According to research by Aqua, the average Brit spends £560 a year on nail treatments alone. With salon appointments eating into both your budget and your lunch breaks, the appeal of doing it yourself is obvious. The good news is that at-home gel kits have improved dramatically over the past few years, and with the right technique, you can achieve results that rival what you’d get from a professional. Here’s how to do it properly.
Choose Your Formula Wisely
First things first; not all gel polishes are created equal. Traditional formulas can be harsh on nails, particularly during removal, which typically involves soaking in acetone for 15 to 20 minutes. If you’ve noticed your nails becoming brittle or peeling after repeated gel manicures, the removal process is likely the culprit.
Newer formulas have addressed this. Manucurist gel polish, for instance, uses a plant-based formula that removes in around a minute without acetone, which is considerably gentler on the nail bed. Other brands now offer ‘peel off’ base coats that let you remove gel polish like a sticker, though longevity can suffer with these. If nail health is a priority, it’s worth paying a bit more for formulas designed with this in mind.
Invest In Decent Equipment
The temptation to grab the cheapest kit on Amazon is understandable, but your lamp matters more than you might think. Look for a UV LED lamp with at least 36 watts of power, which will cure polish quickly and evenly. Cheaper lamps often have patchy coverage, leaving you with tacky spots and premature peeling. A lamp that fits your whole hand at once also speeds things up considerably compared to models that require you to cure fingers in batches.
Beyond the lamp, you’ll need a decent base coat, top coat, and remover. Many starter kits include these essentials along with a few colour options. Brands like Mylee, Bluesky and 14 Day Mani offer solid entry-level kits at various price points, generally ranging from £50 to £100.
Prep Is Everything
Skip the preparation and your manicure will lift within days. Start by pushing back your cuticles with an orangewood stick or metal pusher. Don’t cut them unless you really know what you’re doing, as this can lead to infection and ragged regrowth. Next, gently buff the surface of each nail to remove the shine. You’re not trying to file them down, just create a slightly rough texture that the base coat can grip.
The final prep step is cleaning. Use a lint-free wipe soaked in isopropyl alcohol or a dedicated nail cleanser to remove any oils, dust or residue. This seems fussy but makes a genuine difference to how long your manicure lasts. Touch your nails after cleaning and you’ve undone the work, so resist the urge.
The biggest mistake beginners make is applying coats too thickly. Gel polish should go on in thin, even layers. Thick coats don’t cure properly under the lamp, leaving a gooey layer beneath the surface that causes lifting and peeling. Two thin colour coats will always outperform one thick one.
Start with your base coat and cure according to the manufacturer’s instructions, usually around 60 seconds. Then apply your first colour coat, making sure to ‘cap’ the free edge of your nail by running the brush along the tip. This seals the polish and prevents water from getting underneath. Cure, then repeat with your second colour coat. Finish with your top coat, cap the edges again, and cure for the final time.
Avoid getting polish on your cuticles or the skin around your nails. Unlike regular polish, gel won’t just peel off skin easily once cured, and any product on the cuticle area will cause lifting from the base of the nail. If you do make a mistake, clean it up with a small brush dipped in alcohol before curing.
Make It Last
A professional gel manicure typically lasts two to three weeks. At home, a week to ten days is more realistic, especially while you’re still perfecting your technique. A few habits will help extend the lifespan. Wear gloves when washing up or cleaning with chemicals. Avoid using your nails as tools to pick or pry things open. Apply cuticle oil daily, as this keeps the nail flexible and less prone to chipping.
If you notice a chip or lift at the edge of a nail, resist the urge to pick at it. This pulls layers off your natural nail and causes damage. Instead, gently file the lifted area smooth and apply a thin layer of top coat over the top to seal it until you’re ready to remove properly.
Remove With Care
Removal is where most nail damage occurs, so take your time. For traditional gel formulas, lightly buff the top coat to break the seal, then wrap each nail with a cotton pad soaked in acetone and cover with foil or a clip. Leave for 10 to 15 minutes, and the polish should slide off with gentle pressure. Never scrape or force polish off, as this takes layers of your natural nail with it.
After removal, give your nails a break before reapplying. Even a day or two allows them to rehydrate. Slather on cuticle oil and hand cream, and consider using a nail strengthener if you notice any weakness or peeling.
Common Mistakes To Avoid
Curing for too little time leaves polish soft and prone to dents. Curing for too long can cause the polish to become brittle and shrink away from the edges. Follow your product’s recommended timing precisely. Shaking the polish bottle vigorously creates air bubbles that show up in your finish.
Instead, roll the bottle gently between your palms to mix. And if your polish is thick or gloopy, it’s probably past its best. Gel polish typically lasts around two years unopened, but once opened, 12 to 18 months is more realistic.
The Bottom Line
At-home gel manicures take practice, and your first few attempts probably won’t rival a professional job. But with decent equipment, proper preparation and a bit of patience, you can achieve genuinely impressive results while saving a considerable amount of money. Your nails will thank you for learning proper technique rather than rushing through the process. Hang on, nails can’t talk. Or thank…
National Pizza Day is upon us. National British and American Pizza Day, 9th February, 2025, that is. And while we doubt that those in Campania will be cracking out the commemorative pineapple stuffed crusts to mark the occasion, we’ll take any damn reason we can for even a sliver of the good stuff.
To pre-empt the pedants, here at IDEAL we’re just as in thrall to a traditional Neapolitan as we are to a single slice of something New Yorker. As long as it’s made with love, respect and good ingredients, we’re in.
With that in mind, here is our rundown of the best pizzas in London, IDEAL for celebrating National Pizza Day in style.
L’Antica Pizzeria Da Michele, Baker Street
Ideal for a taste of the so-called ‘Best Pizza in the World’…
We had to start here, seeing as it’s been dubbed ‘The Best Pizza in the World’ and iconised in the film Eat, Pray, Love. Ignoring the fact that the inaugural London site in Stoke Newington fractured in bitter legal dispute, the second branch in Baker Street is still slinging out top, top pizzas, loyally in line with the Neapolitan diktat.
If you’re after an excess of toppings, this one isn’t for you. Though the choice isn’t quite as clear cut as the mothership in Forcella, Naples (simply between margherita and marinara), this is still a minimalist affair in the most traditional – and best possible – way. Go for a half and half of the aforementioned margherita and marinara, or go totally wild and order a capricciosa, the artichoke hearts of Michele’s version plump and not mired in pizza-ruining, vinegary run-off. All in all, this is still one of the very best pizzas in London, regardless of fall-outs and expansion ambitions. Long may it continue.
There are now outposts in Soho, Manchester and Amsterdam, too, as well as the OG in Naples itself, still the peak of pizza-making worldwide, in our humble opinion.
Idealfor a taste of one of the pizza game’s rising stars…
We come back down to earth, letting the fertile Vesuvius soil fall between our fingers, at Chiswick’s Napoli On The Road, where authenticity is again on the menu, with just little contemporary flair thrown on the paddle for good measure.
Named as the 5th best pizzeria in the world by the staunchly Italo-centric (and increasingly influential) 50 Top Pizza list, Napoli On The Road is the brainchild of Michele Pascarella, a celebrated pizzaiolo who began his London journey with a mobile Ape Piaggio, delighting the city with wood-fired pizzas in pub car parks before laying down roots with his first brick-and-mortar establishment on Devonshire Road (the second outpost in Richmond is just as good, by the way).
Testament to a continuing rise even more pronounced than his carnotto, Pascarella has also earned the prestigious accolade of Global Pizza Maker of the Year in 2023, a testament to his mastery of correct form and structure.
That’s not to say that this Chiswick pizzeria isn’t home to some gentle, respectful innovation on the pizza front. Arguably our favourite order here is the Tonno & Cipolla, a blend of tuna fillet and sweet caramelised red onion jam, all atop their ridiculously digestible dough.
Even better, though, is the We’re On Fire. Here, the sauce sees nduja mixed seamlessly and subtly in with its usual covering of tomato until emulsified – an inspired touch as, all too often, nduja can make a pizza incredibly greasy. Then, dotted across the surface of the pizza, ice cold buffalo stracciatella soothes the rough edges of the nduja, rounding off the tomato’s acidity for good measure. It’s smart, judicious, and just oh-so delicious.
The house red, the Greco Di Tufo Oltre DOCG Bellaria from Campania, drinkable and light, is the perfect foil to these fine pizzas.
*Major announcement: It has recently been announced that Napoli on the Road is launching its flagship Soho location at 140 Wardour Street. The 100-cover restaurant will feature à la carte dining upstairs and London’s first-ever pizza tasting menu downstairs – a six-course Neapolitan fine dining experience showcasing diverse techniques and flavours alongside Campanian wines.
Set to open before the end of the year, this expansion from the award-winning team that started with a three-wheeled Piaggio Ape represents a landmark moment for London’s booming pizza scene, bringing world-class Neapolitan craft to the heart of the West End.*
They say that at the best neighbourhood restaurants, you feel just as comfortable dropping in for a convivial ciao as you do a four-course meal. And so it is at 081 Pizzeria, Peckham’s proudest purveyors of pizza and street food straight from the Città del Sole.
Having opened in the turbulent times of May 2021, 081 (named after the telephone code of Naples) has quickly established itself at the heart of the hospitality community on this stretch of Peckham Rye, with local chefs, bartenders and wait staff coming here to congregate around the 480C° heat of the ANVP-approved Izzo Forni as though it were a campfire.
Yep, this is a place that wants you to linger, a position at odds with the usual bam-bam-grazia-signoria nature of traditional Neapolitan pizzerias in the capital. There are arancini generously filled with ragu bolognese to enjoy as you wait for the main event, alongside a whole host of other deep-fried treats, here billed as tapas. The cocktails are ace, too, the negroni properly assertive. A graffiti-inspired sketch of ASAP Rocky weeping cheese looks down on the dining room, for some reason.
Of course, the pizzas have to hit the mark to keep the punters returning in a place like this, and, fortunately, 081 has some serious pedigree in that department; the head pizzaiola here is previously of Bravi Ragazzi (also on our list), and the pizzas are on a level with those being slung down the Circular Road to Streatham. If you’ve eaten at Bravi, that’s all you need to know.
Ideal for our very favourite pizza south of the river…
It felt right – poetic, even – to head south to Bravi Ragazzi next, foreplay dispensed with and appetite whet.
Streatham’s revered Neapolitan pizzeria prides itself on tradition and authenticity, and in our humble opinion, this right here is the best Neapolitan pizza in South London.
Several boxes have to be ticked for a pizza to qualify as a traditional Neapolitan in the eyes of the connoisseurs. 00 flour, water and salt form the dough, and it must be hand kneaded and given ample time to rise before being shaped by hand rather than rolling pin. After that, it’s topped with San Marzano or Pomodorino del Piennolo del Vesuvio tomatoes and Mozzarella di Bufala Campana, and cooked quickly at incredibly high heat in a wood fired pizza oven. The result should be pillowy, soft and elastic, with toppings light rather than overwhelming.
Anyway, the good guys at Bravi Ragazzi know all that, and their respect for tradition has made their pizzas the toast of Streatham and beyond. This is, quite simply, one of London’s best pizzas (must add it to that list, actually). They also do a superb tiramisu, for those with a sweet tooth.
Though the dining room is compact, unassuming, and walk-ins only, locals will be pleased to hear that Bravi Ragazzi is on Deliveroo… As if they didn’t know already!
Before we go, it would be remiss of us not to give a shout-out to another local favourite famous for slinging fantastic wood fired pizzas in the Neapolitan style, who have now sadly closed. Addome, how we miss you!
Ideal for getting close to a pizzaiolo consistently voted among the world’s best…
Excuse the heavy mouthful of a name, but the pizzas at 50 Kalo are anything but. Regularly named as one of the best pizzas in Europe outside of Italy, and with a world class pizzeria in Naples that’s even made it into the Michelin Guide, 50 Kalo and its superstar pizzaiolo Ciro Salvo boast some serious credibility.
The restaurant, whose name means ‘good dough’ in a Neapolitan dialect, stays true to its name with the lightest, airiest bases and premium ingredients used to dress that very good dough. Though we’re big fans of the headlining margherita here, the pizza fritta is perhaps even better, its base light and without a hint of grease, its texture verging on a doughnut. Topped with a pleasingly acidic marinara sauce and gratings of pecorino, it is absolutely superb. Could this be London’s best pizza? We certainly think so.
Ideal for pizza tonda romana at wallet-friendly prices…
From their first opening in Spitalfields in 2014, Pizza Union has grown to five buzzing locations across London – adding Aldgate, Dalston, King’s Cross and Hoxton to their roving roster.
Their Spitalfields original remains a benchmark for the group, perfectly positioned to serve both City workers and East Enders with its swift service and consistent quality. Here, pizza tonda romana (round Roman-style pizzas) emerge from the blazing hot oven in mere minutes, their bases characteristically thin and satisfyingly crisp. The Roma, pitched at a remarkably reasonable £4.95 and topped with tomato, rocket and drifts of parmesan, represents some of the best value in the capital. No pizza here tops £8.95.
What were we saying about pizza being the most inclusive foods on the planet? We were saying that, right? Perhaps we were just thinking it. Anyway, it’s true…
Images via PizzaUnion
The industrial-chic aesthetic and counter service keep things casual and the pricepoint down, but the quality of those crispy bases – achieved through a carefully controlled proving process that creates that distinctive Roman crackle – means Pizza Union punches well above its weight. With bottles (yes, bottles) of decent house wine clocking in at £16.95, this place is perfect for a quick lunch (glasses are the same price as that Roma, incidentally) or casual dinner that won’t break the bank.
The house-made garlic butter for crust-dipping is a must, but it’s certainly not a dessert. Finish instead with and espresso and a Sicilian cannoli – they look beautiful and taste even better.
Ideal for planet-conscious pizza that doesn’t compromise on flavour…
What began as a lockdown pop-up operating out of various East London kitchens has blossomed into one of the city’s most exciting vegetarian ventures. After gaining a devoted following through a celebrated residency at The Hive in Cambridge Heath, Flat Earth finally put down roots in their own permanent space in 2022.
Here, in Hackney, sustainability is very much the watchword – from their heritage grain bases to their reusable wine bottle scheme, even down to lampshades crafted from old orange peel (cor, I bet they smell good when the bulbs are hotting up). The restaurant’s commitment to ethical suppliers and local producers would all read a bit ‘marketing gimmick’ if the pizzas didn’t deliver on flavour, but those grains don’t half make for a digestible base, it has to be said.
The Hackney Hot is the hero dish here, make no mistake (basically every table seems to be ordering it), and features a deft balance of sweet pickled beetroot, a trio of Somerset cheeses, jalapeños, and fermented hot salsa. And if that wasn’t unique enough, try the Kimchi Fiorentina, which reimagines a classic pizza (not sure we’ve ever actually seen one outside of Pizza Express) with house kimchi and a perfectly cooked egg. Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it; it’s ace.
There is, unsurprisingly, a strong organic wine list, with the restaurant working with Sustainable Wine Solutions to receive their wines in three formats: on tap, in recycled bottles, and refillable wine bottles. Cheers to that!
Ideal for artisanal pizzette from London’s increasingly omnipresent baking group…
Big Jo might be (not ‘might be’; is) less a pizzeria than a bakery, but as part of the celebrated Jolene group (which includes Primeur, Westerns Laundry, and their namesake Jolene, as well as a handful of bakeries), the pizzette offerings here deserve their place among London’s finest.
The group’s commitment to regenerative agriculture and heritage grains shines through in every bite, with the team working directly with farmers to mill their own flour – a dedication to quality that’s evident in their perfectly fermented, supremely digestible (gotta stop saying that) bases.
Their ever-changing menu showcases the best of seasonal British produce, with pizette a regular feature; a recent fennel sausage and cavolo nero pizzette bianca was mega, their much-loved four cheese version even better. The occasional pizza fritta makes a special appearance too, topped with treats like black olives and salted ricotta. Phwoar.
The industrial-chic space, with its communal tables and open kitchen, creates an unrivalled buzz (really, it does; the acoustics are questionable) in this part of town.
Ideal for a truly authentic slice of Naples in North London…
Listen: the backstory between L’Antica Pizzeria Da Michele and the guys at Vicoli di Napoli is a little unclear. It’s certainly acrimonious, though it’s been largely scrubbed from the records so we can’t spill the tea. What we can do is confirm that the pizzas here are right up there (up there, at the top of this article) with some of the best properly faithful Neapolitan ‘cart wheel’ pizzas in London.
With its bright blue interior and open-armed, limoncello-wielding welcome, this Stokey institution lives up to its name (which translates to ‘alleys of Naples’) in terms of that much sought after ‘authenticity’. Run by sisters who are keeping their Neapolitan heritage alive and kicking, Vicoli di Napoli serves up sprawling, soupy pizzas that no normal size plate can contain.
Images via @vicolidinapolipizzeria
While the marinara and margherita are house specialties that showcase the pizzeria’s dedication to humble tradition, venture into their calzone and prosciutto e funghi offerings for equally rewarding experiences. Though do be careful venturing in there; it’s fucking burning piping hot, and your inner oral mucosa right off the sides of your inner cheeks. And that is a phrase we never want to see again in an article about food.
The pizza bases are exactly as they should be – light, airy and with that perfect Neapolitan chew. For dessert, their exceptional house-made tiramisu is, erm, just that; exceptional.
Ideal for trying the iconic, ambitious Brighton pizzeria…
We’ve been fans of Fatto a Mano’s just-the-right-side-sloppy Neapolitan pizzas since their (and our) days in Brighton, first as a single site on the city’s London Road back in 2015, then to their expansion into Hove, all the way to their second pizzeria opening in the Big wood-fired Smoke at the crust end of last year.
That second pizzeria is found in Covent Garden (with a third now doing their business in Bethnal Green), but our favourite of Fatto’s London lot is found ten minutes up the Piccadilly Line in Kings Cross.
Here, as with all five restaurants, the dough is pillowy and easy to manage, the ingredients top notch and light-as-you-like, and the pizza oven cranked up to the requisite 450°C, only needing around 90 seconds before it’s ready. Nope, you won’t see any caramelised cheese here; the buffalo mozzarella on the margherita buffalo is as fresh and milky as it comes, and the marinara sauce fresh and sharp rather than reduced to a metallic rust. It’s a gorgeous pizza, and once the sun has finally got its hat on, Fatto’s terrace certainly looks an inviting place to eat one.
There’s even a lasagna pizza, which sees beef ragu, creamy bechamel and smoked Provola on a classic Neapolitan base, for those who loved to be laid low by their lunch.
Of real note to all the pizza nerds out there, last May Fatto a Mano played host to one of the world’s most famous pizzas, Franco Pepe’s Margherita Sbagliata, as seen on Netflix’s Chef’s Table. The esteemed pizza chef blessed the restaurant with the secret recipe for his ‘Mistaken Margherita’, with £1.50 from every pizza going to the incredible La Scugnizzeria, a charity who offer underprivileged young people from Scampia a path into employment. Pizza and a good cause… Could there be anything better?
Ideal for once ephemeral, now enduring New York-adjacent slices…
We’ve been chasing the ephemeral, enigmatic Dough Hands from pizza pop-up to pizza pop-up in recent years, enjoying their crisp New York-style slices in Brixton Market, Bethnal Green and Homerton, and it’s been a pilgrimage we’ve never regretted, the signature ‘Jode’ (featuring nduja, hot honey and stracciatella) worth just about any hour spent with TfL, even if just for a slice.
Well colour us tricolore, because Dough Hands have now well and truly settled into their residency at the Spurstowe Arms, just seconds from Hackney Central station. With a less transient timescale billed simply as ‘for the foreseeable’, we’re so happy to have these awesome pizza slingers so close to (floury, marinara-marked) hand.
Ideal for supremely digestible, seawater spiked pizzas…
Classic Caputo 00 flour and, erm, pure seawater… It’s not quite got that ‘match made in heaven’ status that, say, San Marzano tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella and fresh basil boast. But hey, we’re up for anything, and so it is to ‘O Ver, whose use of the salty stuff, drawn from the purest areas of the Mediterranean, is very much their USP.
The first restaurant in the UK to – vocally – do so, the seawater is said to lighten the dough and make it easier to digest. We honestly can’t argue with the claim; ‘O Ver’s pizzas are incredibly easy-eating, and it’s eminently possible to take two down in a single sitting, even after you’ve had a good crack at the restaurant’s rundown of classic Neapolitan deep-fried bites. The crocche (essentially deep-fried mashed potato), in particular, is expertly conceived.
Back to those pizzas, and they hit the table puffed up and airy, the dinghy bouncing back at you when prodded and only deflating when pierced. Elegantly dressed, we huge fans to the tropea; a sophisticated affair with fior di latte, flakes of tuna fillet, the namesake onions, sun dried tomatoes and olives. It sings of summer, its sweet-salty interplay softened by a silky, ornate mouthfeel. Truly, a must-order, even if the £19.50 price tag is a clear premium, it’s easy to see why ‘O Ver is so highly regarded.
Ideal for sourdough pizzas all the way from Bologna…
We’ve been big fans of Bologna’s Berberè for years, always stealing a slice when we’re in La Rossa™. So, when these celebrated pizza purveyors touched down closer to home back in 2020, we immediately made our way south of the river and to Clapham Common in search of some action (observing all social distancing rules of course and not sharing our pizza, however much Beberè implores you to do so with their ‘sliced in 8 to stimulate conviviality’ dispatch).
Founded by Matteo and Salvatore Aloe in Bologna in 2010, the Clapham iteration of Berberè stands on the former site of Radio Alice, a pizzeria that the Aloe brothers also had a hand in. We think Berberè is even better, and not far from the dizzy heights that this pizzeria has ascended back in Bel Paese.
It’s all about the sourdough base here, whose mother has been nurtured for more than a decade since its birth in Castel Maggiore, an attentiveness that results in a super light base that’s cooked to a pleasingly crisp finish. Perfect, then, for the restaurant’s crust dippers, here a choice between spicy ‘nduja & honey, aioli, garlic butter or basil & walnut pesto. Get all four.
The pizza selection itself feels more traditional and, dare we say, demure, with a roll call of just eleven elegantly adorned affairs. The Napoli is especially good, with the imported Amalfi anchovies aggressively salty and the black olives aggressively briny, but all somehow soothed by a super sweet organic tomato sauce. To enjoy this particular pizza on a crisp base that doesn’t buckle feels perverse. Illicit, even. And we love it…
Even more illicit feeling is Berberè’s falafel pizza which should, in all honesty, be against the law. We think we might just order another Napoli… but not before one of their gorgeous montaranina (a pizza fritta of sorts).
Authenticity is the name of the game – on the first half at least – of the Battersea favourite Pizzeria Pellone’s menu; Neapolitan classics using Gustarosso tomato sauce, Caputo flour, and Buffalo Mozzarella straight from Campania. This respectful adherence to stricture has its backbone in the Pellone family’s popular pizzerias back in Naples, and you can taste tradition in every slice..
That said, it’s in that second half of the menu, the Pizze Le Pizze Gourmet, where the intrigue lies; the white pizzas here are superb, particularly the pistachio pesto and mortadella number. The Calzone Fritto, generous with black pepper and mottled with housemade salami, is a cult classic.
For those not keen to head south, there’s now a second branch of Pellone in East Finchely.
Ideal for creative late night slices and some top tunes to boot…
We’ve come this far without mentioning any by-the-slice joints, which is a little remiss of us – London does boast a commendably varied pizza scene, and we can’t fixate on Neapolitan versions forever, as much as we’d like to.
Perhaps the best slice shop in the city is late night hipster hangout Voodoo Ray’s in Dalston. Here you can enjoy a cold can of Neck Oil and a New Yorker style pizza until the early hours (this place closes at 3 AM at the weekend) and ride off on your unicycle into the night, satiated and happy.
Boasting a crust that won’t bust under the weight of its deceptively simple toppings, a good covering of Roni Cup pepperoni and wefts of grated parmesan are all you need to let you know you’re eating a New York adjacent pie over at Crisp Pizza.
Quite possibly London’s most coveted slice right now, the snaking lines outside tell their own narrative; of Londoners keen to delve deeper than the Neapolitan culinary diktat, of discerning diners seeking a slice that won’t fold so dramatically that their starched white shirts get splattered in marinara sauce.
Carl McCluskey first started slinging his thin, crispy pies from a tiny kitchen in his nan’s pub, The Chancellors, in Hammersmith back in 2021. What followed was the kind of viral success story that restaurateurs dream of: snaking queues down Crisp Road, 300 pizzas flying out on a Saturday night, a pilgrimage from Barstool Pizza’s Dave Portnoy, and just about every London pizza opening since copying the form.
Having outgrown the modest W6 digs, McCluskey has now brought his celebrated operation to the centre of town, taking over The Marlborough on North Audley Street in Mayfair in November 2025.
Support comes from the formidable team behind The Devonshire: Charlie Carroll, Ashley Palmer-Watts and Oisín Rogers, and the national reviews have been positive ever since doors opened. The queue of influencers snaking down this stretch of W1 shows no sign of abating. Whilst we’re not convinced this one is worth waiting actual hours for, it’s still a damn fine slice.
Upstairs, The Marlborough operates as a traditional pub with standing room, fitted seating and what promises to be exceptional Guinness pours courtesy of The Devonshire’s famous installation. Downstairs, Crisp takes over a speakeasy-style dining room with 50-ish covers and an outside terrace. The menu stays true to what made Hammersmith pilgrims so devoted: the Crisp W6 pie with buffalo mozzarella and lashings of pecorino, the nduja number bringing Calabrian heat, and the Vecna with its crowd-pleasing hot honey drizzle.
For those mourning the loss of The Chancellors in W6, take heart: the pizza and essence of Crisp remain unchanged, just with a rather fancier postcode.
Ideal for arguably the most Neapolitan of Neapolitan pizza experiences in the capital…
Back to where it all began, with another fine Neapolitan showstopper. Everything about Santa Maria in Ealing is about tradition and simplicity; the bare, whitewashed walls, the lightly adorned pizzas, the premium ingredients imported from the motherland. It’s all sourced and cooked with a pride in the product as guiding principle, which is no bad thing in a pizza.
Next up, we’re heading to Crust Bros. Thankfully not actually bro food (does anyone genuinely want ‘grimy fries’ or ‘sordid nachos’?), these fratms do a fine trade in elegant, Neapolitan-adjacent pizzas, complete with puffy, dinghy-style crusts, proper leopard pock-marks, and pleasingly sloppy centres.
Just a few minutes walk from Waterloo and with a pizza that hits the table steaming within a minute or two of ordering, Crust Bros is the perfect place for a pitstop before catching your onward train. The place was positively heaving on a recent Friday lunchtime visit, full of suits, citybreakers and strays, a demonstration of the enduringly democratic nature of pizza.
Despite the eponymous name, it’s not the crusts that help this pizzeria stand out in a city that’s close to drowning in latticello; it’s the dippers for those crusts that are the point of difference. The lemon garlic mayo is particularly good – piquant and bracing, and bringing a perfect counterpoint to those light-as-you like crusts which seem to exhale happily as you pierce them.
Personalise your pizza or choose from a choice of around ten of their own suggestions (skirting around the fact that you might have to say “could I have the Meat Sweatz?” outloud), finish with the excellent homemade limoncello, and you’ve got yourself a speedy, satisfying lunch to propel you forward into your afternoon. Saluti!
Ideal for lush yet light New York bar style pizzas…
If you’re prowling (sorry) the streets of Marylebone for a slice of New York, then look no further than Alley Cats Pizza. Open only a year or so, this homage to the red sauce-splattered, gingham-tableclothed pizza joints of the Big Apple has already become a sensation online and, you know, physically; you may well have seen the thin, crisp pies on TikTok or the queues snaking down Paddington Street in person in the last twelve months.
On the paddle is Sicilian chef Francesco Macri, who has worked at two other places on our list, Pizza Pilgrims and Santa Maria, and brings that experience to Alley Cats, though the pizza propositionhere is a little different – something close to a New York ‘bar style’, characterised by an electric oven that fires out 14 inches in under six minutes, all stable crusts and well-balanced, reserved toppings.
The prosaically named ‘Vodka’ is the highlight here, a riff on penne alla vodka with its splash of cream enrichening the tomato sauce and its two mozzarellas – both buffalo and aged – furthering that sense of something truly sumptuous. Fortunately, that sturdy base is more than capable of a bit of heavy lifting.
There is now a second brand on Chelsea’s King’s Road. Perhaps it might be a little easier to actually nab a table now there’s two cats in town.
Idealfor arguably London’s most popular homegrown pizza…
A synthesis style of New York and ‘London’ Neapolitan pizzas, Yard Sale is one of the city’s most ubiquitous pizza brands. TopJaw approved to point that it feels like something fishy is afoot, Yard Sale’s omnipresence, in all fairness, hasn’t dampened the quality of their pizzas, with the restaurant group winning a slew of awards in recent years, including Best Value Eats in 2022’s OFM Awards London’s most-loved restaurant in Time Out’s 2016 Love London Awards.
Yard Sale Pizza started from humble beginnings with a single oven in a backyard, and has since expanded across North, East, and South London, with 10 sites now in total, plus an extensive, expansive delivery offering. Their 12″ and 18″ pizzas are perfect for solo diners or sharing between friends, with toppings sometimes eccentric and always, proudly multicultural London in their makeup. Their recent collaboration with Roti King (such London royalty they should soon be ‘Roti Emperor’, amirite?) on a rendang topped pizza exemplifies both those statements, and ends up being predictably, properly delicious.
As with quite a few London pizzerias that get a bit frivolous with their menu descriptors, you might feel like a bit of a dick ordering here – “Mr Lava Lava”, anyone?
Locations: Hither Green, Tottenham, Crofton Park, Crystal Palace, Balham, East Dulwich, Hackney Road, Leytonstone, Walthamstow, Finsbury Park, Clapton.
Detroit Pizza, Spitalfields
Ideal for a square slice of caramelised cheese perfection…
Neapolitan this, New Yorker that… Well, over in Spitalfields, Detroit Pizza aims instead to bring a square of Motor City pizza culture to London. We’re so glad they did, as the pies here, characterised by a thick, square-cut base with a crunchy, fried base overflowing with delicious melted cheese are one mighty indulgence. The best bit? The frilly, caramelised cheese collar that the Detroit pizzas here wear so proudly, its frico the result of the thick, cast-iron-like steel pans that the restaurant uses.
A walk-in only restaurant, slices/squares/whatever are £4.99 while whole pies come in two sizes, regular or large, priced at around £15 or £25 respectively, depending on toppings. The latter is enough to feed four.
It’s rare to find such an enormous, influential concert venue slap bang in the middle of a major city, but Manchester’s AO Arena is just that.
Indeed, you could hop off the train at Manchester Victoria, the city’s second biggest transport hub after Manchester Piccadilly, and be plonked in your seat for Peter Kay’s show, pint in hand, within minutes of alighting. Better late than never? No chance of that here…
Since its grand opening in 1995, this iconic venue has played host to a wide range of events, from electrifying concerts by global superstars to thrilling sporting spectacles and captivating theatrical performances. With a seating capacity of over 21,000, the AO is one of the largest indoor arenas in Europe, drawing millions of visitors each year.
Those visitors are hungry and in need of something more exciting than the chains doing their identikit thing in the nearby Corn Exchange. We know you’re more discerning than that, so without further ado, here are the best restaurants near the AO Arena, Manchester.
Skof
A one minute walk from the AO Arena, Skof is the first restaurant from acclaimed chef Tom Barnes (who has a spell leading the kitchen at world renowned L’Enclume on his CV, as well as a dish at the Great British Menu 2020 banquet). It has quickly become one of Manchester’s, if not the UK’s, most talked about new restaurants since its opening in June 2024.
A contemporary venue specialising in the type of super precise, hyper seasonal British fine dining that earns stars, Skof manages to keep things refreshingly casual and unpretentious, helped by refined but relaxed service that falls on just the right side of the formal/familiar fence.
Without the starched white tablecloths and outdated dress codes, Skof allows the focus to fall on the food. Owned and operated by Barnes, and supported by culinary heavyweight Simon Rogan, highlights from a recent lunch (£55 for four courses, plus snacks and petit fours) included a pretty-as-a-picture main of confit Sladesdown duck, artfully cut into three chunks and served alongside the sweetest, deepest beetroot we’ve ever tasted. It’s all showered with edible petals and served with an aerated but surprisingly meaty duck sauce. Alongside, a Parker House roll that’s so cute it looks like a particularly chubby baby’s arm, emphasises the homelier side of the restaurant.
There’s also a longer (see: significantly more expensive) evening tasting menu, priced at £120 for a dozen or so courses, as well as an even longer tasting menu which is a real undertaking. A couple of extra courses – a lobster number and a round of cheese – are thrown in and the cost rises to £165. Sure, these tasting menus represent something of a commitment if you’ve got to rush off to the AO Arena to catch the start of your show, so a late lunch and a wander might be a better bet. Do be aware that Skof is only open for lunch on Thursdays, Friday and Saturdays.
Whichever time you turn up (don’t just turn up; booking in advance is pretty much essential) and whichever way you play it menu wise, do yourself a favour and order the signature Guppy’s Mezcal to start. Skof’s take on a Negroni, it’s powerful, punchy and god damn delicious.
Already recognised in the Michelin Guide, a star will surely follow when the next red book comes out early next year. It would be Manchester’s second.
With arteries still not sufficiently clogged, we’re sticking around in the Northern Quarter for something a little faster and a lot more casual, for when your show at the AO is approaching but you still need a damn good feed.
Ten minutes on foot from the arena, Northern Soul Grilled Cheese takes comfort food to the next level with its iconic grilled cheese sandwiches. Known for its boisterous atmosphere and fully loaded toasties, this joint has a deserved cult following.
The restaurant embodies the spirit of Manc innovation with its unique takes on the humble grilled cheese. Imagine stacked, gorgeous toasties and the obligatory skewered pickle, with local craft beer and Northern Soul deep cuts soundtracking your experience, and you’ve pretty much dreamt up Northern Soul Grilled Cheese. It’s so good, in fact, that we’ve named the Mac Attack here as one of the best sandwiches in Manchester.
This one is open from 11am to 6pm, perfect for a quick bite before the show.
The Edinburgh Castle was earlier this year named as the 15th best gastropub in the country at the Top 50 Gastropubs awards, testament to the exceptional cooking under the stewardship of chef Shaun Moffat. Reviewed fondly by Observer restaurant critic Jay Rayner, Moffat’s precise cooking and instinctive understanding of what people actually want to eat made this Ancoats pub one of Manchester’s finest gastropubs. His iconic Lancashire cheese doughnuts with Henderson’s relish and that famous chicken, bacon and girolle pie for two became the stuff of legend.
Now, the upstairs dining room has been taken over by Bangkok Diners Club, a thrilling new venture from husband and wife team Ben and Bo Humphreys, the duo behind the much-missed, Michelin-listed District. What they’re doing here is something special: fire-fuelled Thai cooking that marries Bo’s Bangkok and Isan heritage with smoky US barbecue techniques picked up during travels through Miami.
The menu is concise but expertly crafted, with sharing plates ranging from £9 to £16. Raw bass with calamansi nam jim, salt-aged beef nam tok salad with bone marrow aioli, and a papaya salad so spicy your ears start ringing are standouts. The battered pickled onion rings with curry salt have already achieved near-legendary status, whilst the grilled corn-fed chicken skewers with milk caramel sauce show real creativity within traditional Thai frameworks.
The restaurant has earned glowing reviews in The Guardian and Manchester Confidentials (which described dishes as “worth crossing continents for”), and has already been recognised in the 2025 Michelin Guide. Drinks come from the excellent pub downstairs, where the Guinness remains as good as ever and the wine list is sharp and reasonably priced, with bottles starting in the late £20s.
With the restaurant a 15 minute walk from the AO Arena and open everyday from midday (3pm on Mondays and Tuesdays) until late, Bangkok Diners Club makes perfect sense for a fantastic meal within walking distance of the venue.
Opened in 2015 by a group of friends from Turin, The Pasta Factory’s concept is surprisingly straightforward and eminently satisfying; to serve nonna-worthy bowls of the good stuff, quickly and efficiently, at a price point that won’t have the residents of Manchester baulking.
They’ve largely delivered on that promise, and since you’re likely looking for a quick restaurant meal before attending a show at the AO Arena (it’s a five minute walk from the venue), the Pasta Factory could just be the perfect place for you.
Located in the handsome, proud Old Bank building next to Shudehill Interchange, this humble restaurant specialises in handmade pasta (not a factory at all, then) that’s prepared freshly on the premises daily, as well as a short selection of antipasti and a couple of desserts.
A recent visit brought with it a textbook carbonara, the guanciale properly rendered and crispy, and the bores blathering on about whether or not it should have cream thankfully out of earshot. A round of squid ink bucatini, cured tuna and black garlic was gorgeous at first, but quickly became pretty a little too rich and moody, with the umami dialled up several notches louder than we could take (too-mami? Is that a phrase?). The mafalde with beef ragu brought things back around in some style.
It’s all forgiven once the freshly fried cannoli hits the table, still warm and with a centre that’s running ever so gently. Neck a quick espresso, settle up, and head to your gig with a spring in your step and a wallet that’s not been troubled too heavily by the experience.
Keep an eye out for the daily specials on the chalkboard overlooking the dining room, as this is where some of the best cooking at the Pasta Factory is found.
Just 10 minutes on foot from the AO Arena, Climat, owned by restaurateur Christopher Laidler, offers a minimalist yet refined dining environment where the panoramic views of Manchester City Centre and the River Irwell risk stealing the show if it weren’t for the equally eye-catching food that’s just been placed elegantly in front of you.
Nominally a wine bar that happens to serve great food, head chef Luke Richardson describes the menu here as “Parisian ex-pat”, with the chef taking inspiration from his time cooking in the French capital and his upbringing here in the North to great effect. So, that’s pig’s head croquette with green garlic mayo, charred half bonito head with kumquat hot sauce (a lot of head being given here, matron), and Dalesbred hogget Barnsley chop with grelots, celeriac puree, and a caper and brown butter sauce. It’s hearty and generous, with big, bold flavours but plenty of flair, too. It’s perfect.
Anyway, back to the wine; at Climat, as the name implies, there’s a stacked cellar of over 400 different wines, with the Burgundy region a focal point. In a recent interview, Laidler said that he envisioned a space that allows visitors to focus on both the breathtaking views and the exceptional food and wine, and after a recent meal here, we can safely say it’s mission accomplished.
In fact, when the late summer sun’s streaming into the dining room here, there’s a plate of hash browns and taramasalata on the way, and you’re two glasses down on a bottle of Bernard Defaix’s 2020 Chablis, there are few better places to be in the world.
Things are lifted up even higher by some gold-standard desserts to end the meal (and our roundup) on. The poached Carmen pear, swimming in a liquour of port, vanilla and perry vinegar, is exceptional. Hmmm, we think we might stay here a little while longer…
If you do the same, be careful not to forget you’ve got a gig to attend!
Across London over the previous decade, there was a tendency for the authenticity obsessed, produce-pedants of the Big Smoke to look down their 00 flour-tipped noses at the ‘New York’ style pizza.
Sure, we were content with a 330ml IPA, some deep Derrick May cuts, and a sturdy slice of the good stuff once the clock passed midnight and standards slipped. But if superlatives were getting dished out towards pizzas in London, it was usually in a Neopolitan direction. Whether that was aimed at Pellone, Salvo, Chionchio or Condurro largely depended on which pizzeria was closest, but the praise followed a similar script – of San Marzano tomatoes, 58-65% hydration, and 13.8 inches.
Fortunately, London’s pizza scene feels like it’s loosened up in recent years. The pie purists have begun experimenting and have found that, sometimes, in a city this big, there’s room for a more diverse set of marriages between dough, tomato and cheese.
Though our two favourite neo-Neapolitan and New York by-the-slice joints have now sadly closed, (RIP ASAP Pizza and Paradise Slice), there’s still plenty of joy to be found in London’s crisper, thinner based brethren.
With that in mind, today we’re exploring London’s best New York style pizzas, pie-by-pie and slice-by-slice.
*Yes, we realise some of the below aren’t strictly New York pizzas, and may even bring a touch of the ol’ New Haven across the dough, but these guys are closer to the New York style than the Neapolitan, the two key totems of the genre. Soz.*
Alley Cats Pizza, Marylebone & Chelsea
Ideal for a taste of London’s most hype new New York pizza…
If you’re on the hunt for a slice of New York in London, look no further than Alley Cats Pizza in Marylebone. This bustling pizzeria only opened its doors in January of this year, but has quickly become one of the city’s go-to spots for authentic New York-style pizza. And that’s why you’re here right?
The mastermind behind the 14 inches here is Francesco Macri, a Sicilian-born pizza specialist whose impressive resume includes stints at Pizza Pilgrims and Santa Maria. At Alley Cats Pizza, you’ll find a menu that boasts plenty of west-leaning pizzas, including the signature vodka pizza, a creamy concoction of buffalo mozzarella and tomato sauce enriched with vodka, inspired by the iconic pasta dish penne alla vodka.
With design details like wipe-clean gingham tablecloths and church-pew style seating, you’ll feel like you’ve stepped into a classic New York pizzeria here. The open kitchen extends into the bar area, allowing diners to witness the magic of pizza-making firsthand. And while traditional New York pizzerias might serve their pizzas by the slice, Alley Cats opts for a whole-pie approach, with prices ranging from £17 to £21. This one, then, is for sharing.
And this fairly recently in; Alley Cats have now opened a second branch on Chelsea’s King’s Road. Perhaps it might be a little easier to actually snag a table now!
When a former Michelin-starred chef decides to sling New York-style pizza from a Southwark railway arch, London pays attention. Tom Kemble (ex-Bonhams and The Pass) opened Spring Street in April after his lockdown pizza project became an all-consuming obsession, and now he’s serving 18-inch monsters that you can buy by-the-slice like a true East Coaster.
The 72-hour fermented dough using an Italian biga method (the dough is pre-fermented for a good 18 hours before a longer ferment in the fridge for a couple of days) sounds like a lot, but it delivers a base with fantastic structural integrity – crispy underneath yet still foldable enough to do that whole one-handed-fold-while-walking thing.
Pizzas are all served as full sharers, but you can go for a half-and-half option toppings wise, which is a nice touch. True to form, we’re particularly enamoured with the New Yorker, which takes the now totally ubiquitous hot honey and pepperoni combo up several notches with soothing fior di latte, jalapeños and drifts of good quality pecorino. Sure, it’s £32, but the quality of the ingredients and size of the damn thing make it acceptable value.
Tucked into Arch 32 next to Omeara bar, it’s five minutes from both London Bridge and Borough stations, with outdoor seating where you can demolish pizza while trains rumble overhead every few minutes, safe in the knowledge that the structural integrity of these pies won’t be disturbed by your rattling table. They’ve even got gildas to start and Estate Dairy soft serve with olive oil drizzle for afters, again setting out their stall as a pizzeria that takes their ingredients very seriously.
Ideal for a fleeting flavour of New York pizza perfection…
Even more evanescent than a canotto crust pre-exhale, the team at Dough Hands have made a big name for themselves in the London pizza game with periodic pop-ups across the city in recent years, from their inaugural spot at Brixton Market in the pre-COVID blessed times, all the way to, confusingly, a spell at the Three Colts at the tail end of last year, where 75 Slices have since pitched up.
Dough Hands has now settled in for a (hopefully) long term residency at the Spurstowe Arms in Hackney. We couldn’t be more excited to be trying chef Hannah Drye’s signature ‘Jode’ again, a spicy little number with nduja, hot honey and buffalo mozzarella. Open 7 beautiful days a week, it’s walk-in only.
And an exciting update for 2025; Dough Hands have opened a second permanent kitchen, this time south of the river in The Old Nun’s Head in Nunhead. The Spurstowe outpost is now billed as ‘East’, Nunhead as ‘South’. Makes sense.
Ideal for affordable, delicious slices of the good stuff…
Another pizza pop-up with claims at the crown of best NY-style pizza in London, All Kaps Pizza at Papo’s Bagels in Dalston was one (or two, or three…impossible to resist as they are) stunning slice of pizza.
Available by the slice or as a whole 16 inch take home pizza, All Kaps was an inclusive, democratic affair; those slices start clocking in at just £2 which, in today’s economy, is basically giving them away. Though the Pepp Pie – a rich red sauce, mozzarella, provolone, and properly spicy pepperoni – is a crowd pleaser and surely the best seller (it’s often sold out come late afternoon), we’re even more enamoured with the garlic cream-based slices. A recent green sauce and shiso topped affair was a real ripper.
We’re speaking in the past tense here because, for the best part of a year, All Kaps has been on hiatus. But, whisper it, the esteemed pizza slingers are back! After a period on hiatus, All Kaps Pizza is back and better than ever, though they’ve evolved their operation significantly. No longer the slice-slinging setup at Papo’s Bagels, All Kaps has shifted to a preorder-only model focused on whole pies.
The acclaimed pizza makers now operate from a new kitchen space that isn’t accessible to the public, meaning their famous £2 slices are no longer available. Instead, they’re focusing on whole pie preorders that open every Tuesday afternoon for Sunday collection. You can order up to three pies per time slot, with pickup at their new location near London Fields.
The quality that made All Kaps a crowd favourite remains unchanged. Their signature Pepp Pie – featuring rich red sauce, mozzarella, provolone, and properly spicy pepperoni – is still available, alongside their beloved garlic cream-based options that previously wowed slice enthusiasts. Preorders open Tuesday at noon for the following Sunday. Choose your pickup time slot (your pizzas will be hot and ready then), order up to three pies, and collect at the designated time with your order code. It’s all a little mysterious (a masked man arrives wielding your pizza boxes and doesn’t speak a single word), but it’s still the tip top pizza we’ve come to love All Kaps for.
The team is working on delivery options, but for now, it’s pickup only at their new East London location – about a 10-minute walk from London Fields or 3 minutes from Cambridge Heath station.
Ideal for a spicy, satiating slice where Harrow meets Hertfordshire…
Bang on the border with the London borough of Harrow, Vincenzo’s in Bushey, Hertfordshire, does such a good pizza that we’re stretching the very limits of what the “best New York style pizza in London” can be.
Available in 12 inch and 18 inch pies, to eat in or to take out (that is the question), the base here is thin and with just the right level of resilience, the crust gently puffed yet pliable.
We’re here, time and time again, for Vincenzo’s Raging Hog (sounds like a fucking weird innuendo), which is a carefully-composed, assertive though not aggressive balancing act of aged mozzarella, tomato sauce, and heat brought by pepperoni, hot and sweet roquito peppers and chilli honey. It’s that sweetness from the bee piss that tempers the more fiery notes here. Fresh basil, sniped and scattered, rounds it all off. Magic.
If we’re stretching the definition of ‘London’ pizzas further still, then do check out Gracey’s Pizza over in St. Albans, too. A phenomenal Neopolitan/New York hybrid, it’s well worth leaving the big city for.
And this just in; much of the above could do with an update, as Vincenzo’s has just opened up in Shoreditch.
Ideal for trying London’s hottest pizza, New Yorker, Neapolitan or otherwise…
Quite possibly London’s hottest pizza (not temperature wise – that would be Fatisa in Wood Green, of course) right now, the queues outside tell a story. A story of Londoners keen to delve deeper than the Neapolitan culinary diktat, of discerning diners seeking a slice that won’t fold so dramatically that their starched white shirts get splattered in marinara sauce.
Enter the prosaically, aptly named Crisp Pizza, a pub-based operation that has been dubbed London’s best pizza by just about everyone from GQ to the Evening Standard’s Jimi Famurewa.
Boasting a base that simply won’t budge under the weight of its admirably restrained toppings, a good covering of Roni Cup pepperoni and wefts of grated parmesan are all you need to let you know you’re eating a New York adjacent pie. That, and the gravity-defying nature of the slice. Oh, and the literal name of the place – these are certainly crispy boys, and damn delicious, too.
It all began in 2021 when Carl McCluskey took over his nan’s pub, The Chancellors, in Hammersmith and started turning out thin, crispy pies from its tiny kitchen. The rest, as they say, is pizza history: Barstool Pizza’s Dave Portnoy made the pilgrimage, Saturday nights saw 300 pizzas leave the pass, and the virality just grew and grew. And grew. The W6 postcode became a destination in its own right.
Now, McCluskey has relocated to rather grander surroundings in Mayfair, reopening The Marlborough on North Audley Street in November 2025 with heavyweight backing from The Devonshire’s Charlie Carroll, Ashley Palmer-Watts and Oisín Rogers. National reviews have landed thick and fast since opening, and the influencer queue down this stretch of W1 suggests the hype has followed him from Hammersmith.
The setup splits across two floors: upstairs functions as a traditional boozer with standing room and exceptional Guinness pours (courtesy of The Devonshire’s famed installation), while downstairs houses a speakeasy-style 52-cover dining room plus terrace. Expect the same menu that won over west London – the Crisp W6 pie, the fiery nduja, the Vecna with its hot honey drizzle – just with a fancier postcode attached.
Well, perhaps you don’t need to leave London after all, as Gracey’s Pizza has finally brought their celebrated pies back to the capital with an extended pop-up at Arcade Battersea running throughout 2025.
This is the culmination of years of graft that began during the COVID years – 12 months of slinging pizzas outdoors in sideways rain and arctic temperatures from a mobile setup, before establishing their acclaimed bricks-and-mortar base in Chiswell Green. The team’s dedication to perfecting their East Coast-inspired style, informed by trips to New York and New Haven plus collaboration with like-minded pizza makers across the UK and US, has clearly paid off.
At Arcade Battersea, you’ll find some of Gracey’s signature offerings including the Plain Tom and Smokey Ron, alongside the Sweet Vera – an exclusive collaboration special topped with house sausage, sweet Italian peppers, and shallots that’s only available at this location. The New Haven influences shine through in their approach to crust and char, while the New York DNA is evident in the structural integrity and generous proportions.
What makes this particularly exciting is that it marks Gracey’s first return to London’s Zone 1 in years, bringing their much-lauded pizza expertise to one of the city’s buzziest food destinations. The fact that the original pop-up proved so popular it’s been extended into 2025 speaks volumes about the quality on offer.
Pair your pizza with selections from the Arcade bar – beers, wines, and cocktails all complement these East Coast-inspired beauties perfectly.
Such is the scarcity of London’s New York-style scene that Dalston’s Voodoo Ray’s feels like a proper veteran of the landscape. Now entering their second decade of slice slinging, the self-proclaimed OGs of NYC pizzas must be doing something right; they now have a second branch in Peckham and another in Manchester.
Here, the main draw is their obscenely sized single slices, with two the equivalent of a whole 11 inch pizza. Though they do sell whole 22 inch pies for taking away and sharing, you’ll more likely find us leant against a weeping wall in the corridor-like space of the Dalston branch in the early hours (open ‘till 2am on the weekends, these guys), clutching a slice of their gorgeous Queen Vegan – no fake cheese here, just heaps of vegetables – and pontificating about life’s larger questions. Like, ‘’shall we order another slice?’’.
A synthesis style of New York and ‘London’ Neapolitan pizzas, Yard Sale is one of the city’s most ubiquitous pizza brands. But their omnipresence hasn’t dampened the quality of their pizzas, with the restaurant group winning a slew of awards recently, including being voted Best Value Eats in the Observer Food Monthly awards in 2022 and London’s favourite pizza in Time Out’s inaugural Clash of the Slices in 2022.
Whilst not perhaps quite as thin and flexible as you came seeking in this article, and cooked in a brick static oven rather than a deck, the by-the-slice nature of Yard Sale definitely renders them worthy of a mention. That, and they’re damn delicious.
Ideal for carefully composed, beautifully balanced pizzas…
Though you’ll find the good guys from Bad Boys Pizza Society at London Bridge’s Vinegar Society, as well as in Tulse Hill, it’s at Covent Garden’s Seven Dials Market that the pizza group has turned their attention to New York style slices.
It’s a tight menu of just four pies here, the generosity reserved instead for the 22 inch pies, which boast a raft of finely balanced toppings. Ours is the rather unappealing sounding Crusty Old Goat, a goat’s cheese and caramelised onion number that’s brought to life with a sticky balsamic glaze and plenty of freshly cracked black pepper. Yours for £5.50, or grab three slices for £13.
For those living south of the river, these boys have recently popped up at The Railway in Tulse Hill, and will be slinging for the foreseeable. Rejoice!
A New York-adjacent pizza operation baking thin, structurally sound pies from the humble confines of a neighbourhood pub kitchen? Someone seems to have their script stuck on repeat here, but that’s not to say that the concept feels tired yet (okay; we’re getting close to feeling a little sleepy here).
And so it is to Peckham Rye and into the warm embrace of the Brick Brewery, where from Tuesdays to Sundays, World Famous Gordos are slinging single slices of real poise and precision, with a few inventive twists on traditional toppings keeping things interesting.
A recent sliceof buffalo chicken and mozzarella, with both buffalo and blue cheese sauce spaffed across its surface, was ace; a crisp, digestible dough marking it out as a genuinely delicious thing rather than the product of a late night fridge raid. Even better on the same visit, a tribute to Coney Island hot dog culture saw a slice of the standard mozzarella and fior di latte base given lift off with chopped hot dogs, chilli beef, chopped raw white onions and a zigzag of mustard.
Sure, there’s a lot of ‘spesh’ and ‘boi’ in the Insta vernacular, and Eating with Tod might praise these pies for being ‘dirty’, but they’re genuinely gold-standard in their delivery, with the more experimental, nostalgic American toppings a welcome change from a pie culture that’s become homogenised and samey surprisingly fast in the city.
You’ll also find World Famous Gordos doing their thing out of Netil Market, selling slices from 11am every day until they sell out.
We all know the drill by now; there’s much, much more to Thai food than fluorescent green curries, teeth-achingly sweet phad Thai, and heaps of chilli.
It’s become something of a tired old refrain to repeat and reframe this fact, usually followed by a riff on the diverse regionality of the country’s cuisine, the breadth of its flavour profile beyond that much-trotted ‘spicy, sour, sweet, salty’ metric, and something about David Thompson’s influence on Thai restaurants and British chefs in the city.
Instead, let’s just get into it, and take a look at our favourite Thai food in the city, whether you’re looking for faithfully recreated, note-perfect food from the Kingdom or British takes on Thai cuisine using seasonal ingredients. Either way, it’s here, in our guide on where to find the best Thai food in London, and the best Thai restaurants in the city.
Singburi, Shoreditch
Ideal for London’s most sought-after booking and the purest Thai flavours in the capital…
So much has been written about the original Singburi in recent weeks that it feels almost trite at this stage to head on over to Leytonstone once again to relive the moo krob.
It’s clear that Singburi 2.0 is a different beast with different intentions. Only the original signage and a couple of prints from the old days remain. What you’ll find instead, in this seemingly tacked-on, glass-fronted space in Montacute Yards, is something that feels both fresh and familiar – the same brilliant mind behind the stoves, a more focused menu, perhaps, and occasional hints at the experimentation to come once everyone has bedded in here and got settled.
Chef Sirichai Kularbwong has joined forces with Nick Molyviatis (formerly of Kiln) and Alexander Gkikas (Catalyst Cafe), and, unsurprisingly for a trio of that calibre, the results are steady, satisfying and sometimes scintillating.
The custom-built live fire grill dominates the open kitchen, and a busy team of five or so all work around it, shimmying past chef Sirichai, who is in his own zone, smoking, charring and coaxing flavours that, at their best, feel charged with electricity.
The menu changes daily, sometimes twice, but riffs on themes remain. The aubergine pad phet has become something of a signature already – double-fried so the flesh is fudgy, then tossed with wild ginger and chilli until it becomes vital. It’s impossible to imagine anything so humble could taste so extraordinary.
The lamb riblets, though not perhaps so traditional, showcase the kitchen’s ability to apply Thai techniques to British ingredients with enjoyable results. The meat arrives fatty and funky, its tamarind glaze pitched perfectly somewhere between sweet and sour. A sprinkle of khao khua gives everything a pleasing nuttiness.
Indeed, it’s the dishes that are less dogmatic, less faithful to their original recipes, that are the most successful. A slab of grilled seabream fillet sits swimming in a soup of nahm jim seafood, the beloved Thai green dipping sauce here served in generous quantities rather than the usual dinky bowls you constantly need to re-up.
The khua kling – the fiery Southern Thai dry curry most commonly made with pork – was, on our visit, made with coarsely minced haddock. It arrived as an intensely spicy, wonderfully fragrant homogeneous mass, as close to a Thai relish in make-up as it was a dry curry. It was superb with plenty of soothing jasmine rice.
The monkfish cheek green curry, meanwhile, demonstrated a more delicate touch, the delicate orbs of just-poached fish swimming in a sweet, coconut-forward curry sauce that vibrated with energy.
The transformation from cash-only BYOB chaos to this slick operation is of course noteworthy. There’s now a proper wine list (natural, low-intervention bottles that rub along nicely with the spicing), and cocktails that wouldn’t look out of place in Shoreditch’s hipper cocktail bars. You can, in theory, book online, though the sheer demand for seats means that’s proving difficult.
The space itself is industrial chic delivered aptly: terrazzo floors, clay-pink tiles, and towering windows that flood everything with light. The counter seats around the open kitchen are the place to be, lent on your elbows ordering another round of whiskey sodas in lieu of dessert, and admiring Kularbwong’s myopic focus on flavour.
Yes, the new Singburi is pricier than the Leytonstone days, but dishes start at £6.50 and don’t top £20, meaning it’s still good value for this city.
It’s been pretty impossible to miss the buzz surrounding the JKS-backed Arcade Food Hall since its opening in April of 2022.
Housed in the Centre Point building on New Oxford Street, and just a few second’s stroll from Tottenham Court Road station, Arcade Food Hall offers a veritable feast of global cuisines, with 8 restaurant concepts currently operating here, and a fully-fledged Southern Thai joint on the mezzanine above the communal dining area.
That Southern Thai restaurant is Plaza Khao Gaeng, which, despite only being a couple of years old, is already doing some of the most faithfully composed, fiery food from The Kingdom anywhere in London.
Though much has been written about the fearsome chilli levels on display here, it’s the vivacity of the ingredients that really shine through. The coconut cream in the massaman and chicken curries tastes freshly pressed (a labour intensive process that’s rare to find in the capital), the sour curry sparkles with garcinia fruit as opposed to just lime and tamarind, the khua kling’s green peppercorns bring rasping heat alongside the undulating presence of various fresh and dried chillies. It’s magic.
Our only complaint? More elbow room on the tables, please; because it’s impossible not to order every dish on the menu.
Speaking of finding room, if you’ve somehow managed to save stomach space for seconds, then on the floor below there’s sushi, smash burgers, shawarma and more.
*Following the success of the original Arcade Food Hall location, Plaza Khao Gaeng has just opened a second site at Borough Yards, debuting on 19 November 2025. Tucked beneath the Victorian railway arches on Stoney Street and extending into the adjoining alleys, the new 80-seater brings an expanded menu focusing on lesser-known southern Thai provinces.
New dishes include kha muu paloh (slow-cooked pork hock), gaeng gati puu bai cha plu (whole Dorset hen crab in coconut curry with wild betel leaves), and pad phet pla tord (whole sea bass in red jungle curry). Much of the produce continues to come from Luke Farrell’s Ryewater Nursery in Dorset.*
Ideal for a taste of Phuket without the 14 hour flight…
Thai cooking in the capital doesn’t always have to be enjoyed through the prism of ‘nu’ or ‘hip’. It needn’t always be Tik-Tok touting small plates and interiors designed more for the stories of Instagram than for the comfort of the diner. And so we find ourselves in Kings Cross, at Supawan, an elegant, understated spot whose flavours are very much not (the latter).
Here, chef and owner Wichet Khongphoon brings the food of his native Phuket to the table in a space so florally-appointed that it might have you sneezing even before the chilli and white pepper does. Not to worry; it looks beautiful and seems to chime with the fruity, flowery cocktail descriptions of which you’ll soon be sipping (mine’s a hibiscus infused, guava spiked number called Love Don’t Be Shy, I’m Super Shy, naturally).
Start with the miang Phuket, the definitive Thai hor d’oeuvre. Bringing the whole sweet-salty-spicy-sour thing together into a single bite, Supawan’s version sees grilled prawns, a galangal caramel and intricate dice of ginger, lime, peanuts and more, all perched atop a wild piper leaf. Wrap, fold, scrunch… Whatever you want to do, this guy goes down in one. The intricacies develop on the tongue long after it’s gone.
Though chef Khongboon has called London home for more than two decades, we’re so glad that the food memories of his southern Thai upbringing still linger with such clarity. It’s an absolute joy that you can order pla thu yud sai here. A Phuket seafood dish rarely found in the rest of Thailand let alone in the UK, this one is a complex preparation of deboned, hollowed out mackerel that’s then stuffed with a mixture of its minced flesh and red curry paste before being grilled. The kids might praise the ‘tekkers’ – we’ll just call it bloody delicious. Similarly, the stuffed chicken wings show off the same dexterity.
If it’s on the menu, do not miss out on the signature ‘Dad’s beef curry’, which has thankfully been conceived by Khongboon’s father, not by yours or ours. A thick and fragrant, coconut-defined red curry, it’s a soulful bowl that reveals the flavours of fresh galangal and toasted coconut in the curry paste once it’s cooled to Phuket room temperature. Best enjoyed with a side of stir fried morning glory that feels like it could cure whatever ails you and plenty of rice, this is one to luxuriate over. So, sit back, order another Singha, and give the chef his flowers. You won’t have to go far to find some.
Ideal for a poetic meeting of British soil and Thai soul…
There’s something rather poetic about AngloThai’s location on a quiet Marylebone backstreet, where Georgian townhouses whisper of British heritage while the restaurant’s frontage, rendered in Royal Thai purple, hints at something more glamorous within. After years of pop-ups that had London’s food cognoscenti practically vibrating with anticipation, John and Desiree Chantarasak have finally given their vision a permanent home. And just six months in, it’s safe to say that AngloThai is a roaring success, with positive reviews and a Michelin star announced in February of this year. That makes it the only Thai restaurant in the capital (and one of just a handful in Europe) to hold a star.
Inside, Thai-American designer May Redding has created something that seems to pay lipservice to both heritage and modernity – think whitewashed pannelling that could be either colonial Bangkok or contemporary Notting Hill, handcrafted Chamchuri wood tables that tell stories of Thai craftsmanship, and lighting that makes everyone look like they’ve been kissed by the Andaman sunshine. The open kitchen ricochets with the whoosh of proper turbo wok burners and the pok-pok of the pestle and mortar; a soundtrack that also speaks to the kitchen’s commitment to doing things right.
The mission statement here is to to take Thai cooking and reimagine it through a purely British lens – pearled naked oats stand in for jasmine rice, Suffolk-grown holy basil replaces its Thai cousin, and native-breed meats and line-caught fish take centre stage. There’s not a single imported tiger prawn in sight. Highlights from the a la carte (there’s also a tasting menu, priced keenly at £75) include a snack of tempura banana pepper that’s been filled with a riff on Thai sai ua sausage, and a perfectly balanced massaman curry of Launceston hogget and quince that boasts the warming complexity of the finest versions in Bangkok.
The drinks offering is equally considered, with the sea-buckthorn margarita a real showstopper – bracing, puckering and knock-your-block-off potent. The wine list, curated by Desiree, leans heavily on Austrian and European biodynamic producers, including their own label made in partnership with Nibiru – wines chosen specifically to dance with rather than dominate the complex spicing.
What’s most impressive about AngloThai is how it creates something genuinely new without feeling forced. Yes, the prices reflect the prime Marylebone location and premium British ingredients, but there’s serious skill and thought behind every dish. This isn’t fusion for fusion’s sake – it’s a carefully considered exploration of what happens when Thai cuisine is viewed through a purely British lens.
Ideal for hip, wholesome Thai food close to London Bridge…
Meaning ‘eat and drink’ in Thai, the restaurant’s name is a gentle, straightforward invitation that seems to translate to the wholesome plates, plant tonics and general easy-going vibe at Kin + Deum.
It’s a family-run affair. Led by three stylish Thai siblings from the Inngern family, there’s a real focus on nutrition and balance here; the restaurant doesn’t use refined sugars or MSG (for better or worse) and it’s a 100% gluten-free affair to boot. The paired back but gorgeous interiors of the restaurant further reflect this.
The recipes here are nominally based on dishes heralding from Bangkok, though really the menu spans the whole country, with laap salad from the North East, khao soi curry noodle soup from the North, and panang from the deep south of Thailand. Hey, there’s even a katsu curry, Kin + Deum style, if you’re hankering for it.
Regardless of origin, the cooking here is fantastic; though there’s a lightness of touch in the dishes, that isn’t in the name of sacrificing chilli heat or punchy acidity. Nope, it’s all here, and it’s all very delicious, indeed.
The opening of Kolae in Borough Market was one of the most hyped in recent years, with every other reel on the ‘gram seemingly a walkthrough of a room in various shades of cameo and a breathy description of a pickled mango dirty martini. Flame and chili emojis naturally followed.
Even if you have been sheltering under a half coconut husk for the last year, we’ll spare you the usual spiel about Kolae being from the same team as critically acclaimed Som Saa. We’ll only briefly mention this time the cooking method that gives the restaurant its name – that is, a style of grilling popular in Southern Thailand that sees skewers marinated in a thick coconut cream curry before meeting the coals. At Kolae, this is most often used on mussels, chicken and squash, that marinade catching and caramelising to a gorgeous, irregular rust. Squeeze on some calamansi and get messy.
But really, it’s not just the eponymous, headlining dish you should be focusing your order on. More than anything, Kolae is a celebration of coconut milk. Not the UHT, uncrackable stuff, mind. Rather, the freshly pressed variety, which Kolae do each and every day, its luscious sweetness unmatched. Luxuriate in that coconut cream in a fragrant, turmeric heavy curry of prawns and cumin leaf, pungent from shrimp paste and fruity-sharp from heaps of pounded mouse shit chillies in the paste.
Of course, a complete Thai table is also a balanced one, so temper those richer notes with something piquant and perky, the sour curry of grey mullet being just the guy for the job. It’s acidic not only in its use of both lime and tamarind as souring agents, but also in that it’s spicy to the point of hallucinations, just as it should be. Freshly steamed jasmine rice should be flowing by now.
You’ll want to be doing all this tripping with a view of the action; Kolae’s open kitchen throbs with activity, with pestles pounding and wok flames licking the ceiling. Pull up a pew on stools that look so much like Cadbury’s Dairy Milk Buttons (you might want to see a doctor about that) that it’s distracting, and relish the onslaught of deeply nuanced, deeply delicious flavour that’s to come.
It’s a well-trodden path to restaurant success – earn fans through supper clubs and pop-ups before crowd-funding your way into permanent premises, but Som Saa did this well-trodden path in some style. £700’000 was pledged by friends, fans and financers and a place on a busy, East London street secured, all on the back of some superbly grilled chicken, pounded-to-order som tam salads, vibrant laap and other assertive dishes largely (but not exclusively) from Thailand’s north.
It’s no wonder this place is so confident in their delivery; the two chef/founders were schooled by Thai food deity David Thompson, and it shows. Flavours are bold but balanced, ingredients well-sourced, and spice levels prevalent and assertive.
Arrive early and enjoy a drink at the bar with some of Som Saa’s excellent snacks; we’re absolute suckers for their naem (grilled fermented pork served with ginger and peanuts) and would happily come here only for a few plates of it.
That said, to do so would be to miss out on the restaurant’s iconic deep fried seabass with herbs and roasted rice powder, which has never left the menu due to its enduring popularity. It’s easy to see why; it’s delicious.
*Following a fire at the restaurant in early May, Som Saa is now up and running once again. Rejoice!*
We’ve been huge fans of Smoking Goat since its raucous, ramshackle days on Brewer Street, Soho. Rest assured; since the Thai barbeque restaurant’s move to Shoreditch, the vibe remains rowdy, the chill levels still Scoville baiting, and the aroma of smoke even more pervasive, in the best possible way of course.
This is food designed to reinvigorate. Though the fish sauce chicken wings have gained deserved cult status, and their Tamworth pork chop with spicy jaew dipping sauce is a real crowd pleaser, it’s the restaurant’s work with the offal which keeps us coming back.
With liver, heart and kidney featuring heavily in various laap, you could go to the Goat and dine very well on these intoxicating Laotian/Thai salads alone. With several rounds of sticky rice, a som tam salad and a couple of cold ones, it’s the ideal meal, any time of day in the city.
The food here is ultimately excellent Thai drinking food. As such, the drinks and cocktail list at Smoking Goat is thoughtfully curated to complement. Order a ‘Tray of Joy’ which features globetrotting, esoteric liquors including a a Coco Leaf Liqueur from Amsterdam, a watermelon Liqueur from Serra Di Conti and, of course, Mekhong from Bangkok.
Ideal for a celebration of the best of British ingredients, told through a Thai lens…
The second restaurant from the aforementioned Ben Chapman, Kiln is quite the spectacle, with bar seating overlooking flames, coals and clay pots. The vibe transports you right out of central London and to somewhere altogether hotter and more rustic.
The restaurant works proudly with a close clutch of suppliers, with fish sourced directly, daily, from fishing boats in Cornwall and heritage vegetables earning equal billing on the menu to protein. During game season, that menu comes alive with jungle curries of wood pigeon or wild mallard and minced laab salads of raw venison (whose season begins in April through October, incidentally).
But even better, and on more consistently throughout the year, is cull yaw, a type of mutton from retired female ewes that has been fattened with high degrees of welfare in mind. The meat has an incredible depth of flavour, and has been making appearances on the menu of several acclaimed London restaurants in recent years. At Kiln, it’s often served as a collar chop accompanied by a spicy dipping sauce, or in grilled skewers with a little sprinkle of cumin. Just so damn delicious.
Ideal for a taste of one of Bangkok’s most iconic dishes…
This neon-lit gem, which opened its doors in September 2022, is the brainchild of talented, Thai-food obsessed British chef Luke Farrell, who has been exploring the cuisine of the Kingdom for years while bouncing between Dorset, London and Thailand.
His first restaurant, Plaza Khao Gaeng (you’ll recognise that one from a few paragraphs prior) which opened in collaboration with the increasingly omnipresent JKS, was an instant smash, garnering rave reviews from basically all the national newspaper critics soon after its opening in spring of 2022.
Farrell’s second, Speedboat Bar, followed later in the year, and it’s safe to say that his ode to Bangkok’s Chinatown has hit the ground running. Or, rather, hit the river speeding…
Speedboat Bar takes its inspiration from the flashing lights of Bangkok’s Chinatown and the thrilling sport of speedboat racing along the canals (klongs) of the city. The two-story restaurant’s main dining areas features a utilitarian, stainless steel design reminiscent of a Thai-Chinese shophouse, while the upstairs clubhouse bar is adorned with signed portraits of speed boat racers and blasts of Thai pop, turbo folk, and molam music through the speakers. It’s almost impossible not to neck a few jelly bias while you’re up there – be warned.
With many of the native Thai ingredients and herbs used in the dishes cultivated and grown at Farrell’s Dorset nursery, Ryewater, there’s an veracity to the flavours here, whether that’s in the chicken matchsticks (essentially chicken wings halved lengthways) with a pert tangle of shredded green mango salad, or the clams stir fried in nahm prik pao, a staple dish of Bangkok Chinatown institutions like the imitable TK Seafood.
The signature here is a tribute to the iconic Jeh O Chula, which sits on the outskirts of Yarowat, and, more specifically, her legendary Tom Yam Mama Noodles. Having eaten the original more times than we’d care to confess in print, we can honestly say that Speedboat’s version is up there, on a par.
Save space for the pineapple filled pie which is a nod to the Ezy Bake pies that you can get from 7/11s across Thailand. Be warned; these flaky babies sell out, so get your order in at the beginning of the meal if you’ve got a sweeth tooth.
Basically, if you don’t have the time to take a plane to Thailand in the coming months, Speedboat Bar is arguably the next best thing this side of the Chao Phraya.
Sitting pretty behind a vivid pink façade in Hammersmith, 101 Thai Kitchen stands out as one of London’s most faithful purveyors of regional Thai cuisine. Specialising in dishes from Isaan, the northeastern region known for its bold use of spice and fermentation, and Southern Thailand, famed for its coconut cream and seafood numbers, this King Street stalwart offers an experience that’s notably different from the capital’s more mainstream Thai establishments.
The dining room, though modest, creates an immersive atmosphere with portraits of Thai nobility adorning the walls, a small television quietly broadcasting Thai cookery programmes, and Thai aunties gossiping on the table closest to the kitchen every time we’ve visited. It’s lovely, and a setting that puts the focus squarely where it belongs: on the food.
The menu is extensive and uncompromising in its authenticity. Their Isaan sausage (£8), fermented onsite so the chefs can monitor when the pork reaches a perfect tang, delivers a a lip smacking sour-saltiness that exemplifies the region’s distinctive flavour profile.
The tom sab, a hot and sour tamarind-based broth with pork ribs (£12), demonstrates the kitchen’s masterful handling of bruising but somehow still balanced spicing. It’s a dish we’ve eaten many times in actual Isaan, and is a great version of a classic here. Sending diners to the other end of the country, 101’s interpretation of Hat Yai fried chicken (playfully dubbed ‘HFC’) comes garnished with crispy fried shallots and plenty of crunch, and is excellent with a few bottles of imported Chang.
The som tum (papaya salad) section alone offers seven variations, including the traditional som tum Thai with dried shrimp and peanuts, and the more pungent – and infinitely more delicious! – tum pu plaa raa with salted crab (all £12). Some more esoteric Southern Thai specialities are also present and most welcome on the dinner table spread – the gaeng tai plaa, a spicy, herbacious curry made with fermented fish guts, is a highlight.
101’s drinks menu is thoughtfully curated, featuring a solid wine list with bottles ranging from £22 to £40, including options like the Shucker’s Shack Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand (£9 for 175ml, £35 bottle). Traditional Thai refreshments include iced tea, pink milk, and various herbal drinks. The restaurant also sports an impressive gin selection, and there’s Chang beer too, for those seeking something more casual. Which, in this spot, you probably should be.
Beyond the à la carte offerings, a blackboard of daily specials; though not at the Singburi level of intrigue, it rewards return visits. Despite its relatively peripheral location, 101 Thai Kitchen has established itself as an essential destination for anyone serious about exploring the true breadth and depth of Thai cuisine in London.
Ideal for comforting, invigorating Thai food in North London…
Thai food in the capital is now so popular that the usual explanatory diatribe seems unnecessary; you probably know farang means foreigner, dishes are designed to be shared, everything revolves around rice, the food of the country is hugely different from region to region……
But just because we’re all now so well versed in the vernacular, it shouldn’t overshadow just how splendid the cooking is at Farang. Their gai prik – deep fried chicken wings with a sweet fish sauce glaze – are simply divine, and the larger, sharing curries, cooked low and slow, consistently pack a huge punch of depth and verve, whilst remaining resolutely comforting.
Just make sure you order a side of turmeric and roasted garlic butter roti to mop up all the sauce! Bliss.
Located on Peckham’s foodie strip Bellenden Road, the Begging Bowl uses Thai street food to form gorgeous small plates of zest and fire. The building is beautiful and airy, adding to the buzz this place generates even on a weeknight.
On the menu, dishes boast real clarity and punch, with excellent sourcing evident in the precision of flavour. The jasmine rice, so fragrant and nourishing, is limitless. A real treat.
On Crete’s north coast, Hersonissos sits at the heart of the island’s busiest tourist stretch, sandwiched between Heraklion and the party town of Malia. The harbour strip has its share of beach clubs, late-night bars and the kind of neon-lit cocktail menus that cater to a younger crowd – but focusing on that misses the point of what makes this corner of the island worth two days of anyone’s time.
The thing about Hersonissos is that it exists in layers. There’s the busy seafront, yes, but climb just five minutes into the hills and you’ll find yourself in villages so quiet you can hear goat bells across the valley. Ancient olive groves tumble down slopes towards a coastline that, away from the main beaches, breaks into hidden coves and sheltered bays where you might be the only swimmer all afternoon. A Minoan palace lies in ruins just down the road. An open-air museum preserves the island’s folk traditions.
And ten minutes in the other direction, the beach village of Analipsi offers exactly the kind of laid-back, taverna-lined simplicity that package tourists imagine when they book a Greek island holiday.
Here’s how to spend 48 hours discovering both sides of the coin.
Day One
Morning: The Hilltop Villages
Start by going uphill. The villages of Koutouloufari and Piskopiano sit on the slopes above modern Hersonissos, connected by cobbled lanes that wind between stone houses draped in bougainvillea. These settlements have been here since Byzantine times – Koutouloufari takes its name from a priest who offered refuge to villagers fleeing pirates – and they’ve retained their character even as the coast below transformed into a tourist resort.
Koutouloufari is arguably the prettier of the two, its narrow paved streets threading past arched doorways, vine-shaded courtyards and tiny squares where elderly locals still gather for morning coffee. There are no cars here, just footpaths that occasionally dead-end at someone’s front door. The views down to the sea are the kind you’ll keep stopping to photograph, though the real pleasure is simply wandering without a destination, ducking into ceramic workshops and letting the smell of jasmine guide you from one shaded corner to the next.
Piskopiano, a few hundred metres away, is slightly more developed but equally atmospheric. Its name derives from ‘piskopos’ – bishop – a nod to the old diocese of Hersonissos that once administered this region. The village church sits on a small square with restored guesthouses alongside, and the main street is lined with tavernas whose terraces look out over the rooftops to the coast below.
Lunch: Taverna Harakas
For lunch, Taverna Harakas in Ano Hersonissos (also known as Old Hersonissos) serves the kind of home-cooked Cretan food that explains why the island’s cuisine has its own UNESCO recognition.
The restaurant is family-run and has been for decades; the courtyard is shaded by vines, and the menu changes depending on what looked good at the market. Expect stifado rich with tomatoes and cinnamon, oven-baked lamb with potatoes, meatballs in lemon sauce, and a house special sauce that regulars return for year after year. The raki at the end of the meal is complimentary and non-negotiable.
After lunch, head to the Lychnostatis Open Air Museum, a labour of love created by a local ophthalmologist who spent seven years building it by hand with his family. The museum recreates a traditional Cretan village, complete with farmhouse, windmill, weaving workshop, olive press and herb garden, all constructed from local stone and wood without any mechanical equipment.
It sounds like it could be twee, but it isn’t. The buildings themselves are exhibits – designed to show how Cretans actually constructed their homes – and the guides are passionate locals who’ll explain everything from how natural dyes were made to why specific herbs were hung above doorways. On Wednesdays they host grape-treading demonstrations and wine tastings; there’s also an on-site café serving herb teas from the garden and homemade spoon sweets. Allow at least ninety minutes.
Evening: Sunset At Sarandaris Cape & Dinner In Koutouloufari
For sunset, make your way to Cape Sarandaris, the rocky headland west of Hersonissos harbour. A small path leads to the whitewashed chapel of Agios Giorgos, perched on the cliff’s edge with views across the coves below. The locals consider this the best sunset spot on this stretch of coast, and they’re not wrong – as the light drops, the limestone cliffs turn pink and gold, and the only sounds are waves and the occasional fishing boat heading back to port.
Dinner should be back in Koutouloufari, where a handful of excellent restaurants occupy the narrow streets. The Alchemist combines stone walls and candlelight with creative Cretan cooking – think slow-braised beef cheeks and grilled lamb with local cheeses – while Sofas Taverna, on the main square in Old Hersonissos, has been serving traditional meze and wood-fired dishes for generations. Book ahead in summer; tables fill quickly once the sun drops.
Day Two
Morning: The Palace Of Malia
Day two starts with the Minoans. The Palace of Malia, fifteen minutes east of Hersonissos, was the third-largest palace of Minoan Crete – smaller than Knossos but better preserved, and considerably less crowded. Built around 1900 BCE, destroyed by earthquake, rebuilt, then destroyed again around 1450 BCE, it offers a window into a civilization that predates classical Greece by over a millennium.
Start at the small on-site museum, where scale models show what the palace would have looked like at its peak – a labyrinthine complex of storerooms, workshops, royal apartments and ceremonial halls. The ruins themselves include some of the highest surviving walls of any Minoan site, along with giant pithoi (storage jars) that once held olive oil and wine. Look for the kernos – a circular stone with shallow depressions – thought to have been used for religious offerings. The famous gold bee pendant found here is now in Heraklion’s Archaeological Museum, but replicas are available in the gift shop.
Note: The site closes on Tuesdays and is undergoing restoration work until late 2025 – check opening times before you visit.
The main beach has sunbeds and umbrellas if you want them, but walk to either end and you’ll find quieter spots where the sand gives way to smooth rocks and the water is clear enough to snorkel without a mask. The village itself is small – a main street with a handful of restaurants, a pretty church right on the waterfront – but that’s the appeal.
Lunch at Sirtaki Tavern, where the family has been cooking since 1993: their slow-roasted kleftiko takes four hours and their Black Angus steaks are the best on this stretch of coast.
Late Afternoon: The Limanakia Coves
If you still have energy, explore the Limanakia Coves – a string of small bays between Cape Sarandaris and Hersonissos harbour, protected from the meltemi winds that can whip up the northern coast. The water here is shallow and absurdly blue, the sort of colour you assume has been Photoshopped until you see it in person. There are no facilities to speak of, just limestone cliffs, a few sunbathers and the occasional paddleboarder gliding past.
Evening: Dinner & Drinks
How you spend your final evening depends on what you’re after. For the quiet option, Akrogiali is a seafood taverna right on the harbour, run by the inimitable Manolis whose family has been here for generations – order the kalamari, the mussels and whatever the catch of the day happens to be, then walk the harbourside promenade as the lights come on.
For something livelier, Star Beach hosts foam parties and DJ sets that run until the early hours, while the main strip offers everything from Irish pubs to Greek music clubs. It’s not Malia – the crowd skews older and more mixed – but if you fancy a late one, the options are there.
Where To Stay
Creta Maris Resort sits right on the beach with its own stretch of sand, multiple pools and a spa. It’s the kind of large resort that could feel anonymous, but the staff are genuinely warm and the location – close to the harbour but away from the strip – strikes a good balance.
For something smaller, Villa Ippocampi in Koutouloufari is a family-run hotel at the edge of the village, with a pool, a flower-filled garden and views down to the coast. The Dutch-Greek owners have been welcoming guests for decades and their recommendations are worth following.
The Bottom Line
Hersonissos rewards those willing to look beyond the obvious. The harbour strip is busy and unashamedly touristy, but that’s only one layer of what this stretch of coast offers. Climb into the hills and you’ll find Byzantine villages where time moves slowly. Drive ten minutes and you’re swimming off empty beaches or wandering through Minoan ruins older than classical Greece. The variety is the point: few places in Crete let you experience the ancient and the accessible, the serene and the sociable, within such easy reach of each other. Forty-eight hours is enough to discover what lies beneath the surface – and to realise there’s plenty more worth coming back for.
Looking for the best restaurants in Falmouth? You’ll find them here…
From salt-weathered warehouses turned tasting menu destinations to craft beer bars serving day-boat catches, Falmouth is quietly cultivating Cornwall’s most intriguing food scene.
While this maritime town has long charmed visitors with its deep-water harbour and Georgian townhouses, it’s the new wave of ambitious young chefs and restaurateurs who are transforming those historic spaces into something unexpected: a dining destination that manages to feel both deeply Cornish and distinctly contemporary. Here, you’re as likely to find ancient grain sourdough and natural wines as you are traditional fish and chips – though you’ll find those too, seasoned by the sea breeze and a decent back story.
While Rick Stein’s Padstow and Nathan Outlaw’s Port Isaac (footnote: they don’t actually own these towns – just exert something of an influence) might grab the headlines, this historic maritime town is fast catching up, with national reviews and little red books adding to the town’s culinary stature in recent years.
From harbourside fine dining to hidden neighbourhood gems, here’s our pick of the best restaurants in Falmouth.
Culture, Custom House Quay
Ideal for nature-inspired tasting menus that tell Cornwall’s story through food…
In a transformed quayside warehouse, Culture isn’t just pushing the boundaries of Falmouth’s dining scene – it’s rewriting the rules of sustainable fine dining in Cornwall. Having earned the town’s first Michelin Green Star just last year, Cape Town-born chef Hylton Espey and wife Petronella have created something truly special here: a restaurant where the ingredients quite literally dictate the menu, not the other way around.
The evening’s Journey Menu reads like gently jarring poetry – each of its seven courses named after its inspiration. ‘Footes Farm’ celebrates the restaurant’s connection to exceptional local poultry: pasture-raised chickens that roam freely among field herbs before making way for Dexter cattle. Espey’s zero-waste approach transforms these remarkably well-developed birds (their substantial legs and thighs a testament to their natural upbringing) into a nourishing, nostalgic triumph, paired with locally foraged mushrooms and Pasha’s Patch onions. When this course arrives, the entire dining room fills with the comforting scent of perfectly roasted chicken and the satisfied sighs of the punters.
Similarly, ‘Carrick Roads’ pays homage to the local waters with a dish born from a family beach excursion: Falmouth native oysters from Sailors Creek are elevated with smoked aioli, pickled Alexander, and seaweed scraps. The layered textures and flavors echo Espey’s creative process – inspired by spontaneously foraging Pacific oysters and cooking them over driftwood fires with wild greens. It’s this kind of deeply personal, place-based cooking that sets Culture apart.
The cooking style defies easy categorisation – while Espey’s South African heritage occasionally peeks through, it’s Cornwall’s seasonal rhythms that truly drive the menu. At £80 per person, it’s an investment in an evening of genuine culinary theatre that doesn’t actually feel too painful on the wallet. Those seeking a gentler introduction might prefer lunch service, where a five-course Discovery Menu offers similar philosophy at £52 – something of a steal for cooking at this level.
The commitment to sustainability here goes beyond buzzwords. Vegetables arrive caked in soil without plastic packaging, the furthest farm is just 90 minutes away, and even the beautiful plates are crafted less than a block away by local potter Sam Marks. The kitchen runs solely on electric and induction, while local charcoal feeds the flames that kiss many of the dishes. That’s right, you deduced it, too; they don’t use gas.
The glass-walled wine cellar is worth a detour. Overseen by sommelier Bobby (how could he not oversee? It’s see through), the wine flights are both adventurous and enlightening, drawing from small, ethical producers across the globe. The wine pairing, at £55, feels like good value given the breadth and quality on show. Go further, and begin with a glass of English sparkling rosé from Langham if you’re feeling celebratory – yes, it’s an extra £20, but some moments deserve marking properly.
Dinner is served Wednesday to Saturday from 7pm, with lunch available Friday and Saturday from 1pm. Book well ahead – with only one sitting per service and a growing reputation, tables here are becoming Cornwall’s hottest reservation.
While the price point puts it firmly in special occasion territory, Culture manages to feel both important and intimate – a restaurant that’s simultaneously pushing boundaries and keeping its feet firmly planted in Cornish soil.
Ideal for intimate, ingredient-led dining in characterful surroundings…
It takes a certain confidence to open a restaurant down a cobbled alleyway off Falmouth’s high street, but Mine has turned its tucked-away location into part of its charm. This cosy neighbourhood spot feels like a delicious secret you’ll want to keep to yourself, though its recent addition to the Michelin Guide suggests the cat might already be out of the bag.
The dining room at Mine (not mine, although that’s true too) strikes that perfect balance between casual and considered – midnight blue walls and industrial pendants casting shadows over intimate corners, nurturing a vibe that feels relaxed but also ready for a celebration. But it’s the small, open kitchen where the real magic happens, with the chefs dancing an impressive choreography in a space barely bigger than a ship’s galley.
Images via Mine
The weekly-changing menu is refreshingly straightforward – one meat, one fish, and one vegetarian option per course – but the execution shows chef Angus Bell’s impressive pedigree. Having cut his teeth at the Michelin-starred Star Inn at Harome before training under Michel Roux Jr at Le Gavroche, Bell brings serious technique to seemingly simple dishes. His crab fritters with bisque mayo at £2.50 each are worth ordering by the half dozen
A recent visit saw a dainty quenelle of Cornish blue fin tartare elevated to main character status with the addition of Falmouth green figs, while pan roasted pigeon breast – blushing pink, naturally – came with a blackcurrant glaze that had us chasing it across the plate. The accompanying celeriac puree alone is worth crossing town for.
For the best experience, grab a table in the cobbled courtyard on balmy summer evenings, or cosy up inside when the maritime weather does its thing. And if you’re feeling adventurous post-dinner, The Chintz Symposium next door offers excellent cocktails in surroundings that feel like falling down a particularly stylish rabbit hole.
Ideal for ultra-fresh seafood and craft beer in laid-back surroundings…
When one of Cornwall’s most exciting breweries turns its hand to seafood, expectations run high. Verdant’s foray into food delivers spectacularly – a cosy spot where the day’s catch meets some of the county’s finest craft beer, all served with the kind of effortless cool that makes you want to settle in for the afternoon.
The premise is beautifully simple: small plates of impeccably fresh seafood designed to pair with the eight rotating lines of Verdant beer on tap. Their signature crab loaded chips have achieved near-mythical status – a generous heap of fries lavished with brown crab cheese sauce, pico de gallo, and deep-fried capers, crowned with fresh white crab meat and homemade aioli. It’s the kind of dish – often enjoyed in a one-two punch with the signature fish finger butty – that has people making special trips to Falmouth.
The rest of the menu changes with the tides, quite literally – expect whatever’s been landed that morning to appear in quietly creative combinations. You might find gurnard tostadas singing with chilli, lime and coriander, or buttermilk fried sardines from Mount’s Bay lounging on a bright tangle of parsley and shallots. The kitchen shows particular flair with their specials board – recent highlights include cod with Tropea onion and dashi, managing to be simultaneously fresh, bright and deeply savoury.
The drinks selection deserves equal billing. Beyond their own excellent brews – including their signature pale ales and IPAs – the chalkboard reveals an ever-changing selection that reads like a craft beer lover’s wishlist. You might spot anything from their own ‘Some Fifty Summers’ Double IPA at a punchy 8.5%, to guest appearances from pioneering breweries like Belgium’s De La Senne. With eight rotating lines and an extensive selection of sharing bottles from some of the world’s most exciting breweries, alongside a thoughtfully curated wine list and proper spirits, you’re as likely to find people debating hop profiles as discussing the day’s catch. For those steering clear of alcohol, the soft drinks go well beyond the usual suspects.
Don’t expect white tablecloths or reservations – this is a deliberately casual affair where the focus is squarely on what’s on your plate and in your glass. Open Tuesday to Saturday from noon until 11pm (kitchen closes at 9pm), with a no-bookings policy that keeps things spontaneous. Our advice? Get there early, grab a table, and settle in for some of the best seafood and beer matching you’ll find anywhere in Cornwall.
Beach House Falmouth (Formerly Hooked On The Rocks), Swanpool
Ideal for seafood feasts with spectacular coastal views…
*Please note that since this entry was written, Hooked On The Rocks has now been subsumed into the Beach House Group. As per an announcement via their Instagram on January 8th 2025, “Hooked has been such a special place over the years, thanks to an incredible team and a loyal community of customers who’ve made it what it is today. Transforming Hooked On The Rocks into Beach House Falmouth is an exciting new chapter for Katie, Jack, and the whole team. Rest assured, the focus on exceptional local seafood will be at it’s heart, just with a fresh Beach House touch.”*
Perched above Swanpool Beach, Hooked on the Rocks has turned its enviable location into more than just a scenic dining spot. Here, the kitchen delivers plates that live up to those postcard-perfect views, crafting a menu that reads like a love letter to Cornwall’s waters.
The focus is firmly on seafood, with daily deliveries from a close-knit network of local boats and suppliers including Ned Bailey of Falmouth, Mylor Fish Shop and Cornwall Fish Direct of Newlyn. Start with Falmouth Bay scallops (£19 for six), their sweetness enhanced by garlic and herb butter and a clever seaweed pangrattato adding textural intrigue. The shell-on wild prawns with ‘nduja butter sauce, priced the same as those scallops, strike that perfect balance between heat and maritime sweetness.
For mains, the whole grilled Falmouth Bay lobster for £64 is a triumph of simplicity – perfectly cooked and served with garlic herb butter. Even better, £1 from every lobster sold goes to The National Lobster Hatchery’s Buy One, Set One Free initiative. Even, even better, and remarkably good value when you can genuinely see the waters where it was landed, a whole Falmouth bay crab, grilled and presented ready for picking, is just £26.
The drinks focus on family-run vineyards practicing sustainable viticulture. The cocktail menu leans heavily on local spirits – try the Cornish Negroni (£11) made with Knightor Winery vermouths and Falmouth’s own Loveday gin. The beer selection, from Atlantic Pale Ale to Cold River Cider, keeps things proudly local.
The all-weather terrace is the spot to aim for, where heaters ensure you can enjoy those sweeping sea views even when Cornwall’s weather is doing its thing. Dogs are welcome here and in the heated awning area, though not in the main restaurant.
Ideal for all-day dining with unbeatable harbour views…
Taking pride of place on Falmouth’s Grade II listed harbour wall, Indidog masters that rare trick of being both a destination restaurant and a reliable local haunt. Floor-to-ceiling windows frame spectacular views across Carrick Roads towards Flushing, Mylor and St Mawes, while the kitchen serves accomplished plates from breakfast through to dinner.
Mornings here are particularly special. The breakfast menu dares to be different – think perfectly cooked steak and eggs paired with a Grey Goose Bloody Mary, or indulgent stacks of pancakes alongside their house Breakfast Mocktini. Best of all is the Cornish crab benedict, which is light, indulgent as simply the best breakfast dish in Falmouth, bar none.
Come evening, the menu shifts to showcase the finest Cornish produce, with day boat fish and local farm meats taking centre stage. A starter of crispy squid with sriracha mayo and lime sets the tone, while mains might include a beautifully simple day boat fish with seaweed butter and potato hay. There’s always one thoughtfully crafted vegan option per course – the roasted cauliflower steak with romesco sauce has won over even dedicated carnivores.
Whilst we realise that there’s something of a theme developing here, Indidog’s classic cocktails lean heavily on premium spirits and local distilleries – the Cornish Martini makes a perfect aperitif (or, brunch pick-me-up, quite frankly). The wine list balances familiar names with organic and vegan options, plus a secret cellar stashing small-batch wines from Cornish and English vineyards for those in the know.
Hidden just off the high street (look for the steps under Specsavers), Indidog keeps impressive hours. Open daily from 10am to 10:30pm, with brunch served until 3pm and dinner from 6pm to 9pm. There’s also lunch but we’re just listing shit now and it’s getting a little boring. There’s even a daily happy hour from 2pm to 6pm. Best of all? Those harbour views come at no extra charge.
Ideal for laid-back Italian small plates in a true neighbourhood setting…
Hidden in Falmouth’s terraces high above the harbour, Provedore feels like stumbling upon a slice of rustic Italy. Since 2007, this charming wooden haven with its courtyard and olive tree has evolved from a neighbourhood deli into something quite special – Falmouth’s answer to a Venetian bacaro, where the food is as warm and colorful as the welcome.
Images via Provedore
Now in its fifth incarnation, the kitchen serves up ever-changing cicchetti (Italian small plates) that showcase whatever’s inspiring the chefs that day. Of course, there’s salami and cheeses, but you might find also plump ravioli stuffed with mozzarella, sun-dried tomatoes and basil, swimming in house-made confit tomato sauce, or a hearty Tuscan braise of fennel sausage and white beans lifted with lemon. Their grilled dishes (Provedore have a dedicated barbie out back) are particularly good – half a blistered, tender poussin cooked with orange and Portuguese oregano has regulars planning their week around its appearance on the menu.
There’s also the occasional appearance of a dedicated pizza menu, courtesy of the guys at Lucky Rod. These are beautifully puffy, sloppy Neapolitan numbers pitched at Naples prices. Our go-to is pepperoni, which is ace, and only £9. An eclectic selection of wines and beers chosen to complement the rustic Italian fare seals the deal. This is the kind of place where you’ll want to linger over a glass of Chianti while debating whether to order another plate of those slow-braised chickpeas with pancetta and fresh thyme.
Open Thursday through Saturday evenings from 5pm until 8pm for drinks and cicchetti, Provedore operates a strictly walk-ins only policy. It’s the kind of place that makes you feel like a regular on your first visit, and has you planning your return before you’ve even finished paying the bill.
Get there early – tables in their charming courtyard are particularly sought after when the weather plays along.
Ideal for elevated fish and chips with harbour views…
When only proper fish and chips will do, Harbour Lights delivers in style. This award-winning chippy (placed in the UK’s top 10 at the 2019 National Fish & Chip Awards) isn’t trying to elevate the humble fish supper or anything irritating like that; they’re just serving the freshest catch with the care and respect it deserves, while keeping prices remarkably reasonable for the quality on offer. What’s not to love?
The menu celebrates Cornish seafood with pride. Their line-caught haddock comes perfectly flaky, encased in their signature ‘ansome’ batter that shatters satisfyingly at first bite. The local hake is worth the slight premium of £19 for a large portion – it’s a Cornish treasure that shows why this stretch of coast is so renowned for its seafood. Or, for an all-encompassing spread, order the ‘Famous 5’ – prime fillet of line-caught haddock, chips, mushy peas, bread and butter, plus unlimited tea, for £21.
Images via @harbourlightsfalmouth
Plant-based diners aren’t an afterthought here – their vegan ‘fish’ (brine-marinated tofu wrapped in nori and deep-fried) has developed such a following that some claim it tastes even fishier than fish. That would be a claim too far, but it is good. For something different, try their ‘Hooked on the Harbour’ burger – crispy battered cod in a Baker Tom brioche bun with homemade tartare sauce. Magic.
The drinks list goes beyond what you might expect from a chippy, with local beers like Rattler cider and Tribute ale sitting alongside a carefully chosen wine selection. Their Fizz & Chips special at £20 pairs line-caught haddock and chips with a glass of prosecco – a combination that somehow makes perfect sense.
Open daily from noon (until 8:30pm Friday and Saturday, 8pm other days), and they offer a click-and-collect option for those wanting to enjoy their award-winning fish and chips at home. A quid from every bill goes to support the Fishermen’s Mission – though this is optional, it’s a thoughtful touch that connects your dinner to the folks who made it possible. Much like all of the very places to eat in Falmouth, come to think of it…
Can something that never truly disappeared make a comeback? The trench coat has always had the ability to reappear, not because fashion demands it, but because life does. Familiar, sophisticated, and subtly comforting, it’s the piece that works when nothing else feels seems to fit.
Every few years, we call it a “return,” but the truth is it never really left. Despite changing silhouettes and moods, the trench coat remains in style, adapting to the times without ever losing its unique character. It isn’t about nostalgia or trend. It’s about the comfort of something proven – a shape and sensibility that still feel perfectly modern.
A History Woven Into Contemporary Life: From Tradition To Habit
Created out of necessity, the trench coat has always been characterised by functionality: protection against the rain, movement without restriction, and structure without rigidity. However, those practical beginnings evolved into a deeper concept: a cultural code. What began as military outerwear became a representation of self-assurance, discretion, and authority.
Its strength lies in the ease with which it transitioned from uniform to daily companion. The trench coat, which never lost its essence despite adapting to the rhythms of modern life, became a common sight in both city streets and movie frames in the decades that followed.
Every generation has found a unique way to wear it, whether it’s oversized, open, belted, or buttoned up, demonstrating that purpose-built style never fades. Even today, that sense of continuity feels reassuring. The trench coat offers something special: the elegance of consistency, even in a time when fashion seems to change suddenly.
Beyond Trends: Why The Trench Coat Remains A True Classic
Trends come and go, but trench coats stay. They move through decades of shifting preferences, never needing to reinvent themselves. Their strength lies in simplicity: well-balanced proportions, clean lines and precise details that are both refined and functional.
Such a coat doesn’t need to shout to be noticed. Its confidence stems from restraint, from the way it moulds movement instead of dictating it. It fits in perfectly with all situations and moods, whether you’re at work, in the city, or on a late evening walk.
That’s the key to timeless design: it doesn’t demand relevance. It simply fits into lifestyles that value class and style over excess.
The Modern Interpretation: New Shapes, New Sensibilities
Today’s trench coats are still evolving while keeping their basic features. Designers play with volume, proportion, and fabrics, but the goal is always the same: to create outerwear that feels effortless. Slightly wider sleeves, a softer drape, or a more fluid belt give the silhouette a quiet freshness.
The modern trench doesn’t seek to replace tradition, but to perfect it. Each reinterpretation reveals how this classic shape can express individuality without losing balance, proving that timeless design is not static but alive.
Why We Always Return To The Trench Coat
Some trends become a part of our everyday lives, while others are ephemeral. The trench coat belongs to the first kind. It’s the piece we reach for instinctively, when the weather is uncertain or when nothing else feels quite right. Its appeal lies in familiarity – in the comfort of knowing it will always deliver.
Perhaps that’s why we never really move on from it. The trench coat guarantees what few garments can: quiet confidence, enduring elegance, and the feeling of being perfectly put together, every time.
Italian Precision & Contemporary Grace: The Max Mara Vision
Since its beginnings in Reggio Emilia, Max Mara has built a legacy defined by clarity, structure and refinement. Every creation reflects the brand’s belief that true beauty emerges from discipline – from the precise intersection of design, proportion and movement. This philosophy continues to guide Max Mara’s evolution, translating Italian precision into a modern expression of grace.
At the heart of this vision stands the Max Mara woman: independent, confident and cosmopolitan. She knows the value of authenticity and seeks garments that complement her rhythm, not dictate it.
She represents a generation that values quality over quantity, form over embellishment, and design that adapts to the many roles of contemporary life. For her, elegance is not a gesture but a natural extension of confidence – something that can move effortlessly from morning to evening, from work to leisure, across seasons and cities.
Each Max Mara collection captures this harmony between technical mastery and emotional subtlety. The brand’s outerwear, in particular, exemplifies this dialogue. Coats and jackets are conceived with architectural precision and constructed from the finest materials to ensure durability and fluidity in equal measure.
The trench coat, one of Max Mara’s most iconic designs, perfectly encapsulates this balance. Its clean lines, tactile fabrics and adaptable silhouette express the essence of Italian expertise elevated through innovation and design intelligence.
In the world of Max Mara, modern grace is measured by consistency – by garments that retain their relevance as time passes. Every piece becomes part of a living wardrobe, designed to evolve alongside the women who wear it. It is this union of precision and poise that defines the Max Mara vision: contemporary elegance shaped by Italian excellence.
Picture this: you’ve just landed after a long flight and all you want is to soak in a hot bath with a glass of bubbly or sink into a bed so comfy it feels like a cloud. You walk into your hotel room only to find … it’s a bit of a shoebox. How good would it be to get that desired upgrade without breaking the bank? Or, even having to dip your hands in your pockets at all.
Well, fear not; we’ve got a bit of the ol’ inside scoop to share. Here’s our top 9 insider tips on how to score a hotel room upgrade with no additional charges.
Loyalty Pays Off
You’ve heard it a lot, haven’t you? It’s not just your nan’s mantra; being a frequent guest or loyal member of a hotel’s rewards programme carries a lot of weight. Simply put, loyalty earns you brownie points. Hotels tend to dish out upgrades to loyal customers more readily – so the more often you stay, the greater the chance of lounging in luxury.
Accordingly, if you stay in major hotel chains regularly, then it may well be worth staying loyal to just one when you’re travelling. Your devoted allegiance will soon be noticed, mark our words.
Timing Is Everything
If you’re keen to increase your chances of an upgrade (you are, that’s why you’re here), then try to visit hotels during the off-peak season or midweek when hotels are less busy. The chances of landing a free upgrade are much higher then.
Also, try to check in after most guests, typically late afternoon to early evening. By this time, the hotel has a better idea of occupancy and might be more willing to spoil you with an upgrade.
Here’s a tip that requires patience but can pay dividends: hotels, just like high street retailers, have their sale seasons. Black Friday has become a bonafide booking bonanza, with major chains slashing rates on future stays – we’re talking discounts of up to 50% on rooms you can book months in advance.
According to barcelo.com, Spain’s second largest hotel group, their Black Friday deals often include perks like complimentary room upgrades and flexible cancellation, effectively combining two tips into one. Beyond the November rush, keep your eyes peeled for January sales (when hotels are keen to fill spring and summer gaps), end-of-season clearances in September, and flash sales around bank holidays.
Sign up for email alerts from your favourite chains, set a calendar reminder for the last week of November, and watch your inbox like a hawk. The upgrade you’ve been eyeing might just land in your lap at a fraction of the price.
Special Occasion? Don’t Be Shy About It
Celebrating a special occasion? Don’t hold back, spill it out! If you’re celebrating a big anniversary or it’s your honeymoon, let the hotel know when you book. There’s no guarantee, but they might just take the opportunity to sprinkle a bit more magic onto your special occasion with a free upgrade.
And whilst we’re not suggesting making up a birthday, anniversary or other special occasion, you could theoretically do so…
Feedback Is Valued & Sometimes Even Rewarded
Providing feedback to hotels fosters mutual benefit by improving their service and highlighting your engagement as a guest. Detailed feedback assists hotels in recognising their strengths and identifying improvement areas.
So, if you found the commercial grade security cameras for hotels a little intrusive or if you got an especially good night’s sleep during your stay, your active feedback might prompt hotels to prioritise you for room upgrades during future stays as a token of appreciation – or, of course, seeking further praise or invaluable advice!
Room For Improvement
Here’s the cheeky tip you’ve been waiting for. Booking the least expensive room? That leaves room for improvement, doesn’t it? The logic is simple: the only way is up! An upgrade from the bottom deck is more likely than one from a more expensive room.
Of course, you might just be left in a box room, windowless and alone, which is not quite what you bargained for, but, on the flipside, you might just earn a promotion to a hotel room with kitchenette facilities or a penthouse with expansive views of the city, if you take the gamble. It’s a risk, sure, but one that some decide is worth taking.
A Polite Request
Just as insiders always extol the merits of remembering your Ps and Qs when looking for flight upgrades, so the same truths apply to hotel room upgrades. Sometimes, the simplest approach can be the most effective. Being polite, friendly, and forthright can work wonders. Without wishing to sound like your parents, do remember to say “please” and “thank you”, and don’t be afraid to ask – the worst they can do is say no!
Independence Day
Consider booking with independent or boutique hotels. These chaps have much more flexibility compared to the big chains, in terms of their procedures, and can often offer upgrades without having to wade through red tape or corporate policies. Not only that, but it’s important to support local, independent hospitality venues above the chains, too.
Pay With Plastic
Using a credit card that has a partnership with the hotel? You might be sitting on an upgrade and not even know about it! Many credit cards offer points, travel rewards or benefits including room upgrades. It’s always wise to read the fine print or give your bank a buzz to see if you’re eligible.
In the United Kingdom, the Marriott Bonvoy American Express Credit Card is a notable credit card that has a partnership with hotels and offers potential room upgrades. Cardholders of this credit card can enjoy numerous benefits including complimentary Marriott Silver Elite status, which can be upgraded to Marriott Gold Elite status by spending £15,000 on the card in a year. This status may provide opportunities for room upgrades at Marriott properties.
While Hilton and IHG do not offer co-branded credit cards in the UK, points towards room upgrades can still be earned by transferring rewards from American Express Membership Rewards and Virgin Atlantic Flying Club directly to a Hilton Honors account, or via credit card spend with Virgin Atlantic and HSBC UK for IHG points.
However, it’s important to note that the actual realisation of these benefits, such as room upgrades, may depend on factors like availability and the specific terms and conditions of each card.
The Bottom Line
There you have it, folks; eight savvy insider tips to nudge the odds in your favour for a smashing hotel room upgrade. So, the next time you’re booking a stay, remember these tips and you might just find yourself sipping that champagne in a sumptuous suite. Happy travels!
Hey, let’s not mince our words here; solo cooking can be a challenge. It’s all too easy to just eat beans on marmite toast ad infinitum (just us?) or to grab a takeaway when the mood takes you, which, let’s face it, is every night. Why bother doing more, right?
Let’s strike that negativity from the record and start over. Not only is there joy to be had in cooking for one, but it also brings other benefits, both mental and physical.
Domestic goddess Nigella Lawson is an advocate of cooking for one, and who’s to argue with her? Except over her pronunciation of microwave, perhaps. Anyway, she tells the Evening Standard of how much she enjoys cooking for herself, and has always been a believer in cooking for one.
Indeed, she reveals that she finds it “such a wonderful way of cooking without stress, because there’s no anxiety about whether it’s going to find favour”. Moreover, she posits that cooking for yourself is a great way to gain confidence in the kitchen, behind closed doors before your newly learned skills are unleashed on the hungry world.
We couldn’t agree more. That said, cooking for yourself does involve a fair amount of planning and preparation, in order to avoid wasting food, over shopping or underfeeding. With that in mind, here are 10 tips on meal prepping and cooking if you live alone.
Plan Meals Ahead Of Time
Planning your meals ahead can save you time, money and effort, and will give you something to look forward to during the working day, too! Knowing that you’ve got a delicious bowl of spaghetti pomodoro or Hanoi style beef noodle soup waiting at home could get you through even the darkest of days, don’t you think?
Planning meals ahead of time also means that you’re less likely to impulse buy at the supermarket on the way home from work, or snack unnecessarily during the day.
Your meal plan is the blueprint for your shopping list, so consider investing in an A4 sized whiteboard that you can stick to your fridge with the days of the week and intended meals listed on it. Doing so will help you stay disciplined and focused as the week progresses, and will help you lessen your food waste, too!
Speaking of shopping, when you’re cooking for one, it is, conversely, essential that you don’t shopfor one. Buying solo portions and single pieces of fruit, vegetables, meat and fish isn’t the most economically efficient thing to do. Neither is it all that good for the environment, considering all of the single use plastic involved.
Instead, consult that meal plan of yours and shop smartly for the week, buying in bulk and deploying the same ingredients in several dishes throughout the week.
Expand Your Repertoire
Having some regular, go-to recipes is a wonderful, reassuring thing. Hey, you might even call your homemade Thai green curry your ‘signature dish’. And there’s certainly nothing wrong with taking pride in your cooking.
However, cooking the same old dishes night after night can sometimes make cooking for one a little uninspiring. By diversifying your dishes and expanding your repertoire, you can keep mealtimes interesting each and every night of the week. For inspiration, get a food encyclopedia and look up food that starts with N, for instance, then build a dinner from that random reference point. Or, invest in a recipe book from a country you’ve never visited or a cuisine cooked from.
For inspiration, there are lots of cookbooks out there aimed at and celebrating solo cooking. Take “Solo: A Modern Cookbook for a Party of One” by Chef Ania Lo or “Solo” by Signe Johansen, both whose recipes are tailored to feed one.
Experiment With New Ingredients
Living alone presents a unique opportunity to experiment with your cooking by incorporating new ingredients that can transform the ordinary into the extraordinary.
MSG, often misunderstood, is a pantry staple that can add an umami depth to dishes that might otherwise taste bland; just a pinch can elevate a simple stir-fry or a batch of roasted vegetables.
Don’t overlook the versatility of nutritional yeast, either, which can be sprinkled over pasta or popcorn for a cheesy flavour without the dairy, or the complexity that a dash of smoked paprika can bring, giving a smoky edge to your favourite egg or potato dishes.
By keeping these ingredients at hand, you can easily add a twist to your meals and keep your solo dining experience both exciting and delicious.
Cook With Food Waste In Mind
Cooking for one whilst causing zero waste is a tough ask. According to WRAP’s research, single-occupancy households generate more waste per person than larger households, primarily from not using food before it goes off or passes its date label. With the average UK household wasting £1,000 worth of food annually, solo living makes mindful meal prep even more essential. Blimey.
It’s widely known that each forkful of food we throw away contributes to greenhouse gas emissions. As reported by the BBC, “if food waste was a country, it would be the third highest emitter of greenhouse gases after the US and China, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations.”
So, even though you’re cooking for one, it still pays to be mindful of how you’re doing so to mitigate the implications of food waste. Cooking with thoughtfulness where waste is concerned will not only save you money, but your conscience, too.
Leftovers can often lead to exciting, delicious meals in their own right. So, start repurposing your leftovers and eat like a king, queen or monarch for longer.
Today’s risotto could be tomorrow’s arancini balls. Your beef ragu can be turned into a lasagna, a cottage pie, chilli con carne or taco topping. That massive bag of carrots you had to buy can be redeployed as a dip for hummus, a carrot soup or even made into a quick pickle to liven up your next salad. Leftover mash can be turned into croquettes or potato cakes. Hey, the list goes on and on and on…
But we won’t do.
Portion Meals & Use The Freezer
The freezer is a solo cook’s best friend. Use it to prolong the life of your leftovers:
Portion Food: Unless you’re going to a butcher, it’s pretty impossible to get the exact right amount of meat for a solo diner. As such, it’s a good idea to freeze meal size portions. The same goes for if you’re cooking pasta or rice. Get some scales and measure out single portions each time, to ensure you’re not unnecessarily overfilling your plate. Having the best containers for meal prep makes this far easier; look for stackable, airtight options in various sizes that can go from freezer to microwave without fuss.
Batch Cook and Freeze: On a rainy day, put on a podcast and get cooking. When you’re in the kitchen alone, sometimes the silence can feel oppressive and make cooking feel like a chore. Welcome some company into the kitchen and luxuriate in the experience!
Make Extra and Freeze it: Let’s face it, batch cooking at the weekend for your meals during the week can get pretty boring. If this is an activity you don’t enjoy, there is another way; simply make double of what you’re cooking for dinner each night and freeze the additional portion, ready for the most delicious, healthiest ready meal when you’re feeling too tired to cook from scratch.
Hey, we’re not done yet! Stock your freezer up with frozen vegetables. This means that you can have healthy produce on hand, eliminating the worry of sourcing direct from the increasingly empty-shelved supermarket.
Frozen berries are your best friends, especially when you are not in the mood to open the stove. Aside from fresh berries being expensive, frozen berries are cheaper and last longer. Shop for frozen grapes, sweet cherries, and berries – they are absolutely fantastic snacks, and you can also make them into a smoothie!
Soup is one of the simplest, most affordable and healthiest meals available, too. It’s also a great one to freeze, portion by portion.
If your food is badly organised and scattered across your cupboards, kitchen and fridge, it can be hard to make economical decisions about what to eat next. Box items up in leftover takeaway containers (from those days when you used to eat too many) and label them up.
Keep your spice rack neatly organised and where fresh food is concerned, operate a FIFO (first in, first out) policy in your fridge to ensure you’re eating ingredients before they go off. All of this will make cooking a joy, not a chore.
We don’t mean to hamper the progress you’ve made since reading this article on cooking solo. However, as reported by the Independent “research is revealing the negative impacts of eating alone, which has been found to be linked to a variety of mental and physical health conditions, from depression and diabetes to high blood pressure”.
Indeed, while solo cooking can be fun, it would be remiss of us not to admit that cooking for two, three or even a group of people is far more fun. So why not join forces with your friends and take it in turns to throw a dinner party every other week? Doing so will keep you inspired about new recipes and cooking techniques, and give you a fresh impetus to keep cooking on those solo nights.
Scale Recipes With Confidence
Most recipes are written for four people, which can be daunting when you’re cooking solo. Learning to scale recipes down (or strategically up for batch cooking) is a skill worth developing. Invest in a decent set of digital scales and get comfortable halving or quartering quantities.
Some things scale easily (pasta, rice, most soups), whilst others need a bit more care (baking, anything with eggs). There are plenty of online recipe calculators that can do the maths for you, and once you’ve got the hang of it, you’ll never feel beholden to a recipe written for a family of four again.
The Bottom Line
Cooking for one is a tender, gentle act of self love that shouldn’t be underestimated. Good for the body, soul and bank balance, we hope you’ve found some inspiration above on how to do it efficiently, economically, but even more so, joyfully.
Until recently, Britain’s favourite seaside town (don’t @me Blackpool) wasn’t exactly blessed with fantastic pizza restaurants. With the popularity of fish’n’chips on the pebbles permeating every lunch and dinner choice, the humble pizza was marginalised, pushed to the back of the inappropriate fan ovens of Pizza Hut, Papa Johns et al.
Fortunately, that’s changed. Brighton now boasts some of the best pizza restaurants around, with wood fired ovens at 500°C churning out authentic Neapolitan style pies in just minutes. New Yorkian ‘by the slice’ joints are also enjoying some well deserved popularity in the city.
So, if you’re looking for the best places to get your pizza fix, whether it’s Neapolitan, Roman or New Yorker, and are wondering where to eat the best pizza in Brighton and Hove, then read on; here are the best pizza restaurants in Brighton & Hove.
Wild Flour Pizza, Ovingdean
Ideal for highly digestible dough, inventive toppings, and a seriously scenic alfresco dining spot…
Now that the weather’s warming up, one of our favourite things to do on a lazy, languid weekend in Brighton is to take a coastal walk out of the city centre, stopping to peruse the marina and fantasise about living on a houseboat, before strolling the striking Undercliff Walk a while. Then, we cut inland and uphill along Greenways in Ovingdean, all before looping back down into Brighton, with all the sweeping views of the city and sea tha entails. Heaven.
If that walk culminates in a seat on the picnic tables at Ovingdean’s Wild Flour Pizza, then it’s an even better day. We’re reluctant to call this place a ‘hidden gem’, as it’s hugely popular and rightly so, but its position outside of Brighton proper does help these premium pizza slingers retain an air of exclusivity.
Whisper it; this is one of Brighton’s very best pizzas, with a light and digestible dough that has enough structural integrity to hold up to the generous, sometimes inventive toppings deployed here. Significantly sturdier than their Neopolitan cousins, there’s still a lightness of touch at play here which we adore, the dough a labour of love and learning from owner Chris that has culminated in pure magic on the pizza paddle.
This is exemplified in the sometimes weekly special The Lebanese One, which sees a traditional tomato base and mozzarella given heft and funk from aromatic braised lamb and a lively, sharp chilli sauce. It’s a beautiful balancing act and a lesson in restraint; at no point does this pizza (which has already earned cult status in the city) get too heavy. If it’s on – there’s that air of exclusivity again – order it.
Don’t sweat if you pitch up and it’s not; the ever-present Seafood One is arguably even better, boasting marinated anchovies, capers and olives, and all that salty piquancy that the best pizza Napolis do. As you breathe in the sea air in this beautiful space, there’s no pizza – or place – that feels more appropriate. Heaven.
Ideal forfinding authentic Neapolitan pizza, whatever corner of the city you’re in…
Nine years after the original Fatto a Mano opened on Brighton’s London Road, two more outposts have opened (one in Hove and one in the city’s North Laines) and world domination seems the only next logical step. Each restaurant is packed every day of the week and it’s easy to see why.
The pizzas are as authentic as they come; wood fired quickly, so the cheese remains delicate rather than singed, the dough soft and pillowy not burnt and crispy, with a blistered crust and restrained, respectful toppings, true to the Italian tradition. The name translates as ‘handmade’ in Italian, and that’s certainly the vibe here; everything is made from scratch and with love, and it shows. It’s great value, too, with no dish over a tenner.
Even if pizza isn’t your thing (how have you got this far into the article, by the way?), Fatto a Mano has some excellent starters and sides to see you well fed; their aubergine parmigiana, in particular, is ace.
Fatto a Mano offer delivery all over Brighton and Hove. And, testament to the quality of the pizzas here, there are now two Fatto a Manos in London, in Covent Garden and Kings Cross.
Nanninella has been through almost as many rotations as Brighton’s famous observation tower in its 5 years on Preston Street. From authentic Neapolitan pizzeria to takeaway-only spot, then a post-COVID panini purveyor, before coming full circle (much like our seafront’s most iconic attraction) to its current incarnation as a traditional trattoria with pizza at its heart.
What’s remained wonderfully consistent throughout these transformations is the calibre of cooking at Nanninella (not to mention the reliably warm welcome from Sergio and family), with premium, imported Italian ingredients shining through in everything they serve up.
The pizzas are simply gold-standard; blistered, burnished and traditional, just as they should be. Don’t skip the traditional deep-fried street snacks either – the frittatina di pasta (deep-fried bucatini filled with bechamel, smoked mozzarella, roast ham and more) is a perfect example of Neapolitan street food done right, presented with authenticity on those clever, circular draining racks you see all over Naples. The vibe inside, all brightly coloured tiles and a view into the hot glow of the pizza oven, frames a hospitable, enjoyable place to spend time.
Our favourite pizza here – and in the whole of Brighton, in fact – is the provola e pepe, which uses smoked mozzarella and freshly ground black pepper to great effect. Yours for £13.50 and worth every penny. Any pizza featuring their premium imported fresh burrata is equally wonderful. Whichever guise we find this guy in, Nanninella is our favourite pizza restaurant in Brighton, floury hands down.
Ideal for breaking away from Neapolitan traditions with indulgent Detroit-style squares…
In a city swimming with Neapolitan pizzas, Cutie Pies brings something deliciously different to the paddle. Operating from the popular North Laine Brewhouse, these rectangular Detroit-style beauties are redefining what we expect from our pizza in the city.
The USP here is immediately apparent – these aren’t your typical round affairs (yep, we realised we’re rather labouring the point now). Instead, expect deep-dish dreams with gloriously crunchy bases and cheese pulls that would make any Instagram influencer fake that their weeping with joy.
Cutie Pies’ signature XXL Pepp Monster (already a double award winner) is a thing of beauty, featuring a pepperoni-crusted base that’s loaded with marinara, mozzarella, double pepperoni, and finished with a drizzle of hot honey and roast garlic mayo. It’s designed to serve 3-4 people, though we won’t judge if you tackle it solo – though for £43 and surveying the size of the damn thing, that would be mental and we are judging you.
For something a bit different, the Cutie Patootie (not a nice one to order out loud) combines chicken shawarma with fire-roasted peppers and kebab shop chillies – it shouldn’t work, but somehow it really does. Plant-based pizza lovers are particularly well served here too; with a vegan chef at the helm, the meat-free options aren’t mere afterthoughts but carefully crafted alternatives.
Don’t skip on the loaded fries; they are half of the name, after all. The Cutie Fries topped with marinara, mozzarella and their signature tangy red pepper ranch sauce are the perfect accompaniment to these hefty squares. And if you’re feeling particularly decadent, the garlic bread dippers (house-baked focaccia style bread with garlic butter and sea salt) are worth every guilty bite.
When London institution Pizza Pilgrims announced that they were opening only their second restaurant outside the capital in Brighton in the summer of 2022, the city’s pizza aficionados might have been forgiven for asking ”is this really necessary?”
We already had two successful, homegrown pizza chains in Fatto e Mano and VIP Pizza, and Nanninella had redefined just how good pizza can be in this corner of South East England.
How wrong we are; the Brighton branch of Pizza Pilgrims has been a triumph, with superb pizzas rubbing shoulders with a fun and frivolous first floor in the restaurant dedicated to foosball tables and arcade games. How could this ever not succeed in a city so well known for its fun-loving spirit?
Pizza Pilgrim’s mantra is ‘In Crust We Trust’, and they stay true to this pledge with a base of lightness, chew, a hint of sourness and the requisite heat blisters that are the hallmark of a true pizza from Southern Italy. Our favourite order? It’s got to be the Double Pepperoni with Spicy Honey, a combination that works just beautifully.
Idealfor tasty rectangular pizzas right by the pebbles…
Very Italian Pizza…yep, it’s infuriating that’s it’s not called VIPizza, but there ya go. In fact, it’s sometimes stylised as PizzaVip, which makes things even more confusing. Regardless, since the first two joints on our list are collection only, and because the pizzas at VIP are lovely, we think it’s safe to say that these guys do the best pizza delivery in Brighton. Of course, you can dine in, too, at their restaurant on Old Steine Road, if getting out of your pants to get elbows deep in dough is your thing.
Image Via VIP Facebook Page
The pizzas here tick all the boxes you want from an ‘authentic’ offering; wood fired at high heat, a sourdough going back generations, a farm in Naples which provides the ingredients, San Marzano tomatoes, Caputo double zero flour…it’s all there and it’s all poetic AF. The result is something very delicious indeed. Don’t be put off by the huge menu; though pizza paradox of choice is a very real thing indeed, just go with your gut. It’ll thank you later.
In May 2021, VIP Pizza opened their second offering in Brighton’s excellent beachside food market Shelter Hall, under the name ‘Amalfi’. Though it’s now left the market, we miss its presence on the pebbles.
Idealfor crisp sourdough pizzas in a neighbourhood gem of a spot…
Tucked away off Western Road, on Cross Street, is Pronto In Tavola, a tiny Italian restaurant which packs a big punch. Though they may not have a proper wood fired oven, the vibe is so wonderfully chaotic, authentic and charming that we’re willing to overlook that.
Opening times are unpredictable, wine bottles with candle wax dripping down the sides flicker, traditional Italian folk and opera plays, and chef Nino chats enthusiastically with guests over the pass or on the phone. Oh yes. What’s more, the pizzas are genuinely great, as is their arancini and gnocchi. An absolute blast of a neighbourhood restaurant.
Ideal for groundbreaking, genuinely delicious plant-based pizzas…
Something a little different and a lot ‘Brighton’ to finish with. Purezza is the UK’s first plant based pizzeria, doing vegan, gluten free sourdough, ‘pioneering’ pizzas which don’t sacrifice on flavour. That’s partly because of the huge wood fired (nine times and counting) oven which is the centrepiece of the restaurant in Kemptown, and also in no small part down to their intriguing flavour combinations.
Purezza, meaning ‘purity’ and sounding a bit like pizza (that was the thinking behind the name, right?) use a surprisingly tasty rice based mozzarella, and heaps of delicious seasonal veg to great effect. If plant based is your vibe, or even if it isn’t, Purezza won’t let you down. They’ve proved themselves in a crowded market confidently.
Ideal for New York-style pies from the man who made Brighton fall for the parm crust…
Those who mourned the closure of lockdown-favourite Toby’s Pizza can dry their eyes. Toby Cackett, the man behind Brighton’s best-loved New York-style pies, is back with a new venture on Trafalgar Street.
Original Tony’s operates as collection, delivery and dine-in; the bricks-and-mortar spot comes complete with a simple, scrawled logo in the window, beckoning the curious and the hungry of Brighton inside. Cackett’s signature style remains intact: sturdy crusts designed to support generous toppings, that famous freshly grated parmesan rim, and a charred base that speaks to devoted heat and good technique.
The menu keeps things tight, with seven or so pies and a seasonally changing special. Tony’s Favourite is also ours. It loads pepperoni, sausage and stracciatella onto a tomato base, finished with hot honey, fresh chillies and parmesan – it’s indulgent without tipping into excess.
Open Wednesday to Friday from 4pm, and Saturdays from noon.
Changed your mind on your dinner options? Or still hungry after your pizza? Or perhaps you’re planning tomorrow’s meal and are looking for noodles in Brighton? Aren’t we all? Well, check out our 6 IDEAL places to eat noodles in Brighton for, well….the clue’s in the name isn’t it?
For a city of its size and cultural capital, Southampton’s restaurant scene feels criminally underrated.
Sure, this might be the city where Jane Austen celebrated her 18th birthday and wrote Sense and Sensibility. And yes, it is the place where both the iconic Spitfire and the Titanic had their maiden voyages (the former more successful than the latter, of course), but ask most Sotonian about their culinary heritage, and it’s Clarence Birdseye, the founding father of fish fingers, that might first come to mind.
You can probably guess where this one is going; as locals and proud Saints, we hope we’re not taking the partisan position when we say that Southampton’s restaurant scene is thriving, with national acclaim and awards recognition surely around the corner.
If you’re in the city and wondering where to eat, then here are the very best restaurants in Southampton.
The Jetty, Ocean Village
Idealfor finely done seafood with views of the marina…
From your mum’s kitchen to a place with Michelin-starred aspirations, The Jetty manages to straddle fun and fine dining with grace, and is our favourite high-end restaurant in Southampton, hands down.
It’s a seafood-forward menu here, brought to life not only by veteran chef Alex Aitken, but also by the light and airy dining room, which boasts panoramic views across swanky Ocean Village Marina, and a terrace that always seems to be bathed in Solent sunshine and on the receiving end of the most gentle of sea breezes.
Phew, we could sit out here all day, but the kitchen’s pass-spanning display of freshly caught local fish laying proudly over ice has enticed us back inside. Though there’s a keenly priced set menu at £35 for three courses, we prefer to run roughshod over the a la carte offering – mainly because that’s where the funky, umami-heavy crab croquettes are found.
After that, for the ultimate seafood experience it has to be – and always is – the mixed fish grill, which sees the catch of the day grilled on the bone, served alongside a handful of tiger prawns, a marinière featuring clams, cockles and mussels, and, of course, some aioli, here positively humming with roasted garlic. For £37.50, it’s an absolute steal.
The restaurant is open everyday for lunch and dinner, closing a little earlier on Sundays.
Ideal for a contemporary take on the food of South East Asia…
Another fantastic restaurant in Southampton’s Ocean Village is Blue Jasmine, a place doing contemporary, tapas-inspired (hence the really bad pun in the name) takes on East Asian cuisine with real flair and imagination.
Though we’re usually a little cautious of ‘refined’ takes on regional cooking (isn’t it refined enough already?), there’s so much to love about the food at Blue Jasmine, with some seriously show-stopping dishes bringing some much needed spice and vitality to this corner of the quayside.
The kitchen here is now being led by promising young chef Anthony Vito, who fuses memories of growing up in the Phillipines and cooking Indonesian nasi goreng with some of Hampshire’s finest produce. The results are spectacular, whether that’s in the Hampshire lamb chops with sambal, diced Hampshire beef fillet with black peppercorn sauce, or the restaurant’s signature imperial crispy duck with pancakes. All of these clock in at £20, which is smart value in this swanky part of town.
Image via Blue Jasmine
If you’rekeen to sample the broadest range of Blue Jasmine’s innovative takes on East Asian food, then the Chef’s Choice menu (£60 a head) is a winner, with around 10 sharing dishes filling the table and complementing each other beautifully. Keep an eye on the restaurant’s partnership with Hampshire winery Hattingley Valley – they have several excellent sparkling wines on the menu.
Address: Unit 3-4, Alexandra Wharf, Maritime Walk, Ocean Way, Southampton SO14 3QS
The Pig In The Wall, City Centre
Ideal for a tiny restaurant with big flavours from a revered local restaurant group…
If you’ve ever dined at New Forest destination restaurant The Pig, who proudly source 80% of their ingredients from within a 25 mile radius, then you’ll already be well aware of the quality of the cooking at this restaurant group, which now numbers 8 in total.
One of those is found tucked away in the mediaeval walls of Southampton. ‘’The smallest of the litter’’ (their words, not ours), The Pig In The Wall more than makes up for its apparent Napoleon complex with big, bold flavours, even if this is more self-proclaimed ‘deli-dining’ than the usual finer side of things that we’ve come to expect from Hutson and co.
Hell, they even call it ”supper” rather than dinner, and the place closes at 8pm, but in those slightly reduced hours you’ll find plenty to enjoy on the Pig In The Wall’s dinner (sorry, supper) table. Go for the comforting cottage pie with a side of garden kale, followed by an apple crumble which has caught in all the right places. Pouring cream is mandatory.
Or, for something lighter, the deli bits are beautifully composed; the Hampshire pork pie, in particular, is a thing of majesty. With glasses of perfectly drinkable plonk available for under a fiver – the easy drinking La Vigneau at £4.75 is a particular steal – this rendition of The Pig is a great way to try the restaurant group’s famed hospitality without having to leave the city or open your wallet too wide. Result!
Address: 8 Western Esplanade, Southampton SO14 2AZ, United Kingdom
La Regata, Town Quay
Ideal for old-school Spanish tapas in kitsch setting…
If you’re after the kind of Spanish restaurant that eschews modern (or even kinda recent) gastro-pretensions in favour of time-honoured tapas traditions, then La Regata is your spot. Having held court near the waterfront for almost a quarter of a century, this place has earned its stripes as one of Southampton’s most beloved dining institutions.
The setting alone is worth the visit – housed in a Grade II listed building from the 1860s, the restaurant spans two characterful, kitschy floors with an impressive mezzanine overlooking the main dining room. The decor hits all the right notes of rustic Spanish charm, from the blue traditional tiles to the dark wooden furnishings, but there are also a few nautical flourishes to remind you where you are; if you didn’t smell the industrial sea breeze as you pitched up, the ornamental life buoys will anchor you in Southampton rather than Seville. Bringing you back to the latter, the fairy light-draped palm tree centrepiece adds an unexpected touch of whimsy to proceedings.
But you’re here for the food, and Regata does its thing quite capably in this department. The menu is a love letter to classic Spanish cuisine, with tapas plates that would make any Madrileño feel right at home. The tuna salad with potatoes and peas might sound simple, but it’s executed perfectly, while the fresh grilled sardines further showcase the kitchen’s deft hand with seafood – pleasing when considering how close you are to the water.
For the full experience, gather a group and order across the menu – three to four dishes per person is the sweet spot, but we’re sure you know how tapas works. Make sure the fried squid with aioli makes an appearance (it’s some of the best we’ve had this side of Barcelona), and don’t skip the Cantabrian cheese-stuffed dates, which strike that perfect balance between sweet and savoury, and basically work perfectly as a dessert/cheese course hybrid.
Unsurprisingly, Spanish wines dominate the winelist. Whether you’re in the mood for a crisp Albariño or a robust Rioja, there’s plenty to explore by the bottle or glass for around a fiver, which is cracking value in this economy. And if you’re feeling festive, the house sangria, available by the glass or jug, is dangerously drinkable.
Ideal for award-winning, Francis Benali-approved Indian food…
We couldn’t discuss the best restaurants in Southampton without paying lip service to everyone’s favourite curry house, Kuti’s, which is now under new management and with a new name; Royal Palace.
We’re pleased to report standards haven’t slipped here, with a recent meal at Royal Palace delivering the goods. It’s not just the restaurant’s long-serving association with Southampton FC legend Francis Benali that makes this place a cult favourite among the city’s curry fans; the food here is genuinely excellent, and its new location at the entrance to the Royal Pier illustrious.
In fact, Kuti’s was named as the UK’s Top Indian Restaurant in 2018 at the International Indian Chef Awards, and it was an accolade that felt well-deserved to those who have enjoyed the restaurant’s famous Adraki lamb chops or Kashmiri king prawn rogan josh.
Sure, this isn’t a modern ‘small sharing plates of Indian street food’ kind of place, with its very particular type of pink and yellow colourscheme and curious placement of full-size rickshaws. Rather, it’s a curry house in the Anglo-Indian tradition of the British high street, with ornate gold trim on the banquette seating and a purple hue to the evening dining that Prince would feel at home basking under. The menu hasn’t changed dramatically since the name did, with beloved classics like those lamb chops still very much in place.
With Cobra King Malabar IPA on tap and the poppadoms free-flowing, there’s no place we’d rather be, particularly post-St. Mary’s, while we dissect a famous Saints victory over some delicious Indian food.
Address: The Royal Pier, Mayflower Park, Town Quay, Southampton SO14 2AQ
Dancing Man Brewery, Town Quay
Ideal for pub classics and gorgeously hoppy beers…
Just a minute’s walk from the Royal Palace and into Town Quay proper, you’ll find some of the best food in Southampton at Dancing Man Brewery, with a pint of the brewpub’s award winning, hop-heavy Jack O’Diamonds in one hand and a double DMB cheeseburger in the other.
This gorgeous pub, housed in a mediaeval woolhouse defined by timber beams and a freestone facade, is a place for incredibly complex, invigorating beer first and foremost, but the food found on the menu (fresh out of a newly refurbished and reimagined kitchen) is eminently satisfying, too, with nourishing pub classics the order of the day – every day – here. It’s the perfect way to end a perfect day exploring Southampton’s top restaurants.
Address: Town Quay, Southampton SO14 2AR, United Kingdom
Hartnett Holder & Co, Lyndhurst
Ideal for refined Italian-British fusion in luxurious New Forest surroundings…
Just a short drive from Southampton proper, in the heart of the New Forest, sits what might be Hampshire’s most impressive culinary collaboration. When Michelin-starred Angela Hartnett joined forces with Lime Wood’s Luke Holder, the result was something rather special indeed – a restaurant that marries Italian soul with British produce in the most elegant of settings, the aforementioned Lime Wood Hotel.
The dining room, reimagined by designer Martin Brudnizki, strikes that perfect balance between casual and refined – think panelled dark-oak bar, flattering lighting that can make even a plate of pasta look fancy, and corner sofas that you’ll want to linger in.
The menu here is a constantly evolving love letter to Hampshire’s abundant produce, with many ingredients coming from the hotel’s own grounds and smokehouse. The kitchen’s partnership with Four Acre Farm in Ringwood (a no-dig farm just down the road) means the menu changes not just with the seasons, but sometimes daily, depending on what’s been pulled from the earth that morning. Breathe in that damp, earthy aroma of the woodland, and prepare for a sense of seasonality to match.
Current winter highlights include chalk stream trout from the River Test, West Country venison, and mushrooms foraged from the surrounding forest, but it’s the pasta dishes that really showcase the kitchen’s prowess – keep an eye out for the silky spaghetti with Isle of Wight lobster and chilli, a dish that perfectly encapsulates the restaurant’s Anglo-Italian approach and connects the restaurant to not only the surrounding pastures but also the nearby coast.
For the full experience, round things off with the tart tatin to share and some freshly baked madeleines. And while the tome-like wine list might feel overwhelming at first, the knowledgeable staff are more than happy to guide you through their impressive selection of organic and biodynamic options.
With three AA Rosettes under its belt and a string of historic accolades including Restaurant of the Year at the Hampshire Food & Drinks Awards a decade ago, Hartnett Holder & Co proves that some of Southampton’s best food can be found just beyond the city limits. Just make sure to book ahead (and to book a bed, too) – this is one restaurant that’s worth planning your evening around.
Ideal for a refined, farm-to-table tasting menu at Southampton’s most Michelin-friendly restaurant…
The son of 3 Michelin-starred, Southampton-born Simon Rogan, Daniel Rogan has created something uniquely his own in the heart of the city. It’s a family affair here, with the name AO simply the initials of Rogan junior’s two children. Lovely stuff, but that’s enough about the lineage, we’re hungry…
Following the success of AO’s original 2022 opening at Sunnyfields Farm – which earned recognition from the Michelin Guide and accolades including Best Newcomer and Best Restaurant in Hampshire – Rogan has relocated to a Victorian building dating back to 1846 on Oxford Street, just a few doors down from his other venture, Album. The intimate 26-cover dining room has been designed by Rogan himself, all anthracite greys, oak tables and tanned leather seating; it’s understated but undeniably handsome.
The Michelin aspirations remain apparent in the refined but unfussy plates celebrating just a couple of key ingredients, the reaffirming of AO’s sustainability chops with every dish’s arrival, and the hyper-seasonality of the whole thing. Indeed, you’ll be on first-name terms with the restaurant’s producers and growers by the end of the tasting menu, whether that’s Chalk Stream trout from near Romsey or cod from Flying Fish on the Cornish coast.
The menu is available in seven-course (£95) and ten-course (£125) formats, with a more accessible three-course lunch (£55) for those shorter on time. Current highlights include dry-aged loin of beef with coal oil, black garlic and tarragon; salt-baked celeriac with smoked eel, pancetta and apple jam; and Cornish cod with burnt leek, mussel butter and vanilla. A dish of charred Jerusalem artichoke with herb verde cream showcases the kitchen’s deft hand with vegetables, while English duck with cauliflower, beetroot and cabbage feels like a masterclass in autumnal comfort elevated to something rather more refined.
With this new, more central home, expect to hear much more about this one.
Oxford Street, the brash, bustling heart of London’s shopping scene, attracts tens of millions of visitors each year with its impressive array of over 300 shops (299 of which are American candy purveyors) and a whole host of iconic landmarks to boot.
As Europe’s busiest shopping destination, it boasts a daily footfall of around half a million people, outgunning other popular European streets such as Madrid’s Gran Via and Paris’ Champs-Elysées.
Served by four tube stops (the busiest of which is Oxford Circus), 270 buses an hour, and that famously high volume of shoppers – some hungry, many hangry, and more still simply needing a place to rest their weary feet a while – it’s no surprise that diners of all tastes and temerities are catered to here.
And whilst that luxury of options is certainly welcome for many, for others, the paradox of choice can grip as tightly as a parent’s hand as their child steps aimlessly into the path of a big red bus. Fear not, we’re here to guide you, away from the trains and traffic, and into the best restaurants near Oxford Circus, London.
Chishuru, Great Titchfield Street
Ideal for modern West African dining from one of the city’s most celebrated new chefs…
From fish-and-chip cart in Nigeria, to cooking competition winner in Brixton, to a shiny Michelin star in a shiny new establishment just off Oxford Street, it’s been quite the journey for self-taught chef Adejoké Bakare, chef-patron of the modern West African restaurant Chishuru.
The UK’s first black female chef to be awarded a Michelin star, it’s a story of tenacity, sure, but it’s also one of unstoppable, undeniably delicious cooking, a kind of ‘refined’ (for want of a better term) take on West African food that’s anchored in generosity and perfectly judged spicing. You’ll find both in a starter of fermented rice cake, pleasingly spongy and reminiscent of lo bak go, with thick slices of heirloom tomato and a sharp, close-to-fierce chilli and clementine sauce. Gorgeous stuff.
You’ll find it, too, in the crisp yet tender bean fritters, the centre a tacky textural delight. Served with a fermented rhubarb dressing that arrives lurid pink and tastes even more vivid than its colour promises, it’s superb.
Best of all from the current menu, a guinea fowl thigh, its skin blistered and burnished from the grill, is served dusted with smoky yaji spice and an incredible caramelised onion and lemon puree, its layers of heat and pungency coming at you in undulating waves, the sweetness of the onion soothing things just enough to keep you coming back for more.
Right now, that menu (it’s a set, no-choice affair with a vegetarian alternative) will set you back £45 at lunch and, for a longer version, £95 in the evening. An adjacent wine flight is available for £56, and is definitely worth going for, the complexity of Bakare’s cooking deserves thoughtful drinks pairing.
Only open weekdays, do make sure you book in advance, as Chishuru is quite rightly packed Monday through Friday. Yep, this is, for us, the best place to eat near Oxford Circus. Nab a table while you still can.
Ideal for refined Mexican ‘home cooking’ with a British accent…
Santiago Lastra, the chef behind Michelin-starred KOL, is becoming an increasingly ubiquitous presence, not only at Michelin awards ceremonies and World’s 50 Best galas, but also on the pages of Vogue and Esquire, his chiselled good looks and easy charm making him something of a crossover star even before he won his at KOL.
So, when it was announced in September 2024 that a London follow-up to KOL was on the horizon, and that it was going to be in Mayfair, assumptions (fears?) of something bank balance-busting and fancy af were only natural.
In actuality, Fonda is a slightly more ‘relaxed’ second act, bringing the warmth and conviviality of Mexico’s family-run mom-and-pop spots found across Mexico to a pink-washed corner of Mayfair. The restaurant takes its name from these humble establishments though admittedly, this interpretation is rather more polished than its inspiration might suggest.
The L-shaped dining room, awash in dusky pinks and terracottas, is gorgeous, sure, but also has the textures of a finger nail scratching across a chalkboard, somehow. That said, the woven chairs, handcrafted Mexican art pieces, and a giant agave-crafted monkey presiding over proceedings, certainly bring character. At its heart sits the comal – a traditional clay griddle that serves as both literal and metaphorical hearth of the operation. It’s where to exceptional house tortillas are on forever rotation.
Lastra’s commitment to British ingredients (there’s still no avocado or lime in sight) carries through from KOL, though here it feels more playful than prescriptive. Take the Sikil Pak, a clever take on guacamole that swaps out avocado for a silky mousse of toasted pumpkin seeds and pine oil. Or the Baja fish taco, where Cornish cod gets an umami boost from a touch of Marmite in the batter before being paired with a bright pistachio and mint sauce that almost makes you forget all about missing citrus. The Costra – a dish of aged ribeye topped with melted Swaledale cheese on a flour tortilla – exemplifies Lastra’s approach: Mexican soul, British ingredients, precise technique.
Perhaps the mission statement goes out the window a bit with the drinks list, leaning heavily into agave spirits, with a dedicated Paloma section that includes clever riffs like a rhubarb and gooseberry version made with Ocho Blanco tequila. There’s also a strong selection of natural wines that pair well with the food’s complex spicing. It’s all very delicious, if not just a touch subdued.
With mains hovering around £25-30 and small plates between £7-14, Fonda is certainly more accessible than its elder sibling KOL, though still firmly in special occasion territory for most. But then again, with cooking this accomplished and surroundings this convivial, special occasions are exactly what Fonda was built for.
Ideal for elevated pub grub fare in classy, retro-inspired surrounds…
Sitting just a five minute stroll from Oxford Circus and ideal for taking a load off after a long morning’s shopping, The Wigmore is a luxurious gastropub that’s perfect for both perfectly poured pints and plates of poise and precision. Or both; here, the two aren’t mutually exclusive, but can be, if you simply fancy a swift half before moving on to your third UNIQLO of the day…
Billing itself as a modern British Tavern that’s full of surprises, the menu features reimagined pub fare curated by Michel Roux Jr., holder or 2 Michelins stars at Mayfair’s Le Gavroche.
Diners can expect British boozer classics with a little French flair thrown in for good measure, exemplified by the buttered then fried Wigmore Sourdough Toastie, which features three cheeses – Montgomery cheddar, Ogleshield and Raclette – and a lingering pungency from mustard and sliced onion. Arriving blistered and burnished in all the right places, it is, according to Observer food writer Jay Rayner, ‘’the best cheese toastie in town’’.
Housed in a historic banking hall, The Wigmore is part of the luxury Langham hotel, with a sense of prestige and pedigree palpable in the simple, leather-and-wood clad dining room. That’s not to say it’s forgotten its pub roots; there’s also outdoor seating and a pub quiz held every Monday evening.
Anyway, that sense of pedigree continues onto the plate. Aside from that toastie, there’s a superb cheeseburger, given the French gastronome treatment with a completely unnecessary but totally irresistible slice of pressed, grilled ox tongue.
A scotch-egg which comes spiced with masala and encased in fine vermicelli pasta instead of breadcrumbs (and touching down on the table looking like a porcupine, quite honestly) is another classic pub dish delivered with a Wigmore spin. It’s bloody delicious.
The indulgent takes on snacks continues. Toasted crumpets – here topped with a generous tangle of white crab meat held together with a brown crab mayo – arrive sitting in a pool of positively pelagic butter. Though your GP might not approve, by Christ we do.
Pair it with a pint or two (sorry doc) of the Wigmore’s signature house Saison, and you’re in for a real treat. No wonder the Wigmore and bar manager Andre Ferreira took home the prestigious Cateys Award for Best Pub and Bar last year.
Just don’t expect to return to the shopping with the same enthusiasm you had before lunch…
Address: 15 Langham Pl, London W1B 3DE, United Kingdom
It seems like you can’t escape Nieves Barragan, the former head chef of Barrafina, right now, whether it’s because of her appearances as a judge on Masterchef or because Sabor, her Michelin-starred, Andalusian-inspired tapas bar on Heddon Street, is regularly being named as people’s favourite London restaurant on the ‘gram.
Ubiquity has certainly not dampened the quality at Sabor, whichever level you choose to pull up a stool. On the ground floor, you’ll find a horseshoe-shaped counter where regional Spanish classics with a focus on fresh fish are served with finesse. Do not miss the txistorra tortilla, an unctuous, oozing spanish omelet filled and topped with paprika-spiked Basque sausage.
On the first floor, El Asador, things are really taken up a notch, with a selection of larger sharing dishes cooked in a traditional wood-fired oven from Castile. Whilst the brooding seafood rice is certainly a crowdpleaser, the headlining act here is without doubt the Segovian sucking pig, available in quarter, half or whole portions.
Though the full beast will set you (and hopefully some friends!) back £320, it’s an incredible piece of work, all hyaline skin shattering when you breathe on it and fatty, tender flesh beneath. The wait staff arrive to portion it with a plate, just to emphasise its succulence. It’s a lovely, silly slice of theatre. Do your own cutting through with a dry, citrusy rioja blanco – the Solar de Randez does the job perfectly – and you’ve got yourself one of London’s finest lunches.
Indeed, just a five minute stroll from Oxford Circus, we’d go as far as to say Sabor is our favourite restaurant close to Oxford Street.
Ideal for bouncy bao buns and other Taiwanese treats…
As if it needed any introduction except to say you can reach the restaurant from Oxford Street in just five minutes, the Lexington Street outpost of beloved Taiwanese restaurant BAO was founded by Erchen Chang, Shing Tat Chung, and Wai Ting Chung in 2015, a trio whose background in art and design has translated to the instantly recognisable aesthetics here (see the famous ‘Lonely Man’ logo’) and the uber-Instagrammable signature dish.
That’s not to say it’s all style over substance at BAO. Quite the opposite, in fact; the headlining ‘Classic’ bao bun, which features a slice of tender braised pork belly, peanut powder, coriander and fermented mustard greens, is as good as New York chef David Chang’s iconic version at Momofuku Noodle Bar. If not, whisper it, even more satisfying…
The lamb shoulder bao, which can only be found exclusively at this BAO branch, is another one not to be missed. Inside those headlining pillowy buns, slow cooked lamb is perfectly paired with a coriander sauce, garlic mayonnaise and soy pickled chilli. It’s a dreamy combination.
That said, you’d be foolish to remain safely ensconced in the pillowy embrace of the bao bun for the entirety of your meal. As any seasoned BAO aficionado knows, it’s in the Xiao Chi section of the menu that the real kicks are found, whether you’re elbows deep in the hard fried Taiwanese chicken with a truly piquant little hot sauce, or you’re making friends with a slab of peppery pig’s blood cake, topped with a soy-cured egg yolk that envelops and enraptures.
Finish with a fried Horlicks ice cream sandwich, and be on your merry way.
BAO Lexington Street has held a prestigious Bib Gourmand award from the Michelin Guide since 2016. Oh, and if you’re keen to cook some of their classic dishes yourself, then the BAO cookbook was released earlier this year.
Address: 53 Lexington St, Carnaby, London W1F 9AS, United Kingdom
Ideal for Istanbulite cuisine and terrific Turkish hospitality…
Located just off Carnaby Street, Zahter is a culinary gem led by the talented chef Esra Muslu that aims to reinterpret traditional Turkish cuisine.
With previous at Ottolenghi Spitalfields as well as a spell serving as executive chef at Istanbul’s Soho House, Muslu has made a name for herself in the culinary world for her forward-thinking Turkish cooking that explores hyper-seasonal, homestyle cooking far removed from the kebabs and flatbreads most associated with the country’s cuisine.
Esra opened Zahter in October 2021 after a successful Carousel residency in March 2018, earning rave reviews from critics and a full dining room ever since. It’s a mezze-focused affair, with hot and cold mezze making up the vast majority of the single page menu, the four protein-focused ‘platters’ feeling like almost an afterthought among the fresh vibrancy of the smaller plates.
Accordingly, Zahter is one of the best places for vegetarians to dine well in all of Central London, whether they’re getting stuck into Enginar Dolması – a whole artichoke flower presented as if in bloom and accompanied by spiced rice – or the insanely moreish Odun Ateşinde Patates – potatoes that are close to collapsing from the heat of the wood-fired grill, dressed in punchy gremolata.
The restaurant also boasts an impressive cocktail list, with our go-to order the Zahter’s Night, a visually pleasing drink inspired by Istanbul’s sunsets. This unique concoction features butterfly pea tea, gin, elderflower cordial and fresh lemon juice, creating a mesmerising kaleidoscopic effect when mixed.
In fact, the whole experience is an intoxicating one, particularly if you’re perched at the bar that sweeps elegantly around the wood-fired oven, swivelling in your stool trying to avoid getting too much smoke in your eyes as natural light streams in from all sides, watching the cooks at work. On a bright and breezy day in London, there’s no place we’d rather be…
Address: 30 – 32 Foubert’s Pl, Carnaby, London W1F 7PS, United Kingdom
Ideal for vegetable-forward cooking with fire and ferment at its heart…
Yotam Ottolenghi’s name on a restaurant practically guarantees a certain kind of experience: bold spicing, generous use of herbs, vegetables given centre stage. ROVI, his Fitzrovia outpost just north of Oxford Street, takes these signatures and runs them through a wood-fired grill, with a fermentation programme adding depth and funk to proceedings.
The 90-seat dining room is handsome; pale wood, travertine surfaces and floor-to-ceiling windows flooding the space with light. A large curved wooden bar dominates the centre of the room, its horseshoe shape allowing diners to perch and watch the action unfold. Above it precariously hangs a striking circular rack of glassware, while the seating – speckled black-and-white chairs that look like they’ve been attacked by a Dalmatian – adds a playful note. Enormous jars of house pickles and ferments line the shelves, hinting at the kitchen’s obsessions before you’ve even opened a menu.
The celeriac shawarma remains the signature dish, and rightly so: thick slabs of root vegetable, slowly roasted until yielding, served with bkeila and a punchy fermented tomato sauce. Elsewhere, beetroot pastrami borrows the spicing and curing techniques of the deli classic to brilliant effect, while cauliflower stem goujons – made from off-cuts across the Ottolenghi empire – are compulsively snackable. Those needing protein should look to the red gurnard skewer with tatbila sauce.
Small plates sit between £12-17.50, with larger sharing dishes at £35-40. Not cheap, but portions are generous, and flavours perfectly poised.
Ideal for delightful Damascene dishes that are perfect for sharing…
Next up, we’re ducking into Kingly Court and heading up several flights of stairs to Imad’s Syrian Kitchen, not only one of the best restaurants close to Oxford Circus, but one of our favourite places to eat in London, full stop.
The story of the restaurant has been well documented; restaurateur Imad Alarnab’s three successful restaurants in Syria’s capital Damascus ended up a victim of the cruel war being fought there, seeing Alarnab flee the country in search of a new life. He found it in London, where his Syrian Kitchen has been thriving, garnering praise from national critics and a coveted Bib Gourmand from the Michelin Guide.
It’s easy to see why; Imad’s Syrian Kitchen is a hugely likeable place, with the big man working the room with grace and warmth, and the hearty, generous (it’s very easy to over order) flavours of his homeland finding their way onto every plate here.
As Imad told Vice in a 2017 interview; “In Syria, we don’t do plates. We don’t ask, ‘What do you want to eat?’ We just serve lots of food and you can eat whatever you like, whenever you like. It’s like family”.
So come here with your nearest and dearest and order everything. Tear off a chunk of the restaurant’s house pita, drag it through the roughly-hewn hummus that’s been dusted generously in sumac, get stuck into the complex, no-one-bite-is-the-same fattoush, and prepare to feel very well-looked after, indeed.
Address: 2.14 Top Floor, Kingly Court, Carnaby St, London W1B 5PW, United Kingdom
Ideal for authentic Portuguese piri-piri chicken in an elegant setting…
Following the runaway success of their London Bridge original, Casa do Frango’s Piccadilly outpost brings their celebrated Algarvian cooking to the heart of the West End. The bare-brick, light-filled dining room, adorned with traditional Portuguese tiles and verdant greenery, sets the perfect stage for what is, quite simply, some of the finest Portuguese cooking in central London.
While the restaurant’s name translates to ‘house of chicken’, reducing Casa do Frango to just its perfectly charred, subtly spiced piri-piri chicken (half chicken £14) would be doing it a disservice. Yes, that chicken is superb – grilled over wood charcoal and brushed with their secret piri-piri blend – but there’s so much more to discover here.
The menu reads like a love letter to Portuguese cuisine – start with the bacalhau fritters, their crisp exterior giving way to a creamy salt cod filling that’s perfectly complemented by a bright lemon aioli. The African-influenced corn ribs with roasted piri-piri sauce are another must-order, providing a masterclass in texture and heat.
For the lunch crowd, they offer an excellent value weekday special at £14, featuring either their signature piri-piri chicken or a charred cauliflower alternative, both served with hispi slaw and crisp though, admittedly, slightly anaemic fries. It’s one of the better lunch deals in the area, especially given the quality – and at just £2 for their excellent house-made pastel de nata, – those most beloved of Portuguese custard tarts – you’d be mad not to add a dessert. Go on; have a second.
The wine list is a careful curation of Portuguese varieties, starting at just £5.50 a glass for the Terra Franca from Bairrada, ranging through to some serious bottles from the likes of Howard’s Folly (a Vinho Verde which is excellent, as it should be for £49 a bottle). Their cocktail menu puts creative spins on classics – their Piri-Piri Margarita, spiked with chili, is a particular triumph.
For those seeking a more intimate experience, two private dining rooms – Sol and Mar – offer a familial setting for groups, while the hidden Green Room bar downstairs channels vintage Portuguese charm. On warmer days, the street-side terrace provides one of central London’s most pleasant spots for al fresco dining. You know what? A third pastel de nata might be in order…
Ideal for Spanish-Italian small plates and exceptional wines in Soho’s beating heart…
Taking its name from the Spanish word for ‘woodland pasture’ (where black-footed Iberian pigs roam free), Dehesa brings together the best of Spanish and Italian aperitivo culture in a warm, convivial setting just off Carnaby Street. Part of the Salt Yard Group – the same talented team behind Opera Tavern in Covent Garden and Ember Yard in Soho – this charcuterie and tapas bar has earned its stripes (and a Michelin Bib Gourmand, which it then inexplicably lost) by doing the simple things exceptionally well.
The jamón ibérico and manchego croquetas (£9) have achieved near-legendary status – crisp shells giving way to an impossibly creamy filling that somehow captures the essence of both cheeseboard and charcuterie plate in a single, umami-laden bite. They’re the kind of thing you’ll find yourself ordering a second round of before you’ve even finished the first (and then regretting that follow-up, as they’re deceptively filling).
Head Chef Marcin Ciesielski’s menu changes with the seasons, but certain dishes have become permanent fixtures due to popular demand. The courgette flower stuffed with goat’s cheese and drizzled with blossom honey (£8.50) is one such creation – a perfect balance of sharp and sweet whose tempura batter exemplifies the kitchen’s lightness of touch. The Puglian burrata with heritage tomato is another standout, while the pil pil tiger prawns with roasted garlic and red chilli oil demonstrate the team’s ability to let superior ingredients shine without unnecessary flourishes. You get the picture here at Dehesa, and they’re painting it beautiful in broad brushstrokes using only the finest paint. Christ that’s a laboured metaphor…
It’s all designed to pair very well with wine, that’s for certain, and the wine list at Dehesa delivers – it’s an oenophile’s playground that spans both Italy and Spain’s finest regions. Start with a crisp Valimnor Albariño (£14.50 by the glass) from Rias Baixas, or dive into their Italian offerings with a robust Campogiovanni Brunello di Montalcino (£155 a bottle) if you’re feeling flush. The staff, particularly their on-site sommelier, show genuine enthusiasm in helping you navigate the extensive list.
Grab a spot on their heated corner terrace – one of the largest in Soho – and work your way through the small plates, or descend to their bijou wine cellar for a more intimate experience. The latter, which seats up to 14, offers an exceptional setting for private dining and wine tastings.
Ideal for a taste of Sri Lanka and creative cocktails served with a side order of energy…
Hoppers comes from London’s masters of playful, perfectly realised ‘theme’ restaurants, the Sethi family, and their JKS group. The list of places under their stewardship reads like your Instagram Explore highlights reel; there’s Bao, Gymkhana, Lyles, Trishna, Bubbledogs and Kitchen Table, Xu (RIP), Plaza Khao Gaeng, Speedboat Bar, Sabor and, of course, Hoppers. That is some role call; success and good taste is basically guaranteed.
Hoppers St. Christopher’s continues the rich run of form so popular at the inaugural Frith Street restaurant and doesn’t mess with the formula; Sri Lankan curries, dosas, the hopper itself and more – all of intoxicating, heady, just-off-centre spicing and playful delivery.
Check out our full review of Hoppers St. Christophers here.
Address: 77 Wigmore St, London W1U 1QE, United Kingdom
Ideal for one of the best burgers in the whole of London…
Arguably the only thing that our next entry shares with Sketch is its proximity to Oxford Street, but if you’re looking for a straight-up quality burger served swiftly and with minimal fuss or fanfare, then Honest Burgers is as good now as when it burst on to the scene more than a decade ago.
The secret behind Honest Burgers’ success lies in the commitment of founders Tom Barton and Phillip Eeles (two university graduates who share a passion for high-quality British burgers) to carefully-sourced and house-processed ingredients.
Indeed, the beef here has been butchered in-house and is minced daily to ensure freshness, their signature patties made from chuck and rib cap, which are skimmed off a rib-eye steak in the pursuit of juicier burgers with a ‘good bite.’
You can taste those efforts to ensure quality in the signature Oxford Circus Burger, featuring that Honest beef, smoked British mozzarella, honey and British nduja mayo, shoestring fries, rocket, and pickles. It’s banging. To go alongside, the fennel battered onion rings served with a side of bacon gravy for dipping is something we never regret ordering.
The restaurant also offers a selection of craft beers from local breweries personal to each restaurant, staying true to Barton’s childhood growing up in a country pub. It’s that down-to-earth, unswerving dedication to locality that keeps Honest Burgers growing (it now boasts over 40 restaurants across the UK), with even this most central of Central London restaurants offering its own unique identity and flavour. We just love it.
Address: 4 Market Pl, London W1W 8AD, United Kingdom
Ideal for spicy and complex Southern Thai food found in the Arcade Food Hall…
We end at Arcade Food Hall, close to Tottenham Court Road Station. Housed in the Centre Point building on New Oxford Street, and just a few second’s stroll from Tottenham Court Road station, Arcade Food Hall offers a veritable feast of global cuisines, with nine restaurant concepts currently operating here, and a fully-fledged Southern Thai joint on the mezzanine above the communal dining area.
That Southern Thai restaurant is Plaza Khao Gaeng, which, despite only being a couple of years old, is already doing some of the most faithfully composed, fiery food from The Kingdom anywhere in the city. It’s one of our favourite Thai restaurants in London, and as good a place as any to bid you farewell.
Address: 103-105 New Oxford St, London WC1A 1DB, United Kingdom
Lake Como has become one of the most sought-after wedding destinations in Europe, and if you’ve been invited to celebrate by the water, congratulations – you’re in for a spectacular weekend. But weddings rarely fill an entire trip. Between the rehearsal dinner, the ceremony itself, and the morning-after brunch, you’ll likely have a little downtime to explore this corner of northern Italy. The good news? You don’t need to blow your budget on Clooney-adjacent villas to make the most of your visit.
Take The Ferry Between Towns
The most affordable way to see Lake Como is also the most scenic. Rejoice! The public ferry service, operated by Navigazione Laghi, connects all the major towns around the lake, with day passes allowing unlimited travel within designated zones. A day pass for the central lake area costs €15, covering the Bellagio-Varenna-Menaggio triangle, while a full-lake pass extending from Como town to the northern basin costs €23.30.
You’ll get the same views as those private water taxis charging hundreds of Euros, just with a few more stops along the way. The regular ferries take around two hours from Como to Bellagio, whilst the faster hydrofoil service completes the journey in about 45 minutes but costs an extra €4.40.
During summer, ferries run roughly every 30 to 60 minutes. Services reduce significantly in winter, and timetables vary by route, so check the Navigazione Laghi website before finalising your plans.
If you’re travelling during peak season, arrive at the ticket office early, as queues at major stops like Varenna and Bellagio can stretch to several hours. If your hosts have hired a wedding planner in Lake Como, they’ll likely have warned you about this and may have arranged group transport to avoid the ferry chaos.
Wander Bellagio’s Salita Serbelloni
This steep, narrow street climbs from Bellagio’s waterfront up through the old town, lined with stone houses, gelaterie, and small shops selling locally-made silk scarves. It’s free to explore, and the higher you climb, the better the views across the lake become.
Near the top, you’ll find the Basilica di San Giacomo, a 12th-century Romanesque church with original frescoes still visible on the interior walls. The climb takes about 15 minutes at a steady pace, considerably longer if you stop for photos or to catch your breath – and you will want to stop, both for the views and because the incline is genuinely challenging.
Early morning or late afternoon are the best times to make this walk. Midday sun makes the climb uncomfortable, and the narrow street offers little shade.
Hike To Castello di Vezio
Above Varenna sits this ruined medieval castle, reached by a 20-minute uphill walk through olive groves and the tiny hamlet of Vezio. Entry costs €6 for adults, with reductions to €3 for over-65s, groups of more than 12 people, and students aged 7-18. You’ll have panoramic views over the central lake and surrounding mountains – many visitors rate this as the single best vantage point accessible without serious hiking equipment.
The castle dates back to the 11th century, though much of what remains is from later medieval periods. The tower contains a permanent exhibition about the Lariosaurus, a prehistoric reptile whose fossils have been found around Lake Como. The surrounding gardens include one of the northernmost olive groves in the world, though the trees here produce fruit rather than commercial quantities of oil.
Wear proper shoes – the path from Varenna is steep, paved with uneven stones, and can be treacherously slippery after rain. There are parking spaces near the village of Vezio if you’re driving, costing €2 per hour, though most visitors make the walk from Varenna’s waterfront.
The restaurants right on the lake promenades charge a premium for those views. Walk two streets back from the water and you’ll find trattorias serving the same regional dishes – pizzoccheri (buckwheat pasta with cabbage and cheese), risotto al pesce persico (with local perch), polenta concia – for half the price.
In Como town, the area around Piazza Volta has several good options where locals actually eat. In Varenna, head up into the residential streets behind Via XX Settembre. In Bellagio, anything away from Piazza della Chiesa will be more reasonable. A full lunch with wine shouldn’t cost more than €25-30 per person at these places, compared to €45-60 at waterfront establishments.
Many restaurants offer a fixed-price pranzo that includes a primo, secondo, and quarter-litre of house wine for €18-22. It’s aimed at Italian workers rather than tourists, so portions are substantial and the cooking tends to be straightforward and honest.
In Varenna, the botanical gardens of Villa Monastero stretch for almost two kilometres along the lakeshore. Entry to the gardens costs €8, whilst a combined ticket for the gardens and the House Museum costs €10. Reduced admission of €7 or €5 applies to visitors over 65, groups of more than 20 people, and students, with free entry for children under 14.
The gardens were established in the 19th century and contain plants from around the world – citrus trees, magnolias, cypresses, and exotic species from Asia, Africa, and the Americas that thrive in Como’s mild microclimate. The walking path offers continuous lake views and several shaded benches if you need a rest.
The villa itself, once a Cistercian convent, now serves as an academic conference centre. The House Museum displays 14 rooms of period decoration and furniture from the late 1800s. Last admission is 45 minutes before closing, so don’t arrive too late if you want to see the full extent of the gardens.
Explore Como’s Centro Storico
Como town at the southern end of the lake often gets overlooked by tourists rushing to Bellagio, but the historic centre deserves an afternoon. The Duomo, completed in 1770 after centuries of construction, is free to enter and combines Gothic and Renaissance architecture. Behind it, narrow medieval streets lead to Piazza San Fedele, the old market square, where local life continues largely unbothered by tourism.
Como was a major silk production centre, and you can still find shops selling silk goods, though prices have crept up as the industry has declined and production moved elsewhere.
The funicular to Brunate costs €6.10 for a return ticket, or €3.30 for a single journey. The journey takes seven minutes and operates every 15 minutes throughout the day, climbing 496 metres. At the top, you’ll have views over the entire southern basin of Lake Como. There’s a bar and restaurant at the summit, and several walking trails lead to further viewpoints including the Volta Lighthouse, about 30 minutes’ walk from the funicular station. Queues can be substantial during peak season, particularly by midday.
Swim At A Lido
If you’re visiting in summer, the local lidos offer lake access with changing facilities and sunbeds. These are popular with Italian families rather than tourists, giving them a more authentic atmosphere than you might expect. Be aware that several major lidos around the lake are currently closed for renovation, so it’s worth checking ahead.
Lido di Bellagio, positioned near Villa Melzi, charges around €50 for two people including sunbeds and umbrellas, with gazebos available and direct lake access. For a more affordable option, Lido di Argegno offers a grassy beach with pool, sunbeds, and a bar at lower rates. There are also free public beaches in several towns – Bellagio’s San Giovanni beach is about 15 minutes’ walk south of the ferry docks, whilst Bellano has a sandy public beach next to its lido.
The water temperature peaks around 24°C in July and August – refreshing rather than warm, but perfectly swimmable. Early morning is the best time for swimming if you want calm water and fewer people. Most lidos open around 10:00 and operate from May or June through to September.
Do remember that many restaurants close on Mondays, particularly in smaller towns, and that August sees many Italian businesses shut for annual holidays. Public ferry timetables change seasonally, so check the Navigazione Laghi website before planning your day trips. If you’re visiting for a wedding, ask the couple about any group transportation they’ve arranged – it’s often easier to coordinate with otherwedding guests than navigate the area independently, particularly if the wedding venue is in a more remote location.
Tired of waiting for your hair to grow? You’re not alone. In today’s fast-paced world where celebrities seem to switch from bobs to waist-length waves overnight, the secret to dramatic hair transformations isn’t miracle growth serums – it’s expertly crafted hair enhancements.
From clip-in extensions that add instant volume to sophisticated lace front wigs that create the illusion of hair growing directly from your scalp, the world of faux hair has evolved dramatically. Gone are the days of obvious, plastic-looking additions. Today’s options are virtually undetectable, offering everyone the opportunity to experiment with length, volume and style without commitment.
Whether you’re recovering from a regrettable haircut, dealing with thinning hair, or simply craving versatility, this guide will walk you through the most popular hair enhancement options, helping you find the perfect solution for your lifestyle and budget.
Clip-In Extensions: The Gateway Enhancement
For newcomers to the world of hair additions, clip-ins remain the most accessible option. These temporary wefts attach to your natural hair with small pressure clips, allowing for transformation that lasts from morning until bedtime.
Modern clip-in extensions come in various weights and lengths, from subtle pieces that add volume at the crown to full sets offering up to 20 inches of additional length. Application involves sectioning your natural hair horizontally and attaching the wefts close to the roots, with placement varying depending on your desired effect.
The advantage of your clip-in application technique lies in its versatility – they can be removed before sleeping and reapplied the next day, making them perfect for special occasions or weekend experimentation. They’re also the most budget-friendly enhancement option, with prices typically ranging from £80 for synthetic versions to £300 for premium human hair.
For best results, limit wear to 8-10 hours at a time, as the weight can cause tension on the scalp when worn for extended periods. Proper application is crucial – visible clips are the most common giveaway of amateur installation.
Perhaps no hair enhancement has experienced such a dramatic surge in popularity as the humble ponytail extension. These ready-made pieces transform thin, short hair into a voluminous, swinging ponytail in under five minutes.
The modern fake ponytail typically features a small comb at the base that slides into your secured natural ponytail, with additional hair wrapping around to conceal the attachment point. Some include a velcro strip or drawstring mechanism for additional security.
Celebrities like Ariana Grande have been refreshingly forthcoming about their use of ponytail extensions to create their signature looks. Grande’s trademark high ponytail – which appears to be nearly twice the length of her natural hair – has spawned countless imitations and dedicated enhancement pieces.
Zendaya, despite her seemingly effortless style transformations, is another celebrity who frequently uses ponytail extensions to create dramatic red carpet moments. The actress and fashion icon has been spotted switching from her natural curls to sleek, waist-length ponytails overnight. Many of Zendaya’s most iconic looks combine her natural hair with expertly placed ponytail extensions, allowing her to protect her natural curls while still delivering headline-grabbing transformations.
Application involves securing your natural hair into a ponytail, inserting the comb of the hairpiece, then wrapping the concealing section around the base and securing with pins. More advanced designs feature heat-resistant fibre or human hair that can be styled to match your preferred texture.
Prices range from £25 for synthetic versions to over £200 for premium human hair alternatives, with the distinction in quality being particularly noticeable in movement and shine.
Lace Front Wigs: The Ultimate Transformation
Lace front wigs represent the most significant technological advancement in hair enhancement in recent decades. Unlike traditional wigs with visible hairlines, lace fronts feature individual hairs hand-tied to a sheer lace base, creating the illusion of hair growing directly from your scalp.
The construction involves thousands of hairs individually knotted to a transparent mesh made from Swiss or French lace. This lace section is applied to the hairline using specialised adhesives, while the remainder of the wig covers the rest of the head.
Many don’t realize is that Keira Knightley has been a longtime fan of wigs and has been wearing them since 2011 and is “the greatest thing to have happened” to her hair. She revealed how her hair became damaged from frequent dyeing for various roles, leading her to rely on wigs to maintain the appearance of thick, healthy hair while allowing her natural locks to recover. Her subtle use of extensions during red carpet appearances demonstrates how undetectable wigs be when properly matched and installed.
Katy Perry is perhaps one of the most prolific yet under-recognized wig users in Hollywood. While her constant hair color changes from blue to pink to black might suggest frequent dyeing, Perry has confirmed in multiple interviews that she maintains an extensive collection of high-quality lace front wigs. This allows her to preserve her natural hair’s health while still delivering the dramatic color and style changes that have become her signature. Her stylist has revealed that for major appearances, Perry often has custom lace fronts created to perfectly match her vision, with each wig requiring up to 40 hours of handcrafting to achieve the most natural-looking result.
The versatility of lace fronts has made them particularly popular for dramatic transformations without damaging natural hair. The ability to part the hair anywhere within the lace section creates a realistic appearance that previous generations of wigs simply couldn’t achieve.
Beyond cosmetic appeal, lace fronts have become vital solutions for those experiencing hair loss from conditions like alopecia or as a side effect of medical treatments. The natural appearance provides not only aesthetic benefits but often significant psychological comfort.
Quality lace front wigs require substantial investment, with prices typically starting at £200 for synthetic options and extending well into the thousands for premium human hair versions.
Halo Extensions: The Best Hair Extensions For Balayage
If you’re looking for a non-damaging, instant solution that works perfectly with balayage and dimensional color, halo extensions deserve special attention. Unlike traditional clip-ins or tape-ins, halo extensions consist of a single weft of hair attached to an invisible wire that sits on your head like a crown or “halo.”
The unique design places the extension underneath your natural hair, with a thin, transparent wire that rests around the crown of your head. Your own hair is then pulled over the top to conceal the wire, creating a seamless blend that requires no clips, tapes, or adhesives making direct contact with your scalp.
What makes halo extensions particularly ideal for balayage is their single-piece construction. The uninterrupted weft maintains the natural flow of color graduation that defines balayage, allowing the carefully painted highlights to transition naturally from darker roots to lighter ends. With traditional extensions that use multiple pieces, maintaining the continuity of balayage’s subtle color transitions can be challenging.
Celebrities like Blake Lively, known for her signature honey-blonde balayage, have reportedly incorporated halo extensions for added volume and length while maintaining the dimensional color that made her hair famous. The technique allows her to preserve the natural color flow while adding significant volume for red carpet appearances. Halo-shaped extensions are also favoured by the Kardashians.
Application is remarkably straightforward: section your natural hair at the crown, place the wire over the top of your head like a headband, pull your natural hair over to conceal the wire, and blend with your fingers or a wide-tooth comb. The entire process takes less than five minutes once you’ve mastered it, making it one of the quickest enhancement options available.
Prices typically range from £80-£250 depending on length, thickness, and hair quality, with human hair options offering the best match for balayage’s dimensional color. Since halo extensions experience less friction than clip-ins (as they don’t attach directly to your natural hair), they often maintain their quality longer with proper care.
Semi-Permanent Options: Tape-Ins & Micro-Links
For those seeking longer-term solutions, tape-in extensions and micro-link methods offer weeks or months of wear without daily application.
Tape-in extensions sandwich small sections of natural hair between two adhesive-backed extension wefts, creating a flat bond that lies close to the scalp. The flatness makes them particularly suitable for finer hair types, as they’re less likely to create visible bumps.
Micro-link (also called nano-ring) extensions attach small bundles of extension hair to tiny sections of natural hair using almost imperceptible metal rings. This method involves no heat or adhesives, making it ideal for those with sensitive scalps or concerns about chemical exposure.
Zendaya has been known to alternate between various extension methods depending on the demands of her shooting schedule and red carpet appearances. Her hairstylist has shared that for long-term projects requiring consistent looks, micro-link extensions provide the versatility needed for daily styling while maintaining the health of her natural hair. This semi-permanent approach allows her to seamlessly transition between her natural curls and straight styles without the daily application time required for temporary options.
Both options require professional application and regular maintenance appointments every 6-8 weeks to adjust as your natural hair grows. Initial investment ranges from £150-£500 for tape-ins and £300-£800 for micro-links, with maintenance sessions costing approximately half the initial application price.
Human Hair vs Synthetic: Making The Choice
The most fundamental decision when selecting hair enhancements is between human and synthetic hair.
Human hair offers unparalleled natural appearance and versatility, allowing for heat styling and colour customisation. Premium ‘Remy’ hair (where cuticles remain aligned in the same direction) prevents tangling and preserves natural shine but comes with a significantly higher price tag and greater maintenance requirements.
Modern synthetic options have improved dramatically, with advanced fibres designed to mimic the weight and movement of human hair. The primary advantages include lower cost, reduced maintenance, and the ability to maintain a preset style even in humid conditions. Limitations include a shorter lifespan (typically 2-6 months versus 1-2 years for human hair) and limited styling options.
Investment in premium human hair extensions can ultimately prove more economical than constantly replacing lower-quality options that failed to blend seamlessly with your natural texture after prolonged use
Maintenance Essentials
Regardless of which enhancement you choose, proper care extends longevity:
Use sulphate-free, extension-specific shampoos that clean without stripping moisture
Brush with extension-specific tools featuring looped bristles that prevent pulling
For overnight care, braid extensions loosely or secure in a low ponytail to prevent tangling
Use heat protection products before styling, with human hair tolerating up to 180°C and heat-resistant synthetics limited to 120°C.
The Natural-Looking Result
The distinction between obvious enhancements and those that appear as natural growth often lies in application technique:
Ensure strategic placement that reflects natural growth patterns, avoiding placing extensions too close to the hairline
Match or complement your natural texture for seamless blending
Look for options with graduated density that thins towards the ends, mimicking natural hair
Zendaya’s approach to wigs and extensions exemplifies these principles perfectly. Her hairstylist has shared that before any major appearance, they carefully color-match and texture-blend all hair pieces to ensure seamless integration with her natural hair. For her more dramatic transformations, they focus on creating dimension through subtle highlighting and texturizing rather than solid blocks of color. This attention to detail explains why even her most dramatic hair changes – from short crops to waist-length styles – appear remarkably natural and have many wondering if they’re witnessing actual hair growth rather than expert enhancement.
Whether you’re seeking a temporary transformation for a special occasion or a longer-term solution, today’s enhancement options offer unprecedented realism. With proper selection and care, the only giveaway to your instant length might be how quickly you achieved it – leaving everyone else wondering about your secret to overnight growth.
