London Food & Dining
Following our excellent eating adventures in Paris, the expectations for London were a little lower. Partly because I had lived there (granted over 10 years ago), I didn’t do as much research and planning into the food and dining options. I figured to return to some favorite places and visit some new ones that I’d read about. Despite what I believe are outdated stereotypes, London actually is quite an exciting city for food, particularly for Asian cuisines. There is much more than relatively plain and bland food.
As Aiday and I had gotten over jet lag and were on a more normal schedule, we actually ate more meals in London than in Paris. Our line up was as follows:
Rasa Sayang: lunch on Tuesday, 19 February, where we met friends
Gymkhana: lunch on Wednesday, 20 February, for an Indian tasting menu. My favorite meal in London, for the food and service
Dean Street Townhouse: dinner/snack on Wednesday, 20 February, where we met a friend
The Wolseley: afternoon tea on Thursday, 21 February
Kiln: post-theater snack on Thursday, 21 February
St. John (Smithfield): dinner on Friday, 22 February . A return to a favorite spot for a dish I crave
Regency Cafe: breakfast on Saturday, 23 February, following in the footsteps of Men in Blazers
Borough Market: grazing on Saturday, 23 February
Bao (Fitzrovia): final meal on Saturday, 23 February
The favorite dishes from this part of the trip included the following
Roast bone marrow at St. John: I get this dish nearly every time I visit London
Kid goat methi keema at Gymkhana
Kid goat bowl kofta at Gourmet Goat (Borough Market)
Oysters at Richard Haward, Shellseekers (Borough Market)
Scone & jam at The Wolseley: the jam was so delicious. Not sure what makes it different, but it was very tasty
Madeleines at St. John
Yes, that is correct - two of my favorite dishes in London were kid goat. This was unexpected. The goat at Gymkhana was mentioned by the server as a signature dish, and it did not disappoint. We liked it so much that we tried kid goat again at the Borough Market a few days later. It’s not a meat that’s widely available in the US, but it seems like it should be, given that it’s healthier than other meats and very tender and tasty.
The first day of eating was decent, but nothing too memorable. We were a little tired from the travails of the Eurostar (early morning train that got canceled), plus Aiday was still not feeling her best. After checking in to the hotel, we made plans to meet up with my friends Tim and Caroline and their young and adorable boys. We went to Rasa Sayang, a casual Singaporean/Malaysian place near Chinatown. It was more about catching up than eating (I didn’t even take any pictures), but it did satisfy a hunger for food from my homeland. Later that evening, I ended up getting takeaway from the Laughing Halibut (near the hotel in Westminster) to get their last order of fish & chips. It was a very decent version - crispy on the outside and moist in the middle.
I had made only 2 reservations in London before arriving, and lunch at Gymkhana was one of them (St. John the other). Gymkhana is a Michelin-starred Indian restaurant and part of a group whose other restaurants (Trisha, Hoppers) I’ve been to before and liked. The food did not disappoint and the service was excellent. In particular, they really made an effort to accommodate my spice tolerance level. Plus, their handling of a service error was quite beneficial to us.
Part of the reason I chose Gymkhana for lunch was that they offered excellent value tasting menus - 2 courses for £25, 3 for £30, 4 for £35 or 5 for £40 (vs. starting at £80 for dinner). These menus also provide choice for each course, so Aiday and I decided to get the 4 course menu, ordering different items for each course. The manager, who took our order, provided some recommendations and suggested and offered to substitute some items that weren’t on the specific tasting menu we chose. In addition, when I told them that I could only handle milder/medium levels of spice, they took note of that and adjusted some recipes to make them less hot.
The first course on the tasting menu was the same for both of us, an aloo chat (potato and crunchy noodle). Interestingly, my version was much more bland and muted in flavor than the one Aiday got. I’m glad that they toned it down that much for me. While I found her version more flavorful, I would not have been able to eat the entire portion at that spice level.
The second course featured one of my food highlights of London - their signature kid goat meethi keema. This is young goat that’s minced, and made into a curry with a Sloppy Joe-like consistency. It’s served with soft mini rolls (think Hawaiian rolls), minced shallots, chili and lemon, and eaten like a sandwich. The goat and curry mixture was so, so flavorful. For me, it was just on the edge of what I can handle but we liked it so much that we finished every last bite, using the bread to sop up any sauce. Kid goat being a young animal, the meat is very tender and did not have any unwanted gamey-ness.
The third course is when we had a service issue. When we ordered, we wanted to substitute chicken tikka for the paneer tikka (3rd course) and butter chicken for a rice dish (4th course). We were surprised when the paneer tikka came to the table. After we asked, the manager and server spoke to each other and realized the mix up. Instead of taking away the food and making us wait for a corrected order, the manager just decided to send out all the items. So instead of getting a 4 course meal, we ended up with a 5 course meal. In addition, when manager said that he’d send everything out, he assured us that it’d be perfectly fine if we didn’t finish and that they would box up the rest for us. The portion sizes are substantial to begin with, so there was little chance of finishing the extra course, and we didn’t feel any stress for not doing so. In fact, the leftovers became our lunch the next day.
In the end, we got the paneer tikka and the Scottish salmon tikka, per the tasting menu, for the third course. After that, we got two rice-based pilau dishes, plus the dal and potato sides. One of the pilaus was wild mushrooms with a generous shaving of black truffles. The two chicken dishes (butter and tikka) came out alongside these dishes. The table looked like it was to feed 4 or 6 much less the two of us, who were already pretty full. Needless to say, we took a good portion of this home and did not have any room to try the dessert.
Overall, this was an excellent meal. The flavors were really good; the food was well cooked (chicken tikka was still very moist); the portions were substantial; and the service outstanding. It was also an excellent value - £109 including tax, service and a drink each. Highly recommend this for anyone who enjoys flavorful Indian food.
That night, we met up with my friend Edwin, who we saw recently in Chicago. We met him at Dean Street Townhouse, a lively place in Soho recommended by some friends of his. Neither Aiday and I were that hungry after the big lunch, and Edwin had snacked at home, so we mostly had drinks and snacks. The twice baked smoked haddock souffle was quite good and nothing like the sweet souffle in Paris. This one had a great mixture of creamy, salty, smoky flavors. We did toast the engagement and the server brought out some dessert on the house as well.
Besides the conversation, the most memorable part of the evening was the bill. It’s the first time I recall getting a bill for exactly £88.88 (all-inclusive). We took that to be an auspicious meal.
The next day, we ate Gymkhana leftovers in the morning and then explored London for a bit. We figured to indulge in a very British pastime - afternoon tea at The Wolseley. The restaurant has a grand setting, a two-story room with chandeliers in what used to be a car showroom on Piccadilly. In addition to the tea service, the place is also known to have one of the finest breakfast menus in London. They serve that all-day, so we decided to get both afternoon tea and Arnold Bennett omelette, a rich bowl of eggs, cream, milk, butter, hollandaise sauce, smoked haddock, and more. I quite enjoyed this, particularly as I was hungry. The Classic Afternoon Tea comes with three tiers of treats - scones (with clotted cream and fruit jam) on the top, patisserie treats in the middle, and finger sandwiches on the bottom layer. This would have been quite a bit for one person, but quite a nice amount to share.
The scone, clotted cream and fruit jam was probably the best version of this I’ve had. The scone was still warm (it comes covered to keep it that way). I’m not sure how they made the jam, but it was excellent and tasted better than other jams - very fruity but not overly sweet. The finger sandwiches were also distinct and very good. My favorite was the coronation chicken sandwich, which has Indian flavors - curry and sweet chutney. The tea itself was fine - nothing too distinctive to me. This was an excellent pre-theater meal.
After seeing a show, we got a quick snack at Kiln. This is a casual, counter seating place serving Northern Thai food. It was more of a place I wanted to try because I’d read a lot of good things than a place where we needed to eat. Unfortunately, their level of spice was quite elevated - even what the servers described as mild was a bit too much for me. The glass noodle and brown crab dish was quite tasty, though.
Dinner at St. John on Friday night was something I was looking forward to all trip. This restaurant has been around for a while now. I originally went because Anthony Bourdain described it as one of his favorite places and did many TV segments with Fergus Henderson, the pioneering chef there. I’m a big fan, and have gotten him to sign my “Nose to Tail Eating” books when he’s visited Chicago. The chef is known as being a key proponent of cooking offal and other less popular cuts of meats. The atmosphere in the restaurant is friendly and straightforward, and the setting itself is rather austere - just white walls with no decoration.
Of course, we had the iconic roast bone marrow and parsley salad (nearly every table ordered at least one). This dish has inspired many other restaurants to offer bone marrow. In reading about St. John’s version, the differences may be in the type of bones used - veal vs. beef and the dressing for the parsley salad. Part of the pleasure in eating this dish is extracting the bone marrow and making up your own proportion of grilled sourdough, bone marrow, salad and grey sea salt. I don’t know whether bone marrow has any health benefits or if it’s just a lot of fat, but I know I do crave it, especially this version.
In addition to that, we ordered some grilled sardines and a roasted veal, which were both good. We did want to save room for desserts, as they make really good madeleines and classic English desserts. The madeleines were as good as I remember them - warm, light and fluffy. We ordered the Steamed Strawberry Sponge (with cream). This was an excellent choice, as it wasn’t heavy.
Saturday was our last full day in London. I started off the day at the Regency Cafe, a classic diner not far from the hotel. This was the place the Men in Blazers chose to highlight as a place to get the full English breakfast. Unlike Rog, though, I did not order all the extras, as I knew we had more places to explore in just a few hours. The line was about 40 minutes that morning, and the food was as advertised - simply and tasty. I got an egg, baked beans, bacon, sausage, bubbles & squeak (potatoes and cabbage) and toast, all for £7.60.
We spent much of the afternoon at the Borough Market, which Aiday described as “food heaven.” This place has expanded and become a major tourist destination in its own right. The market was completely packed on the Saturday. As Aiday didn’t eat breakfast, she was pretty hungry by the time we got to the market. My usual strategy of doing a walk through before deciding on anything was not viable - we couldn’t take the smells and seeing people bite into deliciousness before we needed to get something. The first thing we got was a vegan Korean bao from Eat Chay, which was decent. After that, we found the Gourmet Goat location, which has been highlighted by several websites. This stand was started by a Cypriot woman, so the flavors are Mediterranean. It was different the goat at Gymkhana and also very enjoyable and flavorful. Funnily enough, right in front of us in line were two women who had dined near us the night before at St. John - seems like we were on a similar food quest.
After that, we walked around a little bit to build up more of an appetite. Before too long, it was time to try some oysters, first at Richard Haward and then at Shellseekers. At Richard Haward, we tried two types of English oysters - natives and rock - as well as a glass of bubbly. Natives are more rounded in shape whereas rock oysters are the teardrop shape. It’s hard not to stop by and want to try one of the the gigantic rock oysters at Shellseekers. I don’t think I’ve seen a larger oyster. Out of all of the English oysters, the natives were Aiday’s favorite.
Even though we were pretty full from an afternoon of grazing, we left the Borough Market with even more food. We bought some empanadas and iberico chorizo to take with us on the flight (along with madeleines from St. John), as we figured that would be much more appetizing than the airline offerings.
We couldn’t leave London without visiting a pub or two, so we went back to my old local in Kensington - the Churchill Arms. This is one of the more picturesque pubs in the city, with lots of plants and flowers hanging on the exterior (too bad the photo is dark). Inside the pub was pretty crowded and filled with English and Churchill memorabilia. There is an authentic Thai kitchen in the back of the pub, and we got some prawn chips as a bar snack. While they have TVs, they weren’t turned on and the focus seemed to be more on conversing with your friends.
The final meal was at Bao, a restaurant I really liked on my last visit in 2016. As its name implies, this serves Taiwanese bao and other small plates. It was a great place to have a lighter dinner, similar to how we felt when we went to Kiln. We two baos (classic pork, beef short rib), fried chicken, bone marrow rice and an excellent 40 day aged beef rump with white miso. The dessert was also a hit - fried bao with Horlicks ice cream. I’ve tried to make this malted ice cream at home, but their version is better.
With that, our eating adventures in London (and Paris) came to an end. The food was as good as I had hoped, and there is plenty more to explore. We ate out for all the meals, but maybe next time we can explore the markets some more and make some home cooked meals. As mentioned in a previous post, the only regret was not indulging more in all the tasty treats that are available only in those cities. We can’t wait to return.