Shayona restaurant at the Neasden temple

The incongruous splendour of the Neasden temple rising up from a nondescript London street is a sight to behold. Consecrated in 1995, the building covers 1.5 acres and is the largest outside India. By sheer serendipity, we’re here on a thoroughly auspicious day- it’s the birthday of both the temple’s namesake Swaminarayam, and Lord Rama. Celebration is in the air, along with the odd tantalising whiff from the mandir’s Shayona restaurant just across the bustling car park.

National Portrait Gallery Portrait Restaurant Leporello

A great view, good food, history old and new – and some intriguing facts: it’s London summed up. It’s The Portrait Perspective and it’s available as a leporello, a concertina pull out booklet that opens to reveal a metre-long panorama of the view from the Portrait Restaurant at the top of the National Portrait Gallery. Linking portraits in the gallery with buildings seen from the Portrait Restaurant, it’s ideal for poring over as you pour out a cup of coffee before exploring the gallery.

Hop and Spice

It’s not often you get to eat dinner in the same spot you once had your tyres changed. As Balham has gentrified, the old shops have gradually disappeared to be replaced by bars and cafes all catering to the monied young overspill from Clapham. There’s even a Waitrose now, a poor replacement in my view for the old open air market now a shadow of its former self.

Lonely Planet’s Street Food Festival

A clear blue sky, shirt sleeves and a well-poured pint of Dorset Nectar are hardly conducive to the Great Indoors. But that indeed is where I find myself, struggling to be heard by my mate over the thumping Afrobeat constrained and concentrated by the bare brick interior of Village Underground in Shoreditch.

Inaugural Macaron Day at Pierre Hermes London

Macarons? Really? You sure? Been there, done that, had the sugar rush. Yet, judging by the chattering classes clamouring for the candy-coloured confections, it seems the appetite for the whimsical, bijou mouthfuls remains unsated. And, when they’re so deceptively insubstantial, how could it be?

Easter at Harrod’s

Hand made in either milk or white chocolate and exploding with nuts or freeze-dried berries, these beauties are like the Ferarri of Easter fun. If you’re looking to impress someone this year, or just sick of keeping the purse strings tight, this is the perfect way to go all out for Easter this year.