AMERICAN Tries the MOST Iconic British Foods (London Food Guide!)

Today, I'm on a mission to conquer the most iconic British foods that every first-timer must try. I have recruited a trio of seasoned Londoners who are going to show me the ropes. Our first guide is Tom, a fellow YouTuber and London taxi driver who knows every nook and cranny of this city. If there's anyone who can steer us to the ultimate English breakfast, it's this guy, who spends his days driving hungry Londoners to their favorite spots. Tom, we're starting with E. Polici, London's best full English. This is it. It's been here since 1900. This is what it's all about. My name's Nevio Polici. First thing is, I'd love to know the history of E. Polici. Tell us about it. It was started by my grandparents, come over from Tuscany in Italy. My dad was actually born upstairs in 1925. They were Italian immigrants, so they'd come over with nothing. Started working for the guy who owned the business, and after about three or four years, he went back to Italy. So it's been in our family since then. We've actually owned the cafe. We've just been part of the community for that long. You guys have been voted, in many publications, the best full English in London. Yeah. How did that come to be such a specialty here? I think we've just been doing it for so long, and we've sort of perfected it. I think we have. We just do what we're known to do, and we don't do nothing too fancy. We just do really simple and good. What's the typical customer here like? We've got a lot of locals who come in most days for their cup of tea. We get loads of people from different parts of England come in. I get Americans, I get Canadians. People from everywhere come in, like literally all over the world. We wanted to order two classics with black pudding. We're going to plate up your breakfast in a second. Okay, so we've got some nice fresh mushrooms here. And I'm going to give you some fried bread today on the fried breakfast, John. The vegetarians are going to have toast, because they're wussies. You guys are going to have some nice fried bread. Lovely. And I'll start plating these up. I'm going to give you a nice bit of bubble and squeak on the side. Some grilled tomatoes. Mushrooms are just going. And I'm going to start splashing my eggs. How long have you been working here? Oh, blimey. So, I'm almost 52. And I started working at the age of 11. When I was 21, I came in full-time, so what's that? Too bloody long. Put this on here. How many of these full Englishes do you think you make a day? I've got no bloody idea, John. Fantastic. Top it off with our mushrooms. And then we're just going to top each of these off with a spoon of baked beans. Over here. And the last one. Wow, wow. How does this country function if this is the breakfast you're eating constantly? That's what I want to know. This is the goods, yeah. Tom, for a first-timer, take us through what's on the plate right now. We've got a bit of everything going on here. So, we've got a real nice, juicy cucumber and sausage over there. Fried tomato. Couple of pieces of black pudding. Mushrooms there. Hash browns as well. Beans there as well. And some slices of back bacon. How would you begin? Something I learned from my dad was that you can just grab a little bit of everything and pile it up on the fork. And you get all these different flavours going in. This is fun. I'm trying to keep up with you here. That's like the whole kitchen in one bite, I've got to tell you. It's good, right? But for most people, this might be a Saturday morning treat. Or if I'm going on a flight somewhere, I might have a big full English to get me sorted. And then I haven't got to eat for the rest of the day. I've just taken one bite so far. And I've got to tell you, this is definitely the best full English I've ever had. I've had this a few different times in my life. In the US, I've had it in different countries before. Something else I find interesting about the history of the full English. Is it was something that the Victorians were eating to look wealthy. And then it turned into more of a working class thing, right? Yeah. Today, you still get a lot of English breakfast in kind of quite working class areas. And, you know, historically the east end of London. Well, this is the Mecca here. We came here and it was empty within 30 minutes. There is a line outside of the door. So, e-Police, I mean, the reputation speaks for itself. Do you want to try a bit of black pudding as well? I don't quite know what black pudding is. Blood sausage. There's lots of animal blood and bits in it. Yeah. I actually last had this in Madrid a month ago. Part of a tapas tour. You know, it's got a, what would I say, controversial reputation. Yeah. Kind of love it or hate it thing. It's not so strong tasting. Like, I've had some that were way stronger tasting than this. And some people are real purists. Like, that has to be on a full English. Like, if it hasn't got black pudding, that's not like a proper full English. Oh, we made sure to add it. We wanted to show you it. The Cumberland sausage. That may be the best tasting sausage I've ever tried in my entire life. It's a really good quality sausage on this one. And, you know, being an Italian spot, I know this tomato is going to be good. I just know it before I even try it. I like how we've been talking about this one English for a while. And there's still ingredients we haven't even touched in the pot. There's things that are buried underneath here, which I may never get to. It's like a scavenger hunt. Yeah. No, this definitely lives up to the reputation. I would say if you are visiting London, come on a weekday. Come early. And enjoy the hospitality. Because they're like that with everybody. The beans too. This is a hallmark of full English. You know, beans is a huge staple. But in the middle here, we've got bubble and squeak. It's kind of like a potato omelette. It's like potatoes, a bit of vegetables. Kind of just chucking it all in the frying pan. Leftovers. I seriously never heard of this until about 20 minutes ago. Yeah, my mum used to cook it for me when I was younger. And I was like, what is bubble and squeak? And I didn't really quite enjoy it or appreciate it as a kid. Tastes like a potato omelette without an egg. So this is brown sauce. This is a good accompaniment for English as well. Okay. The closest equivalent is probably like a steak sauce. Like A1 steak sauce. So what do you put it on? Anything. Alright, brown sauce. So if it didn't taste English enough, you add this on for more Englishness. It tastes extremely English right now. Your accent's going to be changing any minute now. If you've got a tourist jumping into your taxi and they wanted to get a full English, would you send them here? I cannot fool anything on this. That's not me just saying it for the camera because we're getting together on this. But this is textbook. I want to come back here for more. This is too good. We're just cultured on one plate. That looks like a good taxi right there. Ooh, look at this. Alright, mate. Can we go to a M. Manzi's Tower Bridge? Ah, pie and mash. Yeah, man. Let's do it. This is roomy. I like this. You can fit six people in a regular cab. So the best part of these taxis is you press this button and Tom is on. Or you can silence me if I'm going on and on about it. Yeah, if you're a little boring. I don't hear him anymore. Tom, I was wondering why are London taxis all black? Once upon a time, you could only rent a taxi from a propriety. But because proprietors owned them, they kept them all black because if they ever got damaged, they were much easier to repair black rather than having like a wider variety of colours. Tom, this is the one food in the video that I've actually never tried before. M. Manzi for pie and mash. Yeah, this is proper London stuff now. I'm excited. Let's get in there. Wow. This is definitely my kind of place. This looks like it's just steeped in history. It's just raw and it's authentic. This has not changed. You can just imagine people coming here across the decades. I'm Emma Harrington and I'm one of the co-owners here at M. Manzi. I'm very curious about the history because it doesn't look like anything has changed here at all. Nothing has changed. It's still the same marble tables, pew benches, the same tiling up the wall. 122 years ago, this is what it looked like and it stayed the same. And this has been in your family for forever, right? So my grandfather came over from Italy, Ravello, where his family were from. They set up a shop next door to here selling ice and ice cream. But they realised that there was a need for more of a substantial food and came into the pie and mash business. We were one of the only places that were open during World War I and World War II. And it's just a homely, filling, comfort meal and we get generations of people coming in and it's amazing. We've managed to keep it going for 122 years so far. Let's do it for another 122 years. I've got three boys. I would love for it to continue on in the family. Can we get one pie, one mash, twice please? This is my kind of fast food. It was out in about a minute, piping hot, and presented right in front of us. I don't know about these idols, but I'll try them. Tom, we got the pie, we got the mash, we got the liquor. This is a single mash, single pie as we ordered it. Beef mince pie? I'll be honest, this isn't as much of my forte as what the full English breakfast was. This is a lot more London-centric. This is a very London-based dish. Apparently, the way that people like to do it is they like to flip the pie over. So you get this softer underside here. You can split it open. Oh, it's that beef mince in there. Look at all that. And the other important ingredient is the vinegar. People love to douse it. So for the full English, it was the brown sauce. Here we've got the chili vinegar. There's always an extra sauce involved. Yeah, a bit of pepper as well. Salt as well, whatever you want to have. Oh, this is going to warm me up. I can sense it already. It's like the British grandma I didn't know that I had was waiting for me today to give me this amazing pie. Oof. It's just real hearty, warming food. But also quite affordable. And they were saying, they deliver this all over the city too. I think that's fantastic. You can get this almost anywhere. When they said with liquor, I'm going to be honest, I thought we would have a shot of something on the side. I'm like, all right, they do it good in London. We're going to have a little alcohol. But no, there actually is no liquor in this liquor sauce. Just parsley. Yeah, parsley sauce. I think too many people are sleeping on the classics of England. If you do come and visit London, definitely do find an authentic pie and mash house like this because just the whole experience of being here. It's that community vibe as well. Locals that come to these places. And there's only 20 of these left. So supporting a business like this is a great idea. Doing research for this video, I didn't expect there to be so much immigrant stories involved with these classic dishes. It's actually amazing. It reminds me of being a New Yorker. How much immigration has shaped that city and how much is the same in London here? Should we try one of the eels? You insist. These were affordable ways of getting fish straight from the Thames. Back in the time. You can get them in jelly format as well, but this is stewed instead of cooked to have with the pie. Alright, let's try it. It could grow on me. If you're not a seafood person, you're probably not going to like it. It's got that fishy taste. Especially the skin on it as well. I like sushi. I like fish. I like it. Oh, we almost forgot our drink. Sarsaparilla. Cheers. They were telling me this is like a plant-based drink with a lot of sugar. Best way for me to describe it, it's like a really sweet cough medicine that you actually wouldn't mind being sick to have. If I was a kid, I would pretend to have a cold just to drink this. Just like the full English as well, it's kind of, you know, it gets a little bit messy after a while. It just lets all those juices and everything all mix and mingle. If it ain't messy, it ain't good. Yeah, exactly. A working-class fast food. Yeah. Originally the OG fast food of London. Yeah, so you went to Tesco and you got like a meal deal, a sandwich. Just because you just needed to quickly grab something just out and about. But the thing is, that would end up costing like a five or anywhere. This was like $5.95. It's hot. It's real food. It's not overly heavily processed like those sandwiches are. And it's filling. It's hearty stuff. And you get to sit down and enjoy it in a fabulous institution like this. You have to respect places that have the courage to stay exactly the same for a hundred years. I love businesses like that anywhere in the world. They're tougher and tougher to find these days. During the war, World War I, World War II, is what real Londoners would be sitting and eating. Are you finding a newfound appreciation for your food after this video? Yeah, I mean I always do quite like the history element of it. I think that's just kind of a value that you can't really put a price on. It's just amazing that it's got so much heritage and history to it. And it's still incredibly affordable in quite an expensive society. Our next guide is Charlie, a young YouTuber who's mastered the art of finding London's best cheap eats. If anyone can show us how to enjoy fish and chips like a true local, it's this guy. Charlie, according to you, Giggs is the best cheap eats deal in all of London. By a country mile. Absolutely 100%. £8.50, fish and chips. Mate, you pay double anywhere else. And this is the perfect spot then to test out this British icon. Lovely stuff. I'm Christopher Jordan, the owner of Giggs. It was opened by a Greek priest in 1958. Then my uncles took over in 1961. Then I took over in 2004. What are you most well known for? Would it be the fish and chips? Yeah, we're very well known for our fish and chips. Well, we only buy fresh produce and I've got a little secret recipe for the batter. And this £8.50 lunch special you have, how did you come up with this? It seems like such a good deal. Well, we decided that there's a lot of offices in the area and they needed something quick and easy. And filling. So we decided to do a mini fish and chips and it works. Three fish and chips? Yeah, there we go. Wow. That is a huge serving right there. Lovely, thank you very much, mate. Cheers. You're going to have a big pot belly by the end of the day, innit? Alright, Charlie, how would you season this? Right, so you get the lemon first before anything. Squeeze a little bit of lemon on the top of the fish. Not too much, just salt and vinegar. But you put the salt on first. Because if you put the vinegar on the chips, all the salt's just going to clump all over it and it's rotten. I prefer normal vinegar, but onion vinegar's there as well. Just a little bit on. So this is instead of ketchup? Yeah, you don't really have ketchup. And also, tartar sauce. So you just want to put it on the side so you can have a little dip as you please. This is like 10 pounds of fish right here. Mate, £8.50, I told you. Literally the best deal in London. Full stop, mate. It might just be. It's literally protruding out of the boxes so big. Well, clearly I'm not the only person who thought of putting ketchup on my chips because somebody dumped a few of them there. Ketchup on a fish and chips? Look, I tried a chip off camera with the vinegar. It was fantastic. You can't find vinegar like this in US fast food spots. It's so soft. Now we've got to get to the winner here. This is fried cod. Right, ready? Alright, let's do it. Absolute perfection, innit? Don't laugh at me, but the last time I had fish and chips, as part of a video, I didn't go under my own fruition, was Gordon Ramsay's fish and chips in Times Square. Oh, man. That's not the ultimate tourist trap, is it not? It is the ultimate tourist trap, and I think Gordon Ramsay would eviscerate his own fish and chip spot, and I think he would enjoy this fish and chip spot a lot. Most places in London, it's so oily and greasy, but this is just, oh my God, so fresh. Do you know much about the history of fish and chips? Because I really never looked it up. So the first ever fish and chip shop was opened in, I think it was 1860 in the east end of London. It was a Jewish immigrant, actually, called Joseph Malin. Pretty sure his name was. So yeah, what's that? 164 years ago. Mad. That's incredible, because we look at some of the places we already visited for this video, and we had Italian immigrants opening up Ippolici, opening up F. Manzi. Now we have a spot like this. Greek immigrants opened up this shop, and they were eating food that was brought over by a Jewish immigrant. That's the story of London right there. An observation I've had being in London for a few days, I feel like this takeaway culture is everywhere. Do people not like to eat inside restaurants here? No, honestly. I don't know what it is that we have against sitting in. I think it's just the British impatience or something. You know what I mean? For me, anyway, I'm just in, out, shaking it all about. We're impatient in New York, too. I had a lot of viewers when I mentioned I was going to be in London. They said, do not do fish and chips in London. Go to a seaside town. But I have to say, I am pleasantly surprised by the quality of this. Honestly, I thought the same. Seaside town, you can't beat the freshness. There's no way that a central London... It's the center of a city, but this is the best fish and chips I've ever had. Charlie, let's take cover. It's starting to rain for the second time today. Do you guys realize that it's July? We're eating traditional food, so you've got to have the traditional weather to go with it. Charlie, I'm going to go on record. The best fish and chips I've ever had. To my surprise, I don't feel super full. This was not greasy at all. No, not at all. Just literally perfect. What did I say? I told you I'd help you out, didn't I? Sure did. When you visit London or any city in Europe, having data on your phone will help you out so much. From ordering food to rideshare apps and directions, it's so critical. But data roaming from your home country is expensive, and going to a store or picking it up at the airport is just one more hassle you really don't want to deal with, which brings us to the partner for today's video, Olafly. An eSIM is a virtual SIM which lets you add a data plan to your device just by scanning a QR code. The eSIM is actually located inside your cell phone so you don't have to insert a physical SIM card anymore. And the great thing is you get instant delivery to your email, easy to set up, just head to the Olafly website and type in the United Kingdom. It's about as hassle-free as you get. You keep your number and your SIM card. If you have an iOS device, they just released an automatic installation option which is simple as can be. Bye-bye roaming charges. They've got 24-7 tech support available by email, online chat, and WhatsApp in more than 7 languages. And as a special offer for my viewers, use code JOHNBAR for 5% off your order. Link down below in the description. Olafly, definitely a game changer. We have Jess, a YouTuber who knows how to plan the ultimate London adventure. Today she's taking us to experience the quintessential British afternoon tea at a fancy hotel. She even made sure I dressed the part, insisting on a nice pair of shoes. Let's see if my footwear is up to Jess's high standards. I took her advice. I specially bought shoes just for afternoon tea because I wanted to look good. People always ask me about dress code for afternoon tea. Every place is different. Some will have strict dress code and some will not. A lot of them, you're going into really nice hotels. Even if they don't have a strict dress code, it's nice to have a bit nicer shoes, dress a little bit nicer. It's also kind of part of the experience. You approve? I approve. Looking slick. Ooh, it's nice looking too. Yeah, it's really nice in here. Well, this is by far the classiest thing I've done in a long time, I will tell you. And this is themed after Flower Fairies? Yes, which is a book that has 170 original drawings. And it's, I think, going to be really beautiful. We're going on the full spectrum of London today. Every type of food and now to the good life. Cheers! Only the best when you're with me, eh? Only the best. 33 different tea choices on this menu. Tough to pick one, but I think I picked a winner. I'll do the milk oolong. A palate cleanser before tea, wow. It's a granita. We're starting with dessert, more or less. You wanted to explain to me the history of afternoon tea. I want to hear about it. Yes, it actually started back in 1840 when Anna, the 7th Duchess of Bedford, she was in between lunch and dinner, around 4 o'clock she'd get hungry, and so she basically started requesting that her staff would send up finger sandwiches, scones, and bring some tea. And she basically started this tradition of afternoon tea. It's a very special occasion thing here. It's not something we do all the time because it does get a bit pricey. There are more budget ones. Most places will be a little bit more high end because it's just like they put on a whole experience. Sometimes there's different themes and there's different additions, and if you want to upgrade to champagne, then that costs a bit more. But there are a few options that are more affordable, too. So precise, everything. I know. I love the attention to detail here. Yeah, so it's really special. Oh, that's good. I'll admit I'm not much of a tea drinker. I typically go for coffee, but when in Rome.. Exactly. I've definitely turned into a tea drinker since I've moved here. I kind of liked it before, but it was.. Yeah. Oh my gosh, look at that. It's so pretty, I feel like I would ruin it by eating it. This is by far the most Instagramable thing you can do in London, right? Oh yes, absolutely. Outside of Big Ben, of course. Alright, I'm looking at the setup and I'm imagining there is some order of operations here. Yes. Okay, so basically the idea is you go from down up. So you start at the bottom with the finger sandwiches, then you work up to the scones, and that's when you do cream and jam. And there's a big debate in this country if you do the cream first or the jam first. I personally do cream because I'm not a heathen, but you know, a lot of people fight it out in the comments. And then you make your way up to the pastries at the top. And the pastries, especially at higher end places like this, it's like they have a specific pastry chef who will come and design these. And these ones are just like some of the most stunning ones I've ever seen, if I'm honest. And then more of the high end expensive ones will have an extra plate as well. I kind of pop this in whenever I feel like it. I'm not actually sure if there's an order to it, it's just another savory item that you can have. So make sure you come to Afternoon Tea hungry because it's just a lot of food. That's been the theme of today's video if you haven't noticed. A lot of food, but we're used to it by now. Mmm. It's like being at a fancy wedding. Best I can say with these finger foods here. Oh yeah. This is one of my favorites. It is one of the higher end expensive ones, but you're paying for a lot of extra food. You're paying for good service. The ambiance is very luxurious. And it's right on Park Lane. So you're in your head park so you can go for a walk after because you'll be stuffed. I'm going to need more than a walk after this video. I'm going to need to sleep till tomorrow and fast. You know, I think I want to skip to the scone. Cream. Cream. And then jam is what I do. Let me try this. Good. Mmm. It's not quite a meal. It's like the perfect dessert. I usually recommend doing this right at 12 o'clock for lunch time because then it can be your lunch. Or do it quite late, like 3 o'clock. Some places will do 4 o'clock and then maybe if you want to just do like a tiny later dinner, you could do that. You know, I can imagine from your viewers perspective that this is probably one of the most London things that you can do. It is quite unique to the UK and the best afternoon teas and the biggest ones are always going to be in London at these really high end nice hotels. So I always think it is quite a nice thing for people to do. It's like kind of a unique check it off the list kind of thing. It also gives you, if you've been sightseeing all day, you can come sit for a couple of hours. True. Just relax and be like pampered. That's really the best way to look at it. This is a great way to spend 2 hours in London to relax. Like instead of going to a spa, come to afternoon tea. This is my type of spa right here. This is my spa treatment. Put some cream on your face if you want and just have a little like spa day yourself, but you might get kicked out. Sorry. Now if you're into this kind of experience, the higher end and all things London, check out Jess's channel, Love in London and she has some amazing guides to the city if you're looking for something that you can put on your phone. I was even using your guide yesterday. It was a lifesaver. We just tell you where to go. You pick along the daily route which things are of interest to you and in your budget and we basically tell you what you should do and what you should avoid as well. Link in the description if you want to check out those itineraries. If you enjoyed all the British classics, in this video I take you to my home city of New York and show you all the foods first-timers gotta try in the Big Apple. Watch this next.