WHERE TO EAT, DRINK & DANCE IN LONDON

Wed May 11, 2016

Wondering where London’s high society and celebrities wine, dine, dance till the sun goes up and than have brunch? Here is a selection of my favorite places to eat, drink and dance in London.

DON’T waste your money going to anything less than wonderful and nice restaurants. The cosmopolitan city has a insanely huge number of great restaurants from all over the world. In terms of gastronomy, pubs, bars and bistros, great food is everywhere. You can find good fast food, slow food, cool food, dude food, and this is the only guide you need. What’s trending? It’s unending. Classical high-tea for two, dinner dances, amazing English brunch and oh yes, Asian is huge! Do you want to know, what I love the most? The fancy red-tuna sashimi with frosted grapes. Yum! Champagne Laurent-Perrier, who produce the most delicious fizz, yes please! Make sure you visit some of these restaurants and bars:

BERNERS TAVERN, Soho
Inspired by the classic muted colors of Johannes Vermeer paintings and American artist Donald Judd, Berners Tavern has taupe colored walls, dusty rose chairs, with a subtle play between modern and period design.
Sample dishes include Orkney scallop Carpaccio served with avocado, radish, jalapeño and lime; smoked tomato jam, shallot and parsley; and grass fed Baccleuch estate cuts of beef cooked on a charcoal grill. I love Jason Atherton’s eye-poppingly original, picture-saturated, over-the-top, wildly fashionable brasserie adjoining the London Edition Hotel, just right next to Oxford Circus. It’s a bit noizy, but the food is delicious!
L: 10 Berners Street W1T 3NP
R: 020 7908 7979
W: bernerstavern.com

BURGER & LOBSTER, Mayfair
Burger or lobster? Lobster or burger? Uhmm really hard to decide. Oh, and that corn-fed Nebraska beef, juicy Nova Scotia lobster with fries, plus a side of dressed leaves to ease the conscience.
L: 29 Clarges Street W1J 7EF
R: 020 7409 1699
W: burgerandlobster.com

C – LONDON, Mayfair
Yes, it is expensive, but everything is good in this restaurant! If you’re feeling out of sorts with the world, a plate of beef fillet a la Rossini or the homemade spinach and cheese canelloni with zucchini, will cheer you up like nothing else; followed by zabaglione cake or C’s famous lemon meringue, this is the very food of the gods!
L: 23–25 Davies Street W1K 3DE
T: 020 7399 0500
W: crestaurant.co.uk

CHILTERN FIREHOUSE, Marble Arch & Marylebone
Currently the hottest celebrity destination in London (Kate Moss, the Camerons, Lindsay Lohan, Bill Clinton, Cara Delevingngngngne etc.). London is now divided between those who have managed to make a reservation at Chiltern Firehouse, the famous hotelier André Balazs’s hotel/restaurant on no-longer staid little Chiltern Street, and those who haven’t. You might call reservations and learn that the first available dinner table is on October 4, 2050, or you are luckily I have amazing friends or like my girl Narta, who booked me a table just one week before I went to London. So the food is great among the most popular dishes and the cocktails are awesome too.
L: 1 Chiltern Street W1U 7PA
T: 020 7073 7676
W: chilternfirehouse.com

DISHOOM, King’s Cross
For best modern indian food in town. Dishoom brilliantly recreates the atmosphere of the disappearing Irani cafés of Bombay, from the crepuscular lighting and the silver beakers for lassi or beer – Indian calypso meets modern jazz meets Doris Day. Oh that Bollybellini with raspberries, lychees, rose and cardamom sparkling with first-class Prosecco. Whatever you do, order the okra fries and those amazing garlic naan’s!
L: 5 Stable Street N1C 4AB
T: 020 7420 9321
W: dishoom.com

ESTIATORIO MILOS, St. Jame’s
Recognized as one of the finest Mediterranean seafood restaurants in the world, Estiatorio Milos was founded by acclaimed chef Costas Spiliadis who has made it an unparalleled culinary destination in Montreal, New York, Athens, Las Vegas, Miami and London. The selection is exceptional: porgy, John Dory, snapper, swordfish, lavraki (sea bass), lithrini (red bream), and of course live lobster and exceptional shrimp. Vegetables and side dishes are excellent—from the Greek salad to the zucchini ribbons with tzaziki and grilled mushrooms. The place is a favourite for visiting film and entertainment industry—and anyone else equipped with a generous expense account. Must-Order: Loukoumades — sticky honey dumplings for dessert!
L: 1 Regent Street, SW1Y 4NR
R: 020 7839 2080
W: Estiatorio Milos

GRANGER & CO, Notting Hill
Brunch please every day, yes – yes – yes! I’ve visited Granger & Co. for brunch for the first time in 2012 and I fell in love with it. The perfect scrambled eggs with sourdough toast, ricotta hotcakes with banana and honeycomb butter, the mouth-watering pancakes or the signature sweetcorn fritters. Everything is made using prime ingredients and there’s more than a nod to health and nutrition. Oh my!
L: 175 Westbourne Park Road W11 2SB
T: 020 7229 9111
W: grangerandco.com

HOI POLLOI, Shoreditch
Long opening hours and an air east London bistro in the hipper-than-hip Ace Hotel. If the price of ambience is the occasional great and you can have really good food and cool atmosphere in this restaurant.
L: Ace Hotel, 100 Shoreditch High Street E1 6JQ
T: 020 880 6100
W: hoi-polloi.co.uk

LA PETITE MAISON, Mayfair
I’ve been to LPM in 2013 for the first time and I had the most unforgettable dinner experience. I even wrote an article and a review about this restaurant. You’ll find Provence on a plate at this restaurant with a super-high glamour quotient and a motto of ‘Tous célèbres ici’. That octopus in lemon oil, scrambled eggs or burrata with truffles, whole roast black-leg chicken with foie gras. Mon dieu! Click here to read the full article about this wonderful restaurant.
L: 54 Brook’s Mews W1K 4EG
T: 020 7495 4774
W: lpmlondon.co.uk

OPSO, Marble Arch & Marylebone
Opa opa, let’s have more Greek food in London and that in famous Opso. The colonial-meets-post-industrial interior is rather sexy, probably as far from traditional taverna as you can get, and apart from the simple but delightful food – like souvlaki, 12-hour slow-cooked beef cheek. Also Barman Giannis Petris creates great cocktails, many of them made with Greek liqueurs like mastiha and tsipouro.
L: 10 Paddington Street W1U 5QL
R: 020 7487 5088
W: opso.co.uk

PARK CHINOIS, Mayfair
After countless delays, Alan Yau’s glamourous, 9,000 sq.-ft. restaurant finally opened on the former site of Automat in Mayfair. The opulent space is a throwback to Shanghai in the 1940s and ’50s with live music in the downstairs lounge and an eclectic mix of Chinese dishes on the menu. Must-Order: Roasted duck with pancakes, or afternoon tea.
L: 17 Berkeley St., W1J 8EA
R: 020 3327 8888
W: Park Chinois

SEXY FISH, Mayfair
Richard Caring’s new Asian-influenced restaurant in Mayfair was one of the most hotly anticipated openings of the year thanks to a celebrity-packed opening and an astonishing amount of millions spent on the decor, which includes works of art by Frank Gehry and Damien Hirst. Still a long waiting list for a table, however one of my London friend managed to book a table during the week and I loved the sexy Fish sushi roll with salmon and yellowtail.
L: Berkeley Sq., W1J 6BR
R: 020 3764 2000
W: Sexy Fish

ROSEBERY AT MANDARIN ORIENTAL, Knightsbridge
A stuffy old function room at the Mandarin has been transformed into London’s glamorous new tea salon, with light streaming in through its windows overlooking Knightsbridge. There are the daintiest sandwiches and the lightest scones dangling from a tree-branch étagère. Best of all, there is tea master Anthony, magnificent in his frock coat, eager to introduce you to delicate Golden Monkey from China or zingy Sri Lankan Orange Pekoe.
L: Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, 66 Knightsbridge SW1X 7LA
R: 020 7235 2000
W: Mandarin Oriental

THE SKETCH, Mayfair
The new David Shrigley-designed Gallery at Sketch, is the setting for Pierre Gagnaire’s witty, cerebral but, most importantly, roaringly good cuisine. The menu changes with the seasons but classics include red-tuna sashimi ‘David Shrigley’ with frosted grapes and salted daikon, and veal with tuna paste and citrus sorbet. And a visit to Sketch is always fun, sexy and full of promise.
L: 9 Conduit Street W1S 2XG
R: 020 7659 4500
W: Sketch.uk.com

THE WOLSELEY, Green Park
A café-restaurant in the grand European tradition, the Wolseley combines London heritage and Viennese grandeur. It’s very difficult to book a table on weekends, especially for high-tea. Through my friends’ recommendation, but the other friend already booked a table and invited me for dinner, it was a great pleasure to taste the food in this great restaurant. I loved the big room, the benign acoustics no matter how full the restaurant and the fact that the answer to every question is ‘Yes’. Scrambled eggs at 11.30am? Lobster cocktail mid-afternoon? Roast chicken at a minute to midnight? Yes, yes and yes.
L: 160 Piccadilly W1J 9EB
T: 020 7499 6996
W: The Wolseley

CLUBS
Recently I read an article about clubs in London and it says: “If you don’t know what’s behind the doors, then you don’t belong in the rooms. Some of the clubs are straightforward. You put yourself up or, rather, a friend who is already a member puts you up and gets another friend who is also a member to second you. Then they put your name in a book and the book is left for people to object or support you. And then your name goes to a committee, and it may let you pay your money so you can be very, very grateful.” This is how I got the chance to visit these clubs and to put my name on the guest list of the famous members clubs in London. Otherwise I could have forget about it! Here are my favorite clubs in London:

THE ARTS CLUB, Mayfair
Charles Dickens was among the founding members of this eminent Mayfair club, which began life on Hanover Square before expanding to its current Dover Street premises. To visit this hotel, restaurant and club, you have to be a member or you have friends you are members! Plump scallops, spinach creamed to a pulp and glazed black cod were superb, desserts such as apple juice-soaked panna cotta are so delicious, read more here.

LOULOU’S, Mayfair
London’s hottest new club located within a rougey maisonette along Mayfair’s Shepherd’s market, is right the hot spot for the upper crust and definitely the place to be! The signature restaurant designed by Turkish star Rifat Ozbek and an inspiring tiled courtyard. Each room at Loulou’s has a different mood and sensitivity provided by its interior, lighting and people. There’s a stuffed giraffe, greeting the guests as they enter the Madagascan Bar at Loulou’s. That’s why the Royal family likes this place! Amongst the club’s regular guests are Mick Jagger, Daphne Guinness, Kate Moss, Taki Theodoracopulos, Debbie von Bismarck, the Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie of York – and the list goes on.

ANNABEL’S, Mayfair
Annabel’s is one of the most famous London members-only nightclub, has a global reputation that has been established over the past five decades is located at Berkeley Square. It was founded by entrepreneur Mark Birley and named after Lady Annabel Vane-Tempest-Stewart, then his wife. Annabel’s was founded in 1963, after Birley’s friend John Aspinall decided that they needed somewhere to party after an evening’s gambling. Annabel’s has catering to an exclusive clientele, including The Prince of Wales, the Duchess of Cornwall, Princess Anne, US President Richard Nixon, Aristotle Onassis and Frank Sinatra. In 2003, the Queen visited the club, and it is thought to be the only nightclub the queen has ever attended. Entertainers who have played there include Tina Turner, Ray Charles, Ella Fitzgerald, Diana Ross, Bryan Ferry and Lady Gaga.

SHOREDITCH HOUSE, Shoreditch (East London)
Sitting in the heart of East London is Shoreditch House, a hub for the local creative industries and the ideal spot for a night out. Opened in the summer of 2007, the four level club features all the glamour of several bars, a restaurant, a gymnasium, flywheel studio, barber and parlour, ping pong, rooftop pool and gardens. Memberships offers access to Shoreditch House and its facilities, while the ‘Every House’ Membership offers access to numerous sister houses across London including Soho House and Electric House.