chocolate mousse and he’s frantically signalling for the bill. Where you’ll see them: Some hot, new, high-turnover no-bookings joint, so they can get all this eating business over and done with and apply their saliva to each other instead. Like it or not, nobody's having better sex than these guys.Shutterstock             The out-of-their-depth students They’ve been together three months and four days now – a new record for both of them. Last week they even took the plunge and ‘made it official’ on social media. All of which means this meal is crucial – an opportunity to show each other their sophisticated sides by ordering the second-least-expensive bottle of wine and sharing food that doesn’t come in a foil tray. He’ll be paying, of course, especially after the excruciating bit where he asks the waitress to explain what ‘a la carte’ means. Where you’ll see them: Somewhere pricey, posh and just a bit dull. 'This is delicious. I'm so glad your dad's paying.'Shutters

Ryan Chetiyawardana (Mr Lyan for short) isn’t the kind of chap to do things by the book. And when you go ahead and do things like open a cocktail bar with a ban on ice, people are going to spend a lot of time wondering what you’re going to do next. Well, if your guess was ‘reinvent beloved childhood game Mousetrap, but swap the ball for ice and the trap bit with whisky’, then give yourself a big pat on the back. Check out the video above to find out how this gleaming copper contraption works, or get down to Dandelyan to have a play for yourself. In other booze news, you can sip martinis and eat meringues at a pop-up in St James’s.

There are certain constants that help over-anxious Londoners feel secure. Commuters will always stand on the right. Oxford Street will always be hell. And tube trains will always run along their rails and not decide that they want to have a go at being a car instead. At least, that’s how things SHOULD work, but, as you’ll see in the video above, sometimes those subterranean so-and-sos rebel against the system and end up hurtling down the M3. Confusing and upsetting? Yes. Actually kind of cool? Definitely. In other transport news, here’s what happened when we had a chat with the new TfL TravelBot.

There’s a lot to be said for drinking local, and the craft beer boom means that most Londoners needn’t travel far to taste exciting, hop-forward beers straight from the source. The problem is, locally brewed beer has become so available in London that we're at risk of ignoring the brilliant brewing innovations going on around the world. Thankfully, HonestBrew stocks hundreds of beers from breweries around the world (many of whom will have even influenced London beer giants like Beavertown and Camden), meaning you’re only a few clicks away from broadening your beery horizons. Here are five brilliant brews to look out for. New Zealand: Yeastie Boys Hellzapoppin Hot Smoked IPA. 6.5% ABV  So, you’ve tried just about every hop-heavy IPA going – what’s next? How about a great big whack of chilli spice? That’s the special ingredient in this bracing brew from famed Kiwi brewers Yeastie Boys, which also packs in manuka-smoked malt to amp up the intriguing sweet-savoury contradiction. Italy: Birrificio Hibu Zatec Pilsner. 5.2% ABV We know, we know – you didn’t get into craft beer so you could sit around drinking lager all day. However, unlike the mass-produced nonsense you left behind, this beer is brewed on a small scale just outside Milan, meaning it’ll reach you with its punchy hop flavours still intact. Like many good pilsners, it’s also crisp, refreshing and lightly sweet. USA: Modern Times Lomaland Saison. 5.5% ABV Anyone looking to branch out from hoppy pale ales ought to load u

Last night, two days after the terrorist attack on London Bridge and Borough, Londoners converged at Potters Fileds Park outside City Hall to join together in solidarity and pay respects to those killed and injured.  Instagrammer Michael Thomas captured the above timelapse footage from City Hall, showing people coming together for the vigil, led by Sadiq Khan. Many thanks to Michael and the Mayor of London's office for their help, and to Londoners in general for being so bloody great. 

With its seminal Gamma Ray pale ale becoming as ubiquitous in London pubs as the brioche bun, it’s fair to say Tottenham’s Beavertown Brewery is owning the city’s craft beer scene right now. But, not merely content with turning out some of London’s favourite suds, the Beavertown crew have just announced a monster-sized beer festival for later in the year. Taking place at Printworks London in Surrey Quays on September 8 and 9, The Beavertown Extravaganza will host more than 60 of the world’s best breweries, some of whom have never before been seen in the UK. Better still, all the beer for the event will be flown into London – rather than shipped – meaning those hop-laden IPAs will be as fresh as you like when they arrive on the taps.       As well as some of the stars of the UK brewing community (Cloudwater, Buxton, Siren), the line-up also includes big hitters from Europe (Omnipollo, To Øl, Lost Abbey) and the States (3 Floyds, Modern Times, Dogfish Head), plus, naturally, a fuckload of street food for stomach-lining purposes. The £55 tickets may seem a tad pricey, until you consider that this covers all of your drinks for a full seven-hour session. And with some seriously premium beers in attendance, getting your money’s worth is simply not going to be a problem. Unfortunately, stringing a sentence together by the end of the evening may well be. Book tickets for The Beavertown Extravaganza here.  Thirsty? Here’s our pick of London’s best brewery taprooms. 

  A photo posted by DK (@dav1dk1ng) on Jan 11, 2017 at 11:47pm PST Londoners may not agree on everything, but if there’s one thing we all, to a person, have in common, it’s our universal respect for the sanctity of the tube map. Basically, unless you’re making a cool or useful remix that we can look at on the internet, you do not fuck with the tube map. You certainly don’t go changing the names of stations willy-friggin’-nilly, then make matters worse by tinkering with station signage too. Except, if you’re Amazon, you totally do.   A photo posted by Andrew Grill (@andrew.grill) on Jan 12, 2017 at 12:08am PST The big invisible shop that everyone loves to hate has taken the audacious move of rebranding Westminster as ‘Webminster’, a move that’s sure to be welcomed by already-pretty-fucking-confused tourists desperate to take a selfie with a big clock. This has, of course, happened before. Two years ago, Canada Water was briefly re-skinned as Buxton Water, which everyone thought was pretty fucking stupid too. Hey, Big Brands: cease and desist. Sincerely, London.   A photo posted by Underground Observations (@tubeobservations) on Jan 12, 2017 at 5:20am PST In other tube news, there might be another strike on the way.

Time Out’s editors know that reviewing restaurants is a fine art. But we’re also humble enough to know when we’ve been beaten at our own game. London, meet Chicken Connoisseur, a wing-addicted YouTuber whose series The Pengest Munch could be the greatest contribution to the arts of 2016. Okay, that’s perhaps a slight exaggeration, but this guy really knows his chicken. He won't stand for sub-standard battering.  He's particular about chips.  And he never forgets the importance of value. It's fair to say Time Out's Food & Drink team is looking very nervous indeed. Grab a bucket of crispy chicken, watch the latest episode below and then check out the full series on YouTube.  In other fried chicken news, a vegan chicken shop is opening in Hackney next month

The traditional post-pub fried-chicken feast is an experience loaded with guilt. The calorific but oh-so delicious crispy skin, the oodles of mayo, those super-salty fries – and that’s before you’ve even thought about animal welfare. Keeping at least the latter in check, a new chicken shop destined for Hackney has ruffled food bloggers’ feathers by announcing that it’s doing away with poultry altogether. Temple of Seitan will instead use the meat substitute after which it's named in place of fried fowl, which can, they say, be seasoned so that it closely resembles the real deal. For the unfamiliar, seitan (pronounced as you would the name of the dark underlord who will one day claim our souls and condemn us to an eternity of agony) is a meat-free substance made from wheat gluten. Temple of Seitan has been selling seitan-based snacks at food markets and vegetarian events since the spring, making the stuff from scratch. The venue is set open in Hackney in January – we’ll bring you more details (will the lights be so bright they make you squint? Will it come in the traditional red and yellow boxes? Will there be a junior spesh?) as we get them. In other vegan news, a café in Brixton is refusing to accept new five-pound notes.