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Fantastic local curry house. A tiny little place in a run-down back street in SW8. Fantastic east-African food with real flavour and very cheap. Bring your own drink. Regularly changing specials. Particularly good for vegetarians.
Wilcox Close, London, SW8.
Nearest tubes Stockwell and Vauxhall.
Nearest bus routes 2, 88, 77, 87, 196.
It's a cafe in the middle of Regent's Park's playing fields. So a good place to watch people wearing themselves out whilst you sip on hot chocolate. But also, it has changing rooms, lockers (£1 returnable) and showers (£1.50) which you can use after a run round the park. Plus a schedule of gym classes. Slightly chaotic but all the nicer for it.
Regent's Park
www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/regents_park/hub/thehub.cfm
Viet Grill offers a very special menu packed with dishes from the streets of Hanoi to the newest fusion-inspired dishes found only at the country's top restaurants.
Providing the very best of Vietnam's modern cooking, Viet Grill is dedicated to using only the freshest herbs and ingredients. Their unique grill allows them to offer an even wider selection of exquisite dishes.
The wine list available at Viet Grill, and sister restaurant, Cay Tre, is constantly evolving. Every bottle has been hand picked by wine critic Malcolm Gluck, expertly selected to pair with the menu's delicate, fragrant flavours. Specific matches are recommended and, with 10 wines now available by the glass, you can sample each dish with a wine that's been chosen to really make it sing.
58 Kingsland Road
London E2 8DP
Tel: 020 7739 6686
www.vietnamesekitchen.co.uk
Sample an outstandingly fresh selection of authentic and contemporary dishes, those borne out of a visit to a morning market stall in Hanoi right through to dishes found at Ho Chi Minh City’s swankiest restaurant: La Vong grilled fish from Hanoi’s finest, Hanoi Dumpling from the Imperial Capital and Camfire Sirloin Steak from Saigon’s busiest restaurant.
To accompany your food select from the amazing wines hand picked by wine critic Malcolm Gluck then sit back and enjoy an exquistite meal in a uniquely relaxed environment.
301 Old Street
Hoxton
London EC1V9LA
Tel: 020 7729 8662
Tube: Old Street
Situated right next to the city and the bars, cafes and markets of Spitalfields and Brick Lane, the location is ideal. Tube station right next door also. Rooms are basic, but spotless, clean and comfortable. For £65/night at the weekend it's a bargain. Unusually for a hotel, the bar is buzzing and comfortable. The staff are so friendly. Definitely worth checking out.
Commercial Street, E1. Aldgate East tube station.
The best fish and chips shop anywhere. I have tried other favourites in London, including Olleys in SE24 and the Seashell in Lisson Grove, and this beats them all. The fish is always succulent, the chips full of flavour and crisp. The prices are low by London standards and the service friendly and impeccable.
McDermott's, 5-6 Forestdale Shopping Centre, Featherbed Lane, Croydon CR0 9AS.
Tel: 020 8651 1440
On a dark evening last November, my husband and I stumbled upon this takeaway on our way back to our hotel. Brightly lit and with the smell of fish and chips wafting out into the cold night air we went in and were served by the friendliest young man in London (a huge Tottenham supporter). Freshly cooked, the fish was moist, the batter crispy, the chips golden, the servings generous and the price cheap. We ran back to our hotel with our wrapped dinner and ate every morsel. There is also an eat-in restaurant beside the takeaway which was doing a brisk business.
North Sea Fish Restaurant
7-8 Leigh Street
London WC1
Great fun and so inexpensive, especially in awful weather. A rucksack with a flask, sausage rolls, ham sandwich, jaffa cakes, thornton's choccies, warm clothes and a travel card. In between peak times you can sit almost alone upstairs near the heater and you're warm and comfy while London rolls by. Enjoy festive decorations you can't see from street level. See lovely balconies and secret gardens. Meet gargoyles face to face. Marvel at the architecture. Read all the blue plaques and pub signs - hop off at a really interesting one, have a pint (and a pee) and get on a bus in another direction.
Watch London life unfold at the traffic lights. Read famous street addresses. Actually visit places you've only seen pictures of. Get lost somwhere amazing and ask the driver how to get back when you've had enough. Revisit. Take pictures, keep a journal. Do it again the next day.
Get your travel card at any news agents. The bus employees are great to deal with in most cases and ask other travellers at the bus shelters for directions. Read your A-Z and the fronts of the buses or contact the London bureau.
Good, cheap food in central London.
Too quick service but really cheap.
Piccadilly Circus
2 Denman Street
London W1D 7HA
Brilliant, cheap little live blues joint right in the centre of town, fiver on the door and drinks promotions. Drinkable house red, horrid little loos, great clientele. Fight for a table near the band.
20 Kingly Street, Soho, London W1B 5PZ Tel: 020 7287 0514
www.aintnothinbut.co.uk/
A wonderful, casual cafe with excellent food at reasonable prices. It is located in the crypt of St Martin-in-the-Fields Church in Trafalgar Square, access off Duncannon Street. Profits from the cafe stay at St Martin-in-the-Fields and help to support, among other things, it's care of the homeless and vulnerable.
St Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square, London, England
www2.stmartin-in-the-fields.org/page/cafe/crypt/crypt.html
Wonderful, family-run neighbourhood Greek restaurant. Fresh fish and meat are cooked on an open charcoal grill and there is a great selection of starters. This place is better than many tavernas in Greece and is very reasonably priced. Try the lamb chops or any of the fish/sea food dishes.
122 Junction Road
Upper Holloway
London
N19 5LB
020 7272 0318
Tufnell Park or Archway tube (Northern Line). Also on 134 and 390 bus routes.
Lovely street in Clerkenwell lined with independent shops and very good restaurants (Exmouth Market's the home of Moro, a restaurant that kick-started the regeneration of the street ten years ago).
When I strolled down recently there was a new outdoor food and craft market. I was very very pleased to see that Neals Yard Cheese had a stall as usually you have to trek to Covent Garden or Borough market for their cheeses. Was lovely to be able to buy some really good, and not ridiculously priced food but wihout the business of some of London's other markets. I think the market's only there on Friday and Saturday; a lovely way to while away a weekend afternoon, especially as there are lots of tasting opportunities and a really good mix of well-known companies and tiny cottage industries.
Off Rosebery Avenue near Farringdon Road.
Nearest Tube is Farringdon
website is www.exmouthmarket.co.uk
If you're looking for reasonable kids’ ski wear, head straight to TK Maxx. I recently bought my son a designer jacket that had retailed at £160 for £25! A complete bargain that I'll be able to sell on ebay when he grows out of it!
Bali Bali is a Malaysian restaurant just off Cambridge Circus, in the heart of theatreland. Excellent food and great service in a relaxed, bustling atmosphere and at budget prices, this is my favourite restaurant in London.
150 Shaftesbury Avenue, WC2. Nearest tube is Leicester Square (walk north) or Tottenham Court Road (walk south).
www.balibalirestaurant.com
Sited on that increasingly buzzing area, the South Bank, this reproduction of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre is a refreshing change from the theatre district of the West End. It's an opportunity to see great plays performed by superb actors in the setting in which they are meant to be seen; oh, and the only way to see it is as a 'groundling' standing in the open area in front of the stage - where else can you get a good night's entertainment for a fiver?!!
Watch out for other events as well, as the Globe has been used in the past for musical events and the London venue for a certain Mr Billy Connolly on his 'World Tour'.
www.shakespeares-globe.org/
Shakespeare's Globe
21 New Globe Walk
Bankside
London
SE1 9DT
Destan is one of the very best restaurants in an area with plenty of them. It's just a few doors away from the better known Mangal, but better value. It specialises in lamb, chicken and fish grilled on the ocakbasi charcoal grill. Along with your main course you will be served delicious freshly prepared salads, grilled onions with parsley and pomegranate syrup and warm Turkish bread. Free tea and coffee is always offered by the owner Hassan and his friendly staff. An added bonus is that you can bring your own wine.
14 Stoke Newington Road, London N16 7XN
Tel: 020 7275 0109
South Indian food of the highest quality. Be prepared to queue as this place is very busy with locals.
They do 6ft dosas! Try their Chilli fried idli with lemon rice - my favourite. The food is spicy but really tasty - and it is cheap cheap cheap. All dishes are fabulous. It’s a veggie restaurant and 100 yards down they have a non-veggie one. The veggie one is better - and this from a confirmed carnivore. Service is average but the food more than makes up for it. Feels like you are actually eating in India. Enjoy!
Various locations in London - East Ham, West Croydon, two in Manor Park and two in Wembley. For more information see www.chennaidosa.com/contactus.htm
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