Mums, ever-discerning and always deserving of a treat, are notoriously difficult to please. But the day need not be too worrying.
This Mother’s Day, take her for afternoon tea, to a gallery, to a show. This guide will inform you of the best options going to ensure she has a spectacular time.
The obvious choice: afternoon tea at Mariage Frères
This year, Mariage Frères, founded in Paris in 1854, is celebrating its 170th anniversary. Now happily trading in London, the “world’s most exclusive purveyor of luxury teas” — there are around 1,000 varieties stocked, many of them rare — has brought its classic savoir-faire to Covent Garden. Afternoon teas are also available in a five-storey Georgian townhouse, with sandwiches, pastries and desserts on offer. There is also champagne.
38 King Street, WC2E 8JS, coventgarden.london
The lunch: Rambutan
Rambutan was a standout opening last year. At her Borough Market restaurant, chef Cynthia Shanmugalingam serves diaspora Sri Lankan food and dishes are cooked over an open fire. There might be dosas with coriander sambol, buttermilk fried chicken, Dorset mussel sodhi (stew), and black pork dry curry, all to be enjoyed alongside fun cocktails and a keen selection of affordable wines. Your mum will love it.
10 Stoney Street, SE1 9AD, rambutanlondon.com/
The gallery: Royal Academy
The Royal Academy has brought together more than 100 contemporary and historical works for Entangled Pasts, 1768-now, “as part of a conversation about art and its role in shaping narratives of empire, enslavement, resistance, abolition and colonialism — and how it may help set a course for the future.” Included are the likes of J.M.W. Turner, Ellen Gallagher, Joshua Reynolds, and Yinka Shonibare. This newspaper gave the exhibition four stars, dubbing it a “complex and enthralling show”.
Burlington House, Piccadilly, W1J 0BD, royalacademy.org.uk/
The exhibition: Moonwalkers with Tom Hanks
Hollywood star Tom Hanks narrates an immersive show at the Lightroom in King’s Cross, offering a new perspective on humankind's exploration to the moon, past, present and future. There are stories of the Apollo missions, insight into impending crewed surface missions, and a look at the Artemis programme, including interviews with astronauts. There might be no better place than the Lightroom, where visuals and sound are used to powerful effect, to examine our celestial neighbour.
12 Lewis Cubitt Square, N1C 4DY, lightroom.uk
The theatre: Nye at the National Theatre
On many occasions Nye Bevan has been described as the politician with the greatest influence on our country without ever being Prime Minister. Here, the Welshman is portrayed by Michael Sheen, who takes audiences on a surreal, if spectacular journey through Bevan’s life and legacy — a man who transformed the welfare state, battled Churchill in Westminster, and founded our famous NHS.
Southbank, SE1 9PX, nationaltheatre.org.uk
The dinner: Bébé Bob
Bébé Bob is the casual sister restaurant to Soho’s ever-frivolous Bob Bob Ricard. It isn’t short of glamour and sophistication: there, chicken from Vandes or Landes in France is served as rotisserie, with good fries; caviar and champagne are optional but — at least on Mother’s Day — probably necessary extras. The space is chic and the service refined, and so there are few better restaurants within which to entertain without having to overthink things.
