We are a week closer to Christmas; London’s busy markets are open, the very best festive menus are in full swing, and hotel lobbies are aglow with decorations. How busy is your calendar getting?
Is your head down, focussed on getting through the long lists of gifting to do? We have some brilliant gift inspiration lined up for you, including the pop-up that gives back and another that brings the “objects of desire” from one iconic hotel in Paris to another in London. Equally, read on for a forever favourite foodie spot of ours, one where you can shop for gifts to give hosts this season, and a very exciting new restaurant opening in London.
EAT HERE Aki London
London’s dining landscape just welcomed a bold new arrival: Aki London, a stunning Japanese-Maltese fusion restaurant inside a restored Grade II-listed former bank at One Cavendish Square. Yes its true, there’s a fair share of excellent Japanese cuisine in London. But this elegant outpost is quite an impressive transformation of a three-story old bank (sip cocktails in the stylish vault bar, dine in the grand dining hall or enjoy private gatherings on the mezzanine terrace and private dining area), with £15m turning it into a stunning setting, soaring ceilings, kimono fabrics and subtle Japanese detailing presenting a stage for a menu marrying modern technique and seasonal sourcing. The menu is centred around classic sushi, robata and Kushiyaki dishes while the cocktail menu nods to Japanese-Maltese influences. Highlights include tuna tartare on ice with brown puffed rice and caviar, Wagyu tataki with truffle and brown butter, hay-smoked scallop with tofu and apple jelly, and natto- and yuzu-marinated lamb. With 80 in-house micro-farms, cocktails brimming with yuzu and house-infused shōchū, and a lavish dining room alongside a subterranean vault bar, Aki London offers an immersive sensory journey worth booking. Plus, it’s neatly tucked behind Oxford Street so it makes an ideal stop post Christmas shopping. Or even better, when you need to add some “merry” to the January blues.
SUPPORT HERE Pop-Up Crisis
This week, the annual designer Pop-Up Crisis returns to Mayfair – a one-week charity shop where donated items from celebrities, Savile Row tailors and luxury brands (including a major contribution from Watches of Switzerland Group) are sold to raise essential funds for Crisis, the UK’s national homelessness charity. This year, supermodel David Gandy curates an exclusive online edit featuring pieces from his own wardrobe alongside donations from friends and brands such as Sandbanks, Hackett and Aspinal of London. The physical pop-up will feature everything from past-season designer garments and samples from renowned tailors and luxury labels, to celebrity-donated items entered for a raffle or sold directly. Since its inception in 2018, Pop-Up Crisis has raised over £650,000 — and this 2025 edition, hosted by The Pollen Estate, promises another chance for fashion lovers to shop with purpose while supporting Crisis’s vital work.
TREAT YOUR FRIENDS Hotel Costes x At Sloane Pop-up Shop
Named after founder and artist Jean-Louis Costes and designed by legendary architect Philippe Starck, Hotel Costes is one of Paris’ creative Grand Dames and – like the city itself – has a seductive edge to it. Hopping across the channel for the festive season, Hotel Costes’ iconic “objects of desire” are popping up at the equally playful …At Sloane in Chelsea. Across December, the hotel’s reception desk is transformed into a pop-up shop selling the Parisian hotel’s famously-good scented candles (created by perfumer Olivia Giacobetti with notes of tobacco and liqueur especially for the hotel) as well as jams (including the signature rose petal jam), chocolate spreads, silk eye masks in collaboration with queen of sleepwear Olivia von Halle, toiletry cases, and even vinyl records. Each make for great gifts for those tricky-to-shop-for friends (who already have it all) – guaranteed they won’t have this!
SHOP THIS Paris’ Glow Elixir Serum
While there is something undeniably magical about this time of year – Christmas lights, festive dinners, gift shopping – battling with the harsh winter elements on our sensitive skin (and all the redness and dryness that comes with it) is less exciting. Thankfully, Odile Paris’ Glow Elixir Serum is designed with a clever formula of neurophroline, red seaweed and niacinamide to keep the skin happy when moving from the freezing city into heated offices and stores. The serum boosts with your skin’s hydration (plumping) and also helps with the skin’s elasticity. It smells amazing too with orangey notes of Egyptian neroli. It’s a great gift for all your sensitive-skin friends, especially anyone who has a snowy Christmas trip planned this season.
SHOP FOR FOODIES The Newt in Somerset Christmas goodies
The Newt in Somerset is up there among our favourite staycations – especially at wintertime and especially for foodies. For good reason too – the 17th-century hall is surrounded by beautiful, expansive grounds where much of the produce across the menus at the property is grown. Seasonality is big here, and the same goes when it comes to Christmas time. If you can’t make it before Christmas, bring a taste of the country estate home with you via their very good hampers and seasonal goodies. The Christmas pudding is a standout (never the time to make one at home!) and is packed with brandy-soaked vine fruits as well as lots of sticky figs, sweet prunes, and tart damson. Likewise, the crumble-topped mince pies (with Bramley apples inside the mincemeat too) are the only variety you’ll want to eat all December. If you’re heading over to friendly dinners this season, these are a great gift to bring to the host.
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