Places to Eat in London

As I visited London, I would need to find a good place to eat as well. You can read about places I visited in London here. I heard from my friends that the English food is not that good. So I had to find food from other countries there. The Indian food is famous in London and most of them are good according to my friend. I’m not a fan of Indian food but I guess I have to try it!

Here they are the places I visited for a meal in London :

1. Pod

When I just arrived in London, I was starving because I couldn’t eat on plane. I walked around from my hotel in Tower Hill area and found this place “Pod”. They have breakfast menu set with coffee. I tried Salmon Cream Cheese Bagel with coffee for £4.75. They were good. The bagel was authentic and I liked it. Salmon and Cream Cheese were awesome as well. Recommended for breakfast. Please note that they are closed on weekend and public holiday. They have some branches in London.

2. Eat

This place is available almost on every corner in the city of London. They are selling salad, sandwich (cold) and other simple meal. I ate here for lunch and realized they also served warm meal… I hate cold meal but already bought it. Some of their shops are open since morning for breakfast. The meal that I bought was not great for me.. At least the meat tasted good and edible.

3. Thai Square

Somehow I like Thai food since I tried it at Thai Street Saigon. For one of the dinner I went to Thai restaurant near my hotel. It is Thai Square. They have around 10 branches all over London. I tried the one at Minories street. I ordered pad si ew (fried flat noodle) and orange juice. Total bill was £14.29. Asian food is expensive in London!

The food was tasty although it was not as tasty as the on in Saigon 😀 The orange juice was a proper orange juice with no over-sweet taste. I saw a guy next to me have the chili and pickle seasoning set! So I asked for it from the waitress. They do have an authentic taste after all! I especially like their special chili sauce. They praised me for being able to eat that sauce, while in fact it was not spicy at all.. I can’t eat spicy food haha.

4. Borough Market

Good for breakfast and lunch. They have pretty much everything to cater one’s preferences. There are many vendors selling their stuff there and it was amazing. The taste mostly are delicious as well. I tried sausage butty (£3.5), Apple Juice (£1.5), Sausage bread (£1.5), Strawberry (£1.5), Pork Pie (£4.5) and Dolset Scallops (£6.5).

I loved them all! Sausage Butty is better with sauce (ketchup or chili). The apple juice was fresh and pure. Sausage bread was delicious, one of my favorite. Strawberries were sweet! They have 2 size of pack, we bought the bigger size and it was too much for 2 people haha. Pork pie was tasty as well. It was an award-winning pie. The skin was crunchy a bit and inside was minced pork meat. I couldn’t finish it alone. And lastly the dolset scallops! I saw some people eating it then I found the stall who sold it. The sign was saying “3 succulent ‘hand dived’ scallops served on a bed of stir fry and crispy bacon” How can I resist that! The scallops were big and juicy! Can’t have enough.. I wanted more.

5. Po Cha Korean Restaurant

I met with a friend who lives in England as well but not in London. We were looking for place to have lunch then my foursquare showed Po Cha as one of the best around the area of Waterloo. My friend is a fan of Korean food and she hasn’t eaten it since she moved back to England. We found the place and it looked authentic. There were some Korean customer as well. The place is small so we were lucky we came before lunch time. There were queue outside when we were waiting for our food.

They have a good deal lunch menu set, only £6 for food and tea! I ordered Kimchi Fried Rice. Somehow I craved for kimchi that day haha. When it came, I was shocked. The portion was huge! I couldn’t finish it in the end, but it was really delicious. A little bit spicy, from the kimchi. My friend also liked her food. We wanted to try another dish but we were too full already 😦 I recommend this place for you who are looking for Korean food in London.

I took picture of the tea brand as well because it was so good! I planned to buy it somewhere if I can find it! I looked at google and found the name. It was Dong Suh Brown Rice Green Tea. Time to visit the Korean supermarket nearby!

6. Monmouth Coffee 

Okay this one is not a place to eat 😀 My friend and I were walking around Covent Garden when she suddenly wanted some coffee for the afternoon. She found Monmouth Coffee on the internet. Number 4th coffee shop in London according to google. The shop in Covent Garden is very small and limited seat inside. Most of the people bought a take-away. We got place to sit after we ordered our drink. I got myself a cappucino for £3.1.

I was worried a bit when I drank this coffee because usually I got upset stomach when I did. Surprisingly my stomach was fine! and the coffee also good. I guess this coffee was not as strong as Vietnamese Coffee (which always made me got upset stomach 😦 ).

They have another shops as well, and the one near Borough Market was very busy. Busier than this one.

7. Paul

To be honest, Paul was not my first choice when it comes to restaurant in London. Don’t get me wrong, I love Paul restaurant but there is one here in Saigon so I’d rather try another place to eat. Unfortunately that day every good restaurants that we wanted in Covent Garden was fully booked! We were in hurry to catch the train back for my friend, so we took whatever option we had. It was Paul 😀

I ordered Mussels in white wine, garlic and cream. It was on ” for sharing” section of the menu, but I finished it all by myself. Yup! I love mussels ❤ It was a good choice for me for dinner! £11.90 in total. We didn’t order drink, only tap water. I haven’t eaten mussels for so long and this one didn’t fail me.

8. Tombo

If you are visiting Natural History Museum and are looking for a place to lunch, you can go to Tombo. They are serving Japanese food and all kind of matcha (green tea) drink. I love Japanese food so it was good that I found this place for lunch. Natural History Museum is a huge place, so you better fill up yourself before going in. I ordered Tonkatsu Curry Rice (£11.95) and houjicha matcha latte.

The food was delicious. Their portion is small but it was enough for me (somehow). The pork was well cooked and tasty. I think they marinated it first. The houjicha matcha latter on the other one was disappointing. I could only taste the milk and very thin tea taste 😦

Their price is a bit high, just like other Asian restaurant in London. But I saw many people coming in and even do delivery, so they must be reasonable price for Londoners.

9. Bodean’s BBQ

My husband wanted to eat meat dish before going out for the night. When I looked at foursquare (my favorite app), I found this Bodean’s BBQ and the review was good. And it was close to our hotel as well. Very convenient indeed. We tried to make a reservation before but apparently they only accept reservation for 8 or more people. Below 8 people need to walk-in to restaurant and see if they have space. It was quite early when we arrived so we got a seat.

For the drink I ordered Jef Root Beer. It was okay but I prefer other brand. We ordered Beef Burger (£8.95) and Ribs and Pulled Pork Combo (£15.95) for shared.

I didn’t try the burger but according to my husband it was so-so. The ribs was good though. Very soft and it was marinated well. Pulled Pork also delicious. Total payment for two persons including service charge was £33.47.

10. Chotto Matte Bar

It was Friday Night and we went to Soho to have a drink with friends. After asking around several bars, we ended up at Chotto Matte. The others were fully booked! Soho on Friday night is impossible. This place serves foods and drinks, but we just wanted to have a drink. Everyone has had their dinner before coming.

I ordered Flor the Manzana (£11), which is a mix of mango vodka, honjozo sake, apple, lime, passionfruit. I loved it! Fruity. They have a huge variant of drinks. You can check the menu first on their website.

11. Caravan

I was walking with my husband along Thames river and it was lunch time. We tried to look for something different so we found this place which listed as tapas place. As we arrived there, we found out that this place is not selling tapas! They are the ‘all-day breakfast’ kind of restaurant. See their menu here.

This grain pancake was huge and thick! It tasted surprisingly good though. I couldn’t finish it because of too full. My husband ordered slow roast pork belly with kimchi pancake, gochujang ketchup, and sunny duck egg. I loved this kimchi pancake! I tried it a little at first but then I was hooked. Wanted more and more. Very addictive!

There are 3 branches of Caravan. The one I tried was in Bankside. The other two are at King’s Cross and Exmouth Market. Check their website here.

12. On The Bap

We had tickets for The Lion King Show on Saturday night, but we didn’t order dinner package. Therefor we needed to find another place to eat before the show. I found this Korean Restaurant near Lyceum Theater. It is at the same street, so very convenient. When we arrived, there was no queue outside but the place was very busy. We were lucky they have available seat, even though it was a small table. We saw a queue outside not long after we sat!

It was very nice to hear the staff (or maybe the owner also there) spoke Korean. Feels authentic 😀 Their concept of menu is like tapas. Everything comes in small portion.

My favorite is Gimari Salad (£4.5) , fried seaweed roll salad with special sauce. It was sooo delicious. It is a kind of savory salad. Bibimbap (£7.9) was not bad but I like the one at Nikutaro Saigon better 😀 The chicken (£5.9)! I should have ordered different sauce… As must as I like garlic and mayo, this one was far from my expectation. Maybe another reason of it was because the chicken itself had no taste. So the sauce need to have strong flavor to compensate it.

Website : http://onthebab.com/

13. Poppies Fish and Chips

If you visit London, you have to try one of their ‘traditional’ dish, Fish and Chips. The question is where to get the best fish and chips in town? There are a lot of fish and chips shops all around London but I didn’t know which one should I tried. I did some research on google and foursquare and found out about Poppies Fish and Chips. It has a good reviews and seems to be around for a very long time already (since 1952!). I found 1 shop near Spitalfield Market. A lot of people were eating it outside of the restaurant. I thought it was because of the restaurant was full, but it wasn’t.

We decided to dine-in instead of take away. The waitress reminded us that the price for dine-in is different than take away. It is almost double! We saw cod fish fillet was about £6, that was take away price. For dine-in, regular size cod fish and chips is £12.20. It is including chips and sauces. Please keep in mind that the service charge is 12.5% for eating in restaurant in London.

We ordered cod and halibut to try both. The portion was huge! It had a lot of chips as well. Chips is french fries in UK language 😀 They gave us sauces, chili, ketchup and mayo. This is the difference from take away. For take away no sauce and no cutlery (or maybe need to ask them).

Overall their food was great. Are they really the best fish and chips in town? I’m not sure since I’ve only tried theirs.

Website : http://poppiesfishandchips.co.uk/

14. Kanada-Ya Ramen

As a noodle lover, particularly ramen, me and my husband always wanted to try ramen (japanese noodle) in new place. We found this place in London, Kanada-Ya. It was said to be the best ramen in town. Hence, we tried it.

I ordered Tonkotsu Ramen. To be honest, I was disappointed with the taste. It was not as good as I expected. The broth was delicious but too porky for my taste. I still prefer danbo ramen in Saigon 😀

Website :http://www.kanada-ya.com/

15. Emilia’s Crafted Pasta

We wanted to eat something simple and not too expensive for dinner that day, and also need to be close to our hotel because we were very tired from the trip to Edinburgh. We found a pasta place on foursquare and it was at St Katharine Docks. Very close to our hotel. They made their own pasta and their menu also unique. Check it out in their website.

I ordered pasta with parmesan, pecorino and pesto. The shape of pasta is unusual but it was cooked al-dente. Their sauce also yummy, although for me it was a little bit bland. The cheese helped a lot though. The pasta was £9. Portion was just right. I could still ordered a dessert though..

The special dessert that day was salted caramel chocolate browny with ice cream. I was interested with salted caramel! So I ordered one and the browny was superb. I loved it! Browny was around £6.

16. Burger & Lobster

This place is very famous apparently. My friend suggested us to eat there as well, so we tried one in soho area. They have several branches. The place looks like a diner (or maybe they are?) with a lot of seating inside. When we came it was not full because it wasn’t dinner time yet. You might need to make reservation on peak hour.

I ordered 1 pound of lobster. I’m not a fan of lobster but this is a burger and lobster restaurant! Between those two, I preferred to try their lobster. It was a really good choice! Their garlic and lemon butter sauce is to die for. Very tasty. The lobster itself was sweet, although it was a little bit overcooked. The french fries were thin and crispy. I like this kind of fries! One portion of this was £23. Very expensive indeed!

My husband ordered their burger with lobster meat. He said it was okay and not special. So I guess for this restaurant better go for their lobster. I can be a fan of lobster for this one 😀

17. Dishoom

I heard from so many people that Indian food in London is really good. The problem is I don’t really know how to tell a good Indian food! I only had it once in Hong Kong haha. Once again my trusted app for food told me about an excellent Indian food near me. It was Dishoom. I went there with my friend before actually, but at that time it was fully booked and we couldn’t wait for the queue because we needed to go back soon. This time me and my husband only waited for a bit (but there was already a queue there!).

They sat us on basement floor (Yes, they have 2 floor and all full with customer!). Then the waitress asked us if we ever ate there before. We haven’t of course. She then showed us around the menu and gave explanation of what dish should we order and how many dishes. Everything looked amazing though. Seriously. We ended up ordering many dishes!

Me and my husband agreed that this restaurant has an amazing food. They were all so tasty. My favorite was the calamary and the fried flat bread with butter. Very delicious!

It was really yummy. We wouldn’t mind Indian food if they taste like this one 😀 The total we spent there was about £30.15 including 12.5% service charge.

18. Sushi Samba

On our last day in London, my husband wanted to eat somewhere that we could see the city view. He found Sushi Samba and we knew that this place is very expensive. But we still go for the experience! We did a reservation for lunch (being in London for a while we were used to make reservation before eating). There is a special elevator to go to this restaurant. It is located on the 38th and 39th floors at 110 Bishopsgate street.

We looked at the menu and tried to find something that has reasonable price. None lol. Their dishes are using a fancy ingredient. We ordered Edamame with volcanic salt, California roll with Truffle Oil, Samba London, and KOBE Beef Sashimi. Everything was very delicious though. And the view from our table also breathtaking.

I also interested in their dessert, Assorted Japanese Mochi. It came with 3 flavor : mango, green tea and raspberry. My favorite was mango! I loved this mochi.

Website : https://sushisamba.com/location/london

 

These were places that I visited in London to have a meal. London has a lot of places to eat! Which one have you been into? Share with me in comment.

Ciao.