Decent waffles?

Balthazar on Russell Street in Covent Garden does a decent brunch waffle. It's a proper yeasted batter, comes with fresh fruit and cream rather than some syrupy mess, and the texture holds up. About 14 quid, but you're paying for the room being nice and the service being actually professional, not just someone handing you a plate from the microwave.

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honestly for proper belgian waffles try Le Pain Quotidien on regent street near oxford circus. they do a decent liege waffle with pearl sugar that actually has texture, not the soggy frozen kind. costs about 8 quid but you get real dough not batter. the one on marylebone high street is less busy if u can be bothered to walk a bit

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try duck & waffle near liverpool street if u want something different. it's not a dessert thing, it's crispy confit duck leg on a waffle with mustard maple syrup, proper savoury & sweet balance. not cheap, like 20 quid, but the waffle itself is good quality, not that sad frozen stuff. they're open 24hrs too which is handy if u get a late craving

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SpareRoom's "rooms wanted" ads are underrated for this. people post what they're currently paying alongside what they want next, so you can scrape a rough sense of going rates by postcode without anyone knowing you looked. it skews young and flatshare heavy tho, so not much use if you're after 2-beds in zone 2.

Another one is just the depozit or tenancy deposit scheme data. not public-facing, but your council's housing officer can tell you median rents from deposit registrations if you email them under FOI. takes weeks, but its proper anon and nobody clocks u.

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Rightmove and Zoopla only show asking rents, which are often 10 to 15 percent above what a place actually goes for, so they're a poor benchmark. The trick I've used is the ONS Price Index of Private Rents, which breaks things down to borough level and is genuinely anonymous since it's aggregate data, no listing or account needed. For something more granular, the London Renters Union runs a rent reporting tool where you submit what you're paying with your postcode and it maps it against others nearby, though the coverage is patchy outside the inner boroughs.

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the openrent "rent check" thing is decent for zones 3-4 where the unions tool barely reaches. also worth checking the london.gov.uk planning portal for new build applications, they list "affordable" and market rent figures per unit in the viability assessments, which is basically the developer telling the council what they expect to charge. bit of a faff to dig through but its public, anonymous & nobody knows ur looking

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