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.’