Tucked away down Crown Passage, a narrow hickledy pickledy ally running off Pall Mall parallel to St James’s Street, among the pubs, Davy’s Wine Bar, tailor and sandwich shops, is an Italian restaurant named Il Vicolo. Family run for some 20 years now, and listed in the Michelin Guide many times, it’s an unsung and…
Author: Joss Bassett
Joss is the Editor of London Lamppost, with a special interest in food, drink and Travel. He's also one of those rare creatures that was born and raised in London.
Rochelle Canteen at the ICA
On The Mall and tucked under Carlton Terrace butting up against the Duke of York steps, you’ll find the Institute of Contemporary Art. Not a gallery that will interest all, its exhibits are exceptionally modern. Among the works they have shown are performance art, films, and an old cathode ray TV showing static in a…
Rough Spirits & High Society – The Culture of Drink
Rough Spirits & High Society – The Culture of Drink by Ruth Ball is an absorbing look at the development of drinking culture in Britain over the past 500 years or so. Some elements will be more familiar than others, coffee houses and gin lane come to mind here, but Ball brings every element into…
Dirty Martini
No matter which Dirty Martini you go to, it tends to be packed with hen doo’s, birthday parties and girls on a night out. And who can blame them when the happy hour offer is about as good as it gets. They offer up two for one martinis, £20 bottles of prosecco, £12.50 bottles of…
Balans Soho Society
There may be seven Balans Soho Society venues, including two cafes, but the Soho location, just down from one of the cafes, is, for my money, the best. Open from 7.30am to 5 or 6am (depending on the day) on the following day, it is the perfect place to get a great meal any time…
Comptoir Café & Wine
At times a good wine and cheese bar is what you need and Mayfair’s Comptoir (there’s a sister one in Marylebone and Cabotte in The City) fills that need and then some. Comptoir offers a choice of some 2000 wines to choose from alongside a light clean menu with classic French and Italian offerings. Sharing…
The American Bar at the Savoy
Named 2017’s World’s Best Bar, among cocktail bars in London few have the mythical status of The American Bar at the Savoy. Seen as the spiritual home of London’s cocktail scene, and the bar that gave the world one of the most famous and influential cocktail books ever, it is a place of pilgrimage for…
Spicy Meatball: London's Street Photographer
Thankfully Instagram isn’t just about millennials showing off their ‘better than you’ loves or pictures of food, it has become a show room for the creative work of all sorts of artists and landscape and cityscape photographers. Among the many of high res generic images of London, you’ll find some great photographers of the city…
London Oyster Week
Of all the food weeks and days London organises, it’s amazing to think that there’s never been one for oysters, those little shellfish that have been such an important food through the cities history. Well finally this oversight has been corrected, and London’s inaugural Oyster Week is shortly to be upon us. Organised by Katy…
Street Food: Our Pick of the Best
As spring finally arrives, London’s street food scene will change up a gear. Of course the street food scene is all year long these days, with the weekday lunch markets, weekend markets and the undercover market of Street Feast, all playing host to a huge variety of cultures, cuisines and styles. With the warm weather…