Izabel_blue

If you can bear heading a bit west the Belvedere in Holland Park is a beautiful room with a nice set menu lunch (last time I checked it was three courses for £24.95) It's always very popular though so be sure to book - lunch slots are at 12pm and 2:30 as I recall!

Hi Janet! I'm married to a vegetarian and have a close vegan friend so have a few ideas...first, the Gate (mentioned before) in Hammersmith, London is truly fantastic. Hubby and I go there all the time and there is always lots of good vegan stuff on the menu and it keeps me (the omnivore) happy coz the food is creative, global, and delicious. That being said the best-ever vegetarian meal I've had in the UK was at Demuths in Bath - really splendid stuff and nice atmos as well. They seem to have lots of vegan options on the menu as well. Finally, my vegan friend is currently enamoured of Rootmaster, a new vegan restaurant located in an retired Routemaster bus - I've not been but she loves it, and I think it might be a kinda fun tourist experience as well. Oh, and the Sagar mini-chain of veggie Indian restaurants (in and around London) is a good source of some cheap and cheerful yummy veggie nosh - try the masala dosa -yum! I think there's one in Hammersmith, Twickenham and Fitzrovia... Have fun! Elizabeth

I'm with Naebody on this one. I live locally (though my 'levels of excess' are hardly high - my partner bought in the 90s in Earls Court, back when it was still affordable: please don't assume that a SW postcode means unbridled extravagance) and I've been into the new WholeFoods twice now and it's completely defeated me- I've left both times without buying anything, despite the array of stuff on offer. The second time we went in we wound up in Sainsbury's on Cromwell Road afterward which seemed like an oasis of sanity in comparison. It's confusing, overwhelming and tacky - and my main problem was that you could to buy stuff like baking in *every* department, on the ground floor and the lower ground - just when you thought you had found the biscuit department there's another one.... I'm originally from Canada so not unfamiliar with the concept of this sort of store, but I found WholeFoods completely sapped my energy. My BF who works nearby says that the coffee and cake in the upstairs eating area is rubbish too, especially the coffee. I miss Barkers. Come back- all is forgiven!

hey Telephone... As a native of Alberta I'm with you about Canadian produce - urgh! Where I come from the only thing that seems to grow naturally around the area is sweetcorn, which we only get for about two months of the year. Everything else is from a hothouse in B.C. or California- and it's all bloody expensive too! The produce here is soooo much better....I am right now glutting myself on asparagus, which is delicious just from my local Waitrose! cheers Elizabeth

Hi Offcentre I would make it easy on yourself and wander down the Earls Court road to lovely Holland park for a ramble in the autumn sunshine, before heading to the The Belvedere, which is right in the middle of the park. Lovely atmos, good food and they do a nice set lunch menu at the weekends...

Just a quick note to add to this thread....got back from a few days in Bath and I thought that the food scene was really flourishing-- lots of great places to eat for a city of its size. In particular I'd like to hail Demuths restaurant, which is a veggie joint of rare loveliness. The beetroot and goats cheese souffle main that I had there was absolutely amazing, along with everything else we ate. See http://www.demuths.co.uk/ The other place of note was the newly opened Blackstone's Restaurant, sister to Blackstone's Kitchen, across the road. We only had lunch there and weren't able to sample the full dinner menu but it was excellent quality fare. Also, the takeaway muffins and pastry from the kitchen were scrummy. See http://www.blackstonefood.co.uk

Alexis -- just curious-- how is Giles anti-American? I've been watching/reading him for a while and haven't really noticed it before...I think he might just be a bit grumpy in general... I should say here that I'm half-American myself and was actually born in Texas...and I quite often cringe when I see UK pundits taking a swipe at the USA as if the country is one huge consensus of Bushland rather than the diverse and regional place I know...!

Oh I love Pho....it's one of the only decent/reasonably priced places to eat near work....the Pho itself is fantastic (I love the spicy prawn one) and the Bun (noodles and veg and sauce) is delish...I find the Pho perfect in winter, the Bun awesome in summer... And be sure to try the prawn salad rolls...yum! Hmmm...might have to go back there for lunch next week....

How about going really old skool and checking out the restaurants at Fortnum & Mason on Piccadilly? They do a nice all day brunchy/lunchy menu with lots of ice-cream sundaes and milkshakes for your younger guest... Still on the store-restaurant idea, I also recommend the atmospheric Art Bar Cafe at Liberty or their new Tea Room, which is filled with comfy chairs and smells of posh bacon sandwiches.... Hope you're enjoying London as a new expat! cheers Elizabeth (an 'old' expat-- coming up to 5 years here )

More war stories please!!! This is definiately keeping me entertained... Yeah I think I've learned by now that I needed to complain, though I still maintain that the staff should've made more of an effort to make sure everything was OK. About Gatropubs...yeah, I know the 'pub' part of the name should kind of tip one off about what sort of experience to expect....though this was in the dining room half of the space and they seem to be selling it all as more of a sedate 'dining' experience than a boozing one if you look at the website... Oh, and about the dancing on the tables work dos-- we always book a private room, which is where I think large groups really belong...!

Wow-- thanks for all your philisophical musings everyone....I think this is one of those real 'hot button' issues in the world of eating out... I should clarify a few things from my original post...firstly, my BF's mum is ever so slightly deaf so she didn't really manage to absorb the entire, ahem, colourful, conversation-- just registered that it was really loud. So I don't know whether she enjoyed the content or not I am aware that large groups can be noisy, god only knows whenever I wind up at a works do someone is dancing on the table at some point during the evening...it was just strange to me that the mgmt put our sedate little huddle together with this group in the dining room part of the pub-- I would've had no problem with them staying in the pub part as it is pretty well-divided. Also, I was mainly dissapointed that I felt that this group *knew* that they were pissing us off and just kept upping the ante with the noise, drinks and salty talk. It actually made me feel actively *sad* that they were so disrespectful. I probably should've said something to our waiter (who was nice, but possibly a bit frightened by the scary table as well) but by the time that happens the evening is pretty much ruined anyways, isn't it? Ah well. Also must mention that I have nothing against pink hats and myself own two of them (in fact, you can see a photo of me wearing one here)...I was just surprised that this guy kept his hat on during dinner!

Hello Just wondering if anyone else has found themselves in a similar situation to the one I found myself in on Monday night... There is a new-ish gastropub down the road from where I live called the Britannia, where I had had a nice lunch a few weeks ago, so it seemed an ideal place to book for dinner on Monday night, with my BF, his mum, and my sister who was over from Canada (it was her last night in London). We booked for 8pm and went along...noticed on entering that the pub part of the place was quite busy with revellers but the non-smoking dining room (where we were seated) was nice and quiet....I think there was one other table occupied out of about 6 or 7 of them, though we noticed that a longer table right near ours had a 'reserved' sign on it... Anyways, ordered the food, got some wine, everything was going perfectly allright (the food there is nothing super creative but very good gastropub fare), but then our server escorted in a group of about 8 people to sit down at the reserved table adjacent to us. They were in their early 20s for the most part and quite drunk-- and of course as soon as they sat down they ordered another huge round of drinks. At first I thought that they would be a little bit noisy but bearable but I was soon proved wrong...they get louder and louder, whooping and yelling about something or another and ordering more and more drinks. Then they proceeded to have a very very loud coversation all about threesomes and bondage, while they were sitting basically right beside us-- me with my sister from abroad and my bf with his 64 year old mother. It was awful! When our server came back and asked if we wanted anything else we said 'we're going to pass on puddings because it's too noisy'. He could tell that we were extremely annoyed by the other table but did nothing aside from pressing a comment card upon me, which I proceeded to fill out with a long complaint about the the other table! Considering that there were only the two groups of us in the dining room I was really irritated that they had seated us so close to this gang of twats (one of the guys was sporting both a hot pink trilby hat and a ponytail, so you can get an idea of how ghastly they were) and by the time we left I was fuming mad....what a horrible way to end the evening and my sister's last night in town So, just wondering if any of you have any idea about how to defuse a situation like this? I didn't want to approach the table themselves because I was worried that they would be aggressive, seeming as they were very very drunk, but it didn't seem worth telling the server to shut them up either... In my opinion it seemed like it was the pub's responsibility to either move them or to kick them out (as they were very very wasted) but it seems that they were all too eager to keep on taking the money of this most annoying party... Or am I just getting hypersensitive in my old age?

Lunch at The Belvedere in Holland Park....lovely food, lovely service, amazing atmosphere (with views over the park, etc). They seem to be doing quite a reasonably priced menu du jour at the moment...and the weekend lunch is splendid and only £22.50 for three courses... Also, even though it is the source of some debate on these boards I'd also recommend Yauatcha for a glamourous though not bank-breaking experience. And the prawn and beancurd cheung fan is fantastic... Hope you enjoy London! - Elizabeth (a fellow Canuck-- but now a permanent Londoner too..)

Hello out there... Just wondering if anyone's got any tips on where to take my Veggie BF in Brussels. We're going for a Eurostar weekend from London (where we live) and staying at Le Meredien -- near the Gare Centrale and the Grand Place. So, anywhere central-ish would do. I eat fish and seafood so what we'd be looking for ideally are a few places that have good veggie options on the menu, rather than entirely veg places. But any recommendations are greatly appreciated! Cheers from Clerkenwell, London Elizabeth

Hullo... I went off to PingPong with 'the girls' on Monday night and we had a pleasant enough time, though we all decided that it did indeed pale in comparison to the mighty Yauatcha... Good things were the fact that it was a bit cheaper than Yauatcha (we ate a ton of Dim Sum and had two cocktails each-- and it came out at £20 each) and that the staff was really friendly and let us linger for quite a while-- no trying to kick us out after 90 mins! I also liked that they provided a chinatown style tally sheet for ordering and that when the dishes came they were clearly marked...it seemed they were making a concerted effort to explain everything clearly to use westerners. The food was pretty good in a standard kind of way with a few outstanding bits (chinese chive dumplings, spinach prawn wrap, spicy vegetable dumpling) and a few misfires. Cocktails were very very good and reasonably priced... and I finished the night with some of their flowering Jasmine tea, which blossomed before our eyes. However, I was sad to see that there was no cheung fun on the menu (the prawn and beancurd cheung fun at Yauatcha is probably my favourite dish in London) and the menu also suffered from not having any noodle or rice dishes to temper the dim sum with. I'd go back with a large group of people or something, and I'll probably check out the one in Westbourne Grove (closer to home) but I got home on Monday night longing to go back to Yauatcha, I'm afraid! If only I hadn't seen such riches before....