England and Pubs

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Not really cooking, but having to do with food. . .

I’m making my first jump to the other side of the pond next month. That’s right! This Yank is headed to England. I’ve noticed that many of y’all are Brits, and I was wondering if you might share some suggestions for places to eat. I’ll be staying in London, Cambridge and Bath, so Bed and Breakfasts, Pubs and/or other recommendations of any kind in those areas would be much appreciated.

And, since this is a Cooking forum, I’ll send on my world famous Banana Bread recipe to anyone that offers a suggestion.

Thanks!

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First of all the caveats – it is depressingly easy to eat appallingly in English pubs – many are part of chains and have very similar centralised, plasticised menus offering chicken terryaki, thai spiced prawns, lasagne etc etc. They can be found all over the country London included and pop up with alarming frequency around tourist spots especially.

However there are some great places that offer genuinely home cooked food in pleasant surroundings. If you are around central London SW1 (Buckingham Palace, Houses of Parliament, Trafalgar Square etc) then the following may be of interest:

Ebury St Wine Bar – good wine list, good bar meals, friendly staff and locals and a good more expensive restaurant for treats
Grenadier, Wilton Row – good beer, very English, quirky, OK food
Nags Head, Kinnerton Street – genuinely friendly, decent food
Orange Brewery, Pimlico Road – Home brew at its best, friendly atmosphere, opposite very popular Saturday morning Farmers market

In the City (St Pauls Cathederal, Stock Exchange etc) try
The Black Friar – Queen Victoria Street – fabulous Edwardian art nouveau decor and bags of atmosphere
The Eagle, Farringdon Road – some of the best pub food in town at very reasonable prices
The Old Bank of England, Fleet Street – Converted from an old banking hall fabulous architectural features and decent food
Olde Cheshire Cheese, off Fleet Street – 17th century and a bit touristy but worth a visit if you are nearby

Also there is a fabulous farmers market held every Friday and Saturday in Borough Market (London Bridge Tube) which is well worth a visit for proper food being sold by its producers, most offer lunchtime snacks – try the fabulous Chorizo and Rocket in a Roll from Brindisa, fresh hand dived scallops with garlic & lemon, venison burgers, home produced sausages & bacon all for about $5. Well worth a visit

HTH
Regards

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Orange Brewery, Pimlico Road – Home brew at its best, friendly atmosphere, opposite very popular Saturday morning Farmers market

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There is also a statue of Mozart where the market is. (Got some beautiful steak from there on Saturday)

Also for sightseeing you could do a lot worse than the top deck of a No 11 bus. Catch it at Sloane Square going to Liverpool St. It passes most of the sights and is a deal cheaper than the official sightseeing buses.

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My advice would be to seek out pubs in the surrounding villages (thinking of Cambridge here). Some of them offer accommodation at very reasonable rates and with a friendly atmosphere. Sitting in front of a roaring log fire with a hot toddy – mmmmm.

Here’s something I’ve found before now that may be of some amusement!

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I especially appreciate (and can relate to):

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Research findings: If you find this ritual baffling, you are not alone: most of the tourists we interviewed found it utterly incredible. A Dutch visitor expressed the views of many when he said:

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Another pub I would recommend

Frontpage pub in Old Church Street Chelsea SW3
Great beer and Thai food and a real coal fire in the winter.

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Well, since I’ve gotten such a grand response to that question, here’s another one. Can you tour breweries in England. If so, which ones, what’s the cost and do you have to make reservations?

reading the rules of the pub now. . . no waiters. . . really . . . i’ll feel rude bossing my way up to the bar. . .

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Shepherd Neame down my way in Kent do brewery tours. Faversham is about an hour by train from London and my home town Canterbury is about another fifteen minutes down the line from there. Well worth venturing out for a day.

Incidentally, Shep are Britain’s oldest brewer, dating back to 1698. Hoorah!

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Can’t beat a good pint of Spit!

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…or four.

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Young’s brewery in Wandsworth, London SW18 do tours, which I would heartily recommend…along with their beer!

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If you are at all interested in good beer then CAMRA have the site for you. Get a copy of their Good Beer Guide when you get here (from any half decent book shop) do your research and have fun (hic!).
At lot of CAMRA local groups also publish guides to their own area which are worth buying if you are spending any length of time there. I still have one for Derbyshire and I reckon an in-depth research of the areas pubs would take maybe 2-3 years – how long do you have?

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As some of the others have said, stick away from the big shiny pubs that sit on the main roads and try and find some in the back streets. In Cambridge I have found some great places which do great homemade cooking, lovely pies and chips, or if you are healthy go for the salad type stuff all for very reasonable prices. If you go to some of the vilages on the outskirts of the main town there are some absolutely fantastic places. In the small pubs they tend to cook to order as the turn over is not great and you don’t get the rubber chicken and curries out of jars that are all too prevelant. Stick away from pubs such Harvester and Berni etc as these are chains and sell cheap food expensively

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I’d be really careful about those fish and chip places if I were you. What kind of cooking oil can be used to replace diesel in an automobile? Frying Squad

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Actually, I’ve read that the us government has funded research on this. You can read about it somewhere on the us department of energy website. Apparently, cooking oil – corn oil can be easily used as auto fuel. However, if we used corn oil as fuel, Mr. Bush wouldn’t have anyone to fight. So, I’m sure we will be using fossil fuels for a long time to come. Why use something that can be grown and help the planet when we can use non-renewable resources at a hundred times times the cost?

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