Visiting London - Restaurant Recs Please

[Monica Bhide]

Of course, I would give anything for hubby and I to dine with you!! I emailed you detials.. respond when you can!!

[prasad2]

Monica

You have

The following are some of my favorites, how ever I am not sure how kid friendly they are? May be early dining?

Veeraswamy

Chutney Mary

La port des Indes

Cinnamon Club

Please look in India thread on Indian Restaurants, they all have web sites posted.

Happy annivesary and have fun.

Prasad

[Andy Lynes]

Lots of excitement about chef Atul Kochhar's new place Benares at 12 Berkeley Square. Expect some reviews soon.

[macrosan]

OK, so those are the best "fancy" places in town Monica, but whenever anyone now asks me for an Indian food recommendation I now point them to the New Tayyab. The eGullet meal we had there last year was the best food of its kind. The service was friendly, and the place is comfortable enough, but it's distinctly unpretentious

If you're interested, I'm sure Tony Finch will give you the full address.

[Tonyfinch]

I offered a few months back to take Monica there, so Monica if you're interested you can PM me.

[VivreManger]

There are two Indian restaurants, described favorably in this forum, that have not surfaced in response to Monica's post, I wonder if they have fallen out of favor recently: Star of India and Zaika. Or is it only the chef's table at these establishments that merits favor? I could put in a smiley at this point, but I believe that writing alone should and can convey intent even on the Internet.

I am also curious about the 1 .95 pound lunch at Mela. Does it still exist and was (is) it ever worth eating? In looking over another site that posts comments on London restaurants, Mela did provoke some harsh comments on its service. I wonder if that was for the cheap lunch.

Cinnamon Club seems to have become yesterday's paper.

[Tonyfinch]

Zaika was discussed very recently. Scroll down to thread: Compare and Contrast-Zaika and Tamarind

[VivreManger]

You are quite right. Zaika was discussed recently and on the whole compared favorably to Tamarind whose seafood Simon dismissed as bland.

I was simply noting that it had not appeared in response to this post of Monica Bhide. However in her other post, on the best Indian restaurant meal ever, Anil just mentioned it.

He said it now requires reservations weeks in advance. I assume it has not yet descended to the French Laundry-Astrance level of absurdity.

[prasad2]

Cinnamon Club seems to have become yesterday's paper.

How is the business and performance today at Cinnamon Club now ??

[circeplum]

Lots of excitement about chef Atul Kochhar's new place Benares at 12 Berkeley Square. Expect some reviews soon.

went there last night. bloody lovely. mixed 'kebabs' of salmon, lamb, giant prawn and chicken beyond gorgeous. crispy lentil dish awesome. naan breads a fabulous mix of toated crispiness and pillowy lightness. great rice. stunning chutneys. i could go on ...

no wonder he won a michelin star at tamarind.

not even that expensive (mains about £12.50.

m

[Tonyfinch]

crispy lentil dish awesome.

Crispy lentil dish? Circe, would you care to expound?

The Cinammon Club is dire. An Indian restaurant ashamed to be Indian.

Zaika is not hard to book. I got in the other Saturday at a couple of days notice.

[circeplum]

it was called 'wadi aloo aur hare pyaz ki tarkari'. phew. and described as 'crisp lentil dumplings with spring onions and potatoes'.

it was a lot soupier looking than i expected, but had a brilliant mix of crunchy bits and squidgey bits with waxy new potatoes and loads of aromatics.

m

[macrosan]

... but had a brilliant mix of crunchy bits and squidgey bits with waxy new potatoes and loads of aromatics.

Oh I just love it when professional food writers talk dirty

[Monica Bhide]

I offered a few months back to take Monica there, so Monica if you're interested you can PM me.

Very interested.. I will PM you shortly!!! THanks

[Scott -- DFW]

My wife and I are Dallas, Texas, e-Gulleteers who'll be making our first trip to London (spur of the moment) next Wednesday. We're looking for the following:

1) Two or three recommendations for unique, world-class fine dining options. We'd like to do the Fat Duck and/or St. John, but I don't know if it'll be possible to get reservations this late. (Any thoughts? Suggestions?)

2) Great Indian. Several Indian friends have told me that the offerings in London surpass almost anything that can be found in India. Since Indian isn't a strength in my neck of the woods, I'm eager to see that cuisine in its highest forms.

3) Distinctively English food experiences. Anything that tastes great and is particular to London or the UK.

4) Anything worth eating around our hotel near Regent's Park. We'll be moving around a lot. But it would be nice to know if there are any great things close to base camp.

5) General information about dining culture. Are dress codes (e.g., jacket & tie) enforced at many restaurants? Are reservations usually required and, if so, how far in advance? Any tips or direction would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance for any help. In the meantime, I'll try to comb through the archives for more info.

Scott

[MobyP]

Hi Scott -

As with the rest of the world, lunches are easier to get than dinners - but easier still is to call the places and find out what times they have available, and throw yourself on their mercy. You should be warned that St. John isn't a fine dining experience - it's far more basic and visceral (no pun intended), but for some people (Tony Bourdain included) no less satisfying.

Top tier options: Gordon Ramsay - RHR (modern classic)

Fat Duck - Bray (Alien classic)

Waterside Inn - Bray (Old School classic)

You'll have a tremendous meal at any of those.

[Stigand]

Waterside Inn - Bray (Old School classic)

Another fine-dining option in London is Le Gavroche.

This is another Roux place, like the Waterside Inn, but is in Central London rather than Bray. howardlong, who has eaten at both, seems to prefer Gavroche.

I've never been to Waterside Inn, but I've been to Gavroche a couple of times, most recently last Thursday, and it's very good (although v expensive). It's very classical French stuff - things like Omelette Suissesse (?sp) - basically very grand cheese souffle and a fantastic hot foie gras preparation. More old-school than Ramsay and much more so than somewhere experimental like Fat Duck. (The combination of Gavroche and Fat Duck would really give you the two extremes of high end cooking in London.) The other strange perk of Gavroche is it's one of those places where you feel that every couple you see there is having an affair: it's got a feeling of debonair intimacy, if you see what I mean. Gents require jacket & tie I think - in any case I would have felt out of place without one.

If you fancy a stroll from your hotel (assuming you are on the south/Baker Street side of Regent's Park), wander down to Marylebone High Street and have a look at the design shops, the cookware shops, and best of all the food shops. Stop and have a snack/lunch of cheese and cold cuts at the new-ish branch of La Fromagerie, a wonderful French cheese shop.

Enjoy your trip.

[Matthew Grant]

Ties are no longer required at La Gavroche but you will still need a jacket

[fisherman]

points 2 and 3 amount to the same thing! indian cooking in most of the uk bears no relation to indian cooking in india, its not better or worse, just totally different. i'll try and dig out my list of decent indians i've visited later.

oh, and stigand, the fat duck isnt in london..........

[Stigand]

oh, and stigand, the fat duck isnt in london..........

Shhhh... it's all part of the secret eGullet plan to annex Leeds', Bray's and Ludlow's Michelin-starred restaurants and transplant them all to the Smoke.

[daw]

oh, and stigand, the fat duck isnt in london..........

Shhhh... it's all part of the secret eGullet plan to annex Leeds', Bray's and Ludlow's Michelin-starred restaurants and transplant them all to the Smoke.

Oh good that'll leave No. 3 York Place and Anthony's in Leeds then, since neither have stars

YET!

[Stigand]

Oh good that'll leave No. 3 York Place and Anthony's in Leeds then, since neither have stars

YET!

Curses! Foiled again!

[Opson]

Hi Scott -

As with the rest of the world, lunches are easier to get than dinners - but easier still is to call the places and find out what times they have available, and throw yourself on their mercy. You should be warned that St. John isn't a fine dining experience - it's far more basic and visceral (no pun intended), but for some people (Tony Bourdain included) no less satisfying.

Top tier options: Gordon Ramsay - RHR (modern classic)

Fat Duck - Bray (Alien classic)

Waterside Inn - Bray (Old School classic)

You'll have a tremendous meal at any of those.

Is this it, the best that London has to offer?

The Waterside Inn is terribly passe now. You can eat well in a classic French style, but then if you wanted to to do that you'd be better off going to France.

Gordon Ramsay, is much the same thing, a French restaurant in London. All good quality, but hardly as good as you find in Paris, whilst aspiring to be the kind of thing you'd find in Paris.

The Fat Duck is now firmly on the international 'to do' circuit. Again, rather than being French, its a Spanish restaurant in the mould of El Bulli, but with lots of cheffly whimsy thrown in. If you don't want to take a stroll down Heston's memory lane, then half the stuff on the menu will be meaningless to you. Also you must be careful of not liking it. Many people on this board hero worship Heston and saying things like, 'it doesn't taste nice' about his food is liable to make you unpopular here.

If I were you I'd go to J. Sheekeys, and Simpsons on the Strand for some pretty genuine, pre multicultural British fare, and spend the rest of your money on the various wonderful 'ethnic' restaurants like Hakkasan, Noura, Zaika etc. that make London such a good place to be. I do, however, recommend st John, which seems English, but rather defies categorization.

In my opinion, the restaurants in London that get a lot of attention one do so because there is nothing better on offer. London is not NY, Paris, or Barcelona in terms of smart dining. Smart diners realize this and stick to what London does best rather what London produces by way of emulating successful foreign models.

Edited July 3, 2004 by Opson (log)

[MobyP]

Hi Scott -

As with the rest of the world, lunches are easier to get than dinners - but easier still is to call the places and find out what times they have available, and throw yourself on their mercy. You should be warned that St. John isn't a fine dining experience - it's far more basic and visceral (no pun intended), but for some people (Tony Bourdain included) no less satisfying.

Top tier options: Gordon Ramsay - RHR (modern classic)

Fat Duck - Bray (Alien classic)

Waterside Inn - Bray (Old School classic)

You'll have a tremendous meal at any of those.

Is this it, the best that London has to offer?

No, it's not all that London has to offer - unfortunately it was all I had to offer in the 3 minutes I took to write a response this morning, before running out. My apologies for not being encyclopedic.

It's certainly true that the Waterside Inn might be passe. Both Ferran Adria and Thomas Keller (apart from us other dummies) happen to think Heston Blumenthal does remarkable things. I'm sorry you didn't enjoy yourself, Opson, but more sorry that you wouldn't discuss your meal in greater detail. I for one have no problem with someone disliking The Fat Duck.

It's also true that London is neither New York nor Paris nor Barcelona.

I think you must be joking about J Sheekey's. It's a tourist trap with high prices for very basic, mediocre and pedestrian fare. Really, I wouldn't even wish the meal I had on you.

I agree with you about Haakasan, St. John's etc.

[fisherman]

how many more times, Bray is NOT IN LONDON