For years, we’ve struggled to find anywhere decent to eat in Paddington. Aside from the Frontline Club or the tiny Monocle Kioskcafe, we’ve never found anywhere and, returning from Somerset, we once ended up meeting a friend for overpriced wine in what was the unlovely Sloe Bar in Paddington station. Those days are firmly behind us, now that The Pilgrm Hotel has opened, serving food and drinks throughout the day. Thrillingly, The Pilgrm is visible from the station so it really is little more than a hop, skip and a jump from the train platforms.
Podcast Recommendations
Whilst we’ve been wanting to escape the news recently, we still want to learn and these gloriously mind-expanding podcasts are just the ticket.
Become a Pub Quiz Champ
If you ever find yourself wondering why people are ticklish, how perfume works and what exactly the Freemasons are, Stuff You Should Know is for you. It explains all the things we assume we know but actually don’t. It might also help you win the pub quiz. Hosted by jovial Americans Charles (Chuck) Bryant and Josh Clark, this is food for the brain and compulsive listening.
Nape
We’re much enamoured of the jamon bars of Seville (truth be told, it’s one of the main reasons we visit the city every summer) and are constantly on the hunt for similar places in London. And yes, one can eat very good tapas in London now if one is prepared to pay through the nose. We want the kind of relaxed and inexpensive night (that might turn into a very late one) that you can only really have in a charcuterie bar, however.
Pixi + Caroline Hirons Double Cleanse
We’ve been fans of the Pixi Glow Tonic for a few years now so we always take an interest when they develop a new product. The Double Cleanse they brought out earlier this year really made us sit up and pay attention as it has been developed by the hugely popular beauty blogger Caroline Hirons in conjunction with Pixi. Hirons certainly seems to know her stuff (it was Hirons who told us an exfoliating tonic should be run across the lips as well as the rest of the face to get rid of dead skin, for example, and we’ve not looked back on that score.)
Visit Farley Farm House – home of Lee Miller
Lee Miller was one of the most fascinating, and beautiful, women of the 20th century. After starting her career as a fashion model, she worked (and had an affair with) with Man Ray before becoming an acclaimed war photographer and one of the first people to photograph the concentration camp at Dachau when it was liberated. After this, she married Roland Penrose — the Surrealist and co-founder of the ICA — and retired to live at Farley Farm House in Sussex.
Top 10 best places for solo dining in London
While most of us wouldn’t think twice about going for a coffee alone or being a solo diner in a café at lunchtime, eating your evening meal in a restaurant alone is a different matter.
Eating a solitary dinner out is mainly about confidence.
If you feel self-assured enough, you’ll probably be happy eating alone at the Chiltern Firehouse on a Friday night. There are some dining spots, however, that go out of their way to make the single diner feel more comfortable and at home when flying solo.