London night away - looking for some recommendations ☺️

[tellmewhenthespaceshiplandscoz]

DD 17 and I are off to London next Saturday for a girls trip. Coach gets us into Victoria late am Saturday and we are heading Piccadilly way for some lunch then a mooch around the huge Waterstones there and maybe F & M.

Then over to Travel Lodge Covent Garden to dump bags and go to the Phoenix Theatre to take pics and buy merch at the Scoops Ahoy themed ST shop. We saw First Shadow last year and DD wasn’t fussed about it then but has since got FOMO!!

No other concrete plans except dinner booked for 8pm at Flat Iron Tottenham Court Road.

Last few times we’ve visited (we bloody love London and never get bored!) we have always been very busy with a show booked and gallery tickets but this time want to take it slowe. And maybe do some shopping in Covent Garden area.

So suggestions wouid be great for -

1. Reasonable priced 😂 lunch Piccadilly way. Love most food especially Italian and Mexican. We’d like to avoid chains if possible.
2. A nice wine bar either close to our hotel or Flat Iron with decent by the glass selection that one won’t need to remortgage the house for.
3. Somehwere we can get good dessert or gelato Covent Garden way on a Saturday night.
4. Best place for coffee on Sunday am.
5. An exception to the chain thing we have been recommended Dishoom for brunch on Sunday. What do you reckon?
6. Any nice walks/places of interest we can wander around either in Piccadilly (guess being a Saturday it may be heaving?) or close to Covent Garden, especially on the Sunday? We’re planning on taking tube to get from and to Victoria but we do love walking around London and finding interesting things. Ideally free 😀

Also and I guess quite important - we will be heading back to Victoria on tube on Sunday afternoon. I can’t see any major line works that may affect us but does everything run as usual on a Sunday?

Thanks folks!

Doh so many typos. Sorry edit function is playing silly buggers

Also aware that Flat Iron is a chain 😂 again one of two exceptions as we don’t have them near us and DD loves it and has offered to pay if we go there.

Unless there is another AMAZING and good value steak place close by that we should look at?

I’d branch out beyond CG and Piccadilly!

made head toward some open spaces a little bit north

walk around city of London is interesting if you like that kind of thing.
take a boat trip on river

walk on south bank from Westminster bridge to London bridge. Maybe see borough market

a browse in selfridges if you like department stores

Take a browse at Tate modern as part of south bank walk. Maybe go over millennium bridge…

Udderlicious have the most gorgeous ice cream.

Free things I have enjoyed which are all in the same area- the lookout on 8 Bishopsgate (free very high viewing tower across the city, there is also one at 22 Bishopsgate very similar) can see London Bridge, Shard, St Pauls etc

The Roman amphitheatre in the basement of I think its the Guildhall art gallery- fascinating to walk amongst

The Bank of England museum. You can see bank notes from your childhood (very nostalgic) and lots of interesting exhibits explaining how the banking systems evolved across time. UV to see the security features in bank notes in your pocket. A real gold bar worth about half a million £ you can pick up to feel the weight of it.

Seconded Udderlicious ice cream!

Coffee - the Monmouth coffee co, off seven dials. A London institution and deservedly so.

Tourism - If you haven't been to Postman's park in Aldersgate, it's like nothing else.

Take a look at Blacklock for steak
Dishing i really like for breakfast - be aware they have a pretty strict turnaround from breakfast to lunch (might be midday) because they are halal from lunch onwards - in case you had planned a leisurely morning.

Round Piccadilly you have some pricey places either side, St James's + Mayfair either side of you.

You could instead try Foyle's bookshop on Tottenham Court Road - then you're in the vicnityn of different places to try

10 cases for wine
Monmouth coffee for coffee!

I like Brasserie Zedel in a basement near Piccadilly Circus:

https://www.brasseriezedel.com

I never get tired of the National Portrait gallery and the summer exhibition will be on at the Royal Academy on Piccadilly.

Have a look at guru tours for a range of free walking tours of London. You give what you think the guide is worth at the end:

www.guruwalk.com/london

You say you are going to F&M - they have the most magnificent and reasonably priced food hall in the basement of all kinds of high quality takeaway foods - I would get something to takeaway and have a picnic just behind in St James Park.

@Rufusisturnedonthanks! Definitely fancy a river ride as we haven’t done that before. We did Tate and that Westminster walk last time. Have done BM a few times now but we do always love it there so good shout.

I shall look at that, thanks

Oooh now I like these ones, thanks! They sound right up our street

Working my way through these suggestions, thank you all 🙂

thats a great idea. Do they sell small bottles of wine too? Actually am I allowed to drink in a park?!

Hawksmoor as an alternative to FlatIron - there's one at Seven Dials (but it's quite expensive)

Walk down to Embankment tube station and cross the river to the South Bank for a walk.

St James Park is nice and the cafe there is good.

I like the bar in the Covent Garden Hotel. The Alchemist in St Martins Lane is pretty cool. A really under-rated wine bar is the Cork and Bottle in Leicester Square.

Cafes in Covent Garden: Kiss the Hippo and there's one in the garden of the church that's at one end of the piazza. The Petersham one is quite nice too.

Doesn't matter what time of day you go to Dishoom, you'll have to queue.

Have you ever been to the Wallace Collection?

Fortnum and Mason do sell small bottles of wine and of course you can drink in the parks.

St James’s Park has pelicans and their babies at the moment.

The clink prison museum in Southwark is interesting, London Mithraeum in bank is Roman temple (free).

MC Escher is at Somerset house, Hockney is at serpentine (free), booking advised for latter or you can queue.

Gelupo on archer st just behind piccadilly is amazing for ice cream.

zedel’s is a lovely French bistro near Piccadilly. It’s in an old ballroom, art deco. They also have a lovely cocktail bar. Reasonably priced.

For dessert we usually visit Bubble waffle wrap in China town (it’s close to Covent Garden). It’s tiny so easy to miss but there are usually people hanging about outside waiting for their order.

If you're heading up TCR for dinner, Audrey Green in the basement of the National Portrait Gallery is nice for a drink and open later on a Saturday.

I also like Brasserie Zedel but you mention a big(?) meal in the evening. I’d probably head to Kingly Court, where you will find plenty of food outlets.

Alternatively the top floor of Waterstones on Piccadilly has a cocktail bar, which also does food. Not many venture up there, so it is usually possible to grab a table. It is really close to the much pricier F&M

Another vote for Gelupo on Archer Street!