We've been known to hit the clubs on occasion to take a little tipple, do a little dancing and mingle with our friends, neighbours and hopefully a few attractive strangers. But a fun night can quickly turn ugly when an insult is lobbed, someone's pride is shot and the drinks shout "Fight!" Still, it's most often a case of the bark being worse than the bite, not usually escalating past a few heated words or......

Join Londonist on the hunt for some of this town's most photogenic meals. There are but a few months left before the beloved, run-down shopping centre that is Oriental City will shut its doors for the last time. While there are some who only frequent the few Chinese restaurants within, Londonist would like to pimp the stalls in the food court on the ground floor. Try the roti canai (fluffy Indian bread from Malaysia)......

Whenever Londonist is feeling a tad glum, we have but to turn to Matt Harding and his amazingly silly website to get all cheered up again. Matt Harding is one big internet sensation, albeit a very unlikely one. The former games programmer has made a new career out of dancing badly in front of some of the world’s most recognisable and iconic buildings, and in some of the planet’s remotest terrains. But Londonist has been......

Even with the spectre of hazardous drinking looming over us, pubs are still our favourite places to be, so we were delighted to be invited along to the Fancyapint.com London pub awards 2007. Fancyapint has awards in 2 categories. The reviewers' awards are based on their dedicated team's experiences over the year and a bewilderingly scientific system of tick boxes. The visitor awards are based on a not wholly scientific but ingenious manipulation of......

Soho streets were brought to a terrifying standstill yesterday afternoon when "a very hot and sharp smell" and a cloud of acrid smoke provoked chemical attack panic with police sealing off the area and closing roads. The Ambulance Service dispatched a Hazardous Area Response Team Unit as Firefighters with breathing apparatus broke down the doors of the Thai Cottage restaurant. However, as The Times reported, Soon after 7pm on Monday they emerged from the......

How's this for political handbags? "Ms Grell told voters her rival Barry Smith claimed to be married yet had a 14-year-old Thai boyfriend." City banker 'not German enough'. He probably mentioned the war. John Hurt finds he's not from Ireland, but Croydon. His most gut-wrenching experience since that alien parasite ruptured his abdominopelvic cavity. BBC headline 'Cocaine users are getting younger'. Who needs expensive skin care products when you can reverse the ageing process......

There was very little else for Londonist to be concerned with when the threat of a Tube strike became a very unpleasant reality. The inconvenience was extreme: there aren't many alternatives to the Tube in London despite the best efforts of the Londonist team to get everyone from A to B. Brighter news came in the form of the first ever female Yeoman Warder, or Beefeater as the position is more commonly known, and......

Londonist asks that most pressing of daily concerns: where to go on your lunch break. Yum Yum 48 Caledonian Road N1 9DP Map Expect to Pay: £4.20 for a starter and main Rating: 6.9 out of 10 Upon hearing that Yum Yum, a Chinese, Malaysian, and Thai “fusion” take away near King’s Cross offered a starter and main lunch combo for a mere £4.20, Londonist got the yen for some fried rice. Duly heading......

Londonist asks that most pressing of daily concerns: where to go on your lunch break. Café on the Hill 91 Brixton Hill SW2 1AA Map Expect to Pay: Under £5 Rating: 8 out of 10 Finally Londonist made it south of the river for lunch, and considering how delish and culturally unique our meal was, we’re sure glad we did! Café on the Hill looks like your bog standard London caff, which of course......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 9th July 1968: The Hayward art gallery on the South Bank is opened by the Queen. Tuesday – 10th July 1958: Britain’s first parking meters are installed in Mayfair. Soon there would be 625 of them in the district, charging 6 pence per hour. Wednesday – 11th July 1848: Waterloo Station is opened. The original station would survive just 52 years until 1900, when it would be......

Chances are if you see a movie in London it'll end up being at one of the mega-chain's such as Vue or Odeon. Fortunately, a few boutique cinema houses still exist. One such is The Electric Cinema on trendy Portobello Road, a place everyone should experience at least once in their life. It's easy to miss on market days, but shines like a beacon at night, with the blue neon 'Electric' sign hanging over......

Colindale shopping centre, "Oriental City", has become the nexus of an international dispute. The beloved Edgeware Road mall, which has been called London's "real Chinatown", may be knocked down later this year and replaced with a B&Q home improvement superstore, some flats, a school, and a bunch of other crap. The Chinese consul general, Jiang Yuansong, has written to Mayor of London Ken Livingstone to express his "deep concern" about the project. If the......

There might have been no 'donkey cocks' this week, but Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares is still essential viewing in this post-Hell's Kitchen USA times. If you didn't see it, Gordon went to Lancashire and shouted at the landlord of The Fenwick Arms for buying too many plates and having a crap menu. As ever on Kitchen Nightmares the solution was simply to cut the menu down to simple dishes and to use good ingredients. As......

Jagshemash! Borat is a hit. It's getting rave reviews, grossing millions, and definitely the most quotable thing we've seen in ages. But Borat seems to have missed most of the -ist cities, and we were all wondering how the film would have been different if he'd made his way around the world on the -ist tour. In Shanghai, Borat would be observing Inane Learnings of Penis Photos for Make Benefit Glorious Flat World of......

The Royal Thai restaurant on Caledonian Road. Decent, unassuming Asian cuisine at a reasonable price. Our one quibble...not the most veggie-friendly of places, judging from item 54. It might also explain how Tom Yum soup gets its name. *With apologies to the three-quarters of our readership, who are either too young or too American to remember the redoubtable Ms Rantzen, champion of consumer affairs and mildly amusing typos.......

This day in London’s History 1818 The first human to human blood transfusion is thought to have taken place, at Guy's Hospital. Dr James Blundell successfully transferred four ounces of blood into a mother who was haemorrhaging after giving birth. The sanguineous lifesaver was taken from her husband’s arm and speedily (to prevent clotting) injected by syringe into the patient. Despite complete ignorance of blood groups, the transfusion was a success. And not just......

Yes, we're slightly obsessed with Thai PM Thaksin Shinawatra, but when it allows us to write headlines like that, who can blame us? As you would imagine the Bangkok Post are also pretty interested in Thaksin's whereabouts, and recently published this article saying that while in London Thaksin may be 'plotting' to rally supporters and establish an exile regime. Today thay've published another article headlined Thaksin 'holidaying' in London that quotes a statement from......

Thai PM update: he's here on a private visit as a private citizen (although that didn't stop him using the VIP reception suite at the Thai Embassy). The Lib Dems are demanding that bus deregulation must be reversed and councils given greater powers over services and fares. Southfields Community College in Wandsworth is the most cosmopolitan college in Europe: its pupils speak 71 languages (they don't all speak 71 languages obviously...oh you know what......

Yesterday we told you that recently ousted Thai PM Thaksin Shinawatra was rumoured to be flying to London Well apparently he's now here and he's holed up in a "luxurious apartment in Kensington" (pictured). According to The Nation website Shinawatra's daughter Pinthongta, stays at this apartment on Marloes Road when she's here studying, and one of Thaksin's critics, Ekkayuth Anchanbutr had said price of the apartment is about Bt320 million." If anyone can tell......

Thailand's deposed prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, has reportedly flown to London The Thai PM was ousted from power eysterday after a military coup in Bangkok while he was in New York (well, if you will go on holiday). A Thai newspaper has said the Mr Thaksin had arrived in London, which must be a relief to his deputy PM who is currently languishing in army custody.......

Bank Holiday weekend: what are you going to do? There's so much happening (and most of it free) that it's more a question of what are you not going to do. To avoid being overwhelmed by the incredible number and range of cultural things to see and do, and to keep your bank account in check by picking only the free stuff, we've compiled a Culture Crawl timetable for Friday to Monday, so you......

Table of Four don’t always believe the hype but even the most iconoclastic foodies noshing their way through new talent in the capital cannot ignore the arrival of The Wolseley. Besides it’s the fag end of an awful winter that seems to have freeze dried any notion of Spring and the aforementioned hype noted hot buttered mash and cake aplenty so a table was swiftly claimed. The concept is born of the grand café......

‘Chain restaurant’, ‘Soho’ and ‘Over £30 per head’ – phrases that hardly dance off the page and make your heart/tastebuds/wallet sing. So it was with some trepidation that TOF wended its way through Soho last month for a midweek curry of the Thai persuasion. We were greeted with efficient pleasure, despite a rather fascist warning when booking that tables would be foregone should you be more than fifteen minutes late. The Londonist can only......

The thing about secrets, is, well, they always come out. Satu must be a well kept secret and Londonist makes no apology for shouting about it – go soon, in fact go now, take mates, dates, hell, you could even take your boss and they’d love it. This is a notable dining experience in every sense – top notch service, well balanced flavours, sensible portion sizes and a great night out into the bargain.......

Thai food is absolutely everywhere: there once was a time when you couldn't find a decent green curry for love nor money and now you can't help but trip over the stuff in pubs, cafes, restaurants and endless Oriental "fusion" canteens. Its suitability for buffets, vegetarians, parties, pub grub and romantic spectacle makes Thai food extremely versatile and popular - and isn't likely to bankrupt the standard London wage-earner. If in any doubt as......

It's been a real pleasure previewing the films on offer at this years Firecracker Showcase and movies like Pattaya Maniac are one of the reasons why. Thai cinema has been sadly overshadowed until very recently with a few runaway arthouse hits, but with a little luck more films like this slacker comedy will make a western audience hungry for more of the same. It's a hard film to describe, featuring as it does a......

Time once again to leave the week's big releases (The Rolling Stones) behind and take a listen to some of the more esoteric releases that have dropped into the Londonist Music team's mail box recently. The Oggs - Radiotherapy If we were to say The Oggs hail from NYC, with an album title like Radiotherapy, chances are you'd expect something on the punkier side of The Strokes. Not to be. Instead what we have......

Exciting times over at the ICA (yes, we are obsessed). It is Singapore Season, which is a celebration of the booming contemporary art scene in all of Southeast Asia. The entire building is being taken over, famous Asian artists are in residence, there is performance, films, talks, workshops, music – they have it all. A special event is occurring on the weekend that Londonist got word of; the only problem is that spaces are very......