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# My Local - London
- URL: https://www.howardgray.net/my-local-london/
- Published: 2016-03-27T19:32:38.000Z
- Updated: 2025-05-24T18:25:12.000Z
- Author: Howard Gray
- Tags: Reflections & Stories, In The Neighborhood, London, Howard's Riffs, Teaching

#### This article first appeared in book 1 of [The Manifesto](http://www.themanifesto.co/?ref=howardgray.net); ‘Local’ is a series of home town tips from music industry folk.

![](http://107.23.241.12/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/766f3-1of8ozzp2qszjlgybcbicug.jpeg)

**Brunch.** [Mess Cafe](https://foursquare.com/v/mess-cafe/4b755c88f964a52039082ee3?ref=howardgray.net) on Amhurst Road near Hackney Central. Great Saturday morning brunch for a fiver.

**Coffee.** [The Gallery Cafe](http://www.stmargaretshouse.org.uk/thegallerycafe/?ref=howardgray.net) in Bethnal Green, next door to York Hall. I have Spanish lessons here early on Tuesday mornings and the coffee is crucial for verb conjugations.

**Lunch.** The understated Chinese restaurant on Red Lion Street. The Singapore Laksa is the must-have.

**Restaurant.** [Buen Ayre](http://www.buenayre.net/?ref=howardgray.net) on Broadway Market is still the undisputed champion. The full parrilla is outrageous — blood sausage, fried cheese, peppers, sweetbreads, plus a couple of inch-thick steaks for good measure, all washed down with a few glasses of Malbec. The closest I can get in London to La Cabrera restaurant in Palermo, Buenos Aires.

**Meeting.** If the sun’s out, Gray’s Inn Fields, a small sanctuary sandwiched between Holborn and Theobold’s Road.

**Books.** I’m working my way through Michael Lewis’ catalogue at the moment, also I read a little Alain de Botton when my brain can handle it, plus midway through ‘London Fields’ by Martin Amis.

**Pizza.** Ciao Bella on Lamb’s Conduit Street is my pizza place of choice — the calzone is guaranteed to induce a food coma though, so go prepared.

**Cocktail.** Pisco Sour — my girlfriend loves them and I’ve been converted, so much so that the next long haul holiday has to got to be to Peru.

**Beer.** A pint of Windsor & Eton at the Gunmakers in Clerkenwell; light ale with a bit of citrus.

**Local.** [Kuzu on Well Street in Hackney](https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant%5FReview-g186338-d5768946-Reviews-Kuzu%5FShish-London%5FEngland.html?ref=howardgray.net). Traditional Turkish ocakbasi, £7 for a bonanza of lamb beyti, salad, rice and bread — it’s become a ritual on Sunday evenings after a weekend away. It’s so good that my friend who is a food critic goes there by choice instead of the various posh establishments she can eat at for free.

**Mobile Office.** Top deck of the 38 bus.

**Relax.** Savasana.

**Wander.** Victoria Park. I still think it’s the best park in London.