London has its reputation for bad food, but pre-trip research suggested the cuisine has greatly improved over the past 5-10 years. Using Yelp and our knowledgable housemate, we were able to find some pretty cool and delicious places. Some highlights (in chronological order):
- Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese – a tavern on Fleet Street that has been there since the 1600s…our first meal, and probably our most authentically British. Steak & ale pie, cold vegetables, and chips/fries. Very cool environment, though: in the main entrance there’s a table by a fireplace where Charles Dickens liked to sit.
- Towpath café – breakfast the second day, this was a café along a canal’s walking/biking path. Along with pastries and coffee, we tried some breakfast porridge.
- Gordon’s wine & cheese bar – for lunch near Trafalgar square on the 2nd day, we got a cheese plate and some mushroom lasagna in this 120-year-old cavernous pub. Check out the cellar seating area...
- Fish & Chips – found a place with really good fish in the West End. Complete with mushy peas, which I decided I like better than regular peas. Not that I'll ever make or order them anywhere else, but just for the record.
- Borough Market – trying to save money, we found it economical to eat at markets by combining several snacks into a meal. Here, we went to several different stands and got Chorizo and Rocket Rolls (in England, it's not arugula, it's "rocket"), mango smoothies, and some really good coffee.
- Wahaca – one pattern among all the restaurants was that the less English the staff could speak, the better the food. Our last meal was a "Mexican market" place (imagine tapas-size dishes but Mexican-style food) with really good tacos and quesadillas, followed by simple but delicious desserts. Pictured below are the tostadas (shrimp and scallop ceviche in the foreground, chicken guajillo in the background) and vanilla ice cream with roasted pumpkin seeds and a salted caramel sauce...
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