London Eating Houses And Chow
The difficulty for anyone on a tight budget will be how to balance the need to cutback against the fact that you’ll certainly he missing out if you don’t try any of the happening placetoeat. Many places mentioned in this division will seem outrageously expensive to someone on a tight budget. However, they’re so much part of the London scene that no guidebook worth its salt could afford to leave them out. To keep expenses down, defy the lure of alcohol, which can be frighteningly expensive; few placetoeat will let you bring your own grog. Watch out, too, for the price of bottled water; if no price is listed, think before drinking.
Restaurant cables like Pizza Express, Garfunkel’s, Nachos and Stockpot vouchfor good-valuerations in pleasant surroundings, but perhaps the biggest shock wave to hit London’s diners came with the arrival of the new restaurants in London bond like Café Rouge, Café Flo, Caffe Uno, Dome and particularly Pret-aManger which serve everything from sandwiches to hot meals, often in stylish settings and at very reasonable prices. As its name suggests, the Patisserie Valerie bond specialises in mouthwatering cakes … they’ll cost you but you won’t go away disappointed. The Seattle Coffee Company and Aro coffee houses have also made a difference, although their emphasis is on civilised drinking rather than eating.
Pizza and pasta places can still be good value and the Cafë Uno bond has brought a reasonably varied Italian menu to restaurants in London, mixing intimate spaghetti dishes for around £5 with less intimate gnocchi and linguini, to most high streets. Several branches of the long- running Pizza Express still manage to dish up better than average pizzas, sometimes in fine buildings look out for the new branch about to open in King’s Rd.
Chinese cafe are also a good bet, especially if you head for Chinatown behind Leicester Square or eat out in the suburbs. Look out, too, for the many Thai, Indonesian and Vietnamese cafe.
In some district of town it can seem as if there’s not a square inch of road surface that isn’t occupied by a restaurant, café or snack bar. London is England’s undisputed culinary capital and there’s no doubt that the blossoming of good cafe and restaurants in London bet a big part in the city’s famed ‘coolness’. It doesn’t matter what you fancy eating, there’s bound to be a restaurant serving it, albeit often at a price you may be less keen to pay; you’ll be lucky to get a decent meal and a glass of wine for less than £10 per head, except in pubs where therations is rarely that huge.
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