A report to be released later this month will uncover the most visible boutique and lifestyle hotels online and the most common strategies employed by prospective globe-trotters when it comes to searching for bespoke accommodation.
An unsettling, architectural gem of a building, it is a clutter of wood paneling, pictures and paranoia. So visually overpowering that if it weren’t for the immediate mugging by fabulous Mediterranean and Cornish aromas, you could easily miss lunch, altogether.
Just off Shaftsbury Avenue, in the heart of London’s Soho neighbourhood, a glut of Vietnamese restaurants is emerging. It’s a Saturday night, and, as usual, I’m in charge of the restaurant plans for a group of friends. We’ve just been to see The Gatekeepers, the Oscar-nominated documentary featuring interviews with the former directors of Shin Bet, the Israeli version of the FBI.
When it comes to luxury, nothing spells it quite like a sleek and swanky sports car.
St Paul’s in the City, is a neighbourhood that hardly beckons me from my comfy West London surroundings.
After all, I don‘t work in the City, and there are plenty of good restaurants between South Kensington and Mayfair, which don’t even require a Tube journey.
But, a networking event at the relatively new One New Change complex, built to provide lunchtime and after-work distractions for all those office workers keen to blow their wages on the latest trendy togs and fashionable cocktails, lured me east.
London is home to some of the finest restaurants in the world, but how do the city’s hotspots keep customers coming? Many enlist the help of a secret weapon – a menu consultant. And it may be one of the best jobs around, for serious foodies.
In the heart of London’s theatre district, one woman has been serving customers for more than 70 years and she’s still going. Elena Salvoni is heralded as the unofficial Queen of Soho, greeting a loyal, and famous fan base once a month for lunch.
It’s a lovely, unseasonably warm, early spring evening. The perfect evening for a cold, refreshing cup of Sake. A big-shot publicist friend is in from LA and has a hankering for Roka. I suggest Watatsumi instead, since it’s on my list of places to check out. The chef-owners met working in the kitchen at Nobu Park Lane, which seems like a good sign.
With nearly 50 restaurants under his belt in the Motherland, Russian restaurant magnate Arkady Novikov is trying his luck in London. Already, all indications point to a huge success. Novikov is literally around corner from Green Park tube station, making it ultra-convenient for the hedgie crowd, and anyone else looking for a hip hangout after work, or just a reason to wear heels.
It’s freezing outside, one of London’s unseasonably cold nights, when I step into Babbo, an Italian restaurant in Mayfair with perfectly dimmed lighting and chandeliers, creating an elegant but not too formal atmosphere.
A report to be released later this month will uncover the most visible boutique…
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Perched atop the Metropolitan Tower, overlooking Suzhou's heritage-listed gardens, famed Grand Canal and the majestic Taihu Lake is the Shangri-La…
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