Fish Island World firsts are rare in our jaded and desensitised metropolitan food scene. So, when an email tumbled into my inbox about a restaurant, Unlock, that blends of two of my favourites (pizza and tacos), I had to tootle along and try it with my very own mouth hole. Fitting for this culinary fusion, the site of the reaction ...

The Pit, Barbican Centre Halloween (otherwise known as gay Christmas) is an odd festival. Originally Samhain, celebrating “when summer goes to rest”, licked by the fire of the witch trials and now co-opted by the capitalist devils, wrapping everything in plastic and pumpkin-themed tat.  Is the aim to be titillated, terrified, or thoughtful about the fleetingness of existence? On the ...

Crazy Coqs Below 21st-century London, 1930’s Weimar Berlin is resurrected this Halloween by a handsome 90-something-year-old vampire, with a flair for theatre and a formidable voice. Spooky season at over, say, age 35 can be tricky. If you are childless and not a costume lover, what can you do to honour Samhain that isn’t just flopping on the sofa trying ...

Empress Place PT Barnum’s shadow looms large over the circus scene, possibly due to the top hat. Supersizing the genre to the “Greatest Show on Earth” his legacy has spawned a 2017 film grossing $459 million worldwide, multiple stage productions and now a “spectacular” in a redeveloped strip under the Mayor’s new Counter Terrorism Operations Centre. Like many musical theatre ...

Upstairs at the Gun There is a saying, recently imported like other Chappell Roan-ims, that states you shouldn’t waste a Friday night on a date. This need not apply to long-term couples, over 30s, or those of us who don’t own a glittery one-piece. Sometimes all you want is dancing candles, white tented tablecloths, goo goo eyes, and an evening ...

Trafalgar Theatre As it my first time at Whitehall’s theatre since its rebrand and absorption by the Trafalgar Entertainment empire, I was wide-eyed. Despite the D and C list celebrities plaguing my memory and the traffic-jammed bar area, the auditorium has been lovingly restored to its 30’s art deco splendour. So, we settle in for a Jacobean revenge tragedy, what ...

‘Much more than quite good’ How do you make Zone 2 of London, less than 15 minutes’ walk from the cacophony that is Dalston Junction, feel like a village? As a restaurant owner, you cannot simply transplant a duck pond, beaming locals or rolling hills. What you can do is craft a cafe seemingly built of pure sunlight and balanced ...

‘Extremes are the rule of the day’ Almeida Theatre Morfydd Clark (centre) shines in Roots. Photograph: Marc Brenner Double trouble indeed. Staging two different plays with the same cast on alternating days is quite the gift for an actor. But what about the audience? The end of the 1950s in England was a time of great political and personal upheaval: post-war, ...

‘An utterly smashing time’ ‘Smashing’ is the new hot food term, the casual dining obsession. But how does something originating in the truck stops of the Great Lakes region settle into our hyper-polished metropolis? Growing up vegetarian, and in the depths of rural Devon, McDonald’s and Burger King were a forbidden world of meaty, smoky sin – only glimpsed on ...

National Changgeuk Company of Korea Barbican Centre Although the traditional Korean art form of Changgeuk, Shakespeare’s King Lear and the Barbican all seem rather randomly thrown together, it’s a delicious concoction that has been brewing for longer than you might have expected. What a way to kick of the 11th year of the K-Music Festival! Now a little (and skin deep) ...