How to spend the best 24 hours in London

The Stafford is a central London hotel located in St. James’s Place, which is a great location to consider your stay. There are plenty of landmarks and activities in the area like the Churchill War Rooms, The Household Cavalry Museum, Saint James’s Park and the Cenotaph. Most importantly though, The Stafford contains The Game Bird. The Game Bird is a restaurant integrated into the hotel and it has a perfect breakfast menu for you to enjoy after you check in your luggage. From simple breakfast dishes like porridge to the extravagant and delicious Stafford Full English, or the nutritious and somewhat millennial option of smashed avocado and smoked salmon, your taste buds will be well looked after here.

Artist Residence functions as a restaurant and a hotel. It’s located near several tourist hotspots that you could involve in your 24 hours like Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace and The London Eye.
Artist Residence also has a breakfast and brunch menu so that you can grab a bite to eat after checking in. We recommend the buttermilk pancake stack or the clubhouse salad.

There are few landmarks more prolific than the London Eye, and hence we would highly recommend working it into your 24 hour stay in the city. Of course, you could do it at night instead of in the daytime depending on the setting you would prefer, but we think you can take in more of London’s unique architecture in daylight hours. Rosmarino is only about a 25-minute journey from the London Eye, and the Italian cuisine on offer is well worth the short journey.
When dining at Rosmarino, you will be presented with a wide variety of Italian dishes like pizza, pasta, pan-roasted meats, vegetable dishes and many more, including unique desserts like homemade pumpkin crème brulee. We enjoy a pizza like Rosmarino’s Crudaiola (cured ham, rocket, Fior di latte mozzarella, Parmesan shavings, tomato sauce) followed by some ice cream from the dessert menu. This dining experience will be a valuable use of a couple of those precious 24 hours.

Also located not too far from The London Eye is O Cantinho de Portugal. The restaurant specialises in authentic and traditional Portuguese cuisine. This includes dishes like Tender Octopus and Shrimp Skewer served with homemade fries and a light salad, Seafood rice casserole cooked with fresh squid, mussels, shrimp and brown crab, and Butternut squash, sweet potato and bean stew served with white rice.

After enjoying your lunch, you can make the 35-minute journey to the Ripping Yarns Jack the Ripper tour to explore a slightly more macabre part of London’s history! Hopefully, you have a strong enough stomach to handle that though, because following your tour, we recommend going to Hackney Coterie. It’s only 20 or so minutes away on the tube and offers plenty of choice for dinner with a menu split into meat, pescatarian and vegetarian sections.
The venue itself is stunning and will make for a great, sophisticated setting for you (and your family or friends) with its wine shelves, hanging art and plants.
Plus, if you opted to stay at The Stafford, you will only be faced with a 28-minute commute back to hit the hay.

This restaurant is made with vegans in mind, and it would have felt wrong not to include at least one restaurant tailored towards you guys. Our recommendations from the evening menu are the Green Velvet (pea and shallot ravioli dressed in lovage pesto and topped with Pastan Parmesan) or the Dolce Vita (Pastan Carbonara), but keep in mind that the menu can change daily so you may have to discover your own favourites when you visit!
This restaurant is also within a similar commute to the hotel and the Jack The Ripper Tour mentioned in the Hackney Coterie section.