HOT: Daniel Barenboim Beethoven Sonata Series, Royal Festival Hall

Royal Festival Hall will be the place to be for the next three weeks as classical music superstar, Daniel Barenboim, plays all 32 Beethoven Piano Sonatas, the New Testament of classical music (Bach's 48 Preludes and Fugues being the Old Testament). With my student card valid until 2009, I couldn't miss the chance on getting half price seats for all the concerts as I love his playing and I love Beethoven. The whole auditorium held its breath in every movement while Daniel took them from high drama to the most delicate of tones. This event will be something to tell my grandchildren.

HOT: Sampled at Sadler's Wells Rosebery Avenue, Islington

I think its a great marketing idea to perform snippets of upcoming performances to introduce audiences to new art forms. Sadlers Wells does this brilliantly - for £5 standing (£10 seated) you can get right up close to the physicality and skill of flamenco, ballet, hip hop and contemporary dance.

NOT: Tay Do, 65 Kingsland Road

I would have thought that if a restaurant managed to survive the competition in Kingsland Road the food can't be too bad. I was wrong - this restaurant served horrible sloppy 'Vietnamese' food which repeated on me for the next 5 hours in pungent burps. Awful and nasty - avoid at all costs.

NOT: Carbon, Old Quebec Street, Marble Arch

Rating this bar was difficult - on the one hand, I hate stupid dress codes (no Timberlands, no trainers, no headgear, casual/glam, Shoreditch style?) and the rigmarole involved in getting on a guest list. On the other hand, the wood and leather interior had a relaxed feel to it, the bar staff were friendly and apparently Kelly Rowland of Destiny's Child fame was having a party there. But on the whole, getting kicked off a reserved table (minimum spend £500) and then making people pay £15 for the privilege of entry makes this bar NOT.

NOT: The British Ambassador's Belly Dancer, Arcola Theatre

The life story of the the belly dancer who captured the heart of the British Ambassador to Uzbekistan was very compelling. Unfortunately the one-woman-in-a-dark-room delivery was stilted and lacked emotion, even though she was telling her own story. Also, what was the point of the gratuitous belly-dance at the end?

HOT: Mangal Ocakbasi, 10 Arcola Street, Dalston

Literally HOT as the restaurant has a large coal stove inside - guess they disabled the fire alarm. This cheap and extremely popular restaurant (beware there are at least 2 other restaurants in the vicinity with similar names) appears to only serve one menu item - mixed meat grill.

HOT: Sofra 18 Shepherd Street, Mayfair

Amazing - two fantastic meals in a row this week. Sofra is an extremely busy but still comfortable Turkish restaurant which serves the most tender, succulent lamb shish I have ever had - and I'm not usually a lamb fan. For our work dinner we had the party menu, which was great value at 20.95 for endless bread, hummus and olives, a myriad of small dishes such as borek, felafel, tabbouleh etc, a large selection of enormous mains and a small plate of dessert including baklava and icecream. After the feast all I wanted to do was to change into something with an elasticised waist, lie down and digest. Highly recommended.

HOT: Ye Grapes, 16 Shepherd Market, Mayfair

Shepherd Market is little bit of hidden London in Mayfair, an area I always associate with big flash hotels and designer shops. Ye Grapes is about as traditional as an English pub can get with stuffed birds, fish and moose heads as eccentric decorations. I didn't try the Thai food upstairs but I think it's unlikely to be good (note below).

HOT: The Lonsdale, 48 Lonsdale Road, Notting Hill

It seems that fashionable Notting Hill-ites go to The Lonsdale to look cool and drink cocktails (Sienna Miller had her store opening party there), which means they are missing out on some of the best food I've had in London. Absolutely to die for: perfectly cooked fennel risotto, seared king scallops and pea puree and an amazing combination of pine nuts and thyme in a pink champagne rhubarb crumble - for only £20 a head. And to top it off, the service was attentive, smiling and friendly. Perfect 10.

NOT: Dang @ Ben's Thai at The Robert Browning, 15 Clifton Rd, Maida Vale

I have my doubts about Thai food being served in pubs (see Walmer Castle) and this restaurant confirmed those doubts. An almost empty dining room on pub quiz night should have been a warning. It's not that the food was awful, it was just boring and mediocre - food that could have come out of a jar ("chop chicken, add vegetables and pour over sauce") and 'hot' was at best 'mild'.

HOT: Charlie Wilson’s War, Electric Cinema

I have to confess that most of the story went over my head – American-Afghani politics is not my forte and the quickfire yet mumbled dialogue didn’t help. However, when I was awake (those couches at the Electric are sooo comfortable!) the film was quite enjoyable thanks to Phillip Seymour Hoffman and despite Tom Hanks not being completely believable as the debauched congressman.

HOT: War Horse, National Theatre

It must be pretty good theatre if a puppet can make me cry. This isn’t your usual WW1 story - instead of focusing on soldiers, the main character is a horse and the supporting storyline is his boy owner’s search for him through the trenches of France. The most awesome thing was the ability of the puppeteers to imbue emotion into their puppets, such that you forgot that they were made of wood and plastic.

HOT: Sherlock Holmes Museum 221b Baker Street, London

I’ve always been a massive fan of Sherlock Holmes, and it seems that he has a large audience in Japanese girls and Eastern European men as well judging from the clientele of his museum. Pretty small for £6 entry (given the National Gallery and Tate Modern et al are free) but the kitsch mannequins are pretty frightening. The best bit though was the cute scrapbook with letters to Mr Holmes from people from all around the world wanting their mysteries solved, including a letter from HM Revenue and Customs wanting to know his current address for tax purposes.

HOT: Xin at Harrods 87-135 Brompton Road, Knightsbridge

Harrods Food Hall definitely makes my London ‘to do’ list although for lunch can be a bit of a bunfight. Nevertheless, we managed to find two low stools at Xin and enjoyed some not-bad yum cha and pretty jasmine flowering tea.

HOT: The Art of Lee Miller, Victoria and Albert Museum

Beautiful Lee Miller certainly led an amazing life as a model, photographer and muse. In particular, I thought her photographs of Egypt were beautiful, her stories and photographs for Vogue during WWII quite moving and stark and her photo-essay of her friends at work in her house was amusing.

HOT: Out of the Ordinary: Spectacular Craft, Victoria and Albert Museum

I really enjoyed this free exhibition – the premise is that the use of craft to create art. I loved the massive red paper chains hanging from the walls, the old wooden table with ‘paint’ splashes (inlaid pearl) and dirty dust-sheets embroidered ‘paint’ splatters and the moulds of various parts of the body. Some of it is hard to explain so you’ll have to see it for yourself!

HOT: Yauatcha, 17 Broadwick Street Soho

I'd been wanting to try this glamorous yum cha joint ever since Huy showed me its window display of dainty desserts in my first week of London. It didn't disappoint - fragrant tea and beautifully made little morsels served by waitresses who all looked like Singapore Airlines hostesses. A bit more expensive than your usual yum cha scrum (hence very few Asians inside), but nice for a special lunch occasion.

HOT: Lord of the Rings Musical

The staging and special effects are amazing, the dancing and acrobatics are energetic and the incidential music creates the right atmosphere of doom and gloom for this adventuare into Middle Earth. Unfortunately it's let down by the terrible songs and twee scripting, especially in the cobbled-together love story between Strider and Arwen.

HOT: TEA, Liberty of London, Regent Street

Three tiers of sandwiches (average), warm fruit scones with clotted cream and organic jam (great), three large pieces of cake (yes yes yes!) and a pot of tea pured into beautiful bone china set me back £17 for lunch, but what the heck - high tea in the tea room at Liberty’s was a congratulations to myself for my new job!

HOT: Enchanted, Odeon Whiteleys

I couldn't believe it when I read rave reviews about this kitsch Disney Christmas romcom, but given the other movie options on offer, off I went. Your standard fairytale cast was assembled - beautiful princess, the supposed prince charming, the real prince charming, evil stepmother, talking chipmunk. The film was quite charming, especially the Central Park song and dance number, although Tim slightly ruined the magic by whispering 'She's HOT' when the princess appeared.