I’ve only come to appreciate over the past few years how lucky I am to have had the childhood I had. However, career opportunities and a handsome Southerner beckoned. It took me six years to make the most of London life, and 2013 so far has been full of it – celebrating K’s 30th at Sushi Tetsu, watching an open air play in Regent’s Park, rousing a friend from the depths of a serious hangover for a Sunday showing of The Dark Crystal at the BFI, managing to finally arrange a date with said friend and another good pal to eat birthday bone marrow at St John’s.
Then our background plan to live in another country at some point started to actually take shape, and it dawned on both of us that the life we’d been lucky enough to enjoy for a while was about to be fully remodelled on a Michael Jackson’s face kind of scale.
The five weeks between handing our notice in and getting on the plane to China were a blur of fun seeing as many friends as possible – and a pretty good snapshot of what we’re sad to leave behind. My bitesize rundown doesn’t include all my favourite places, but does include cheap eats, expensive cocktails and a tattoo in Soho – sounds like a good London night out to me.
June 20th – Copita
27 D’arblay Street, W1F 8EP
We sat at the bar of this Spanish tapas joint waiting for
friends, supping sherry and cava. When they arrived, bearing a USB stick full
of Mandarin lessons no less, we dived in rather unseemly fashion onto luscious snacks
of chorizo and croquettes, as well as small plates of octopus and pigs’ cheeks
washed down with a reasonably priced red wine. Pretty sure we didn’t go much over
£20 a head. You can’t book if there’s less than six of you, so works best as a
post-work drop in.
June 20th - Star & Garter
62 Poland Street, W1F 7NX
We took our time over Copita and landed up here for nearly
last orders. One of our favourite Soho pubs because it’s never uncomfortably
packed, although in summer there’s a standard overspill into the street. Always
worth a try when Soho wandering leaves you weary. Not sure on a menu – I
spotted some sandwiches wrapped in clingfilm once.
June 29th – The Comedy Store
1a Oxendon Street, SW1Y 4EE
With most things sucked into the vacuum of
omgmovingtochinaomg, remembering our first wedding anniversary fell by the
suitcase-strewn wayside. To rectify, we bought tickets on the Friday for
Saturday’s show and romantically spent our anniversary celebrations listening
to someone joke about wearing his wife’s flappy vagina like a deerstalker. Three
comedians, surprise headliner and exceedingly funny MC, £22.50 a ticket for the
7.30 show. Definitely worth it.
June 29th - Kulu Kulu
76 Brewer Street , W1F 9TU
There are two Kulu Kulu sushi spots, but this one
is my favourite. No nonsense fishy goodness. Go off-belt and order a soft shell
crab roll, but beware how easily the plates stack up. We spend about £35
between two, unless K is there with his equally bottomless-stomached pal, in
which case I ring Natwest to tell them the mortgage won’t be paid this month. Stick to a party of three or under for max enjoyment, unless you can get a table - but who wants a table when there's a conveyor belt of food to be grabbed at?
July 2nd - Frith Street Tattoo
18 Frith St, W1D 4RQ
A belated 30th birthday present, I finally booked
in for my new tattoo. I managed to bag a spot with Miles, I believe only
because he recently came back from abroad and the inked community hadn’t quite
realised yet. One consultation and 90 minutes later, my leg will never be the
same again. In a really, really good way. Miles is professional and creative,
has a private inking room away from the shop floor, and thankfully, uses a very, very quiet stabbing machine.
July 2nd – The Quality Chop House
92-94 Farringdon Rd, EC1R 3EA
Thank the lord, a recent meal at Burger & Lobster where Issy witnessed first-hand K’s incredible capacity to eat slower than a shagged out
panda on sleeping pills did not put her off eating with us again. I dulled the
pain and fed the tattoo buzz with a glass of Kernel’s Table Beer and once
deemed stable enough to join the group, ate a wonderful three courses of the
chef’s choice. The menu changes daily, but I remember some melting pork belly
and a pudding with fizzy bits. Lush. Dinner menu is £35 each, plus a supplement
for the optional cheese course.
July 5th - Brindisa
46 Broadwick St, W1F 7AF
I cannot tell a lie. We were quite drunk when we stumbled in,
and when we stumbled back out. The trouble with a Soho-dwelling friend is that
I could easily get to his flat within five minutes of leaving work, and we
could disappear a bottle of Prosecco before anyone else has got off the tube.
Brindisa’s tapas was perfect for this night – it arrives as and when so no
downing too much house white before the food arrives, and you can always order
more. Nice, but no booking and unlikely to ordinarily get a table without a
long wait. We were serendipitously tipsy it seems.
July 6th - L'Atelier des Chefs
19 Wigmore St, W1U 1PH
A wedding present of a few hours at this cookery school is a
wedding present well received. We chose a two hour Japanese lesson, learning to
make soft shell crab, dumplings, and a number of other goodies. I’m too focused
on the crab to remember the rest. A lovely way to spend an afternoon, and a
glass of wine with our creations a lovely way to kickstart Saturday night.
July 6th – Platform Bar & Terrace
Netil House, Westgate St, E8 3RL
Here for a 30th, they held the table for ‘Ben’
instead of ‘Beth’ and tried to lock some friends out of the party, but dancing
with your bests to classics such an En Vogue can’t really be beat. Outside was
heaving thanks to the weather, food was around and with a cocktail or a Corona,
what else do you want? Bit of a ballache to get to and from, but I verily
enjoyed the Espresso Martini.
July 12th – Udderbelly
Jubilee Gardens, SE1 8XX
Not one for a quiet pint, our wonderful friend Serge is one of those people who squeezes
the most from an evening. He introduced us to Rumpus last year, a migrating mess of different rooms
and dancing and people in masks, and offered up tickets to
Udderbelly’s Closing Gala when we needed a plan. Udderbelly is a run of several
comedy shows and performances over summer, and we checked in for the last –
four comedy acts for about £12 a ticket, a bottle of wine for under £20, and my parents
(optional). A great night.
July 17th - The Grafton
20 Prince of Wales Road, NW5 3LG
Pinning down an evening with the ladies I spent this night
with is like herding kittens, so once we cracked it we felt some congratulatory
booze was in order. Two venues later, we fell into The Grafton after bumping
into another friend and ordered a ridiculous last round of cava, gin and tonic,
a double Drambuie and white wine. Around £22. Not the cheapest of end of night drinks,
but that was our own silly choice and at least the tube (Kentish Town) was easy to find.
July 22nd - Rudy's Revenge
168 High Holborn, WC1V 7AA
I only end up at this bar as it’s close to (ex) work and has
outside tables, but the drinks are reasonable, there’s usually a happy hour or
two and it’s a really easy choice. The cocktails are pretty average, so we
stuck to wine. We should have bought a bottle, but we bought two glasses and
only then felt it was silly to buy two more. So we bought a bottle on top.
There is Thai food but again, that’s not what I’d go here for.
July 23rd - The Wolseley
160 Piccadilly, W1J 9EB
Fabulous old school venue that feels a little special. I
went for pea and lettuce soup and fillet of sea trout. The food was good and we
were sat up high with a great view of the rest of the dining room, although I
have to say our first server wasn’t too on the ball. I wouldn’t usually care
that much about a lack of slightly stuffy waitering, but miss me out when you’re topping up wine glasses and I will
definitely notice. Macaroons for dessert and shared a bottle of wine between
four, with a glass of calvados to finish – about £60 each. I'd go here again to try lunch because the venue is great, but not fussed enough about the food for the price.
July 23rd – The Donovan Bar
Brown’s Hotel, Albemarle Street, W1S 4BP
Generally, cocktails in cheaper places can be simply a
low-alcohol money maker, so I admit to usually ordering the most bang for my
buck (one shot of booze won’t part me from my seven quid – Long Island Ice Tea
every time). Go high end, and you’re obviously still not getting a great
cash-alcohol exchange rate, but your money is hopefully buying expertise and
flavour. The cocktails here were good, but between £15 and £20 each. A quiet,
luxurious environment if you want an elegant night.
July 24th - The Royal George
133 Charing Cross Road, WC2H 0EA
When your office is Soho/Covent Garden way, you return often
to pubs you settle in – anything to eliminate the traumatic post-work search
for the Holy Grail of somewhere to sit down. I suspect people actually book
afternoons off work to bag tables outside when it’s sunny. Anyway, the George
is fine – it’s a pub, with some tables, it’s down an alleyway so rarely picks
up random footfall. It’s next to a construction site at the moment, but only
for ooh, a couple more years? These were my last day of work drinks, and they
were dandy. A ukulele class was going off downstairs.
July 24th – Trisha’s
57 Greek Street (possibly), W1D 3DX
I am always taken here after last orders by a particular
friend who knows it well because she is a shameless dirty stop out. I can never
remember what street it’s on or how I got home. It’s a tiny basement drinking
den with a smoking area that feels like you’ve fallen down a well. It’s open
late, the owner (she might be Trisha, she might not) is friendly, and I highly
recommend hunting it down. Maybe with someone who’s been there before.
July 29th – The White Hart
191 Drury Lane, WC2B
These were the final leaving drinks. You can hire an area in
this pub for free (or for a deposit if you want the whole of the back room) it
serves all the drinks a pub would serve, and does a truly wonderful mountain of
nachos for £9.95. EASY.
July 29th – Wok To Walk
4 Brewer Street, W1F 0SB
On the way to aforementioned Soho pal’s flat to
ill-advisedly drink his whisky into the early hours and ruin the next day’s packing, K dropped into
this noodle bar. I’m afraid all I can tell you is that I waited outside and got
shouted at by a man in a car, but I’m assured the late night noodle fest was
good and cheap. Other words are superfluous.
August 1st - Café Rouge
Heathrow and various other joints
Our last meal on UK turf for a while was pretty French. I
ordered Croque Madame, Buck’s Fizz and a cappuccino. I have a soft spot for Café
Rouge - I’ve never been disappointed in the food whether it be a mid-morning
pastry, a charcuterie board or a pot of mussels with baguette to dip in. A
reliable choice if you’re surrounded by touristy chains.
And that’s that. I wanted to include a load of favourites,
but this isn’t my definitive London, it’s just my recent London and I hope someone
may find it useful. I’d sign off in Chinese but I don’t know how. Yet.
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