How Vana chooses
The Guide is small on purpose. We don’t list every place in London. We list the ones we’d actually send a friend to, and we leave the rest out. That’s the whole idea.
We go, then we decide
Every place here has been through a real read. We look at who actually goes, and whether the thing itself, not just the room, is the reason to turn up. A good-looking room with average food doesn’t make it in. A high rating on its own doesn’t either. A rating tells you a place has fans. It doesn’t tell you we’d send you there.
We lean towards what you don’t already know
Somewhere that’s on every list and every tourist map has to be properly exceptional to earn a spot, because you can find it without us. The real finds, the ones worth building a day around, are what we’re here for.
What doesn’t make it
A place doesn’t appear because a brand pushed it or paid for a spot. Gloss with nothing behind it stays out, and so do the obvious defaults dressed up as discovery. If we wouldn’t recommend it to someone whose taste we respect, it isn’t here.
On money
Our picks aren’t paid placements. Everything in the Guide is chosen on its merits. If that ever changes for a particular place, you’ll see it clearly marked as a Partner, so you always know what you’re looking at.
When we’re invited
Places offer press invitations, and sometimes we take one. It buys nothing. An invitation doesn’t get somewhere into the Guide, and it doesn’t keep it there. The card is written the same way either way, and if the evening doesn’t hold up, there is no card.
When we know the people
London is small and we know people in it. Where someone here has a stake in a place, a friendship or work we have done together, we write it down before the decision rather than after. If the connection is close enough to change the answer, the place stays out. That rule costs us places we like.
We keep it current
We check. When a place closes, or loses what made it worth the trip, it comes off. You shouldn’t have to double-check what we show you. That’s the point of a guide.
When we get it wrong
We get things wrong. Hours change, and a verdict that was true in March can be wrong by August. Every place and every In Season card carries a line at the bottom that reads “Something wrong with this card?”. Tell us there and we check it against the venue and fix what is wrong. You can also write to hello@vanalondon.com. We keep a record of what changed and when.
Asking to come off
If you run a place and you would rather it wasn’t in the Guide, write to hello@vanalondon.com and we’ll take it down. We don’t ask for a reason.
Everything here is something we’d send a friend.