Eating in central London

Whatever kind of food you like, you’ll find it in London town. Indian, Chinese, French and Italian are the most common foreign foods available, but you’ll also find many Thai, Japanese, Greek, Turkish, fusion, and fast-food joints here. And while you’re visiting, for the sake of the full English experience, you must try Fish and Chips, or an all-day fry-up!

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We arrived in the evening, having come from work to meet in Holland Park. I arrived second, so the brief check-in procedure had already been taken care of. If you didn’t know there was a hotel here, you wouldn’t necessarily spot it! Holland Park is just to the west of Marble Arch and Kensington, and some of the newer countries (Ukraine, Uzbekistan) that haven’t quite made it to Kensington have their embassies here. The hotel is a pink-painted old building on the corner of Holland Park Avenue, with a porch entrance discretely open up a flight of stairs.

When we got to our room I was very impressed. It felt less like a hotel room than any I’ve been in, and more like a guest room in a very luxurious private house. The walls in room 42 are blue checks, and the furnishings are blue, yellow and cream. The large, comfortable bed and the window (leading to a small balcony) have matching canopies over them, giving the room a slightly exotic air. There is a comfortable two seat sofa, several chairs, a table, desk, and television.

Leading off the room are three smaller rooms. There is a small hall as you enter, with a selection of current magazines on a small table (including Time Out, a very useful guide to events in London). The other side of the bedroom is a dressing room with hanging space, mini-bar, and drawers. The bathroom is large, decorated in earth tones with a huge bath and a couple of enormous mirrors.

The whole hotel has an air of quiet, English luxury about it. There are no flunkies opening doors, and the whole place has an air of comfortable, understated luxury that is never pompous. A lot of thought had gone into making the room a pleasant place to be in, with all the things you might need for a long stay as well as an overnight visit. The one down side was that it was a bit difficult to get hold of reception by phone when we tried, just before we checked out.

As well as breakfasts, the caff does a roaring trade in jacket potatoes, omlettes, sandwiches, and soup. They bundle food and hot drinks up for take-away, or you can sit in one of about 35 seats inside, or 6 outside, and eat in. It's a friendly place, with regulars in at all times of day. For obvious reasons, it’s busiest between 1 and 2pm, and you might have to wait a minute or two for a seat at these times. The owners are friendly Turkish Cypriots, who have a cheerful word for any customer inclined to be amiable. It’s a smoking place, like every such place I’ve ever been in.

To get here, the closest tube is Holborn (central and piccadilly lines), and you then walk north-east for about 5 mins through Procter St. and Red Lion Square.

This is in many ways a typical fish and chip shop - the cooking area goes on down once side of it, behind a counter, and there are 5 tables with benches the other side. When you go in, go to the counter to order for take away, and sit down for service if eating in. On the menu are things like cod, haddock, skate, various pies (cheese and onion, beef, etc), sausages and rolls, all with chips. There are also the traditional side dishes of picked gherkins and onions, bread and butter, and tea, and well as soft drinks and coffee.

This is a good, friendly, busy place to try a traditional British meal.

The restaurant rarely seems crowded, and has a relaxed atmosphere. It is an especially good place to eat in this area on a Sunday, when many other places around are closed. (This is mostly a business area, and more places are open during the week than at weekends.) To get here, take the tube to Holborn station (Piccadilly and Central lines) and walk north about 300 yards along Southampton Row. The hotel is on the right hand side of the road, at the junction with the Theobald's Road, opposite Lloyd's Bank.

When I came here with my boyfriend, we started with a drink at the bar, then he had a mozzarella based salad for a starter, and I had asparagus with a creamy sauce. Both were very good. I had a sublime grilled fish with spinach, and himself enjoyed a steak. The wine list is good and comprehensive, but certainly not cheap.

The decoration is theatrical - posters, memorabilia, and details. The atmosphere is nice - it's a busy place, candle lit, with a buzz to it. I can't quite work out why I'm not sold on this restaurant - the food is very good, and the atmosphere nice, but it just doesn't quite work for me. It's certainly not cheap, and it might just be that at nearly 70 pounds for the two of us I am fussy. A couple of my friends go here very regularly, and swear by the place, and if theatre-themed is your idea of fun, it's a good bet for you - I'm just not quite convinced.

It's pretty well essential to book here, especially at weekends, but you can easily book a table earlier in the day, in my experience. The nearest tube to the restaurant is Covent Garden (Piccadilly line).

Reservations aren't possible, you just turn up. For this reason, it's better to go about 7pm, later and you might have to queue for a while to get in. The restaurant is in a basement, decorated in cool whites and creams, with pine tables and benches. The tables are in long lines, with benches running along them, so it's not a good place for a private chat, as there will be people on both sides of you able to hear!

The food is essentially post-modern Japanese, no sushi, and all pretty healthy. My favourite thing there is a meal combination, called "Absolute Wagamama", where you get chicken, greens, and noodles in chicken stock dish, accompanied by a side dish and a glass of their amazing fresh, pulpy fruit and vegetable juices. They do many other dishes. Other favourites of mine are the fish cakes, and the spicy beef noodles. As well as the amazing fruit juices, they do a selection of Japanese beers, and fragrant teas.

It's a great place, with a good atmosphere, and I heartily recommend it. The whole restaurant is non-smoking.

To get here, take the tube to Tottenham Court Road (Northern and Central Lines), the walk about 20 yards north up Tottenham Court Road, turn right into Great Russell Street, second right, then first left. It's about 250 yards altogether from the tube station.

As you walk in, the décor makes you take a deep breath – it’s almost unbelievable. The floor is an odd mixture of stone, tiles, and mosaic. Every inch of the interior is decorated within an inch of its life in a riot of self-indulgent rococo excess – from red velvet table cloths and giant air blown lamps, to gold-coloured engravings and curves. The seats are patterned tapestry, the lighting is dark. Along the sides of the long room are balconies, each holding a table and chairs – underneath are the booths which are no more than 6 feet tall, tucked under the balconies. Down the middle is one long table, with parties of people sitting together. The toilets are surreal – the women’s at least has slightly impressionistic soft-porn painted all over the walls and doors!

We were in one of the booths off the side, and when you make a reservation it’s best to go for one of these, and it’s much more fun than in the centre. We got there at 8pm, and started (slowly) to order. The food is OK, nothing special, but we had a fantastic evening. Between us, we order 3 starters (houmous, and Greek cheese pancakes) and 5 main courses – monkfish, two lamb meatballs, a vegetarian bake, and a steak. While we enjoyed the food, I wouldn’t say it was great. We also managed, between the five of us, to get through 5 bottles of wine, 6 cocktails, and two after-dinner drinks. They made no effort to kick us out – we were there from 8pm to 12:45am, when we rolled out. (The other 4 went clubbing, but that amount of alcohol means bed for me.) I had a wonderful evening, and would recommend the place highly. It has to be seen to be believed.

On Sunday and Monday nights they have live opera singing, and on other nights there is piped opera at a good volume – it doesn’t drown conversation, but you can hear it if you want to. Have fun if you come here – I certainly did!

One criticism - the service is a bit slow, and the only way we got our bill was to get up and start putting on our coats - which worked nice and fast!

It's based over 3 floors, with a bar and tables on the ground floor, tables on the first floor, and cloakroom facilites on the third. As there's no lift, and steep stairs, it's not suitable for disabled patrons.

The nearest tube is either Holborn or Chancery Lane - walk along High Holborn (east from Holborn tube, west along it from Chancery Lane) and turn up Red Lion St. The restaurant is about 100 yards up the road on the left.

Inside it’s quite dark – the tables, stools chairs and benches, and the bar are all dark oak. The impressive carved oak bar is topped with a huge railway station-style clock – plain faced with Roman numerals for numbers and the words "Victoria" and "Albert" just above and below the centre respectively. (The name of the Queen from 1837 to 1901, and her consort who died in the 1860s.) It must be some 2.5 feet in diameter, and can be seen clearly from most parts of the ground floor. The walls are panelled oak as well, with the part above the dado rail painted the same old gold colour as the ceiling. The large windows are frosted up to 6 feet or so, and the curtains are an attractive pattern of dark red on old gold.

It’s a large pub – there were perhaps some 200 people there when I was last there, spread over the two parts of the pub ground floor and the restaurant up on the first floor. They also serve pub food downstairs but for more formal food the restaurant is the place to go.

On the last occasion I was there, I ate downstairs. As in almost all pubs, you go to the counter to order and pay (in some pubs they then bring the food to you, in others you collect it yourself. In almost all you pay when ordering, not at the end). If you wait for waitress service, you’ll go very hungry! The counter service is efficient and polite, and the bar offers a wide range of bitters and ales, as well as all the usual commercial lagers (none of which I tried last time, as I was grabbing a quick lunch in the middle of a working day!) I had Shepherd’s Pie - an English dish made of minced beef, tomatoes, onion and carrot with a layer of mashed potato on top – with peas and bread, and this together with a pint of lemonade set me back just under £5.50, which is pretty reasonable for the Victoria area. My lunch companion had a good, non-greasy, fish, chips and peas.

It’s not fine dining, but the pub serves good solid pub lunches downstairs, and more fancy (and pricey) concoctions upstairs. It’s a good bet for the money. It’s pretty handy for the Westminster area – the pub’s just west of Westminster Abbey and the spires can be seen from outside the building. To get here from Westminster tube, come out of the Houses of Parliament exit, walk past the Abbey and down Victoria Street, and the pub is a couple of hundred yards down the road on the right.