What british dishes would you actually recommend to a tourist coming to London?
Posted by Titaniumballsionium@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 92 comments
You Britishers must've heard of all the bad reputation british cuisine has but i genuinely wanna give british cuisine a shot so tell me all the delicious dishes that british cuisine has to offer
TermPsychological358@reddit
Cheese, omg the cheese. There was once a reddit post where an American asked if Brits actually did like cheese that much, and the comments were hilarious and a love letter to cheese.
Pick and Cheese in Covent Garden is a cheese specialist restaurant that exclusively serves British and Irish cheeses. On Wednesdays they do a bottomless cheese offering, and if you go during the daytime it's much easier to get a seat than in the evening.
ceffyl_gwyn@reddit
Great shout.
Also in the same vein:
Fromagerie just off Marlyebone High Street: fantastic climate controlled cheese shop with sit in cafe perfect for lunch attached.
Paxton and Whitfield in St James: as trad a cheesemonger as you get (Inc Royal Warrant) that also does sandwiches you can have in the park nearby.
The Cheese Barge on the canal by Paddington: more of a full restaurant based dine-in option
ThatNiceDrShipman@reddit
America has all the cheeses.
Monteray Jack....
...
All the cheeses.
filbert94@reddit
Morrissey's let himself go
Immorals1@reddit
USA does have some good cheeses, but they are very niche/expensive from the dairy states
WetCuteObsession@reddit
fish and chips for sure
chadgalaxy@reddit
Good fish and chips are amazing but there's far too many shite ones about, and tourists tend to just walk into the first one they see.
Immorals1@reddit
Not from London
GrabbedByTheGhost@reddit
Yep, has to be from somewhere north of York for the proper experience
ComplexIndividual786@reddit
Correct choice, but do some research. Whilst there is nothing better than great fish and chips, it can be a bit hit and miss.
The rules I follow (and these are very broad generalisations, there are plenty of exceptions): -Not in a pub or restaurant, -Not if it also sells kebabs or pizza, -Not if it's open on Mondays, -A pun in the name is a good sign (The Codfather, etc.).
Rubberfootman@reddit
I’ve also found that if a chippy has a dine-in sit-down area, it usually isn’t going to be good.
Final_Flounder9849@reddit
Fried fish is a Jewish thing that came here with the arrival of Jews who’d left the Iberian peninsula due to the Inquisition. Teaming it with chips is a notion that originated in Central Europe.
It’s delicious but give me fish fried in matzo meal over batter any day of the week. Oh and preferably cold too.
luala@reddit
This is the wrong answer. Fish and chips should be consumed by the sea. And only from a really good chippy, there are some really shit ones in London.
Bobby_-_D@reddit
From a good chippy. Not a pub. It's often frozen pre battered crap in pubs.
dereks63@reddit
My wife who is American says this 'British food is great, the reason Americans complain is the plates aren't overladen!' oh and the lack of Mexican food
unaubisque@reddit
It's unfortunate that there are a lot of Mexican restaurants in the UK, but they nearly all serve the vastly inferior 'Tex-Mex' style dishes, instead of proper Mexican food.
dereks63@reddit
Agree, however Mestizo in Euston is pretty good
Legal_Dan@reddit
A Sunday roast, doesn't get more British than that.
SoggyWotsits@reddit
But you know OP will end up at a chain pub that does a poor roast, then complain that the stereotypes are true.
chadgalaxy@reddit
Yeah you need to find one of those places that's a highly rated restaurant during the week and then does their own version of a roast on Sundays, they're the best ones in my experience.
Nuthetes@reddit
Yeah. I don't mind chain pubs. I actually find Green King to do decent scampi and gammon. And I have had decent pies at chain pubs
But they can never manage to get a sunday roast right. The beef is always too chewy, the roasties are always too hard, the gravy is always too watery.
I think for a sunday roast, you need to splash the cash and do it proper. Gammon, I have found there's little difference at a Green King and a country pub--other than the country pub having better sides, but the gammon itself is pretty much the same. But youc an definitely tell the difference with a roast.
yeahfucku@reddit
I think there’s a few Indians that do an Indian roast on Sunday. Dishoom I think
Master-Instruction29@reddit
We don't care if you don't like our food. Now fuck off.
Sea-Still5427@reddit
A proper mug of tea.
Full English breakfast.
Pie and mash.
Fish and chips.
Afternoon tea.
Digestive biscuits.
Scones with clotted cream and jam.
Sunday roast.
Any of these can be disgusting in a tourist trap place or a chain, so choose wisely.
Subject_Ad1286@reddit
Such a rude question. British cuisine only has a ‘bad reputation’ amongst Americans who’ve never visited the UK and will believe any old crap they read on the internet.
shizzler@reddit
Nah the French/Spanish/Italians say the same. Agree it's unfounded these days, but certainly true 30 years ago.
EyeAware3519@reddit
Wasn't even true 30 years ago. And yes Italians have great Pasta and Pizza but that's ALL they have, it gets real boring real quick.
ceffyl_gwyn@reddit
This is as stupid as saying all the Brits have is unseasoned meat and boiled veg
Spare-Egg24@reddit
I actually don't know if that's true. The food we eat is delicious, but the 'British' food we eat is actually kinda boring.
A good roast dinner, casserole or pie on a rainy day is lovely when made at home - but also the kind of this that can be really bad at restaurants.
mailywhale@reddit
It’s as boring or interesting as any other Northern European food surely? And yeah it can be bad in pubs and restaurants but it can also be good, just don’t go to poop ones
loperaja@reddit
It’s not great though.
FornyHucker22@reddit
A proper British fry up is a top tier breakfast 🤤
silvergreybees@reddit
Traditional British food is nice but it’s known for “honesty of flavour” which basically just means that it’s not heavily seasoned and the taste comes from the inherent flavour of the food stuff itself. Internationally, a lot of spices and seasonings back in the day were used to preserve and the British climate meant food storage was comparatively easy and didn’t need it.
This has led to a lot of British classics being called bland but if you don’t go in expecting an absolute flavourfest, it’s lovely. Sausage and mash, a Sunday roast, or fish and chips are all delicious and often things are a lot more seasoned now than they used to be.
If you’re looking more for modern British cuisine, you’ll find a lot more flavour from spices. As Britain has become more culturally diverse, people from all over the world have developed the food from their homelands here into something you wouldn’t find elsewhere. Chicken Tikka Masala and Balti are perfect examples. You’ll find food from all over the world here and we eat it all.
Definitely try the old classics but modern British cuisine incorporates a lot more. You’d be missing out if you didn’t go for a curry, visit a Chinese restaurant or a polish deli.
All-Hail-The-Ale@reddit
PML, maybe with jellied eels. Classic London dish.
dragonite__@reddit
Yeah but this isn't actually good is it. Nobody eats it.
Dico80@reddit
Pie & mash (with liquor) is definitely eaten in east London. And it's good (well I like it).
All-Hail-The-Ale@reddit
It is great. Double double is the way to go.
dragonite__@reddit
It's definitely rarely eaten hence why the vast majority of pie and mash shops are closing down.
Gillzy18@reddit
I tried it for the first time a couple of years ago and it has to be one of the blandest meals I’ve ever had - context I had it in one of the proper traditional places in Bermondsey (at least that’s what they claimed).
SnooHabits8484@reddit
Even there you have to chuck a load of chilli vinegar on it to make it interesting
Gillzy18@reddit
Tbf someone did tell me that afterwards
AnonyCass@reddit
Toad in the hole and a shepherds pie are nice hearty classics
Rowanx3@reddit
It’s going to be hard to find a decent toad in the hole in a restaurant. It’s too hard to prep.
Chelz91@reddit
A good quality steak and ale or chicken pie
Rowanx3@reddit
I recommend willies pies, they do pop ups in pubs or collaborations with pubs. However a good quality pie is usually pretty hard to find when eating out. Id say 90% of places buy pie in or do stews with lids
IkeTurn@reddit
Well I understand London can't do fish and chips properly, so just nip to the coast, grab some fish and chips instead there. 😄
crispyspud0313@reddit
Sticky toffee pudding for dessert is a must!!
HouseOfBleeps@reddit
In London you’ve at least got to go to Borough Market for a sausage roll at the Ginger Pig (I prefer the spicy lamb over the traditional) then desert at Humble Crumble. Bangers and Mash at Mother Mash. Sunday Roast at Blacklock. Sticky Toffee pudding (from anywhere). Curry at Dishoom (curry being our National Dish nowadays). Finally Fallow for modern twists on British Classics.
It’s a crime to visit London and not go to Borough Market, Dishoom or Fallow.
New-Replacement-7638@reddit
Do these and you’ll be happy: Regency cafe in Westminster for a full English Coal Hole on the strand for a pub pie Neals Yard jn Covent Garden for cheese Fortnums for afternoon tea Any decent curry house
Chemical-Grade5137@reddit
Full English and a real cup of tea.
HugsandHate@reddit
They make fake cups of tea?
Interesting.
dragonite__@reddit
An actual good pie and mash with gravy. Steak and ale or chicken leak and bacon.
Do not eat pie and mash in London. That is a different thing entirely.
Pie and mash in London is flavourless brown sludge, wrapped in wet cardboard, served with dry unseasoned stodge and green goop.
Theo_Cherry@reddit
Fish & Chips
Sunday Roast
Full English
Shepherd's Pie
testdasi@reddit
Honestly traditional British food, if executed correctly, is not bad. Problem is the majority of places that serve them treat them like McDonald's.
Sunday roast beef, for instance, is typically dried up and smothered in mustard sauce to mask the dryness. Or the dreaded well-done Wellington. Or the Full English with sausage padded with so much potato starch that it might as well be vegan. And so on.
Exceptions are jellied eel and fish & chips. The former is disgusting regardless of execution. The latter is bland, regardless of execution.
Last but not least, I'm pretty sure Scotland and Wales are still part of Britain so me mindful that the stuff you find in London is more on the English side of British. Haggis and rarebit are great but hard to find in London.
Exact-Phone9957@reddit
If you want tips on British food, don't watch Kalani Ghost Hunter. For a start, he has no idea what he's talking about. But seeing him stuff his huge daft face with five meals a day will put you off eating anything ever again. The grease drips into his gross beard and lank hair and he does all this in close-up. Occasionally, he closes his eyes, as if in Epicurean ecstasy, before saying something he thinks makes him sound like Gordon Ramsey like "Oh so juicy". He's a cliched tourist eating the cliched food and he is boring.
Chelz91@reddit
Sticky toffee pudding!
HotelPuzzleheaded654@reddit
STP*
Intelligent_Mine_121@reddit
I love Sir Terry Pratchett!
G-reeper66@reddit
Means something totally different to me, it's Shoot The Peasants, used whenever the shops are busy and trolleys are blocking the aisles 🤣🤣🤣
According-Annual-586@reddit
I love Stone Temple Pilots!
Frequent-Yoghurt3098@reddit
Chicken Balti and nan.
ceffyl_gwyn@reddit
My opinion that has not been disproved yet is you just can't get good, traditional fish and chips in London anywhere central or convenient for a tourist. London is a great food city, genuinely one of the best in the world. And you are wasting a meal to try fish and chips here.
My absolutely golden rule would be avoid any pub that actively advertises 'Traditional Fish and Chips' outside; those are all tourist traps (usually owned by Young's). All you'll get is bad fish and chips in a bad pub with badly kept beer.
Don't get too hung up on 'eating local'. When Londoners go out, we eat food from all over the world. Sticking to a diet of just Sunday roast and shepherd's pie in London is like going to New York but only eating burgers and meatloaf everyday.
serious_sleep_issues@reddit
There's actually a place to get really good fish and chips near charing cross!
ceffyl_gwyn@reddit
The only non-pub one I can think I've tried near there was Hobson's, which I found distinctly lacking (especially the chips), but if you've got a better recommendation for somewhere around there Id love to hear it as finding good fish and chips in London has become something of a life mission
This-Willow-4655@reddit
A good Curry
Nuthetes@reddit
British food is good. Just ignore the yanks who see a photo of beans on toast or someone's cheesey chips at a football match and think that is all we have.
Find a pub that does traditional country-style food. Stuff like lamb pie or a roast.
Also, a good pork pie--dont buy shop ones, they're shite filled with jelly. Go to an upmarket butchets/bakery or even out your way to a farm shop and get something good like a stilton pork pie or a cranberry pork pie or a pickle pork pie.
Final_Flounder9849@reddit
Waitrose underneath John Lewis in Oxford Street has a great cheese department. There’s also a good selection at Selfridges. Plus there’s the incomparable Neals Yard Dairy in Covent Garden.
EyeAlternative1664@reddit
Good shout on cheese, imo only the french have anything comparable, even Spanish and Italian cheeses are a bit crap (although obvs they have the hero pieces).
Nuthetes@reddit
I don't think I have had a British cheese I have thought was shit. Whenever I go back to England, I always get a stockpile of cheeses in wax to take back to Taiwan with me.
We have so many varieties too. It's kinda underappreciated how much of a cheese nation we are.
surfermark99@reddit
Sunday roast, either pork with crackling or beef with Yorkshire's.
Pie and mash from a decent pie shop in the east end, ask for two pie and mash with liqueur ("licka") - it's a kind of parsley gravy.
From a fish mongers, Jellied eels are pretty rank but if you're feeling brave, go for it. A pot of cockles or whelks are much better, put vinegar on them.
Fish and chips is a good option, get mushy peas with it.
Pork pie or a sausage roll from an actual butchers can't be beat.
serious_sleep_issues@reddit
Best Pie and Mash these days is Greenwich. Tea in mugs too! Plus the choice of hot eels or jellied.
Ochib@reddit
Liqueur, I hardly know her
surfermark99@reddit
roll mop from a fish mongers as well, it's pickled herring around a pickled onion.
Thunderoussshart@reddit
I love rollmops but I don't think it's British (it's of German origin).
Fizl99@reddit
Dont forget white pepper on the cockles and chilli vinegar on the pie and mash
ErrantBrit@reddit
I don’t know where you’re from, but some British culinary suggestions:
There are many fine dining establishments in London doing modern British cuisine. That has a lot of modern culinary traditions (foam Abby!) but will have a British twist.
Meat - you can go to a single dish resturant and be we well served in London, think steakhouse/chophouse - there are a few in London with a long history.
I find British sausages to be very good so go to a butcher and buy some. A sausage sandwich made with quality sausages is a British institution in my mind.
Pork pies (already mentioned) are good fun. Cornish pasties are also worth a try, I am not sure how good they are in London. There must be somewhere! Pies in general that are honemade are worth a shout - again a British institution.
Cheeses (already mentioned) this is a great idea as we’ve got such a wide array of cheeses, chutneys and other accompaniments.
A cream team is a nice treat and very English/West Country.
Fish - we have quite a mixed fishing tradition here in terms of where we are today. Access to fish very high. You can try fish and chips and it can be lovely. I personally would go more upmarket if you can afford it. I once had a butter sauce with a citrusy herb oil topping and it was revelatory with the sea fish I had it with (can’t remember - I think it was Bream).
Best of luck on your foodie journey.
Ecstatic_Effective42@reddit
I found a fun video about 2 Americans driving around the UK and trying different foods
https://youtu.be/VPofnRt9lmM
This would be a good start.
SnooHabits8484@reddit
I'd recommend they eat at St John.
fourlegsfaster@reddit
British food does not have a bad reputation amongst those who have actually eaten it.
Just, as in any other tourist trap city, avoid the tourist trap restaurants.
serious_sleep_issues@reddit
Yes. One option is to look for 'real ale' indeed pubs in your location. They're usually pretty good food wise.
Ochib@reddit
Jellied eels
Visual-Economist5479@reddit
Go to the Lamb Tavern pub and have a pint and a couple of scotch eggs.
It is very beautiful so great pics also.
DimiRPG@reddit
Britain has some excellent fish and seafood. Scottish langoustines, pan fried lemon sole, hake and monkfish, Cornish sardines, oysters.
QuintusCicerorocked@reddit
Cornish pasties
Feeling_Boot_5242@reddit
Curry, kebab, pizza. You know all the best British dishes 😂
Inevitable-Slice-263@reddit
Whatever takes your fancy on the menu. British food is good food. Just avoid fast food chains.
The reputation, as you put it, for British food not being good is from US soldiers stationed in Britain during WW2 when there was food shortages and rationing. US food has the reputation of being poor quality and full of sugar, but that is probably not the case everywhere.
And it's Brits or Britons, not Britishers.
limitedregrett@reddit
If in London travel to zone 2 and try the wonders of fried chicken but not KFC! Sam’s is best 10/10 for Ghetto crunch: https://youtu.be/XIhR4MhBhCI?si=zTpTJSXhbAyt58xZ
Dico80@reddit
Morley's!
Dipso88@reddit
Beef wellington, scotch egg.
We also have some incredible cheese.
FornyHucker22@reddit
chicken tikka masala
dragonite__@reddit
Rather you stayed in America tbh
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