Notting Hill Arts Club

A scruffy chic basement establishment that has for the last decade shown that West London can be just as cool in its music as East, as regularly rammed grime, hip-hop and dubstep night YoYo has shown.  Try out new monthly clubnight for emerging artists New Shapes to discover who’s about to be big to gain bragging rights that you saw them before they were cool.

AAA

A place that revels in rock, indie, folk and blues, while also providing a restaurant and cocktail bar, AAA is the whole package for a night out.  Open every day, with live performances almost every evening, this really is a hub for music lovers, giving you everything from bands, club nights, comedy gigs to karaoke, AAA is a venue that really deserves to be checked out.

The Troubadour

A legendary venue established in 1954 that has hosted everyone from Elton John to Morrissey to Adele, upstairs provides all-day breakfasts and pie and mash, while downstairs in the cellar bands and poets still perform, so definitely worth going along to, you might just see a future star.

Although not many people realise it, there are other ways home after a night out that don’t involve public transport or a cab.  Here are two ways to get home in a different way.

Limobike

 This service provides a very quick and easy way to navigate your way through London – by a passenger motorbike.  Book them just like a taxi, and a professionally qualified driver will turn up, and you can hop onto their bike, which also comes with storage space for bags, and they will whisk you across the city without getting stuck in traffic.

Scooterman

 This will end that perennial argument about who’s not going to drink on an evening so that you can drive home.  Instead, after driving to your nightspot, you simply book a driver who turns up on a folding scooter at the end of the evening. The scooter goes in the boot of your car, and then you’re driven home in your own car.  This provides a simple and safe way to enjoy yourself on a night out while avoiding the price of two cab journeys.

 

Zagat

Zagat’s printed guides have long been known as great sources of information for restaurants in the US, and now they’ve expanded to London you can access all of that expertise via their free app.  By providing your location it will give you a list of local restaurants, each rated for food, décor, service and average cost.  It also has a newsfeed with weekly food and restaurant news and themed reviews such as the most inventive Bloody Mary in London or the best food van in the city.

Urbanspoon

The go to app these days for restaurants, it also uses the iPhone’s GPS to work out restaurants local to you, but then also has a wide variety of general options to choose from, divided into type of cuisine, pricing, meal served or special picks from top chefs or Urbanspoon reviewers, or you can shake your phone and it gives a random restaurant in the area.  Each eatery is given a percentage based on user and critic reviews.  It provides photos, the address and phone number and sometimes even the menu.  It really is comprehensive.

Foodspotting

For those who are a bit more visual in their choices, Foodspotting provides a sort of Instagram feed of meals.  User submitted pictures of food in your local area are presented to you to like or dislike.  You thus concentrate on dishes over restaurants, and if you have one particularly good meal in a certain restaurant you can snap it and post it as a recommendation to others. A nicely quirky way to look for a good meal.

Finding a good cocktail bar can be a tricky business, often you can end up in places which are style over substance, and if you’re going to pay upwards of £10 per drink you don’t want to end up anywhere that’s not worth it.  So here’s a few of our favourites.

Barts

London’s ‘worst-kept secret’ cocktail bar, one of dozens of speakeasy style bars that have sprung up in recent years, it takes some finding set as it is within a Chelsea apartment block, requiring one to ring a bell and request entrance – unless you’re a regular when you get your own key. The cocktails are excellent and can be served in cigar boxes or teacups if you want, and with a dressing up box and regular live music there’s plenty to keep you entertained.

Eclipse South Kensington

Eclipse bar in Chelsea has long been a staple in West London, but it’s the South Kensington branch that attracts our attention because not only does it have the same excellent cocktail menu, with their legendary watermelon martini, but downstairs there’s a nightclub for when you’re feeling suitably merry, so you can dance til the small hours.

Portobello Star and Ginstitute

The original pub on this site opened in 1740 so there’s plenty of heritage, but it’s been updated to become a self-described ‘cocktail tavern.’  Downstairs you have all the usual cocktails mixed up by in-house mixologist Jake Burger and upstairs you can book the ‘Ginstitute’ to explore the history of gin and the opportunity to mix up your own bespoke blend.

Lonsdale

Promising ‘top notch intoxocology’ their acclaimed drinks selection is known as ‘the Bible’ and contains drinks from as far back as the 16^th century and brand new creations from their mixologists. Live DJs add atmosphere to the place which is usually rammed as it’s been ranked one of the top 20 bars in the world by Drinks International.

What do you think? Comment below.

 Calling itself the ‘friendliest pub in Notting Hill, it’s been around since the 1830s, a charming old fashioned décor of low wooden beams and a collection of speciality beers and ciders on tap.

The Garden Bar

 Laying claim to the largest pub garden in central London, in which there is a large outside screen for films and sporting events, and in the summer they’re legendary for their barbecues.

The Anglesea Arms

 Apparently a haunt of both Charles Dickens and DH Lawrence back in the day, this place is great for people watching, with a regularly updated seasonal menu and a great house ale.

Drayton Arms

Winner of Best Pub at the 2013 Kensington and Chelsea Best Bar None awards, showing it to be a high quality, safe and enjoyable social centre in the borough, you can enjoy four different cask ales, a DJ on Saturday night, and a fringe Theatre upstairs if you’re feeling like you need some culture with your pint.

While the message about drink-driving has been widely accepted, many people don’t realise that when you get in your car the next morning you might still be over the legal blood alcohol limit.

Your body can work through one unit of alcohol an hour, so if you’re drinking heavily until the early hours and then up quite early the next morning, you could still be over the limit.

Simply going to sleep doesn’t remove the alcohol any faster. And a cup of coffee or a cold shower won’t speed up the process either.

To avoid this it’s recommended toopt for lower strength drinks, alternate alcoholic with non-alcoholic drinks and stop drinking well before the end of the evening to allow your body to recover. And if you don’t do any of these, ensure you only use public transport the next morning. Don’t risk your safety, or that of those around you.

Whisky Mist and the Cadogan Arms are quite well known, but how about some of the places off the beaten track. Here are a few interesting places to try for an interesting night out.

Evans and Peel Detective Agency – one of many speakeasy themed cocktail bars, and one of the best in London. Pre-booking is advised, you’ll be asked about your ‘case’ as you get in, but once into this very dark bar things become less pantomime.
Evansandpeel.com

Kensington Wine Rooms – cosy and smart casual, great for small groups, pioneers in self-service wine dispensers with different size glasses. Tapas food in the bar or modern bistro in the restaurant.
Greatwinesbytheglass.com/kensington

The Rum Kitchen – West Indies inspired beach shack restaurant and cocktail bar, cheap with a great atmosphere, with over 100 varieties of rum available. Great for Friday nights, with a dancefloor downstairs once you’ve had enough cocktails.
Therumkitchen.com

The Clarendon – wood-panelled pub with great range of ales and a wonderful beer garden out behind filled with twinkling lights in the evening, go early before it gets busy.
Theclarendonlondon.com

Recommendations from greatlittleplace.com

At the end of a night out the prospect of making your way home can often seem a bit daunting, as anyone who has attempted to make their way across London in the small hours of the morning can attest.

Luckily the proliferation of travel related apps means that you can simply use your phone to get you home as quickly and safely as possible. Here are a few of our favourites.

Citymapper – Revolutionary app providing you with every option of London transport. Type in where you want to go, or simply hit ‘get me home’ from anywhere in the city and it’ll provide you with journey times and costs for all forms of transport – rail, bus, cab, bike even walking.

Hailo – The best way to hail a cab whilst still inside a pub or bar. the only way to get a black cab in the city. A cab is the easiest and quickest way to get home from anywhere in the town if you don’t mind spending a little more.

Wheely – book a private minicab. You can see how far away your cab is, and it’s all done cashless via your card details, so no fumbling for change at the end of the journey.

London Bus Live Countdown – use this app to identify the nearest bus stops to your current position, what buses run from there, where they go and how long until the next one arrives, so you can time the end of your evening out with the arrival of the next useful bus, rather than hanging around at the bus stop getting cold.