Notting Hill

The neighbourhood is surrounded by beautiful parks. You can start your walk in one of them, Holland Park.
The park gets its name from one of its former owners, Lord Holland. It was he who regularly invited famous artists and writers, politicians and public figures here, and hosted them in a beautiful palace located in the centre of the park.
However, the park was bombed in 1940, and most of the palace was destroyed. Only some of the walls and one wing of the building, which now houses the hostel, remained intact.

If you head towards Notting Hill, you'll come across some pretty churches along the way. One of them is the Victorian St Peter's Church, which is on Kensington Park Road. By the way, next to it is the famous Michelin-starred restaurant Core by Clare Smyth, which won a third star this year.

There are plenty of good patisseries around (Buns from Home, Fabrique). Or choose a restaurant to suit all tastes and pockets, where a steak will cost between £20 and £100. There's also the Notting Hill Fish Shop, another great place to visit while you're walking around the area.

Notting Hill is famous for its antique market on Portobello Road - it's one of the first places tourists tend to go. The flea market really captures the essence of the neighborhood. You won't find Chanel or Louis Vuitton boutiques here, but you can spot a vintage piece that's much nicer. Or maybe buy some £20 piece of jewellery that will be more interesting than Tiffany earrings. It's a very good example of meeting completely different people in the same place on a Sunday morning, but all of them buying something for a pound, for five, for ten and still managing to find unique things.

If you come to Portobello, I recommend checking out Electric Cinema. There's a private club upstairs and a very good American-style diner downstairs. From there, you can head downtown and you are bound to run into a lot of shops, some of which are only open in the Notting Hill area. You won't find big names and famous brands here, but you will find a lot of little shops that sell cool accessories.

For lunch, I recommend a stop at Granger & Co. It is a project of a very good Australian chef and food promoter Bill Granger, who introduced London to the Australian approach to all-day brunch. Incidentally, the restaurant in Notting Hill is the flagship restaurant, so you can often try interesting new dishes here that are not presented in other establishments of the chain.

And if you go further down Westbourne Grove, you'll come to our SUMI restaurant. Here we make the best quality sushi and sashimi, and we also have a good vegan menu, which is unique to Japanese cuisine. For example, the classic Konbu vegetable salad, which includes miniature carrots, radishes, broccoli, cherry tomatoes, olives (and sesame oil, I think). Or a Japanese classic - gohan rice with mushrooms.
If you like seafood, I recommend ordering the signature SUMI ceviche. Inside is octopus, squid and fish with chunks of tender avocado, sweet peppers, crispy fennel and onions. Seafood flavours are accentuated by mint, sesame and, of course, sour Japanese plum-based sauce. Together it sounds organic and leaves an interesting aftertaste.

For those who like tacos, I recommend stopping by our neighbours Taqueria. It's a unique place that's almost thirty years old, but gets better and better every year. Here you can take something delicious with you and go to the nearest park for a picnic.

For today, I suggest we finish the walk at Kensington Gardens - stroll around the palace, count the swans and get comfortable on the lawn to enjoy London.