Last Updated on March 14, 2019 by Jane
London is a very multicultural city. And as such you can get almost any type of food you want here from pub to fine dining, fried chicken to curry, African to Italian. Except for Mexican. I didn’t really see any Mexican food and supposedly there isn’t any worth trying. Still there is so much variety you won’t go hungry while touring London. This is everywhere we ate in London.
We did find that food was expensive in London. Even buying snacks and breakfasts at the grocery store food was about double the price we have in Canada. That’s because most things are priced exactly the same as we have in Canada only in Pounds. Factoring in the foreign exchange and all of a sudden prices are super inflated.
Lidl – there was a Lidl around the corner from our hotel. We stocked up on snacks, fruits, water, pop and breakfast foods. They had chocolate croissants which honestly were just as good as any bakery I have tasted. One of the things that struck me as odd is there only seemed to be individual sized chip (or crisps as they call them) bags. None of the larger more family sized ones you find here.
Honest Burger – On our first night in London we wanted to eat somewhere easy, close and good. We went to Honest Burgers, which is a lot like those upscale burger joints we have in Toronto. Think Burger Priest or Great Burger Kitchen. It also shows the contrast in the area as this place is very much the influx of gentrification in Peckham. The burgers were really good. I had the Peckham burger which was a fried chicken burger and my husband had a more traditional beef burger. The fries are fresh cut but they are seasoned with rosemary. There are many locations of Honest Burgers throughout London you can try this place no matter where you are staying.
Poppies Fish and Chips – when you are visiting London you need to test out the fish and chips. Pretty much every pub or restaurant seems to have famous fish and chips but none so much as Poppies. There are three locations, we ate at the Soho location. When you walk into the restaurant you are transported back in time. The decor is very retro and kitchsy with lots of portraits from the 50’s and 60’s.
The fish was very good. We usually have Halibut here at home when we are doing fish and chips but it was SO expensive we decided to have one cod and one haddock. Honestly I didn’t really miss the Halibut. Bot of the other fish options were excellent. The cod a bit more salty than the haddock. The batter was also different than what I usually have for fish and chips but in a good way. It was lighter and less battery. The fries I think were better at Honest burger. I would say if you are going to try fish and chips in London you should definitely try Poppies.
Pizza Express – this is probably my least favourite spot we stopped at. Don’t get me wrong I love pizza and the pizza here was good. I just wasn’t really into stopping here but my husband was HANGRY and so we stopped. Loads of different pizza choices, more Italian style pizza rather than American style pizza. Also one of our more affordable meals.
Lamb and Flag – this was probably my favourite meal out of everywhere we ate in London. The pub food here puts pub food to shame in Canada. We went for the Sunday roast dinner. It was so delicious. Roast beef, roasted potatoes, peas and gravy. If you are going to try a pub while in London make sure that you try their Sunday roasts as they are quite good.
READ MORE: Three Must Visit Pubs in London
Made of Dough – Ok so another pizza meal and this one wasn’t all that great either. I think the pizza was better here but the beer we had was skunky so kinda put us off everything. Seems like this place is more of a take out joint as opposed to a sit in place. We did have enough left overs for our trip to Westminster the next day.
Whitehorse Pub – Another pub and another good meal. I can’ stress enough that the pub food in London is real food. We are so used to pub food in North America being kinda crap, cooked from frozen food that when you experience fresh made food at a pub it really makes an impression. My husband had fish and chips. This one was closer to what we would have at home here in Canada. He said Poppie’s was better but almost too different to compare. I had a pork teriyaki sandwich. Both came with fresh cut fries which I think were the best we had in London.
The Greyhound – This was the last pub we ate at in London and it was my husband’s favourite. Close to Kensington Palace, I imagined the Princes must have come here for a pint from time to time. We picked a sharing menu and it was really great. I highly recommend.
The Rosemary – My husband was really into trying to get another goulash that tasted as good as the one we had in Budapest. So when he found this Hungarian restaurant in Peckham we decided to try it. The food was good and the owner was Hungarian but the food was just not on the same level as where we ate in Budapest. And of course because it was London it was pricier.
READ MORE – All the Food we ate in Prague, Vienna & Budapest.
One of the things I learned on this trip is that London is somewhere that is almost too big to see in one week. We saw quite a bit but didn’t see everything. Same goes with the food. I could have gone for a few more fish and chips meals, more pub dinners. We didn’t even get to try the food stalls at Covent Garden or Camden Market. We didn’t even try a curry! Out of everywhere we ate in London I was most surprised at how much more gourmet the pub food is, Canada needs to step it up.
Have you got a favourite place to eat in London? Share in the comments!