Bancone is a pasta restaurant – just don’t call it Italian June 11, 2026 A new restaurant below the imposing walls of the Bank of England is serving pasta – just don’t call this Italian food. I’m told the rare breed beef and marrowbone pasta is a British dish. Is a restaurant Italian because they serve pasta? As any City worker will know, Bancone’s silken threads are kneaded in the [...]
Will Sky Garden pick up a coveted Toast the City award? May 26, 2026 We have launched the Toast the City awards 2026 and throughout the year we’ll be speaking to some of the nominees. Today we caught up with Sky Garden director Monika Kowalewska-Kheir. To nominate your favourite Square Mile spots for the 2026 awards, from bars and restaurants to galleries and green spaces, visit the Toast the City website here. [...]
Secret Barbican: visit these beautiful parts of the famous building May 19, 2026 I’m not sure anyone can really consider themselves an ‘insider’ at the Barbican. It’s a giant, complex dream of a place, a vision of what a community and a life might be like with creativity at its heart. I’m just lucky enough to be one of the people looking after it for a bit. And [...]
Lazy Coffee is the best coffee in the City – this is how they do it May 19, 2026 We have launched the Toast the City awards 2026 and throughout the year we’ll be speaking to some of the past winners. Today we caught up with Lazy Coffee founder Matthew Staite, whose Abchurch Yard coffee cart won the Best Coffee award. To nominate your favourite Square Mile spots for the 2026 awards, from bars [...]
Is The Butcher’s Hook & Cleaver the City’s best pub? May 18, 2026 We have launched the Toast the City awards 2026 and throughout the year we’ll be speaking to some of the nominees. Today we caught up with The Butcher’s Hook & Cleaver general manager Iliana, whose awesome pub has been nominated in the Best Boozer category. To nominate your favourite Square Mile spots, from the best [...]
Pan Pacific London director: The City is ‘incredibly special’ May 15, 2026 We have launched the Toast the City awards 2026 and throughout the year we’ll be speaking to some of the nominees. Today we caught up with Pan Pacific London director of marketing communications Michelle Whittemore, whose hotel has been nominated in the Best Overnight Experience category. To nominate your favourite Square Mile spots, from bars [...]
Campanelle hopes to pick up Toast the City Best Restaurant win May 13, 2026 Campanelle is one of our favourite new Square Mile restaurants, a vast Italian dining room set inside the beautifully restored London Shipping Exchange on Billiter Street. Created by restaurateur Ninai Zarach, the all-day venue is an excellent showcase for grand City architecture. The menu takes inspiration from across Italy, catering for everything from breakfast meetings [...]
Our honest review of new Gordon Ramsay Bishopsgate rooftop bar and restaurant May 12, 2026 Bread Street Kitchen is the new Gordon Ramsay Bishopsgate rooftop bar and restaurant. City AM were the first to try the food – here’s what to order and our honest review In Being Gordon Ramsay, the chef’s reality series for Netflix, the sweary demi-god is asked by his son how many Bread Street Kitchen restaurants [...]
5 amazing things to see at the Barbican’s 1996 exhibition May 6, 2026 Ahead of the Toast the City 2026 Awards, we spotlight the venues to put on your radar this spring. Here, we look at the Barbican’s arresting new 1996 exhibition It is heralded as the peak of the Britpop era: the Spice Girls and Oasis were holding the front pages, and the country was on the brink of [...]
Toast the City winner: The Rising Sun on what makes a great pub May 5, 2026 At the inaugural Toast the City Awards, one of the most amazing moments was seeing Sheila Dixon, one half of the husband and wife team behind City pub the Rising Sun, shed a tear as she collected our award for Best Boozer. The Rising Sun is one of those pubs where everyone feels like a [...]