The London Guide From Bon Vivant

Posted by Emyr Thomas

We hope that our members and readers enjoy our regular blog posts – we try to make sure we tell you about the best venues and experiences to help maximise your free time and to ensure you are ‘in the know’ before anyone else.

In addition to the blog, we have launched a new section on our main website called The London Guide – your one source for the best hotels, restaurants, bars, spas, exclusive events and cultural highlights in one of the greatest cities on Earth – London.

Whether you want to know about the best London hotels (luxury or boutique), want to find a suitable London restaurant for the right occasion (brunch, afternoon, business lunch or private dining room, for example) or need inspiration for somewhere to go for a drink (cocktail bar, rooftop bar or champagne bar).

Bon Vivant’s London Guide hopes to be your one source to return to time and time again for inspiration on the best that London has to offer – it has our best content in one place, easily accessible and in an easy format to navigate.

We also have a section on London neighbourhood guides and a selection of holiday destination and travel guides including the Caribbean, Mallorca, Barcelona and the South of France.

Bon Vivant’s London Guide will tell you what you need to book, for whom, when and how. Click here to read The London Guide.

If you would like us to cover any content that we currently don’t have, please email us or leave a comment below – we would love to hear your thoughts. If you don’t already subscribe to our blog, enter your email address below:

Mews of Mayfair – A Fine British Brasserie

Posted by Vilma

Tucked away in a charming cobbled courtyard just off New Bond Street, Mews of Mayfair is bustling with the drink-after-work or a bite-after-shopping crowds. It’s winter, it’s pretty chilly and everyone is supposed to be detoxing, but the people here are obviously ignoring any New Year’s resolutions… Almost every table outside is busy and the ground floor bar is heaving with merry ladies and gentlemen downing cocktails since the early evening.

Mews of Mayfair is spread over four floors of two converted mews houses. A brasserie, private dining room called La Cave, Chef’s dining room, a bar on the ground floor and a lounge in the basement – all in one place in central London. You can happily spend an entire evening here, starting with dinner on the higher floors and making your way down as the evening progresses – the lounge is open until 1am.

The brasserie on the first floor has recently been refurbished – cosy and flattering lighting, soft colours and a relaxed atmosphere – the restaurant is beautiful and much less formal that its predecessor.

The Brassiere pays tribute to British delicacies. Chef Richard Sawyer (previously the Executive Chief of British restaurant Rules) has created a menu that showcases some favourite traditional dishes with local ingredients. The sourcing of local produce is taken very seriously here and on the back of every menu one can find a map of the United Kingdom, proudly detailing the areas where different products come from.

The prices are decent for Mayfair and the portions are very generous – my Devon Crab Mayonnaise on toast starter was almost the size of a main meal (£11). My guest Paul ordered Hand Dived Rye Scallops and declared them top quality – they came served with cauliflower purée, roasted penny buns and sultanas (£12.5).

The flavours were subtle and perfectly combined with our drinks – a Sipsmith G&T with cucumber, my English Garden cocktail (champagne, citrus vodka and Elderflower cordial) and a lovely white South African wine (The Journeymaker Chenin Blanc 2012, only £22.50 for a bottle) that I couldn’t stop smelling, tasting and then smelling and tasting again…

We ordered steaks for our main courses and the subtle tastes were changed by the defined and strong aromas of meat. My fillet (£24) was superb – soft, juicy and cooked just as I requested. My guest who grew up in South Africa announced that he is a serious lover of meat and indulged with a really really really big portion of T-bone… And even managed to finish it (just). We found out that the restaurant uses the finest Galloway beef from the Yorkshire Game Company dry aged for a minimum of 35 days.

The best part of our evening was experiencing some of the most friendly and attentive service that I’ve experienced in London. We were in Assistant Manager Gregory Lakatos’s care and somehow he knew what we wanted, and as if materialising from thin air, he appeared at our table to top the wine, bring extra sauces for the meat and offer excellent suggestions of what else we could order.

That’s how we ended up eating Stilton with oatmeal crackers and drinking a fantastic Pedro Ximenez sherry. An explosion of rich sweet flavours that cut through the almost overpowering taste of blue cheese. We also tried some Port and then were happily swinging our way downstairs to the lively party in the ground floor bar for a night cap… The headache was pretty bad the next morning, but the pleasure of the night before was definitely worth the pain.

Concierge tip: Go for dinner, drinks and a bit of boogie in one place in central London.

Do you want someone to advise and book every lunch, dinner or private dining event on your behalf? Tap in to our extensive restaurant expertise by enquiring about our services.

London Neighbourhood Guide: Wimbledon Village

Posted by Bon Vivant

We all know and love Wimbledon for its annual tennis tournament and the fun of seeing the best players in the world fight it out on the grass while we eat our strawberries and cream! But there is another side of Wimbledon beyond the famous courts, and Wimbledon Village is well worth a visit.

Just a short walk away from the All England Club is a delightful high street and the open spaces of Wimbledon Common ready for you to explore with some great places to stay, eat and drink.

Wimbledon Village’s High Street is full of beautiful old buildings housing small shops, cafes and pubs with a wonderful country feel for somewhere still connected to central London by the tube.

It’s a very horsey place and a group of riders clip clopped through as I was there recently and they are such a common occurrence that the crossing lights even have horses on them instead of pedestrians!

At Wimbledon Village you can browse round a proper old book shop or enjoy the delights of the wonderfully stocked organic deli called Bayley and Sage or shop to your heart’s content in top boutiques such as LK Bennett, Max Mara or Matches.

The huge expanse of Wimbledon Common is great for walks and really makes you feel you are a long way from the hustle and bustle of central London. You will feel this even more so when you come to Cannizaro House which has all the appeal of a country house hotel with a beautiful looking restaurant and sun terrace.

The staff are friendly and welcoming and the menu is dangerously tempting. They offer full hotel facilities if you want to make a weekend of it and take in the area at a more leisurely pace.

Wimbledon Village is full of great gastropubs and my favourite is the Fox and Grapes with its traditional flowery exterior and cool wood interior, with another tempting menu – unsurprising when you find out its owner is Claude Bosi, of Hibiscus fame.

Wimbledon Village is a great place to wander round, relax and enjoy yourself and you will soon see that there is more here than tennis! Click to read about the best Wimbledon restaurants.

Join us as we tour around London by following us on Twitter at @BonVivantLiving.

A Guide to James Bond’s London

Posted by Bon Vivant

The release of the latest Bond movie is fast approaching, which will allow us to reignite our passion for luxurious clothes, fast cars and glorious gadgets. Here’s our guide to the Bond-esque places in London that you simply can’t miss. Martinis at the ready, let’s go!

Sharpen Your Image

There aren’t many scenes where Bond can be found without a suit. It’s normally a single breasted suit or a dinner suit – but, no matter what, it’s always a suit. If you want to look sharp, head over to Selfridges where you can buy a Tom Ford suit.

Tom was chosen to design all of Daniel Craig’s suits and has created what we now view as the modern Bond look. They aren’t cheap, but then again, Bond doesn’t do cheap.

Tom Ford at Selfridges, 400 Oxford Street, London, W1A 1AB

Pick Up Some Anti-Surveillance Essentials

Perhaps you’re in London to see the première, or perhaps you have ulterior motives, either way you only live twice so you may as well treat yourself to some super-spy gadgets.

Spymaster is a leader in its field and retail some of the most secretive technology to foreign governments, corporations, media agencies and, now, Bond-wannabes! Whether you need to hide your location, identity, or voice – this is the place to get the kit for the job.

Spymaster Flagship Store, 3 Portman Square, London, W1H 6LB

Buy a Piece of Bond

If you’ve got the world and it’s still not enough you should check out Christie’s “50 Years of Bond” auction. They’ll be auctioning off pieces of clothing, jewellery and other items that have featured in Bond movies over the last 50 years.

50 Years of Bond, Christie’s, South Kensington, 85 Old Brompton Road
from 11am on Saturday, 29 September until 5pm on Friday, 5 October 2012; admittance free.

Smell Like Bond. Celebrate Like Bond.

Take a stroll around Harrods in Knightsbridge and you’ll be greeted with giant posters of James Bond fragrance bottles. Celebrating the 50^th anniversary of the franchise the scent is said to be “Dangerously Sophisticated”. Harrods also have a limited edition bottle of 007 Bollinger – Roger Moore’s personal favourite, no doubt!

Harrods, 87–135 Brompton Road, Knightsbridge, London, SW1X 7XL

Relax Like Bond

Now that you’ve got the gear and look as sharp as the man with the golden gun, it’s time to relax. Dukes Hotel’s Cocktail Bar was a favourite of Bond writer, Ian Fleming, and it is here that it is thought he came up with the catchphrase, “shaken, not stirred”. Regarded as being home to the best martinis, there isn’t a better place to try out your new suit and Bond-persona.

DUKES Hotel, St James’s Place, London, SW1A 1NY

Author Bio
Ben is an old-school Bond fanatic and works in London as a fashion blogger for Miinto.

Follow Bon Vivant as we (try to) live the Bond lifestyle on Twitter @BonVivantLiving

London’s New Restaurants, Hotels, and Bars

Posted by Emyr Thomas

By Emyr Thomas

Whilst the weather may not be doing us any favours, London’s restaurant scene is certainly warming up as we enter summer in London. Here’s Bon Vivant’s round up of the best new restaurants, hotels and bars to open in London over the recent and coming months.

Vinoteca Comes to Soho and Revamps at Farringdon and Marylebone

Vinoteca opened its original wine shop and restaurant in Farringdon in 2005, adding a Marylebone site in 2010 and now a new Soho site on Beak Street from May 2012.

Vinoteca is inspired by the wine bars of Spain and Italy, offering modern British and European seasonal food alongside a wine shop selling nearly 300 wines, which you can also enjoy at each restaurant.

An Expanding Empire for Hix

There seems to be no stopping Mark Hix at the moment, with his latest venture opening at the Tramshed building in Shoreditch. The 150-seat restaurant focuses on steak and chicken, with the option of either a whole chicken or a 200g sirloin steak as mains, with a changing selection of starters.

As with other Hix restaurants, there’s commissioned artwork from Damien Hirst featuring a cow and a cockerel taking centre stage.

Firmdale Hotels to Re-Open Dorset Square Hotel

In 1985 Tim and Kit Kemp opened their first property, the Dorset Square Hotel and introduced the Firmdale Hotels concept to the London hotel market. It was sold in 2002 but the hotel was reacquired last year and will re-open as part of the Firmdale collection on 18 June, adding to their other luxury boutique hotels including the Covent Garden Hotel, Charlotte Street Hotel, Haymarket Hotel and Soho Hotel.

The Regency townhouse has 38 bedrooms, many of which look onto the private garden square which was originally the site of Thomas Lord’s first cricket ground. The Potting Shed bar & restaurant will open all day, serving English brasserie style cuisine using locally sourced and seasonal produce.

Sushisamba at The Heron Tower

SUSHISAMBA, which has many locations throughout the US, will open its first European restaurant in London in July, on the 38th and 39th floors of the Heron Tower in The City.

SUSHISAMBA offers a mix of Japanese, Brazilian and Peruvian cuisine, and with two outdoor terraces, it will surely also have a rather impressive view. The restaurant will be open daily for brunch, lunch and dinner, offering outdoor dining, a bar and lounge, and an event space.

SUSHISAMBA London will have a late licence, opening until 1am Monday to Wednesday, 2am on Thursday and 3am on Friday and Saturday. The owners of Sushisamba will also be opening another restaurant on the 40th floor, which will be announced in a few weeks.

Caravan to Move to a Second Location in King’s Cross

Caravan Restaurant on Exmouth Market is due to open a second site in King’s Cross in July.

Caravan King’s Cross will be located in the Grade II-listed Granary Building, located between King’s Cross Station and St Pancras International. The interiors will ‘reflect the area’s Victorian industrial heritage’, with a coffee roastery and large open kitchen with outside seating for 40 people on Granary Square.

The restaurant will have 80 covers and will serve a menu of ‘food well-travelled’, from breakfast and weekend brunch through to lunch and dinner. The original restaurant on Exmouth Market features in Bon Vivant’s guide to the best brunch in London.

A Sister Restaurant for The Wolseley

Following the success of The Delaunay, Chris Corbin and Jeremy King will launch Brasserie Zedel in Soho towards the end of June. Brasserie Zedel will be ‘a large, bustling Parisian brasserie transported to the heart of London’, which will be open throughout the day, offering ‘great value with remarkably low prices’.

The restaurant has been designed by David Collins Studio in the Art Deco tradition, and will also feature a ‘Bar Américain’ and ‘The Crazy Coqs’, a live music and cabaret venue. Brasserie Zédel will serve classic brasserie fare at affordable prices with starters from £2.95, main courses from £7.50 and desserts from £3.00.

Polpo to Expand to Clerkenwell

Polpo Smithfield is due to open near Smithfield Market on 30 July, seating 70 in the main dining room with space for 20 on the terrace outside. Polpo Smithfield is the latest restaurant from Russell Norman, whose first restaurant Polpo will now be renamed Polpo Soho, with the Covent Garden sister restaurant, da Polpo, becoming Polpo Covent Garden.

Libby Greenfield will be in charge of the kitchen, who has previously worked at Zucca and Russell Norman’s other acclaimed restaurant Polpetto. The new restaurant will feature the same core menu as the original Polpo along with daily specials and a new express lunch menu. Polpo Smithfield will also have a basement Negroni bar.

While reservations can be made for lunch, dinner will operate a no booking policy.

Champagne and Hot Dogs?

Bubbledogs will open in July on Charlotte Street in Fitzrovia, with James Knappett (previously of The Ledbury, Noma and Marcus Wareing at the Berkeley, among others) as head chef and Sandia Chang (who has worked at The Berkeley, Noma and Per Se) as General Manager.

Bubbledogs will serve hot dogs and grower Champagne. Yes,that’s right. There will be a menu of ten hot dogs served on traditional steamed buns, including the BLT dog, wrapped in bacon and served with truffle mayo and caramelized lettuce; the Jose dog with guacamole, sour cream, salsa and jalapenos, and a regularly changing guest chef’s special.

The restaurant will also feature a separate ‘Kitchen Table’, which will seat a maximum of 19 guests, with three or five courses at lunch priced from £25, with evening menus priced from £50.

If you would like your own personal concierge to help you with all of your restaurants suggestions and reservations, join London’s leading concierge service. For a taste of what we can offer you, subscribe to the blog, our fortnightly newsletter, follow us on Twitter or like us on Facebook!

Bar 45 at 45 Park Lane – London Bar Guide

Posted by Emyr Thomas

Bar 45 is housed in The Dorchester Collection’s new hotel in Mayfair, 45 Park Lane. The bar features a long, black granite bar with an autumnal amber and red colour scheme throughout.

The cocktail menu at Bar 45 includes speciality infused vodka and gin creations, and I can personally recommend ‘Pepito’s Revenge’, which is made from tequila and lime with an overriding basil flavour, and the Umami Cocktail, although impossible to accurately describe, is certainly worth a try!

Bar 45 also features the largest selection of American wines in the United Kingdom, and there is a menu of ‘Rough CUTS’ by Wolfgang Puck from Cut at 45 Park Lane, which includes Mini Kobe Sliders and House Smoked Pastrami Reuben Sandwiches.

There is also a lovely lounge area where guests can recline in comfort, making Bar 45 a great addition to London’s hotel bar scene.

Bar 45 is open until 12:30 am, but remains open until 3am for residents of the hotel and guests dining at CUT at 45 Park Lane.

To make sure you’re kept informed of similar updates on a regular basis, subscribe to our blog below. You may also want to read about other London cocktail bars including Evans and Peel and The Lucky Pig.

Kitchen Joel Antunes at Embassy Mayfair

Posted by Bon Vivant

*Update: Joel Antunes departed from Kitchen Joel Antunes in July 2012*

On 5 December 2011, chef Joel Antunes launched Kitchen Joel Antunes, a 95-seat restaurant with a 40-seat terrace, at Embassy Mayfair.

Joel Antunes previously worked at Ledoyen in Paris, before opening Les Saveurs in London in the 90s where he gained a Michelin star, returning again to London in 2010 to open Brasserie Joel at the Westminster Park Plaza.

Kitchen Joel Antunes will offer a Provençal-based menu, including Jerusalem artichoke velouté with poached eggs and truffle, traditional Nicoise salad, coq au vin and roast sea bass with lemon.

Kitchen Joel Antunes will be open from Monday to Saturday for lunch and dinner, also serving coffee and pastries from 11:00 am until noon and in the afternoon. It has a late licence until 1:30 am, where a light menu will be available from 11:30 pm.

For further details, please contact your concierge at Bon Vivant.

Address: 29 Old Burlington Street, Mayfair, W1S 3AN

Phone: 020 7494 5660

Website: www.embassymayfair.com

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Read some of our best content including a guide to the best walk-in restaurants, the best rooftop bars or where to find the best coffee in London.

Aubaine Restaurants

Posted by Bon Vivant

Aubaine Restaurant Group offers a relaxed and sophisticated take on the all day dining experience, with a collection of restaurants situated across central London. Perfectly positioned in some of the most salubrious parts of town: Brompton Cross, Kensington High Street, Heddon Street and Selfridges (both in London and Manchester) with the group’s latest offering opening in Mayfair in January 2012.

Aubaine is renowned for its freshly prepared and baked patisserie. A team of highly trained French pâtissiers use traditional techniques to create a selection of rustic style breads, viennoiseries, cakes and desserts. They also offer a selection of simple and light dishes, which can be enjoyed at any time of day.

Aubaine would like to offer Bon Vivant’s members a complimentary bellini when they dine in the restaurant from the a la carte menu.

For reservations please call +44 207 368 0955

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Aurelia Restaurant, Mayfair

Posted by Bon Vivant

The Waney family (the people behind Roka, Zuma, La Petite Maison and Il Baretto) will open their latest restaurant, Aurelia London in Mayfair on 7 November 2011.

The menu will offer Mediterranean sharing dishes taken from the regions of Tuscany, Provence and Catalonia, and is split into separate sections, including the charcoal grill, rotisserie, charcuterie, salads and dishes from the kitchen.

Sample dishes will include ‘Castelluccio lentil salad with orange and mint’; ‘Wild boar saucisson’; ‘Dover sole a la plancha, tomato, clams, capers and beurre noisette’ and ‘Queen scallops, chorizo crumbs and garlic butter’.

On the ground floor there will be a casual dining room and a large bar area, with a more formal restaurant on the lower ground floor with an open kitchen.

For further information, read our review of Aurelia London.

Acote Salon Review

Posted by Vilma

By Vilma Darling

To me, the beauty of beauty salons is not only the obvious fact that we go there to get pampered, relax and improve our health and looks. The real beauty of great barbershops, hairdressers and nail parlours is the people who work there. If you go to the same salon regularly they don’t only make you pretty, but also become your friends and confidantes, and you theirs.

The ladies at Àcote Hair and Beauty were lovely and we chatted about the usual things – hairstyles, nail varnish colours, boyfriends and how to get rid of those annoying fine lines and sun damage.

The best thing about my experience there was the friendly and relaxed atmosphere and the fact that I was having my haircut and manicure done at the same time! I saved at least one hour of my valuable time and was about to ask if the pedicure could also be done simultaneously… But then I would probably be pushing my luck, wouldn’t I? Both ladies were creative, had great suggestions and in general made my time in the salon really enjoyable and fun.

Àcote is located on Chancery lane, just off High Holborn in central London and is perfect for busy City workers. Salon owner Mariela Valeova has been in the beauty industry for over 15 years. She opened the salon last year and decided to offer a wide range of beauty treatments and hair services for women and men under one roof.

You can get any kind of hair treatment from a quick blow dry, if you want to look special for an important meeting or an evening out, to treatments of severely damaged hair, Brazilian conditioning and straightening. The beauty menu is full of facials, waxing, IPL skin treatments, teeth whitening, Advanced Nutrition Programme and Collagen Stimulation Therapy with Environ Medical Roll-CIT™, which stimulates the skin’s collagen production to reduce the appearance of fine lines, wrinkles, and more.

I’m obsessed with the pigmentation caused by the sun damage on my forehead and Mariela said she herself had noticed it straight away. According to her, such problems should be addressed by treating the deep layers of the skin and not only peeling off the damaged surface. She suggested applying Environ Hydrating Oil Capsules for a month first and then coming back for a facial with Environ’s lonzyme DF II Machine.

I can’t wait to try it!

For further information, please contact your concierge at Bon Vivant.