Having lugged their portable pizza oven around London’s markets for the past two years, pop-up pizza purveyors Homeslice have left their nomadic life behind to settle down to some culinary horticulture in Covent Garden. Thankfully, though, they haven’t forgotten their roots. There’s no knives and forks here, just paper plates and pizza—served by the generous slice or as a full-on 20” pie. The space is unfussed, airy and decked out with simple wooden furnishings. That’s not to say that they haven’t done any upgrading though. Their new, stationary wood-firing furnace is a monumental concrete centrepiece of an oven that draws all eyes into the open kitchen. And the pizza going in and out of it is excellent—the bases thin, crispy, and generously topped with quality and quirky combos such as courgette and artichoke, or bone marrow and caramelised onion.

Having studied as a padawan under many a Michelin-starred mentor, Restaurant Story marks the maturation of young virtuoso Tom Sellers into the Jedi-level chef he was destined to be. Transforming an old Bermondsey toilet block into a matte-concrete and polished-wood temple of taste, Seller’s stays true to his eatery’s name—creating a menu that indulges its intrepid perusers with a twisting and turning culinary journey inspired by childhood fairytales. On an ever rotating menu that’s included a beef cheek, stout and cauliflower yeast combo as well as a burnt onion, apple and gin bonanza, old school dripping has wasted no time in establishing itself as Story’s signature dish—fashioned into an edible candle, lit at the table and served with bread provided to mop up the ‘wax’. One thing’s for sure, Goldilocks wouldn’t have anything to complain about it here.

Gracing the foundations of an unremarkable residential block just off the Kingsland/Stoke Newington Road strip, if you were to judge Birthdays by its cover and keep on trotting down Shoreditch way you’re pretty much guaranteed to be missing out on a night to remember—or not, as the case will probably be. For beyond that faceless facade lies a tricked out, two-floor bar and basement space that, though still in its infancy, has hosted parties for the likes of worldwide monolith of being cool and sarky Vice and radiophonic beast NTS. Sure, it may not look like much—the stripped back interior is dominated by matte shades of grey—but that’s because they spent all their dollar on the tech spec. And take one trip downstairs and you’ll thank them for it—the Funktion-One sound system takes the beats that blast out the speakers and elevates them to a whole new echelon of filth.

Many central London hotels are hell bent on modernisation but if you’ve reached your limit with muted grey sofas and scatterings of contemporary art, then Hazlitt’s is the perfect remedy. This quaint hotel oozes character, from the wonky hallway to the original wood-panelled suites. The rooms here possess a sort of manor house charm and while some features might feel more at home in Grandma’s house, the overall effect is a quirky, old fashioned elegance.

The central Soho postcode makes Hazlitt’s a solid launch pad to explore the old smoke and the smorgasbord of cuisines on your doorstep. Just as well ‘cos there’s no in-house restaurant, although breakfast in bed is the silver lining.