Welcome to FOUND LDN

Dove, La Grotta Ices, Lao Dao, South Kensington listings, best indie record stores, Palm Heights, Artist Residence Brighton, MORE

Mar 19, 2025

RESTAURANTS • First Word

Taking flight

The Skinny: After five years of success with Orasay, Jackson Boxer closed his popular Notting Hill seafood spot on New Year’s Eve and reopened it as Dove in January. It’s the same cosy, candlelit space, but with a steer towards comfort food: Where Orasay served dainty oysters, Dove does deep-fried taleggio and truffle lasagne bites.

The Vibe: Friendly, familiar, with tightly squeezed tables lending a snug, chic vibe. People are here to see Boxer, who earned many fans at Orasay and whose culinary pedigree includes being grandson to esteemed cookbook author Arabella Boxer, son of Italo deli owner Charlie Boxer, and brother of Frank, with whom he opened the Peckham institution Frank’s Café in 2009. But despite Dove being one of the hottest new openings of 2025, it still feels like a neighbourhood restaurant.

The Food: Meaty, elegant, comforting, as in mortadella and burrata on a fried potato pizzette, or grilled bavette steak with smoked bone marrow and morels. The highlight is a light, zingy bowl of ricotta dumplings with lobster cream and lime leaf — a dish you could order on its own with some sourdough focaccia and a honey margarita on a solo lunch date. For the first time at any of his restaurants (including his flagship Brunswick House), Boxer has put a burger on the menu, but you’ll have to be fast: only 10 of the 50-day-aged gorgonzola burgers are available each day.

The Drink: There’s a short yet well-curated list of wines and outstanding cocktails, like the sapling martini, a perfect Negroni, and Botivo and tonic for the alcohol-free.

The Verdict: The locals have already called it: Judging by the customers waiting outside on the cold Tuesday night we visited, this intimate neighbourhood restaurant is a hit. –Laura Price

→ Dove (Notting Hill) • 31 Kensington Park Rd • Fri-Sun 12-4p, Tue-Sat 530-10p • Book.

LONDON RESTAURANT LINKS: Lauded 081 Pizza expanding to Shoreditch in spring • Bluebird Chelsea opening new outpost at South Place Hotel next week • 3-month-long Guinness pop-up bar opens at The Ned • The Shutter: The Gun is done in Hackney… High Hill Taproom in Walthamstow closing at end of month • Coming soon: Vittles, the magazine.

REAL ESTATE • First Mover

Three for-sale properties in South Kensington that came to market in the last 30 days.

→ Queen's Gate (South Kensington) • 3BR/1.1BA, 190 m2 flat • Ask: £3.25mn • 1st-floor flat with 2 sets of French doors and terraces • Ownership type: freehold • Agent: Maria Oliveros, Sotheby’s.

→ Harrington Gardens (South Kensington) • 4BR/3BA/1R, 210 m2 flat • Ask: £3.85mn • 4 floors of red-brick conversion • Ownership type: share of freehold with 999-yr underlying lease • Agent: Breteuil.

→ Ennismore Gardens (South Kensington, above) • 3BR/3.2BA/2R, 304 m2 flat • Ask: £8mn • triplex maisonette in garden square • Ownership type: leasehold with 956 yrs remaining • Annual service charge: £8,185 • Annual ground rent: £200 • Agent: Toby Anderdon, Savills.

WORK & PLAY LINKS: London’s luxury housing shortage pushes buyers into fixer-uppers • In Kensington, one of London’s skinniest homes lists • Blackstone in talks to buy first London office property since 2019 • Designs revealed for 130 Fenchurch Street, new City of London skyscraper • A woman’s guide to wearing ties.

WORK • Wednesday Routine

Inside scoop

KITTY TRAVERS • confectioner • La Grotta Ices
Neighbourhood you work and live in: Elephant & Castle

It’s Wednesday morning. What’s the scene at your workplace?
Wednesday morning sees me fleeing as an act of radical self-care (flinging myself on my bike, feet skidding off the pedals) at 8a. This might not seem particularly early, but it crucially means that I miss the usual daily routine for my kids (teeth-brushing, packed lunch-making, school run, etc). This is incredibly freeing! I stop by work to put away my dairy order, plus a box of tiny Corsican clementines that’s been delivered, but I’m just in and out, on my way to my weekly class at Alan Herdman Pilates.

Wait, come back! Exercise is the most boring thing you can talk about, and I’m sorry to do it, but my 20+ years of cooking professionally have been ruinous, and it’s important I try to repair the damage. My class is right across London, just off Edgware Road. It suits me just right because it’s quite serious and proper, but not competitive at all. Most of the other devotees are of advanced years and are very genteel, remarkably lithe, and flexible. We puff away gently like a room full of slow electric kettles for an hour, and then it’s time for breakfast. I go to the café at La Fromagerie. It’s cramped and a bit dark, but (similarly to my pal Leila’s Shop), they cook with lovely ingredients from the grocery shop next door. I have scrambled eggs on toast, Tabasco sauce, and very hot coffee.

What’s on the agenda for today?
I persevere with an article I’ve been trying to finish for ages about the director Mati Diop. I look up her documentary Dahomey, and it’s screening in half an hour's time at the amazing Garden Cinema just off Kingsway. Tickets are a fiver and it’s only an hour long, so I throw ice cream-making to the wind for the morning and cycle towards Aldwych.

At this point, just in case you think I’m a spoiled little pig living the high life… you’re right, I am. But also, my husband has been working on a film for the past eight years and has been away a lot, so I’ve been taking care of kids/house/ice creams and trying to keep life functioning which sometimes feels completely overwhelming. He finished the grade this week and his work is done, and that’s my excuse for taking time off for a little treat today.

Cycling is the best way to get around London, and it’s one of the only times I’m able to think thoughts. At home, my naughty but nice little children take up all my mental energy. In my euphoria, I start imagining a tropical fruit cassata. Back at work, I juice the tiny clementines and save the cut halves for stuffing. Then, I finish batches of key lime, zabaglione, and Sicilian feijoa ice creams so they’re ready for a taste test tomorrow.

Any restaurant plans today, tonight, this weekend?
Eating out alone once a week with an old copy of a New Yorker (from Shreeji Newsagents) is a pleasure I look forward to almost too much. Sometimes I go to Toklas Bakery because they also have the best coffee cups in town: olive green ones just the right size for my long black, and delicious crispy pizza topped with potatoes or Jerusalem artichoke and sour Italian soft cheese.

How about a little leisure or culture?
I’m looking forward to dinner some night soon at Lao Dao. It’s a Chinese XinJiang restaurant in a beautifully restored 1920s Kennedy’s Sausage Shop on Walworth Road. It has a cool, festive atmosphere, and I just love it there. We’ll order dark, tender chicken stewed with Szechuan pepper, star anise, and potatoes, crowned with a single, wide, neverending noodle. Also: huge pots of steaming tea and nice wines from Ancestral.

Any weekend getaways?
I love a weekend getaway to Paris, where I get an ice cream (wild strawberry Melba cup) at the historic Berthillon tea room on the Île Saint-Louis. It has to be in the seated section, because then you get to eat out of beautiful scalloped metal coupes from Madame Berthillon’s private collection.

What was your last great vacation?
The aforementioned key limes were bought from the Hamlin Stevenson farmers market in George Town, Grand Cayman, after a recent residency at the dreamy Palm Heights hotel. I initially didn’t want to go because I’m afraid of flying, and also because I’m a horrible snob — a Google search of the local supermarket revealed it was full of Waitrose produce and shortbread, so I assumed it was a place of homesick expats living in a tax haven and that everything was imported. That may be true, but it’s also true that there are incredible farms on the island growing crazily fragrant guava, june plum, genip, naseberry, papaya, soursop, green coconut, and starfruit.

And though this won’t be a newsflash to anyone who has come from or been to the Caribbean before… the water is warm, clear, and full of red snapper and leaping swordfish. The sand is like icing sugar, and Palm Heights just seems to draw the best, sweetest, most gorgeous staff (who are also great cooks) from all over. I had a lot of fun working alongside them. I miss it and can’t wait to go back.

CULTURE & LEISURE • Showdown 5

FKA Twigs • Magazine London (Greenwich Peninsula) • Sat @ 7p • GA, £127 per
Saracens v Harlequins • Tottenham Hotspur Stadium (North London) • Sat @ 305p • level 1 - 119, £127 per
The Lathums • O2 Academy Brixton (Brixton) • Sat @ 7p • 7 - circle, £47 per

GOODS & SERVICES • The Nines

Record stores, indie

The Nines are FOUND's distilled lists of London’s best. Additions or subtractions? Hit reply or email found@foundldn.com.

The Little Record Shop (Crouch End, above), classic rock, jazz, soul, you name it
Peckings Records (Shepherds Bush), UK’s first importer of Jamaican music, a cornerstone of Caribbean-British heritage
Slab Records (Loughton), expert curators feature mystery vinyl packs
Honest Jon’s (Ladbroke Grove), reissued soul-funk, reggae, jazz
All Ages Records (Camden Town), punk and hardcore only
Flashback Records (Islington), cratediggers’ delight in basement loaded with second-hand
Record Detective Agency (Palmers Green), stuck gloriously in the past, every inch stacked, no website
Sister Ray Records (Soho), for newest electronic and hip hop releases
Peoples Sound (Portobello), dancehall and reggae treasure trove

GETAWAYS • Brighton

Night of nostalgia

There’s a sense of nostalgia when you enter Artist Residence Brighton, a boutique hotel overlooking the city’s Regency Square and the iconic disconnected West Pier. The rooms span across two Grade II-listed Regency townhouses, with narrow staircases and hallways connecting the various spaces. It’s a hike up to my top-floor room, but the views of Brighton’s rooftops are worth the ascent. The decor — artsy and Bohemic with a modern flourish — situates me back in the present, particularly as each room and the common areas showcase contemporary, gallery-worthy artwork.

Brighton, too, is nostalgic, especially the rundown Brighton Palace Pier, which juts out into the English Channel against better judgement. The seaside city, located a 45-minute train ride from London’s Victoria Station, is perpetually caught somewhere between the past and present. It has new additions, like Brighton Beach House, and traditional mainstays, like Brighton Museum & Art Gallery. Artist Residence Brighton puts you walking distance to all of it, with Brighton Beach sprawling from the hotel down to the marina.

This sort of beach getaway doesn’t require a swimsuit, especially during winter. On my visit, we strolled along the white cliffs at Saltdean, a short drive away, and tiptoed to the end of the pier, where brave travelers ride the shaky-looking Turbo Coaster.

Inside the hotel, Blake’s Bistro & Bar is a lowkey spot for a drink or breakfast. In the evening, venture out into Brighton, where restaurants like Burnt Orange and Embers represent the city’s evolving culinary scene. And no matter the season, end the day with an ice cream — you’re on the beach, after all. –Emily Zemler

→ Artist Residence (Brighton) • 33 Regency Sq • Weekend rates from £390/stay.

GETAWAYS LINKS: New 1 Hotel Mayfair is an oasis in heart of London • Residences at Mandarin Oriental Mayfair debut • New nature-based luxury retreat Saltmoore in North Yorkshire welcomes new GM • Relearning how to sleep at a Swiss spa • This art fair turned Marrakesh into a vital creative hub.

ASK FOUND

First, a quick primer on how this works: You send us the pressing questions of the day (on dining, services, living in London and surrounds). We all put our heads together (us, FOUND, + you, FOUND subscribers, who are also FOUND) in search of truth and beauty.

Three FOUND subscriber PROMPTS for which we are seeking intel:

If you haven’t already, tell us your favourite London restaurant.
What London hotel do you always recommend for out-of-town guests?
Tell us about your favourite driving-distance getaway?

Got answers or more questions? Hit reply or email found@foundldn.com.