Wednesday, 18 July 2012

Win a £250 shopping spree in JOY with the Domestic Sluts!

If someone was to ask you about your very favourite London shops, what would they be? Would you share your favourite little jewellery boutique, that wonderful little shoe shop you found? Or maybe it's the old sweet shop that you always have to visit.

Zagat want your opinions, so they can share the very best of London shopping!

We've teamed up with the discerning folk at Zagat to bring you a fabulous £250 shopping spree at JOY. You'll get to spend the afternoon with us playing dress up and then we'll take you for cocktails to round off your day.

Sound like the best ever way to spend your Saturday? Then head over to the Zagat minisite and sign up to tell them about your favourite (and not so favourite) London shops. Get voting and reviewing and on July 31st Zagat will pick the most deserving winner for the prize (more details over on their terms and conditions). Then... SHOPPING!

Of course, you don't need to live London to enter, we know lots of you like to visit! As long as you're living in the UK, you can enter and share your opinions. We'll even pay for your train fare.

Obviously the Domestic Sluts are fans of seeking out the very best in London and then banging on about them with anyone who will listen sharing them with you guys, here's the lowdown of what we're loving in London right now.

Sian: The very wonderful Hoxton Street Monster Supplies is top of my list right now. There's also a tiny little Greenwich cafe called Le Fleur with a secret garden and a snooty French cat called Mimi. If you're after posh cocktails and you're a bit bored of the usual, The Donovan Bar in Brown's Hotel is really special and not mentioned nearly enough in London cocktail guides.

Hazel: New pub The Thatched House in Hammersmith should definitely be on the top of your list of great places to go for amazing food and drinks at good prices (quick before everyone finds out about it!). I also adore The Chin Chin Laboratorists in Camden who make the most creatively flavoured ice creams such as Deep Fried Apple Donut flavour using liquid nitrogen, how cool is that?

Sara: Streatham has some hidden gems. New restaurant Beyrouths serves up tasty, well priced Middle Eastern food. Bring your own wine and enjoy a platter of grilled marinated lamb and chicken, or work your way through their plentiful veggie options. Then pop to Pratts and Payne, a beautiful pub with lots of real ale if that's your thing. It's named after long-gone Pratts department store and local resident (and brothel madam) Cynthia Payne. The decor is themed around both of them. I'll say no more.

Frances: Like Sara, I'm very proud of my south London neighbourhood. I'm hoping for (just one!) sunny evening this year, so I can visit Frank's and make the most of its campari and amazing views. Till then you'll find me in Brixton Village, deciding what delicious cafe to visit next. If I'm forced to make a visit to north London I'm a huge fan of Camden Passage. It's got beautiful vintage clothing, gorgeous homewares in Smug and Issy's Milky Way, a retro ice cream parlour.

Laura: I'm not a London girl but there are some places I simply have to visit every time I'm in the area.  Cybercandy was my first ever London love - I go to their Covent Garden store to stock up on Twinkies and offensively-labelled gum. Then I might mooch over to Soho and visit the adorable Yumchaa tea shop where I can smell the lovely loose teas before I make my choice. Lastly South Ken is home to The Sampler - my new favourite London wine shop because of their sample card: top it up with credit, and then you can pay to try any wine before you buy it, whether it's an everyday viognier or a 1961 Bordeaux.

Elizabeth: I'm a born and bred Londoner so my list could be rather long. But if I am on a whistle stop tour of London my secret favourite places are about to be not-so-secret. I would head to Bradley's Spanish Bar just off Oxford Street for a drink. It's kind of grimy and the basement bar sometimes smells weird. But the jukebox is amazing and I just always have a good time there. Then I would head to my favourite hidden Thai lunch place, Papaya, on St Anne's Court where you can buy a bargain box of Thai green curry and rice for about 4 quid. If the weather is nice then eating my takeaway Thai in Soho Square is excellent for people-watching. And then I'd finish the day back in South London in the Effra, a little Brixton boozer that regularly features reggae and ska bands just jamming in the corner.

Kat: Hurray! Just like Elizabeth I'm a born and bred Londoner too (barring a brief sojourn in the wilds of Hampshire, sssh). I moved to Camberwell last year and completely fell in love. It's wonderful: so many gorgeous pubs, a wonderful farmers market on the Green every first and third Saturday (reasonably priced duck eggs! Good bread! Plants I will inevitably kill if I take them home!). But my truest love is reserved for Myatt's Fields Park, which is not only utterly beautiful, but home to the marvellous volunteer-run Little Cat Café just over by the bandstand (music every Sunday in summer, tune fans). At the café you can find fantastic coffee from the Gaggia machine, salads, soups and more goodies courtesy of the Park's greenhouses, and even home-baked goods by the likes of yours truly. All the noms, they are in SE5.

Inspired? Head over the competition site and tell us your favourite shops, you might even be the lucky shopping spree winner!

This blimmin' amazing competition was sponsored by Zagat. That's dead nice of them. Our cocktail and transport budget is £100, so as long as you're in the UK we'll do our best to help you get to London. The official Zagat rules say you can only enter if you live in London, but they've let us bend them because they're mega nice. If you're in the UK and you're over 18, you're eligible. If the lucky winner lives far away and we run out of drinks money, then we'll drink Lambrini and eat Haribo. That's how we do picnics.

14 comments:

  1. I want the jumper in the picture! A cat wearing glasses! Amazing! (Too many exclamation marks. Very giddy.)

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  2. Are we allowed to enter our own competitions?! I want cocktails and shopping too! ;-)

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    1. Well you can just come shopping. You don't have to enter.

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    2. I can see this being like the Sluttery jumble sale. Who gets a bit tipsy and buys all the clothes? Siany and Frances.

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    3. We DO get tipsy and buy all of the clothes!

      Sadly it hasn't been sunny enough for me to wear my fabulous 'I own a bloody great yacht' dress.

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    4. oooh, I like the sounds of this dress.

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  3. Shopping. In Joy. AND cocktails. Bliss.
    You spoil us with these competitions!

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    1. I could probably spend £250 in Joy in half an hour.

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  4. Unless I'm reading the T&Cs incorrectly, it's only open (from Zagat's point of view) to those living in London and the Home Counties. I knew I should never have moved North! Good luck to everyone eligible.

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    1. Hi SarahC,

      You can still enter! Our terms are slightly different from Zagat's usually rules because we wanted all of our UK readers to be eligible. It's easier to change our terms than it is theirs - we don't have lots of lawyers, we don't even have anyone to make us tea.

      So go ahead and enter and maybe you'll be the lucky winner!

      Best of luck,
      Sian

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  5. I don't live in one of those regions and I entered and it wouldn't let me because I live in the wrong area!!!

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    1. Hi Anon,

      I've tested this - I've signed up with the postcode of my parents' house in North Wales! There's no reason why you postcode won't work if it's in the UK.

      Cheers,
      Sian

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