Any menu that includes a course called “pre dessert” is the sort of menu Londonist can appreciate. And if that menu happens to be a seven course seasonal chocolate menu dreamed up over six months of tasting and experimenting by Almeida head chef, Alan Jones, and chocolatier, Paul A Young … ? Well, Londonist can confirm that we’d love every last morsel of it! Last night, Londonist bopped over to Almeida for a sneak......

Photography courtesy of Tiki Chris via the Londonist pool on Flickr. Interested in your foodie photos appearing on Londonist? Click here.......

Welcome to Versus, where Londonist takes like for like and decides which one is more likeable. This, our first, VERSUS post pits two Upper Street bean slingers against each other in a no holds barred Lucha Libre fight to the death. In one corner, we have Mucho Mas (27 Upper Street N1 N1 9LQ). In the other, Tortilla (13 Upper Street N1 0PN). Both serve short and incredibly identical lists of efficiently assembled burritos......

Langdon Park DLR station opened yesterday, to initially no fanfare, until Ken turned up with some free Oyster cards. Diamond Geezer has blogged in heartfelt detail about the "shiny alien mothership" lighting up a neglected, marginalised area. Langdon Park now easily links up with Canary Wharf and Stratford, where a second platform was also officially opened yesterday, possibly anticipating the immediate influx of people escaping Tower Hamlets for a day. TFL are consulting about......

Had TfL existed in his time, the great Samuel Johnson may well have amended his famous aphorism to read "a man who is bored of London needs to hop on the number 19 bus". In its perambulation from Battersea to Finsbury Park, the 19 cuts a swath across the capital's economic and cultural barriers, revealing the world within one city that modern London manifests. Vogue has certainly been impressed by the number 19. The......

Anybody who's spent an afternoon walking around Upper Street, iBook in hand, trying to log on to Islington council's "Technology Mile" service may smirk, but a new report says Londoners are the most wifi-happy people on the planet. According to the Wi-Fi Hotspot Index, networks set up by the likes of BT and The Cloud in London account for one tenth of the UK's wireless usage, and just over 1% of the worldwide total......

With Notting Hill Carnival upon us in full effect the next day, you probably won't want to cane it too severely on Sunday night, but gently starting the party early never hurt anyone. Well, on second thought, it probably did at some point or other, but Upset The Rhythm should guarantee that at least you'll be entranced by interesting sounds if not completely kept out of harm's way. This Sunday sees these never dull......

Like an invisible web of impossibly magic pockets of the internet hovering in London’s heavens, weird and wonderful WiFi proliferates enabling us tech-savvy, laptop bearing citizens to maintain our social networking and blog addictions pretty much 24/7. Unsurprising news, then, that wireless networks in London have almost trebled in the last year. We’re outstripping New York and Paris with the rate of growth of our WiFi hotzone with public access hot spots up by......

Sadlers Wells' annual Flamenco Festival brings a whirligig of colour, passion, drama, guitars, stamping and really big flouncy dresses to London between 23 Feb and 3 Mar in a welcome bid to remind us of sultry hot days and sunny Spanish sexiness. Highlights of this year’s festival include the remarkable Granada-born dancer and choreographer Eva Yerbabuena; flamenco’s star vocalist and the singing voice of Penelope Cruz in Pedro Almodovar’s film Volver, Estrella Morente; some......

It's not often that Londonist gets to try lots of different wines for less than a tenner. So we were excited to hear about The Sampler, a new wine store on Upper Street in Islington, that lets you try before you by. On a recent weekday evening, one dog and two very friendly, knowledgeable, non-pushy salespeople helped guide us through ten wines from a variety of regions. The Sampler uses the Enomatic Wine Serving System......

This Day In London’s History 1970: The first ever public gay protest in Britain is held at Highbury Fields. Following the arrest (and alleged entrapment) of Louis Eaks for cottaging, the Gay Liberation Front (a name that always makes us think of The Life Of Brian) gathered on 27th November 1970 for a torchlight procession through Highbury Fields in protest. Reports differ as to how many protesters attended the procession, but it was clear......

We were upset to learn that the tobacconists Bonds of Oxford Street are no longer Of Oxford Street. The premises that they occupied for the entire childhood of one Londonista has been invaded by a shop that sells handbags. Bonds have been relegated to some backwater trading estate in SW16. Sentimental adolescent memories are attached to that purveyor of fine tobaccos, cigars, and pipes of all distinctions, shapes and sizes; we bought our first......

... is pretty fugly. Judging by how it chooses to be presented on the small screen, at any rate. Take Gordon Ramsay's F Word (Wed 9pm C4): We're not denying that it's entertaining. It is hugely entertaining, especially when Gordon picks on twattish City trader boys from Essex and reduces them to tears, much as he reduces all sorts of delicious juices to make a lovely concentrated sauce. Mmm, we're hungry just thinking about......

A manhunt is underway for the guman who opened fire on two men outside Finsbury Park station last night, wounding a female bystander in the process. Its thought the same person is responsible for an earlier shooting on Upper Street. Network Rail wants to distribute its own free afternoon newspaper across 10 of its London stations. The 'sex theme park' for the West End is official. Amora - The Academy of Sex and Relationships......

The barrage of marketing/PR emails that come into the Londonist inbox very rarely delivers anything of genuine interest but we have to admit that we quite like the idea of these Wake Me Up At stickers we got sent the other day. "If you frequently fall asleep on the London Underground, creatives Alice Tonge and Cathy Hutton have designed a nifty way to make sure you get to your destination," boasts the press release.......

The number 153 bus "careered out of control" last night at the junction of Upper Street and Liverpool Road, ploughing into Borders and then into Sainsbury's, taking out two taxis on the way. Seven people were injured. RMT and London Underground will meet today to try and avoid a strike on January 8. A court hears that the 'drunken stag-night reveller' who was killed oustide Stringfellows in 2004 died after one punch from a......

Table of Four went all radical this week and became two tables of, er, two. We went in search of old favourites, just to check in and make sure they were still performing to standard as recent voyages into the unknown had taken us off the beaten track. Besides some things are better the 10th time round – to name a couple of examples Upper Street’s Pasha’s mixed meze and grill – brilliant value and......

Upper Street in Islington has now been dubbed Technology Mile after finding itself draped in lovely free Wi-Fi according to the electronics industry newspaper EE Times. The wireless mesh is up and running right now so if you're in the area and have any kind of Wi-Fi enabled device you can access the Interweb for free. On top of this the Council is also throwing a bunch of PCs to local businesses (pubs, cafes......

Just a reminder that you still have a few weeks left to take advantage of our special 'buy one get one free offer' at Flaming Nora, the new, classy fast food joint on Upper Street. You can read our review of the restaurant here, and if it takes your fancy then just click here and print out the voucher which entitles you to some free, grilled, juicy loveliness.......

Flaming Nora is the latest incarnation of the current trend for fresh and healthy fast food. We're not talking about McDonald's new 'salad menu' here, we're talking about places like Fresh and Wild and Leon off Carnaby Street. But Fresh and Wild is all a bit 'nappy valley' for our tastes and there's never one around when you need one, and Leon isn't exactly post-pub faire...and that's where Flaming Nora fits in. Set up......

They'll be talking about this one for years to come. Yesterday a water main burst on Upper Street turning the streets in the area into what the Standard described as "a mini-Venice". According to reports people were trapped inside restaurants, bars and shops as "gallons" of water swamped the area. It took Thames Water engineers four hours to pump away the water, during which time local businesses suffered many thousands of pounds in lost......

"Roxanne you don't have to put on the red light." So sang Sting (wow, try saying that fast ten times) in 1978. Now, almost thirty years later London is just getting round to the problem of prostitution and the decriminalisation of the 'world's oldest profession'. Liverpool is the trend-setter here, deciding earlier this week to set up an "official vice zone...where prostitutes can ply their trade legally and safely". On last night's Question Time......

You've probably already broken your new year's resolutions and feeling pretty crappy about yourself, so before you descend into a slough of despondency and decide that your sofa is comfy enough for you to stay in all year, get yourself down to the Buffalo Bar (on Upper Street) this Saturday to see The Pipettes. The polka dot princesses are due on at around 10.45pm and play as part of The Guided Missile night, and......

Londonist isn't sure we know anyone who actually admits to liking New Year's Eve anymore, but we're determined to make the best of it this year, so here's a little rundown of some last-minute things you might want to contemplate. If you really feel like going clubbing then the only event Londonist can genuinely recommend is the Eat You Own Ears night at Keston Lodge on Upper Street. Their 'New Year's Eve Road Block'......

Yesterday's Times offered us a fascinating insight into the world of a London postman. Being the Times, this was of course a day in the life of an Islington postie, but nevertheless we learned some interesting stuff: - The office manager of the sorting-hall behind the Almeida Theatre is called Steve Marvel: “Yes, my name is funny. Yes, I have a very loud voice". Cool - a superhero postie with special 'extra loud voice'......

We're on a bit of a meat mission today at Londonist. Although our 'Londonist Loves' post today was about the quality carnivorous collations of Bodeans, it's a bit later now, and so maybe we've had a few pints and we're hankering for something quick, cheap and dirty. In other words, point us in the direction of the nearest kebab house. Now it might be a slight misrepresentation to say that we're 'spoilt for choice' in......