Restaurants in London

[nlt46]

We ate at a Fish and Chips place by the Tower of London and got food poison. I don't recommend it. Try Trip Advisor too. I get a lot of help there for trips. ( No one recommended the Fish and Chips place.... we just picked it up at closing.) Nancy

[daffodiliaz]

I'm booked on the Jewel leaving Miami 4/17/09 then taking the bus into London for 4 days. Do you know of any good restaurants that have good food but are not too expensive? You can contact me at hagwas@aol.com. Thanks for your help.

 

Everything in London is too expensive. We were there last May and I kept having to remind myself that a 10 pound (money) meal was equivalent to $20. And most restaurants don't give free drink refills. 10 pounds sounds reasonable, $20 not so much.

 

It may be helpful for you to check out http://www.tripadvisor.com. On there London board there are tons of Londoners ready to answer your qqq, just like the experts here on Cruise Critic. It's an excellent resource.

[negc]

Everything in London is too expensive. We were there last May and I kept having to remind myself that a 10 pound (money) meal was equivalent to $20. And most restaurants don't give free drink refills. 10 pounds sounds reasonable, $20 not so much.

 

That was also the case when we were there in September, 2008 and many of the advertised prices looked very similar to what you would expect to see on a menu in a US restaurant, until you realized the effect of the exchange rate made your cost almost twice what it appeared to be. However, recently there has been a significant improvement in the exchange rate and that 10ƒ charge would now only be about $14.60 - still more expensive but certainly more reasonable. Who knows what the rate will be by the time we return to England this September, but whatever it is, London is still a great city to visit and there are a lot of free things that you can do while you are there.:)

[Griller]

We ate at a Fish and Chips place by the Tower of London and got food poison. I don't recommend it. Try Trip Advisor too. I get a lot of help there for trips. ( No one recommended the Fish and Chips place.... we just picked it up at closing.) Nancy

 

How strange - fish and chips is rarely a cause for concern for food poisoning as the cooking temperature is quite high and its served straightaway.

 

However on my last visit to Plano Texas we got quite sick after dining at a place called Kobe Sushi and Teppanyaki or similar. Probably the sushi.

[bilgeboy]

We tend to use PizzaExpress - a great chain of restaurants throughout England and there are lots of them in London. They are all individual in spite of being a chain, and will reflect the building or the area in which they are situated. Their menu lists pizzas (of course) including a top chef's specialties designed for Pizza Express. They also list a range of salads. A main course is less than £10. They serve a good Italian beer, wine, soft drinks (their lemonade is to be recommended).

Hope this is of help - Bilgeboy

[woodley]

Pub meals are usually the best value for money and many pubs have a wide range of choices together with traditional fare such as Ploughmans lunch, steak and kidney pie or pudding, roast dinner, bangers and mash and fish and chip.

[littlestars]

If you can find a Weatherspoons ~ they usually do good 'pub grub' which will be reasonably priced.

 

Wagamama is worth trying just for the experience too :)

 

Have fun!

[Carnac767]

If you can find a Weatherspoons ~ they usually do good 'pub grub' which will be reasonably priced.

 

Wagamama is worth trying just for the experience too :)

 

Have fun!

 

Amen to the Weatherspoons comment. I fly to London once or twice a week and always have breakfast at the The Tyburn (near Marble Arch). It's a Weatherspoon pub. Full English breakfast for less than four pounds. That's the best deal in town. Avoid their beer and burger lunch, though--beer is great, burger is awful.

 

Pubs are great place to find good and reasonably priced food. A couple of my favorites are The Swan, on Bayswater Road, and The Albert, at the corner of Victoria and Buckingham Gate. The Albert's carvery in the evening is terrific. Two pubs with a great atmosphere and really good Thai food are the Windsor Castle, Crawford Place off of Edgware Road; and the Churchill Arms, on Kensington Church Street. I could go on and on, because there are a ton of great places to eat in London and now that the exchange rate has improved, you can find a lot of places with prices that are reasonable.

[lauraleigh9mm]

If you are looking for deals, we found several at lastminute com on the UK site. We got dinner and tickets to the Blue Man Group for 29 pounds. We had wanted to see them in Vegas, but the tickets were $80+. We had to go to London to get a deal!

[Toyz711]

i agree, the pubs are GREAT! some has a small buffet...the prices are for 1 meal item and your choice of veggies, others have a small menu for the day, some have regular menus.

we would just walk around and were, always, able to find good food or a nice pub in whatever area we were in.

[gogfish]

Amen to the Weatherspoons comment. I fly to London once or twice a week and always have breakfast at the The Tyburn (near Marble Arch). It's a Weatherspoon pub. Full English breakfast for less than four pounds. That's the best deal in town. Avoid their beer and burger lunch, though--beer is great, burger is awful.

 

Pubs are great place to find good and reasonably priced food. A couple of my favorites are The Swan, on Bayswater Road, and The Albert, at the corner of Victoria and Buckingham Gate. The Albert's carvery in the evening is terrific. Two pubs with a great atmosphere and really good Thai food are the Windsor Castle, Crawford Place off of Edgware Road; and the Churchill Arms, on Kensington Church Street. I could go on and on, because there are a ton of great places to eat in London and now that the exchange rate has improved, you can find a lot of places with prices that are reasonable.

 

As a Brit I would avoid any Weatherspoons for food, They are a large chain so yes it`s cheap but not good example of pub food. I don`t go to London much so can`t say good places to eat.

[bilgeboy]

Further to that which I posted earlier ......

You can go on to their website and check out the menu before you go - go to http://www.pizzaexpress.com which will let you see the menu and where their restaurants are.

Another restaurant I used to use when I was working in the West End is The Stockpot (which is opposite The Comedy Theatre in Panton Street). If you have the time go to http://www.allinlondon.co.uk - this website should give you lots of info.

If you plan to see a show whilst in London, don’t buy a full price ticket - and watch out for the ‘unofficial’ official cut price booths. The ‘proper’ Society of West End Theatres Booth is actually IN Leicester Square - NOT in the streets approaching the square. The best shows in town are probably “Billy Elliott” playing at Victoria, “Priscilla, Queen of the Desert - The Musical” which has just opened at the Palace Theatre. This musical opened in Sydney, Australia and then moved to Melbourne, and the leading actor (Tony Sheldon who, incidently is Helen Reddy’s nephew) is now appearing in London, so you could catch the show before Broadway audiences. “Sunset Boulevard”, (in a cut-down version , similar to and by the same company that produced the small production of “Sweeney Todd” that took Broadway by storm a couple of seasons ago) is at the Comedy Theatre very near to Leicester Square. Judi Dench is appearing at Wyndhams Theatre. Always go to the theatre ticket booth an hour before the performance starts or ask for the day’s cut price ticket - “Billy Elliott” & “Sunset” tickets can be had for £25.

Ask for me on the Jewel if you want more info on London ...

[bulgargirl]

If you like Indian food, I love Kahn's over in Bayswater. Just get off the tube, make a left, walk down past the shopping center and you'll smell it.

 

VERY affordable for London. There is another good Indian Restaurant not far from it that's called, I believe, The Indian Restaurant.

 

Pubs have some very decent deals as well. I also liked Ask. It's a chain of italian places. Their food is super cheap and decent.

 

I was a student in London for 2 years. Exchange rate can bite you in the butt, but these were places I could afford to eat at as a student.

[negc]

Further to that which I posted earlier ......

You can go on to their website and check out the menu before you go - go to www.pizzaexpress.com which will let you see the menu and where their restaurants are.

Another restaurant I used to use when I was working in the West End is The Stockpot (which is opposite The Comedy Theatre in Panton Street). If you have the time go to www.allinlondon.co.uk - this website should give you lots of info.

If you plan to see a show whilst in London, don’t buy a full price ticket - and watch out for the ‘unofficial’ official cut price booths. The ‘proper’ Society of West End Theatres Booth is actually IN Leicester Square - NOT in the streets approaching the square. The best shows in town are probably “Billy Elliott” playing at Victoria, “Priscilla, Queen of the Desert - The Musical” which has just opened at the Palace Theatre. This musical opened in Sydney, Australia and then moved to Melbourne, and the leading actor (Tony Sheldon who, incidently is Helen Reddy’s nephew) is now appearing in London, so you could catch the show before Broadway audiences. “Sunset Boulevard”, (in a cut-down version , similar to and by the same company that produced the small production of “Sweeney Todd” that took Broadway by storm a couple of seasons ago) is at the Comedy Theatre very near to Leicester Square. Judi Dench is appearing at Wyndhams Theatre. Always go to the theatre ticket booth an hour before the performance starts or ask for the day’s cut price ticket - “Billy Elliott” & “Sunset” tickets can be had for £25.

Ask for me on the Jewel if you want more info on London ...

 

We used one of the ticket vendors on one of the streets just off Leicester Square when the official booth wasn't selling tickets to the shows we wanted to see and we were quite happy with the discounted price and the seats that we managed to secure by dealing with them. In the past several years we were able to get great seats for Chicago, Fame, The Producers, and Spamalot and paid much less than we would have had to pay in Boston or NYC. In September we hope to see either Wicked or Jersey Boys and, while we will try the official booth first, we won't hesitate to check with the other vendors as well. BTW on our first stay in London we were at the London Renaissance Chancery Court and were first introduced to Pizza Express which has a location right across High Holborn Street. Since then we try to eat at one of their restaurants at least once during our time in London.

[sjbdtz]

Go to SOHO, and pick almost any place....the added benefits of:

 

a) people-watching

 

b) being very close to the West End, if you want to see a show

[SuiteTraveler]

For lunch, go to Harrod's department store and eat at one of the several restaurants in their food court. You just queue up - no reservations necessary. It's the quintessential London experience and very remarkable and inexpensive - you can also buy all sorts of food in the food court and make your own. For dinner, I suggest you try the Lebanese restaurant that is located on the sidestreet next to the Sheraton Park Tower Hotel in (just down the street from Harrods). From the street, Knightsbridge, facing the hotel, walk to the left hand side of the hotel and look left and you will see the restaurant. I don't remember the name, but the food is quite good and very inexpensive for London.

[wadsworth]

Thanks for all the great suggestions! We will definitely check these out!

[itzmered]

For lunch, go to Harrod's department store and eat at one of the several restaurants in their food court. You just queue up - no reservations necessary. It's the quintessential London experience and very remarkable and inexpensive - you can also buy all sorts of food in the food court and make your own. For dinner, I suggest you try the Lebanese restaurant that is located on the sidestreet next to the Sheraton Park Tower Hotel in (just down the street from Harrods). From the street, Knightsbridge, facing the hotel, walk to the left hand side of the hotel and look left and you will see the restaurant. I don't remember the name, but the food is quite good and very inexpensive for London.

 

Harrods food was fabulous! We also ate in several pubs and really enjoyed the food. Huge portions so it was well worth the money we paid for it.

[pould]

Where abouts in London are you staying?

[richelen]

butlers wharf along by tower bridge is a great place to eat.

 

i would recommend all bar one, standard pub fare, bengal clipper is a fantastic indian and a great italian is opposite the london design museum on the same stretch. a few more expensive restaurants and a pizza express is in the vicinity.

 

if you cross the bridge south bank side, stand with the bridge behind you and look left that is butlers wharf.

 

with regards to cost £10 pounds is cheap for a meal in the uk. you will pay about 7-15 pounds in the ones above.

 

with todays exchange rate it would be about 10-18 dollars not the 14-30 as it was last year when it was 2 dollars to the pound it is only 1.4 to the pound now.

[Globaliser]

Do you know of any good restaurants that have good food but are not too expensive?

You're only narrowing down the choice in London to several thousand places to eat. Do you have any more specific ideas of what you'd like? Type of cuisine, for example?

 

And can you define "not too expensive"? Most Londoners I know regard Pizza Express and Wagamama as chain places to fill up cheaply when you can't be bothered to make any dinner at home; we wouldn't call them as "good restaurants" by any stretch of the imagination (we'd barely regard them as real "restaurants"). But they are two of the best fill-up chains that we have. Other good ones include Nandos for South African/Portuguese grilled chicken, and Gourmet Burger Kitchen (which does what its name says). Another reasonably reliable standby is Cafe Rouge, which pretends to be "French bistro" (but is far inferior to a small newish chain called Cote, which is just starting to branch out into the West End).

 

Wetherspoons is a chain of discount pubs, some of which can be downright dingy. Most "pub grub" these days just comes straight out of the back of a chiller lorry, having been delivered straight from a bulk food-making factory. Much of it is intended to be quickly "cooked" by inexperienced and unskilled "chefs" in the pub - microwave or "sous vide" (boil-in-the-bag). And, therefore, I wouldn't eat most of what's served in most pubs, unless there's no reasonable option, eg we're all hanging out in the pub for hours and it's a question of either eat there or go hungry. There are notable exceptions: the Anchor and Hope on The Cut, by Southwark Tube for example, or the Eagle on Farringdon Street; but you need to know what you're doing.

 

For more recommendations, you might try the British Isles forum, where London restaurants are frequently discussed (and where this thread probably really belongs anyway).

Everything in London is too expensive. We were there last May and I kept having to remind myself that a 10 pound (money) meal was equivalent to $20. And most restaurants don't give free drink refills. 10 pounds sounds reasonable, $20 not so much.

£10 is now equivalent to about $15.

 

And remember what you get for a £10 meal: £10 includes the food and the tax, and the service charge or tip expected will be between £1 and £1.50 (and no more than that). So you would pay no more than $17 in total.

 

In the US, a $14 meal would then attract a further $1-$2 added on in tax, and then $2-$4 in tips, thus potentially taking you up to $20.

 

Or, in other words, the US restaurant price equivalent of a £10 meal is probably more like $11 or $12. That is the real comparison - those numbers produce the same total spend.