Mercedes-Benz new E-Class still edges its rivals: here’s how March 14, 2016 Visiting a Mercedes-Benz showroom is a bewildering experience. With 17 models to choose from, should you go for a sporty coupe crossover or a sleek shooting brake estate? That’s before you even consider the 50-plus possible engine derivatives. Or the countless extra-cost options. Pity the poor salesman tasked with making sense of it all. But [...]
London’s best steamed buns: Where to find the ultimate street-food snack March 11, 2016 Steamed buns – variously known as baozi, bao, humbow, nunu, bakpau, bausak, pow – are quite possibly the best thing ever. East Asian countries including Korea, Taiwan, China and Japan all have their own take on this light, fluffy package of sweet or savoury goodness. Thankfully, London has plenty of places you can pick them [...]
The Royal Academy’s In the Age of Giorgione promotes a little known but pivotal painter of the Italian Renaissance March 9, 2016 Royal Academy | ★★★★☆ In the Age of Giorgione argues that this elusive painter, of whom little is known and to whom only a handful of surviving paintings have been definitively attributed, was a pivotal figure in Venetian art in the 16th century. It says, “his influence was profoundly felt by contemporaries”, yet the show is [...]
Akhnaten by the ENO is a brilliantly inventive collision of art forms that hovers between the sublime and the ridiculous March 9, 2016 Royal Opera House | ★★★★☆ More high art burlesque than opera, this spectacular new production of Akhnaten hovers somewhere between the sublime and the ridiculous, and often it’s hard to tell where. There hasn’t been a full production in the UK for almost three decades and a heady sense of anticipation means that Akhnaten is already [...]
Anomalisa’s puppetry is more powerful than most live action human dramas March 9, 2016 Anomalisa (PG) | Dirs. Duke Johnson, Charlie Kaufman ★★★★★ It’s been a while since we’ve heard from Charlie Kaufman. Having spent much of the 2000s writing films that became instant classics (Adaptation, Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind) he capped off the decade with his directorial debut, Synecdoche, New York, which divided critics, but to many [...]
Nike and MatchesFashion.com join Hackney Walk, a new fashion district in east London March 9, 2016 Move over Bond Street, luxury retailers are flocking eastwards to grab themselves a slice of hipster cool. Big name brands like Nike and fashion website MatchesFashion.com announced they’re opening up in the heart of Hackney last week at the topping out ceremony for a new retail district called Hackney Walk. Located on Morning Lane, it’s equidistant [...]
The eight best bars for dating: We round up the best cocktail bars in London to take a first date March 8, 2016 "Married and bored or single and lonely”. That’s our choice according to Chris Rock, the reigning comedic heir to Eddie Murphy and Richard Prior. Whether Rock’s right is a matter for debate, but having gone through the rigour of dating in the 21st century, I would opt for boredom every day of the week. Back [...]
The eight best pies in London: As British Pie Week gets into full swing, we celebrate some of the capital’s very best examples of baked pastry March 8, 2016 1. Polo Bar Fish Pie, £9.50 Pie Week has even united London’s rival financial districts. The chef at Canary Wharf’s Parlour has created this boozy fish pie for Polo Bar opposite Liverpool Street station. Packed with white fish, salmon, haddock and prosecco, it’s so tasty even the fish are diving in. 167 Bishopsgate, EC2M 2. [...]
Damien Hirst restaurant Pharmacy 2 review: Why this Pharmacy is a cure for your foodie ills March 8, 2016 I feel like I should start this review with a personal anecdote about Damien Hirst. Everybody seems to have one, like the time he pulled his foreskin through a hole in his trousers, pretended it was a blob of chewing gum and got people to try to brush it off. My anecdote would recall a [...]
I See You review: A tense exploration of identity, race and language in post-apartheid South Africa March 8, 2016 Royal Court | ★★★☆☆ Language is all tangled up in history and identity, a thick linguistic rope wound tight around an ancestral flagpole. Set in post-apartheid South Africa, I See You considers what happens when that rope breaks and a language is lost, and asks whether it’s what you speak, rather than what you say, [...]