My favourite restaurant as the moment which was a former boxing hall. You sit on the old spectating seats and get served butter chicken on pine cones which infuse their flavour into the food. A really different experience.

Since The Columbo Group took over The Jazz Cafe, it's become the best programmed venue in the city, focusing on jazz, soul, funk, disco and afrobeat.

Lots of traditional charming country pubs around the area, but it can a bit hit and miss. A really friendly one with amazing food (and a unusually large veggie selection…) is the Beehive in Epping Green; close to the Great Wood. It's friendly enough you dare going there by yourself with the paper and are not at the mercy of local rubbernecks ("the rubberneck" = person who stares at strangers without any sign of guilt)

Leila McAlister's grocery shop and café off Arnold Circus, Shoreditch. You can find the best of everything, from jars of horseradish to eggs and croissants.

The best ice cream I have ever tasted in England – You are allowed any and every flavor and they shape it into a rose.