We live in an age of change – McDonald’s has toasted deli sandwiches.
Hi-tech isn’t just about having the latest trainers, it can change the world. Just look at what the Reebok Pump did for mankind. This week, the best hi-tech ways to have fun in London town.
Featured Recommendations
Inamo, W1
134-136 Wardour Street, W1F 8ZP
“If technology has finally caught up with individual liberty, why would anyone who loves freedom want to rethink that?” (Matt Drudge)
Inamo is an ‘Oriental’ restaurant in the heart of Soho with a bit of a difference. You get a table, and then the menu is projected onto your table from above. You order by touching the screen on your table, as well as setting the mood by choosing table cloth colours, and so forth. You can even drop anchor for a bit and play a game of battleships, although we think this would be plumbing the depths.
The menu is reasonably priced and is split between larger dishes, such as the hot stone rib eye or the black cod, and smaller dishes such as wild boar rolls or sashimi salad. Downstairs there is a Oriental themed cocktail bar for the more Bacchanalian amongst you.
Metro Golf, W2
19 Sheldon Square, Paddington Central, W2 6EP. T: 020 7266 7950.
“I’m not feeling very well - I need a doctor immediately. Ring the nearest golf course.” (Groucho Marx)
It isn’t big, but it is quite clever. Metro Golf is basically a golf simulator, except that you actually wallop real golf balls with real golf clubs into a big curtain. The clever thing is that the screen in front of you looks like a golf course (you can actually choose from 50 of the world’s best courses), and then the sensors work out where your ball would have gone.
Urban Golf in Soho and Smithfields are good places to go to before a night out, to help you get into the swing of things, but for value for money (credit crunch, focus on value, blah blah blah) Metro Golf in Paddington is just as good and much more reasonable.
As a last word of warning, it can be popular with stag dos. The last time we were there we found a team of 15 chaps in tweed and plus-fours accompanied by a rent-a-dwarf doing Elvis impressions. That’s Rock’n'Roll for you.
Kula Kula Sushi, W1/WC2
76 Brewer Street W1F 9TZ, and 51-53 Shelton Street, WC2H 9HE
“Sell a man a fish, he eats for a day, teach a man how to fish, you ruin a wonderful business opportunity. ” (Karl Marx)
OK it isn’t particularly hi-tech to have a conveyor belt (or sushi train as our Antipodeans cousins quaintly call it) in a sushi restaurant, but Kula Kula was one of the first places in the UK to do so. More importantly, we wanted to point out that these are great places for lunch time sushi. Remember for when you are next Christmas shopping.
Reasonably priced, fresh, tasty, and served in surroundings that, well let’s say, they allow one to focus on the food, which in this case is a good thing.
Stuff To Do
Magic Night at the Soho Revue Bar, W1
11 Walker’s Court, Brewer St, Soho. W1F 0ED
Contortion, escapology, guns, knives, illusion. No, not Bond, the Magic Night at the Soho Revue bar on Friday 21st November at the Jermyn Street Theatre SW1.
Covent Garden Christmas Lights, WC2
Covent Garden Piazza, now until 5th January 2009
We aren’t sure what to make of Christmas lights – naff and so 1980s, or, like Crème Eggs in Tesco, a sign that Christmas is round the corner. Either way these lights are fun. It is a futuristic light display from the team behind the Chemical Brothers and Massive Attack stage shows. There is also a series of music collaborations, the next one on 4th December with the Modified Toy Orchestra. Covent Garden is always nice and Christmassy, go on get down there.
Two Very Unusual Nights Out
Just in case you were wondering when someone would invent a nudist night club, wonder no more. Friday at Club Life on Goding Street in Vauxhall. The music is house, disco and retro. As if that matters. Even more unusually, if you have been wondering when someone will invent a ride in which passengers are individually wheeled through a series of sets, seek help. And then wonder no more, we can’t explain, go to Bum Bum Train to learn more.
Gigs & Tickets
Teddy Thompson at the Shepherds Bush Empire 12th February
Tickets available from £15 – you can’t go wrong with some February folking.
Snow Patrol at the O2 – Additional Date Sunday 15th March
If I lie here, if I just lay here, would you get tickets? No. Would you want to? Possibly.
‘Tube Watch.
A feast of British standup this week. Just three of a host of great clips on the ‘Tube from mssrs Izzard, Noble, Gervais et al
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Eddie Izzard - Death Star Canteen.
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Ross Noble - Never put a blanket over an owl.
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Ricky Gervais - Humpty Dumpty.
Until next time Men. Tech it to the next level.
