9 Can’t Miss London Food Experiences (and the best restaurants to find them)

When we travel we have a saying that we like to make every single meal count because going out all the time it's expensive and it's so frustrating to stumble into a tourist trap hub or a cafe with terrible food or just feel like you are not getting what you are paying for so we have put this together for you because we think this is pretty great. Hi America and I'm Jordan and we're your guides abroad. We've lived all over the world and now we feel most at home traveling. We're not just here to show you what we've done though we will tell you how to do it. Number one is probably the biggest cliche ever when you're here in London right because it's the big fact that the most served meal in London is curry. So we're going to tell you where to go for really good Indian food and a unique Indian food experience. But first Erica has some history. So the first Indian restaurant was the Hindustan Coffee House and that opened in London in 1810 and since then a lot more Indian food restaurants have opened. So you can find a range of Indian food options. So you have Michelin star restaurants and you have some cheap and cheerful wall-in-the-wall restaurants as well. Hello Brick Lane. Yes we love Brick Lane. Brick Lane is well known for its Indian food. Everyone comes down here at night to get the best Indian food in London. The funny thing is though is that it's not Indian food it's actually Bengali. Now a lot of Bangladeshis settle this area you can tell because there's a big mosque here. So if you really want to surprise your waiter say salamu alaykum when you meet them and say don't about when the food arrives. That's hello and thank you. And so if you do find yourself in East London Brick Lane is a great place to go for Indian food. There are a number of different options and we have enjoyed them but for this one I'm going to give my pick to a restaurant that doesn't serve traditional Indian food and that is Dishoom. So Dishoom serves Indian and Persian. It's a mix of Indian and Persian food. They have crafted just a absolutely phenomenal menu. We love it. However here's a drawback. They do not take reservations and you can end up queuing in line for like sometimes an hour and a half for dinner. I've done it. It was worth it when I lived there. I would say it's probably not worth queuing that long while you're on vacation because you have a lot of things to do. So consider going for breakfast, brunch, lunch. It's a lot less crowded. You get some amazing food. We took our kids for breakfast and everyone loved it. It's one of the places that brings Erica a lot of happiness. Plus all the buildings are super unique. So we went to the one in Kensington and it's beautiful but they're all gorgeous. So just pick whatever's closest to you and go to that. All right so the second food experience that you should enjoy is an afternoon tea. An afternoon tea is not just for tourists. It's for everyone. We went a number of times. I went a lot when we lived in London. I really enjoyed it let's just say. So afternoon tea is typically served between lunch and dinner. It's a meal to kind of hold you over until dinner. I will say it's extremely filling though. So I find I either don't need lunch or I don't eat dinner. So included in afternoon tea are some finger sandwiches. Some nice little sandwiches. They'll vary. Sometimes they can be a curried chicken or a cucumber or smoked salmon. Delicious. Then you have your scones, scones, with clotted cream and jam. Delicious. And then you have your cakes and sweet things on top and that is great. So that is a full afternoon tea. You start with the sandwiches, move on to the scones and then you end with the sweet treat. Delicious. So there are a lot of different places you can go for afternoon tea. If you want like a very fancy traditional experience you can go to Claridge's or the Ritz but make sure you book it well in advance. If you want something funkier you can go to Sketch. I took Henry to Bluebird in Chelsea which was lovely but if you want another restaurant tea experience I recommend the Ivy and that is a chain restaurant but they have a great afternoon tea. You can also get something that's not quite as fancy and that's cream tea. Cream tea. And so this isn't a full afternoon tea but you'll find this a lot of different places and it's cheaper and you just get tea and scones with the clotted cream and the jam and it's still a fun experience. And don't make the mistake calling afternoon tea high tea because you're completely different and just you'll sound like an American. Yeah so high tea was typically a supper for a working class family. Number three is a pub meal. I know that's also kind of sounds very basic but you find a really good pub meal. A lot of the pubs are chain restaurants or like chain pubs and they're good but they're not great. What we love going to is two of our favorites is Scarsdale Tavern. It's in Kensington. It's on this cute little road. Really good food and that's the thing some of these pubs have like actually nowadays like executive chefs. Yeah. And a changing menu. They always have like really good English food but also have new introductions too. Yeah so not every pub has excellent food but when you find the ones that do oh man. Oh and there is also a Michelin star pub. Oh yeah no kidding. The Harwood Arms. It lost a star but it still has amazing food and it's in Fulham isn't it? Yeah it's in Fulham. And if you are going to a pub for a pub meal like the Scarsdale Tavern make sure you have sticky toffee pudding because it's so good. And make sure you don't sleep on the sticky toffee pudding. Number four to eat the diversity of London food try hitting up a market. Then you can try a lot of different things to have fun with it. Some of our favorites are Borough Market in Southwark. Then you also have Mercado Mayfair and you have the Duke of York Square in Chelsea which is only on Saturdays. But anyways check out our market video for more marketplaces but try to hit up one of these markets. You won't regret it. It's a great way to find food for the entire family or for those foodies in your life. You can just sample everything. It's just such a fun experience. It's you know mixes up. It mixes it up. It's not sitting down in a restaurant. It's enjoying a hip London market. It is good for lunch or dinner time. They even have drinks like they usually have like someone serving different drinks there like G&Ts. It was hard to decide but I ended up with a falafel and halloumi box. Delicious. If you are excited to go to a market like Borough Market and you want to figure out how to fit it into your day we have a one day London itinerary that you can just download and go and it takes you to some amazing sites and it includes a stop at Borough Market. So make sure you go get that. Number five is one of the first things I do when I land in London is get a full English. It's funny on the weekends they call it a fry up but full English includes. So a full English includes a lot. So it is bacon, sausage, eggs, baked beans, grilled tomatoes, mushrooms, and toast and then usually either tea or coffee. It's a lot of food. And the bacon's different. It's more like Canadian bacon for us Americans. But yeah it's a lot of food. It's wonderful. One of our favorite places to go is Regency Cafe. It is in Pimlico. There's a big line but the queue moves really fast. I feel like but it's classic and the guy who owns it and runs the counter he's yelling out orders. Stick to the plan. Stay focused. Be ready with your order. Don't be intimidated. Just go in strong. Don't think you can hold the table. Yeah. Don't you dare. Number six. So these had to be the size of a horse and a carriage. That's how big these things could be back historically. And they used to be all over the place in the 1800s. They're called cabman shelters. Today in London there's only 13 of them remaining. And these are places where you had to be an official cabman or a passenger that has to go inside to get your tea builder's tea and coffee and food right. Nowadays you can go up there for breakfast. Grab a bacon bop. Grab some coffee. Go to the window. And it's just a cool London experience to visit one of these cabman shelters. So we'll put some up on the map right now. Take a good note of those and try to make sure you hit one of those up. So number seven. I wouldn't necessarily say this is like a delicacy. But it's something fun. Especially if you are going through the train stations or the airport. It is a Cornish pasty. Not a pasty. A Cornish pasty. Exactly. So we like to grab them at some of the big London train stations. Or if you're at a market like Borough Market they'll be selling them also. Yeah. So it's cool. It's like this nice like very like fatty bread with stuffing inside of it. Meat. Different things like that. So Wikipedia says the origins of the Cornish pasty is unknown. But first of all it has the word Cornish in it. So it's from Cornwall. Right. And every English person like to tell you is people who worked in the tin mines or the coal mines would come out and eat these. And then you'd hold on to the where they rolled the bread over. The thick part of the bread. And then eat it that way because your fingers would be covered in like coal or tin. So they'd just be very dirty. Right. So that's the story I've always heard. Yeah. There you go. Cornish pasty. Give it a try. If I had to pick one thing that I miss the most about living in England. What's that? It is a Sunday roast. I love going out for Sunday roast or Sunday lunch. She actually would try and make them at home and like it's possible. But you just go out. You can't match it. Yeah. The Yorkshire pudding is hard to make. So that's what's included in a Sunday roast. So you have your meat. So that's usually, you know, a pork, chicken or a beef. They now do have vegetarian ones as well. Then you have some roast vegetables, potatoes, parsnips, carrots, some mashed potatoes, Yorkshire pudding and gravy. And then you have to have a pint to wash it down to. Exactly. They're only on Sundays. You can find them at a lot of pubs, but then also Hawksmore Steakhouse has them. And same thing. Find a good pub with a Sunday roast. Yeah. That's key. Figure out where you want to go for that. But really shouldn't be missed. If you're there in London or England on a Sunday, grab a Sunday roast. And we are showing images of the Prince Albert in Battersea. And it was a delightful Sunday roast. It was. Can't go wrong. Number nine. Most big cities around the world have one of these. So a lot of people are like, oh, not a big deal. I don't want to go down there. But I grew up in the Midwest. So we never had to Chinatown. And surprisingly to me, London has a very vibrant Chinatown right in the heart of the city. And so you'll find great food there. Chinese food plus a lot of other food there. We used to love to go there at night because no reservations are required for most of those places. And they get you in and out really fast. So it's great. But one of our new favorites is called the Bun House. It's a really cool historic building with tiled floors. And they just serve up fresh buns. You actually watch them being made. And our kids absolutely loved them. They ate them right up. So the Bun House. But just check out Chinatown if you're looking for a cool, unique food experience. That's not English at all. Chinatown is super conveniently located. So you can be in Soho or go shopping or avoid Leicester Square and just go to Chinatown. It's right there instead. So avoid the bad meals in Leicester Square and go to Chinatown. I like it. Chinatown, the RBKC, Greenwich. Oh my God, there's so many boroughs around London. There's so many things to do. If you want to make sure you have the perfect day in London, grab our London One Day itinerary. It's free. Click the link down below to download it. This was the itinerary we give to all of our friends to get them out of our flat. Family too. We just don't want them there anymore. Send them out for the full day. They'd absolutely love it. Click down below to check that out. And watch one of our other amazing videos on London too. Because if you watch this, you're guaranteed to have a great time. Absolutely guaranteed. All your money back on this video. Thanks for watching.