English Cuisine

Flowers in Mayfair

Now I'm not going to turn this into a food blog, a not quite nigella I am not, but I've been impressed with the quality of British food here. Steer clear of the Asian except for very particular, well known spots, but the British has been OK, albeit a little salty at times.

The gastro-pub has really taken off here, just around where we live there are a number of good looking pubs/restaurants that I really want to try, and the whole suburb of Farringdon is apparently full of them.

But for now I'm going to mention a place we went to when we first moved here which is really letting down the scene.  The english pig was a restaurant directly below where we were staying in our temporary accommodation.  I think a few people from my work have ended up eating there, as when you first move to London you aren't quite up on the eating scene yet, and you are staying literally above it.  It certainly looks nice from the outside and for the prices it charges you think it can't be terrible.

Their main claim is that they use free-range, organic pork from this particular farm, which is great, but if you go on about how great the quality of your ingredients are you really shouldn't burn your pork belly.  I also couldn't even finish my dessert, the idea itself was kind of cool, a chocolate pudding served in a flower pot, but it was so incredibly rich that you feel like you're falling into a chocolate coma less than halfway through.  It is crying out for some cream to balance it, either that or a portion a quarter of the size.

I suppose it wouldn't be so bad if we hadn't paid full price, I think the vast majority of people eating there were on discount vouchers.  And if that's the case it's probably a nice enough night out.  But if you don't have a voucher and want a place to eat in that area then I would give The Easton a go.  OK so their web site needs a bit of development, but the food was great, reasonably priced and the staff were all super-friendly.  They even checked google maps for us when we needed directions after dinner. 

Water feature in Mayfair

Whilst I was unimpressed with the english pig, I don't think it's the worst place we have eaten at, I think that award goes to Munchkins, and we didn't even end up eating there.   If you ever want to see a tourist trap restaurant it doesn't get any more archetypal than Munchkins.  I think the only thing saving it is the fact that it is directly across from the entrance to the British History Museum, because it is getting zero repeat customers.  You walk inside and there are about a third too many tables, you are shown a table where you literally can't pull the chair out far enough to get in.  You choose another table and then have to move when a larger party turns up and the wait staff wants that table in order to seat them.  We give our order, wait 30 minutes, ask after the food, find out the waitress, who is also the chef, has forgotten to cook it and it will be another 20 minutes.  At that point you pay for your cups of tea and get out as fast as you can!

Basically if you are visiting London then we have found that pubs are good, restaurants are bad.  Stick with that rule and you shouldn't go too far wrong.