In the heart of Xinjiang, the Chinese region where more than one million Uyghurs are believed to be detained in re-education camps, two carefree British travel vloggers cheerfully introduce their viewers to “one of the most controversial areas” of the country.
Journalists are harassed and heavily monitored in the rugged western province, where Western governments and rights groups have accused the authorities of suppressing Muslim minorities through mass surveillance, abuse and political indoctrination.
But foreign YouTube influencers are warmly welcomed by the normally censor-happy Chinese government, which seizes on their happy-go-lucky content to legitimise its own narrative that no human rights abuses are taking place.
“Nice, fancy Mustangs,” says one of the British vloggers, admiring sports cars on the streets of Xinjiang’s capital Urumqi. “It’s like a normal city, so what’s all the hype about? Negative hype as well. I don’t understand that,” he says.
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It’s a message that chimes well with China’s own state propaganda machine.
As the country reopens for travel after years of pandemic isolation, foreign influencers, including many Brits, are heading East armed with cameras and tripods, eyeing an increasingly lucrative YouTube market with an eager audience ready to increase their ratings.
The Chinese government has given them a helping hand with a raft of new visa-free policies, and the country received over 17 million foreign travellers in the first seven months of this year, up by almost 130% year-on-year, according to foreign ministry figures.
“I myself have watched a good number of videos by foreign vloggers sharing their trips in China. I’m happy to see more and more foreign friends come to China and fall in love with China,” said Lin Jian, a foreign ministry spokesperson in August.
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Many marvel at the bright lights of Shanghai’s skyline, Beijing’s imperial palaces and the impressive high speed rail network.
But a growing number are entering lesser-known regions including Xinjiang, which for years has been beset by allegations of severe human rights abuses and repression that Beijing justifies as necessary to fight terrorism.
Some YouTubers setting foot in the rugged region attempt to draw viewers with sensational titles about exposing Western media “lies” about Xinjiang or by alluding to the risks of travelling there.
But they often stress they are not pushing any narrative other than to see Xinjiang with their own eyes and to offer their viewers authentic firsthand accounts.
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In a video titled “This is the XINJIANG the Western Media DON’T want you to see”, young Scottish couple Alan and Shannon explore Kashgar’s tourist district and dress in Uyghur traditional outfits for a photoshoot.
Another Briton, Mike Okay, 28, offers a grittier, and at times humourous experience as he hitchhikes through the province in search of a toilet or a carpark or campsite to sleep in. He documents multiple identity checks by police officers, surprised by his travel methods, but not unfriendly.
Some videos have more political undertones, explicitly contrasting their content with media reports.
In Urumqi, Tauseef Ahmed, with partner Libby Collins, comments that “if you relied on the Western media..then you wouldn’t normally hear anything positive,” and cites the oppression of Muslims as an example of typical accusations.
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As the couple walk through Urumqi, they point out mosques. They also comment on the higher number of surveillance cameras, but add: “if you haven’t done anything wrong then there is nothing to be worried about.”
There is no suggestion any of the vloggers are acting at the behest of the Chinese government or receiving its money, but titles about media deception echo official state messaging about the West’s perceived anti-China narrative, particularly on fundamental rights.
For China, the influx of influencers offers the opportunity to rebut overseas criticisms and reinforce its stance through highlighting the unimpeded visits of awestruck foreigners.
The footage, amplified by Chinese social media platforms and state-run outlets, receive hundreds of thousands of views and screeds of favourable comments.
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An increasing number of international vloggers were visiting Xinjiang “with great curiosity,” noted a recent article in the Global Times.
“A somewhat remote and mysterious region in China, Xinjiang is nonetheless a name constantly spotlighted in many Western media stories, which are usually filled with misinformation.”
It namechecks Mike Okay among several vloggers, highlighting a conversation with a campsite owner who says police checks are for his own safety.
It then rams home the government line that enhanced security in Xinjiang “is not an overreaction” due to the threat of terrorism from religious extremists and ethnic separatists.
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Mike Okay, who described his trip as a “wild adventure” with “incredible people” said he had tried hard to avoid politics and focus on simply showing a “relatively unexplored” part of the world.
“As a content creator when you sign up..you are putting your content out into the world. People are going to read it however they like. So of course it concerns me,” he said.
“My intention was not to go there and disprove anything. My intention was ‘what does it look like if a clueless relatively uneducated foreigner walks around Xinjiang with a camera’?”
Daria Impiombato, a cyber analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, has co-written several reports on China’s multilayered ways of folding local and foreign influencers into its propaganda strategy.
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She said vloggers with large platforms had a responsibility to inform themselves and to be sceptical.
“There needs to be a reckoning with that type of platform,” she said. “It’s like influencers who are going to Syria, just doing travel vlogs from Syria without talking about years and years of war and devastation. You can’t do that, and you can’t do that in Xinjiang either.”
But she stopped short of saying influencers should not go to Xinjiang, adding that some videos offered nuggets of valuable information.
Australian couple Michael and Josie, the creators of “josieliftsthings”, a YouTube channel with nearly 1m followers, raise questions in their Xinjiang video about the destruction of historical buildings in Kashgar and observe that the town centre appears to be set up for tourists.
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They said their frankness had generated “heat” from viewers and made the video less popular as it wasn’t purely positive.
YouTubers had realised that “pro-China” content attracted more views, making it more profitable, they said.
Chinese policemen push Uyghur women during a protest in 2009 after people took to the streets to protest against the arrest of their relatives – Guang Niu/Getty
“It’s a business decision and it comes down to whether you are honest about what you see or you are doing it for the cash,” said Michael.
“The reality of it is that it is a bit of a gold rush at the moment,” he said, adding that the couple were unlikely to return soon as the influencer scene had turned “a little bit ugly”.
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“I do get very disappointed when I see a lot of YouTubers who use human rights as bait for their content and then say something in their video like ‘I’m here and..it looks completely normal,” he said.
“We never say everything is fine because we don’t know that,” added Josie. Scottish YouTubers Alan and Shannon did not respond to requests for comment.
Tauseef Ahmed and Libby Collins declined an interview and permission to feature their content. In a previous interview with the New York Times, Mr Ahmed said he did not worry about how their content was used by Chinese propaganda or others.
“At the end of the day, people can give it any narrative they want. It’s just two people going around and recording their travel adventures,” he said.
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Maya Wang, the associate China director at Human Rights Watch, urged travellers to be more aware in societies suffering human right abuses and “not be complicit in the censorship and disinformation that the Chinese government hopes to achieve.”
But Prof Steve Tsang, the director of the SOAS China Institute, said vlogger videos were unlikely to sway already entrenched opinions about the Uyghurs.
The top priority for Chinese officials was how everything was seen in Beijing, he said.
“The propaganda machinery will be able to report back up the chain of command all the way through .. to Xi Jinping that we are doing it and doing it well, we are seizing and controlling the narrative.”
PHOENIX (AP) — The Arizona Supreme Court unanimously ruled Friday that nearly 98,000 people whose citizenship documents hadn’t been confirmed can vote in state and local races, a significant decision that could influence ballot measures and tight legislative races.
The court’s decision comes after officials uncovered a database error that for two decades mistakenly designated the voters as having access to the full ballot. The voters already were entitled to cast ballots in federal races, including for president and Congress, regardless of how the court ruled.
Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, a Democrat, and Stephen Richer, the Republican Maricopa County recorder, had disagreed on what status the voters should hold. Richer asked the high court to weigh in, saying Fontes ignored state law by advising county officials to let affected voters cast full ballots.
Fontes said not allowing the voters who believed they had satisfied voting requirements access to the full ballot would raise equal protection and due process concerns.
The high court, which leans Republican, agreed with Fontes. It said county officials lack the authority to change the voters’ statuses because those voters registered long ago and had attested under the penalty of law that they are citizens. The justices also said the voters were not at fault for the database error and also mentioned the little time that’s left before the Nov. 5 general election.
“We are unwilling on these facts to disenfranchise voters en masse from participating in state contests,” Chief Justice Ann Scott Timmer wrote in the ruling.
Of the nearly 98,000 affected voters, most of them reside in Maricopa County, which is home to Phoenix, and are longtime state residents who range in age from 45 to 60. About 37% of them are registered Republicans, about 27% are registered Democrats and the rest are independents or affiliated with minor parties.
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Arizona is unique among states in that it requires voters to prove their citizenship to participate in local and state races. Voters can demonstrate citizenship by providing a driver’s license or tribal ID number, or they can attach a copy of a birth certificate, passport or naturalization documents.
Arizona considers drivers’ licenses issued after October 1996 to be valid proof of citizenship. However, a system coding error marked nearly 98,000 voters who obtained licenses before 1996 — roughly 2.5% of all registered voters — as full-ballot voters, state officials said.
The error between the state’s voter registration database and the Motor Vehicle Division has since been resolved.
That number of votes could tip the scales in hotly contested races for the state Legislature, where Republicans hold a slim majority in both chambers.
Voters also are deciding on the constitutional right to abortion and on a state law that would criminalize noncitizens for entering Arizona through Mexico at any location other than a port of entry.
Though Richer and Fontes disagreed over the status of the voters, both celebrated the court’s ruling.
“Thank God,” Richer said on the social platform X. He told The Associated Press on Thursday that maintaining voters’ statuses would be administratively easier.
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Fontes, in a news release, called the ruling a “significant victory for those whose fundamental right to vote was under scrutiny.” Election officials will be contacting voters who need to update their proof of citizenship after the election, he said.
John Groseclose, who was among the voters whose citizenship was in question, said he was relieved he wouldn’t have to spend more time running around to resolve the mix-up.
Earlier this week, he said he waited an hour and a half at a motor vehicle office in Tempe only to find that the employee who attended to him was unaware of the issue and did not know how to update his voter registration — despite him providing an official birth certificate and new passport.
“I’m glad that none of us are going to be disenfranchised over an error generated by the MVD 20 some-odd years ago,” Groseclose told the AP.
Footage shot from the road shows a huge explosion at an arms depot near Tikhoretsk in Russia.
Ukraine said munitions from North Korea had been among those it was targeting.
The governor of the Krasnodar region confirmed it came under Ukrainian drone attack on Friday night.
He said debris from a drone had sparked a fire, which “spread to explosive objects” and caused detonations. Residents nearby had been evacuated, and nobody was reported injured.
Fresh allegations are being made about ex-Harrods boss Mohamed Al Fayed by a former worker who says her line manager “brushed it off” when she complained about inappropriate advances.
The woman, named Catherine, contacted the BBC after reports this week from other women saying they were sexually assaulted by the late billionaire.
Catherine said she was a 21-year-old Harrods employee when she was called into Fayed’s office where he made “uncomfortable” advances including kissing her on the forehead, inviting her to work in his office and saying he was her boyfriend.
Harrods’ current owners said earlier this week they were “utterly appalled” by the allegations and “victims were failed”.
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They said they were not aware of any allegations prior to 2023 but lawyers for the dozens of female complainants say that is “inconceivable” and argue the owners would have done due diligence checks when it bought the business in 2010.
Lawyers allege Fayed’s assaults happened around the world – including in the US, Canada, France, Malaysia and Dubai.
“It’s very much a global case, it’s not just the UK. It happened all over the world,” lawyer Bruce Drummond told the BBC.
For Catherine, she says her experience took place in Harrods’ flagship store in London.
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When she told her line manager about her incident, it was dismissed – and she regards it as one example of a wider culture of “collusion” at Harrods which enabled Fayed’s behaviour.
“I explained to [my line manager] what happened… and he just completely kind of brushed it off and was kind of like ‘oh you know, that’s just what he’s like’”, she told the BBC’s Radio 4 Today programme.
She had been “in a very junior role” when one weekendshe was told to bring store musicians up to Fayed’s office, after which he requested her immediate return.
“So then I went back up and we went into a little room at the back, just him and I,” she said.
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Fayed invited her to take a job in his office, she said – an offer she turned down because it was not in her area of expertise.
“He then held my hand and asked if I had a boyfriend and I sort of politely laughed and said yes.
“And he said ‘No, you don’t have a boyfriend, I’m your boyfriend you don’t need that donkey’ – which was strange and obviously I’m more and more uncomfortable by this point.”
She said Fayed then kissed her on the forehead, told her to think about the job and handed her £300 in cash – which she returned shortly after along with a formal rejection of the post.
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“He kissed me on the forehead. I know a lot of people have mentioned this whole thing about this fatherly approach but I have boundaries. It was horrible, and you know, holding my hand, being in very close proximity, was not normal,” she said.
She says she contacted the BBC this week to add to the weight of accusations against Fayed.
More than 20 women have told the BBC the businessman sexually assaulted or raped them while they worked at Harrods luxury department store in London.
A legal team is representing at least 37 women who have engaged in civil legal claims.They say they’ve received 150 new enquiries since the BBC’s investigation was published last week.
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Catherine said she felt her experience compared to the rape allegations “feels like absolutely nothing – but I think it’s important in kind of building up that evidence of a pattern of behaviour and culture.”
She condemned the workplace environment at Harrods which she said had allowed such actions to regularly happen – claims that have been rejected by the department store. Harrods was owned by Fayed from 1985 until 2010 and is now under new ownership – which said this week the company operated differently to how it had under Fayed.
Catherine told the BBC: “It was kind of known that he behaved in a certain way and preyed upon young women and young women were recruited to work on the shop floor or to work in his office.
“And that seemed to go without any kind of question.”
“I think that there were people at Harrods at the time who were enablers and they are as guilty as Fayed because they were not just passive onlookers. They were actually helping girl after girl into a total nightmare,” Catherine said.
She has called on “individuals” to be identified and “questioned on their collusion”.
“It is essentially grooming as the evidence suggests and they should face justice,” she added.
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Catherine’s testimony comes as more women speak out about Fayed’s behaviour. New details have also emerged of failed efforts by police and prosecutors to hold Fayed to account during his life.
The store’s new owners have said: “These were the actions of an individual who was intent on abusing his power wherever he operated and we condemn them in the strongest terms.”
“We also acknowledge that during this time his victims were failed and for this we sincerely apologise.”
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Mr Drummond, one of the lawyers for the women, said the number of allegations emerging were “huge”.
“This is the worst case of corporate sexual exploitation of young women that… probably the world has ever seen.”
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When Tupperware filed for bankruptcy this week, it put me in mind of a friend who recently asked me to return their biscuit container. No drama there. Man is born free, and if you’ve exercised that freedom to become the sort of man who’d ask for a used tissue back, well that’s none of my business.
The issue was that they asked me without warning, as we stood in the kitchen post-dinner party saying our goodbyes. And so I was forced to open The Cupboard — you know the one — and shatter the thin veneer of sophistication I had spent the evening polishing. Was theirs the container that now bore a tomato stain in the shape of Australia? The one stacked at the bottom of a gravity-defying reverse pyramid? A protracted search confirmed my suspicion that it was in fact the one now home to the laundry pegs.
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If I were to apportion blame for the embarrassment felt in that moment, I would lay it at the feet of Brownie Wise. In the late 1940s, in Florida, Wise started hosting home sale parties to shift Tupperware. She did it to combat technology resistance: viewed in a catalogue or in-store, people thought Earl Tupper’s newly patented containers would smell bad and be hard to seal.
But the parties, which became Tupperware’s most successful venture, sold more than pliable plastic: a vision of colour-coordinated cupboard harmony. “No unsightly half-used packages!” promised one ad, which showed a fridge in which even the milk was stored in matching pastel. Tupperware would satisfy “the woman’s demand for beauty” somewhere she’d not previously known she demanded it: her leftover lasagne.
In seeking bankruptcy protection, the company cited a “challenging macroeconomic environment” and consumers moving away from direct sales. One thing they could not cite was waning interest in beautifying hidden parts of the home.
“Smart” storage solutions are a booming sector, driven by influencers who demo ingenious solutions to household “problems” on their social channels: lazy Susans to organise condiments, mini peg rails to hang crisp packets on. On TikTok, there’s a whole sub-genre of “restock videos” in which people decant bathroom, cleaning or fridge products from the custom-designed packaging they were sold in into aesthetically harmonious containers.
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Like their party-hosting foremothers, these influencers are icons of a particular sort of empowerment. They have found a way to build status (and in some cases small fortunes) within the domestic sphere. But the rest of us should protect our chaos cupboards at all costs. Storage is the backstage area of the home and it doesn’t need to look “nice” any more than a sock drawer does.
How could it, when the forces of progress conspire against any attempt at order? Every month brings with it new takeaway containers that it would be a shame to waste, every Christmas a stocking full of beeswax food wraps and silicon bowl lids, every pickling project a new Mason jar. The “tupperware” most people own comes from a hundred knock-off brands, and it is an everyday miracle of engineering that not a single one of them can fit another’s lid.
I got a lesson in how to embrace this anarchy with style last week, when I spent the day in Angela Hartnett’s kitchen. Hartnett, a brilliant, successful and somewhat chaotic chef, revealed that when the tyranny of mismatched leftovers threatens to overwhelm her she a hosts a “freezer party” and invites the neighbours to help her consume the mystery contents of every zip-lock bag and deli container that’s been playing Jenga in the cold store. There are no grand promises that she’ll do “better” next time — she simply waits for the chaos to build again to breaking point.
To put it in terms a Utah momfluencer would appreciate, it’s time to give up on ever finding that missing lid and #blessthismess instead.
Australia’s Aaron Hardie removes Ben Duckett with a brilliant return catch before Liam Livingstone is dismissed the next ball by Alex Carey’s superb diving catch during the second ODI at Headingley.
As part of this weekend’s business lunch issue of the magazine, we asked FT staff and contributors for their favourite places to eat in and around the City, and which table they like to sit at. From hallowed institutions to secret gardens, here are their top picks.
For tradition
Arlington
It’s as if Le Caprice, formerly on this site, never left. Both the old and new restaurants are excellent for business. Perhaps it’s because it’s not easy to get a table, and there’s a cachet to having a good position, or because you’ll bump into well known business or celebrity faces, or simply that you’ll always have a delicious meal.
Nearest station: Green Park
Where to sit: Past the bar, second table on the right near the window (if you can get past the restaurant’s official policy of not reserving specific tables)
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— James Max, Rich People’s Problems columnist
Sweetings
Where better for a business lunch than a City stalwart that only opens on weekdays at lunchtime? Sweetings has been serving seafood to London’s bankers and brokers for well over a century. On a recent visit I ended up sat with a septuagenarian property investor who has been a regular for 50 years. After a few hours there you may lose track of which decade you are in, particularly if you order their signature drink, the Black Velvet, a heady mix of Guinness and champagne served in a pewter tankard. Stick to one if you need to return to the office afterwards, trust me.
Nearest station: Mansion House
Where to sit: There are no reservations at Sweetings. Sit where you’re told to
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— Robert Smith, corporate finance editor
Wiltons
For a couple of decades, I was too intimidated to enter Wiltons. I would pass the entrance fairly often on my way to and from The Economist’s old offices, and see red-faced men in double-breasted suits tumbling out after a long lunch. But when I finally dared to cross the threshold, it quickly became apparent to me that this was the ideal spot for a business lunch. The tables are widely spaced and the surrounding conversation rarely seems to rise above a polite murmur. The menu and wine list are agreeably predictable. Also, it’s expensive, so it’s really best if somebody else is picking up the tab. The red-faced old men no longer intimidate me. Perhaps I have become one myself?
Don’t come to Otto’s when it’s summer or if you’re doing dry January or if you’re pressed for time. Come when the days are drawing in, when you have a voracious appetite and you’re up for a lengthy lunch. Then sink into the red velvet banquettes (inspired by legendary Parisian establishment Maxim’s) and enjoy the best example of classic French dining this side of the Channel. Otto’s is most famous for its Canard à la Presse, a duck extravaganza spread out over three courses, and served, if you’re lucky, by owner Otto Tepasse. The restaurant commands a loyal following of local business people and lawyers, and is thankfully off the tourist track.
Nearest station: Chancery Lane
Where to sit: When asked, director Elin Hansen sent a breakdown of how she matchmakes every table. Table 1 is the “establishment table”; table 5 for lovers; table 4 for young people and table 9 for meetings
— Harriet Agnew, asset management editor
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The Delaunay
Noisy enough not to be easily overheard, but not so noisy you cannot be heard at all, this is the owners’ successful attempt to reapply the formula that made sister restaurant, The Wolseley, Piccadilly’s business-breakfast venue of choice. The Delaunay’s catchment area of Fleet Street, the Inns of Court and the City and an undemanding menu of mittel-European comfort food means it is usually full for lunch. Later, the networking and business gossip is leavened with pre- and post-theatre chat from the Covent Garden crowd.
Nearest station: Covent Garden
Where to sit: A booth near the window on the western side
— Andrew Hill, senior business writer
For food
Luca
Monkfish crudo, pickled beetroots, apple and horseradish buttermilk
My favourite spot for a business lunch is Luca, an Italian restaurant near Farringdon. The set menu in the bar area is the best value in a London Michelin-starred restaurant (£32 for two courses, £38 for three). The area is quickly becoming the hotspot destination for quality restaurants in the City. Nearby, Bouchon Racine has perfect lighting, good vibes and elegant food. Something about it just hits the spot. Best of all, you’ll never run into someone you know at either.
Nearest station: Farringdon
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Where to sit: Co-founder Daniel Willis says the best seat in the bar is the middle booth, table 103
— Arash Massoudi, finance and markets editor
Hawksmoor Guildhall
Red meat is very much on the menu at Hawksmoor Guildhall, the subterranean oak-panelled steakhouse that has become a City institution since opening in 2011. Its old-world charm is a big hit with foreign bankers, with low lighting, brown leather chairs and a well-stocked cocktail bar. And of course its famed steaks. More affordable deals are also available. A three-course meal is offered at lunchtime or early evening for £33. An ice-cold Shaky Pete’s, an ale and gin cocktail mixed with lemon juice and ginger, is well worth a try.
Nearest station: Bank
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Where to sit: Hawksmoor co-founder Huw Gott says his favourite tables across the London restaurants are table 45 at Wood Wharf (for two) and table 43 at Air Street (for four)
I stopped doing business lunches in 2008. Just the thought of being away from my desk for three hours in the middle of the day gives me indigestion. In the event I really, really like someone, however, I will concede to a meeting at St John, where I will expect my guest to share a Welsh rarebit and a big blousy green salad. The leaves are nightmarishly tricky to eat, hence the lunch will be a test of our relationship. Will you still love me when we fail to discuss any pressing professional matters whatsoever and I am covered in vinaigrette and bits of lettuce? That, my friend, is someone I can work with.
Nearest station: Farringdon
Where to sit: The bar, never the restaurant. (There are no reservations, but head chef Jonathan Whittle says he likes the tables to the side of the bar best)
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— Jo Ellison, HTSI editor and FT Weekend deputy editor
Hidden away in a pocket of Mayfair, this tiny restaurant packs a punch. Small plates, British produce and Indian-inspired dishes, but not as you know them. Best for one-on-one meetings, secret squirrel conversations or for those who like eating at the counter. It’s fine dining without the fustiness and business friendly without the suit-and-tie vibe. It’s hard to imagine any bad choices on the à la carte or tasting menus, with chaat and grilled selections that surprise and delight.
Nearest station: Marble Arch
Best seat: A booth
— Anjli Raval, management editor
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For privacy
Cloth
Cured bream with monks beard
I look for somewhere that’s buzzy but where you can talk without being overheard at the next table, which rules out most of London’s fancy but cramped restaurants. My new favourite lunch spot, if wine is involved, is Cloth on Cloth Fair. I have never liked the steely, shiny side of the City, and this is a nod to its far more ancient roots, a wine bar with amazing bottles and very good food (including proper non-aubergine-based choices for veggies like me) in an old townhouse in Smithfield.
Nearest station: Barbican
Where to sit: Director Joe Haynes says table 21 is the house favourite — near the entrance, next to the window
— Isabel Berwick, Working It host and editor
Kerridge’s Bar & Grill
Admittedly, the Embankment is not prime business lunch territory. But the upside is that the grand dining room at Kerridge’s Bar & Grill tends to be a discreet place to meet. The leather banquettes and club chairs even have half screens rising above them for further privacy. This is the place to go when you do not wish to be disturbed or overheard. The food is both precise and premium.
Nearest station: Embankment
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Where to sit: The restaurant declined to give numbers, but said that the best tables are two six-seaters referred to internally as the “Robi Walters tables”
— Malcolm Moore, energy editor
Toklas
Toklas has everything. Unfussy, tasty food served briskly. A Sydney-standard outdoor terrace. Well spaced tables, all the better for ears-only chat. And best of all, it’s down a side street, in a weird looking building, well off the beaten biz lunch track, so you will be very unlucky to bump into anyone you know. If you want to go cheap and cheerful, there’s also a Toklas bakery and café a few doors down.
Nearest station: Temple
Best seat: Maître d’ Alcides Gauto says the booths under the Wolfgang Tillmans are popular with regulars
I often want to meet people somewhere that will put them at ease. In a quiet, fairly random pocket of London, the Garden Café at the Garden Museum does just that. It is unpretentious, perhaps because it doesn’t need to manifest an identity when it somehow pulls off a restaurant, museum café, church graveyard and courtyard garden all at once. The food (modern British and European) is simple and exquisite. It is served in an airy yet intimate hideaway of copper-cladding, glass walls and lush planting. Best of all, most people don’t know it’s there.
Nearest station: Lambeth North
Where to sit: The red tables in the courtyard garden
If you work in the City, the trio of Enoteca da Luca modern Italian restaurants are the ideal spot for an understated get-together. My favourite is the compact Watling Street site, all smart banquettes and exposed brick, just round the corner from FT HQ. The Basinghall Street outpost, a short walk away near the Guildhall, has a similar vibe. Insurance workers in and around the Lloyd’s quarter can take advantage of a delightful outdoor terrace at the larger Devonshire Square site. The restaurants have slightly different menus, but all excel at a range of modern Italian classics, both tapas-style and full-size, with an excellent Italian wine list to boot.
Nearest station: Mansion House
Where to sit: At Watling Street, the cosy table in the rear left corner, table 18, is best for two
— Patrick Jenkins, deputy editor
Taberna Etrusca
I love Italy and particularly love Italian food, which, at its most enjoyable, is appetising, varied and unpretentious. So it is my good fortune that within a few minutes of the FT’s office in Friday Street is the Taberna Etrusca, dating from 1967, located in Bow Churchyard, run by Italians and styled as a classically Italian trattoria. Its food is also classically Italian, indeed Tuscan. I normally have an antipasto or pasta. If I am feeling greedy, I have both. I rarely have a secondo (main course). I like to finish my meal with vanilla gelato affogato — a gelato with espresso poured on top. Service is excellent and friendly.
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Nearest station: St Paul’s
Where to sit: The outdoor area, which you can enter from the back
A relatively new restaurant and florist tucked away down Bow Lane, in the heart of the City. Unlike many traditional business lunch haunts, the restaurant is light and airy and adorned with hanging plants and flowers, creating a little oasis of calm in the bustling financial district. The restaurant is small and intimate, but there is enough space between tables, helping to ensure a degree of privacy. It offers a decent wine list for those meetings that involve a tipple.
Nearest station: Mansion House
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Where to sit: Near the window looking out over Bow Lane, table 3 or 4 (the latter has a better view)
— Emma Dunkley, asset management reporter
Beigel Bake
I’ve always found that high-tone people don’t mind being taken to low-tone places. They feel a little edgy, a little free. Some of the most successful business lunches I’ve had were over salt-beef bagels (yes to pickles and mustard) from the bagel shop on Brick Lane with the white sign (not the yellow). One starched tablecloth is much like another, but a claggy hunk of cheesecake to follow your bagel — that’s memorable.
Nearest station: Shoreditch High St
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Where to sit: A park bench. There are several pocket parks in a five minute radius
— Josh Spero, associate arts editor
Much missed venues
Massimo at the Corinthia (2011-18)
“Fishy in the very best sense”
— Josh Spero
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Hush Holborn (1999-2023)
“Somewhere you could charge up your delicious lunch to expenses without anyone raising an eyebrow”
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