Time Out's podcast Love Thy Neighbourhood is back for its second season. Listen to famous Londoners walking us around their favourite spots in London. From pizza to pubs, here are the city's best bits, picked by your fave celebrity guests. Let's go!
Less🥡 Bimini Bon-Boulash’s best takeaway in London: ‘Got to be Temple of Seitan. I’d always go for the chicken, they do the chicken wings and the chicken pieces. I used to love fried chicken, but they’ve definitely got the best interpretation of it. I think there’s good enough alternatives now that you don’t have to miss chicken at all as a vegan. It’s about replicating the batter.’
🕺 Chloe Petts’ best gig in London: ‘Pretty much anything at the Roundhouse. Everything I’ve seen there has been great; Laura Marling, Elder Island. Any kind of music can suit that setting: it adapts itself. And it's a less stressful gig environment then an Apollo or an O2 Brixton or something.’
⛪ Doc Brown’s best tourist spot in London: ‘Oh man, is it touristy? Maybe it’s not touristy, but I think it’s amazing. It’s my favourite place in London, St Dunstan in the East. Unbelievable place, no matter how bad I’m feeling. It settles my soul. It’s jaw-droppingly beautiful, under appreciated, right there in the middle of the city, hiding in plain sight.’
🍴 Sophie Duker’s best restaurant in London: ‘Mangal II. The menu has changed, you see? It’s fine dining now. And I went and it was absolutely phenomenal.’
🎡 Big Zuu’s best tourist attraction in London: ‘I would say Regent Street. Oxford Circus, going down Regent Street - that’s London. That is what London is. I like Big Ben, I like the Houses of Parliament, but I like that Regent Street. You can look at it and be a part of it - it has this energy. It’s touristy but there’s also normal people there, doing normal things.’
🍸 Derren Brown’s best drink in London: ‘Can I go martini? And would you hate me if I said Claridge’s? I like it extra painfully aggressively dry, with a twist. Or a Gibson occasionally. I’m not an olive fan. And always vodka. And Claridge’s just do a great one. I’m sorry if that’s hateful. I don’t eat there or stay there, but I do go to the bar.’
🌳 Ania Magliano’s best park in London: ‘I know it’s a classic. I know it’s basic. I know it’s already been said before. But it’s just the best. I would sell my soul to live by Hampstead Heath. I haven’t really explored the top side of it - I think that’s where the billionaires live - I've explored the side that’s accessible to peasants like me; your Highgates, your Hampstead overground station areas. I think living in between Highgate and Hampstead Heath, I’d not have a care in the world.‘
🎤 Paloma Faith’s best venue in London: ‘Probably for memories, it would be Hammersmith Apollo, now called the Eventim Apollo. I’ve been to so many shows there, and then I’ve ended up performing there myself, so it sort of feels like a full circle venue for me. It was really moving to perform there, I was a bit sort of blurry eyed. I was like, ”Oh my God“’.
🍕 Ginger Johnson’s best pizza in London: ‘Got to be Yard Sale. Maybe the aubergine one. That’s really good. And that hickory sauce they do? The perfect pizza sauce. They’re enormous, that’s what they’ve got right. To share with lots of people. But also the bread is great, the ingredients are great, they’re really simple. I don’t want a pizza that’s like a music festival on the table, you know? I want three delicious ingredients that really sing. And Yard Sale knows how to do that.’
☕ Phil Wang’s best coffee in London: ‘There’s a great coffee shop in Nunhead called Goodcup. They’re a bunch of skater hipsters, and for some reason people who are good at skating are also really good at making a long black. I don’t know how or why that started, but it did at some point. But yeah. Goodcup make a really good coffee.’
🍕 Allan Mustafa’s best pizza in London: ‘I’d say Crisp pizza in Hammersmith. But by the way, I’m not one of the people jumping on the trend. We were one of the first people to go there and one of the first people to document it. You can ask Carl down at Crisp. It’s a New York pizza, that’s been for some reason really really hard to get in London. And he does it very very well.’
🎷 Noomi Rapace’s best venue in London: ‘I’ve been going to House of Koko a lot. I love it there; it has four floors and vinyl rooms - I’ve been bringing people that come from LA or New York, to it when we need to have a work dinner and then just have some fun. It’s a beautiful venue. I saw Little Simz there, she was magical. I guess House of Koko would be my favourite venue.’
🌳 Saoirse-Monica Jackson’s best park in London: ‘London Fields, because I just have so many great memories there. I know it’s not like a proper park and there’s way more beautiful parks, and actually, its really run down, but I just have great memories in London Fields. Just some good times. Birthday parties in the park, sitting there having a couple of drinks and a picnic with friends.’
🍺 Jon Pointing’s best London pub: ‘My family grew up in Wandsworth, so I grew up drinking at Young’s. A lot of them are quite bog standard now, but there’s still a few that feel like proper pubs still. At a proper Young’s pub, go to the bar and ask for a pint of mixed. Every Young’s pub should know what it is - it’s half Young’s, half special. The Lamb on Conduit Street is a great Young’s pub. I would say go to The Lamb, ask for a pint of mixed please, and you’ll feel like a Londoner.‘
🎡 Paul Foot’s best tourist attraction in London: ‘I think it would be the Monument. Everyone has heard of Monument tube station, but hardly anyone goes to it. And you have to walk up all the steps. It’s where the Great Fire of London started. I think of those people in 1666, 600 years after 1066, thinking nothing would happen to them. And suddenly, a fire starts up! The Great Fire of London!’
🍕 Iain Stirling’s best pizza in London: ‘Homeslice in Covent Garden is probably the best pizza I've ever had in London. Sourdough base, and Homeslice also offers this cool thing where they charge you wine in centimetres. You get your wine in this tube thing and you pour it and then the waiter comes over with a ruler and you pay for how much you drank. And the pizzas are massive, they come like the size of the whole table. ’
🍕 AJ Odudu’s best pizza in London: ‘Franco Manca, that was wicked. Because the first place I ever saw that was Brixton. And that was before Pop Brixton, Brixton Market. That was before brixton became this hub of amazing restaurants and bars. Now it’s chained out, but they still do good pizzas. It holds a special place in my heart for the Brixton nostalgia alone. And actually, chains always get a bad rep, but new chains started somewhere! We should want them to grow and be bigger and better.’
🌳 Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen’s best park in London: ‘Well, I’m going to give you Greenwich. I mean Greenwich is a very lovely park and it’s got everything from Roman remains to Barbara Hepworths. It’s probably one of the most London-y parks. It’s one of those parks where you can see London very clearly, and I know you can do that from north of the river as well. But actually looking down the river like it’s the beginning of Eastenders very much feels like its part of the experience.’
🎡 Jamie Laing’s best attraction in London: ‘Honestly I still to this day remember the first time I ever went there and it was just the greatest. I just love it. London Dungeons 100 percent. Is that boring? Maybe I should go for something else. But I think we’re all sadistic at heart in some sort of way, so actually looking at all the tortures is really quite interesting.’