UK Trip Travel Food: London Food (Leon, Bake, Gerrard's Corner, British Library, Sushi Daily, and Pizza Express)

I took a trip to England in the summer of 2019. I spent the last two days of my trip in London. Here's some of the food I ate:

Leon: 

I had a breakfast box from this chain of fast food restaurants. I believe the box I tried was vegetarian, with a poached egg, beans, mushrooms, tomato, avocado slices, and a delicious type of grilled cheese called halloumi.

Bake: 

I ended up in Chinatown. I stopped in this bakery on my visit to London in 2016. I think they may have been renamed since my last visit. Last time, they were called Chinatown Bakery. This time, the store was just Bake. I thought the waffle fish stuffed with various fillings were enough of a novelty that I needed to get another fish when I walked by.

Gerrard's Corner:

Another restaurant in Chinatown. I know British food has a bad reputation, but this is the only meal on this trip that really was unenjoyable. I had the sliced pork with seasonal vegetables. Those seasonal vegetables included carrots and broccoli, but the pork was the bad part. Pretty sure it was undercooked. A friend ordered fried rice. The rice was crispy. Most of our food was left uneaten here. It was confusing because the restaurant was packed...

British Library:

Cinnamon roll from the cafe in the lobby of the British Library.

Sushi Daily to Go:

This was a fast food Japanese restaurant. I had a chicken noodle bowl and miso soup.

Pizza Express:

This is a chain that is very prolific in London. Seems like there's a Pizza Express every few blocks. The name is confusing, since it is a sit down restaurant and isn't very express.

UK Food #3: Train Food

Part Three of food from my trip to the United Kingdom. This post starts in London and ends somewhere in Scotland. I took a train to Edinburgh and there was food involved. My journey began at King's Cross Station.

While I was waiting for my train, I ate breakfast at a restaurant called Leon.

I had an egg pot consisting of a poached egg, smoked salmon, and sliced avocado. Small portion, but tasty.

I explored the train station for a while until it was time to board my train. It didn't look like the Hogwarts Express...

The UK has a somewhat complicated but simple train system. There are several different companies running their trains, but yet you buy your tickets from a centralized website. I ended up getting tickets with Virgin Trains. I guess they do more than airlines and spaceships. On board, they had a worker come through with a food trolley. In my head, this only happened on the Hogwarts Express. I'm glad there's reality behind food trolleys on British trains.

They were giving out samples of biscuits in the train station, so I didn't partake in the food trolley. Was basically a chocolate chip cookie.

After a wonderful train journey, I arrived in Edinburgh, explored the city (see the next post on the blog), and then it was time to take the train home. Without realizing it, I had accidently bought first class tickets for this trip. These first class tickets were cheaper than the coach tickets going to Edinburgh. I was good with my accidental upgrade.

My previous long distance train experience was on an Amtrak Acela between New York and Boston. They advertised that entire train as being first class, but that got you pretty much nothing. On Virgin, first class actually means something. There were attendants coming though constantly offering all sorts of foods. This started with a bag of crisps.

Cottage Pie with Root Vegetables came next. This was ground meat (beef or lamb?) topped with mashed potatoes cooked until crispy on top. The root vegetables included potatoes and beets.

Tea and biscuits.

Slice of cake.

The food was unexpected. Compared to the overpriced soggy frozen pizza I had when riding with Amtrak, the food here on this Virgin train was wonderful. I think I'd upgrade to first class again on a train in Britain. Overall, even without the food, I was really impressed with these trains. It was a quick, comfortable trip and the scenery outside the trains windows was beautiful. Whizzing past colorful farmland, cute little villages, and along cliffs on the edge of the North Sea made this my favorite train trip I've ever taken. The United States needs to learn a lot from trains like this...

UK Food #2: More London (Rock & Sole Plaice, The Rajdoot, Cinnamon, Marlborough Head, and Kabab & Burgers)

This is part two of food from London. A friend who grew up in London gave me a list of foods he misses now that he's in the US. The list included fish & chips, curries, Yorkshire pudding, and donor kabab. This post is about eating foods from that list in London...

Rock & Sole Plaice:

This is where I had fish & chips in England. They were located near Covent Gardens, but seemed to be a few blocks outside the really touristy area. I was told I should get fish and chips from a restaurant specializing in the food rather than eating it in a pub or elsewhere. Rock & Sole Plaice fit this criteria.

I ordered what I was supposed to. The portions were huge, as they should be because this was one of the most expensive meals I had on my trip. The fish was bigger than the plate, deep fried in a crispy batter. It was tasty, but I think I had my expectations a little too high for having a stereotypical British food in London. It tasted like fish & chips, but nothing mindblowingly different from fish & chips in the US. Especially for the price here, it was just okay...

I also wasn't a big fan of the fake malt vinegar served with the fish & chips. There was a bottle of malt vinegar flavored sauce on the table which I'm assuming was this. It was much weaker than actual vinegar and lacked the sourness. If I'm eating authentic fish & chips in London, I want actual malt vinegar to pour all over everything!

I got the tip later on that you'll find some really good fish & chips if you take a train to Brighton. Makes sense getting better seafood at a beach...

The Rajdoot:

In order to cross curry off the list, I got the recommendation to try The Rajdoot. This Indian restaurant had a small ground level dining room with more seating in the basement. It took me a moment to realize that I was hearing mostly American accents coming from the other diners in here. The restaurant was recommended to be by another American tourist. It was strange and the only place where I noticed this happening on my trip. 

I was trying to decide between lamb or chicken and the server recommended a dish called the Rajdoot since it came with both. Can't go wrong with a dish named after the restaurant. This was lamb and chicken tikka with onions and tomatoes. It was very tasty and wasn't one of the standard Indian restaurant menu items where you could get anywhere.

Cinnamon:

My second Indian food experience in London was at a restaurant called Cinnamon. This was located on Brick Lane, which was a neighborhood lined with Curry Houses. Like New York's East Village Little India neighborhood, each restaurant had someone outside trying to get you to dine at their establishment. A restaurant called Cinnamon won my business for the evening. The meal started with papadum and sauces being brought to the table. Pretty standard as far as these go in Indian restaurants. What I wasn't expecting was the upcharge for this on the bill when it was automatically brought to the table.

I ordered the Butter Chicken as my main course. There's no competition for this one. This was the worst butter chicken I've ever had. There was no detectable flavor besides butter and the sauce kind of separated resulting in a pool of melted butter over everything else. I've had butter chicken plenty of times before and have always liked it, but unfortunately I didn't finish most of this particular dish.

If I find myself back at Brick Lane again in the future, I don't think I'll be visiting Cinnamon...

Marlborough Head:

In order to cross Yorkshire pudding off the list of British foods to try, I had to figure out where to get it because I wasn't finding it on menus. Turns out Yorkshire pudding is a side item served with Sunday Roasts in pubs. When Sunday came along, I took myself to a pub called the Marlborough Head.

The Sunday Roast came with sliced lamb, mashed potatoes, boiled potatoes, peas and carrots, and the Yorkshire pudding. The lamb was nice and tender, drenched in gravy with an accompanying mint sauce. The rest of the sides were pretty standard and tasted as they should. The Yorkshire pudding ended up being pretty much equivalent to what I know as a popover. I like popovers, so I enjoyed the Yorkshire pudding and I was able to cross it off my list.

Kebab & Burgers:

My experience with a doner kebab was from a booth called Kebab & Burgers in the Camden Lock Market. This was another very cool market that I found accidentally. There was all sorts of booths selling foods and products located under railroad bridges and in old horse stables surrounding a lock in the nearby Regent's Canal. 

The doner kabob was basically a gyro. Lamb cooked on a rotating spit was wrapped in a flatbread with lettuce, pickled vegetables, and sauces. Very tasty...

I actually had doner kebabs a couple more times while in London, but somehow lack pictures of them. Even the ones from very middle eastern neighborhoods were similar to this, with the main difference between them being the breads. The other two had everything stuffed inside a pita instead of wrapped in a flatbread.

UK Food #1: London (Chinatown Bakery, Keu, EAT, Borough Market, Nando's, Greggs, Greenwich Market, Paul Rhodes Bakery, Istanbul Cafe, and Harrods)

I recently took a trip to the United Kingdom. Most of my time was spent in London. This is part one of the food I ate while in the city. The post is long, rambling, in no particular order, but is filled with lots of delicious British food picture...

Chinatown Bakery: 

This was the first place I ate once arriving in the UK. I flew London, checked into where I was staying, and then decided to take a walk and start exploring my surroundings. I ended up in London's Chinatown.

I walked by a very busy place called Chinatown Bakery. Along with all sorts of baked goods, they were making little custard filled fish called Tai Taki at a machine in the window. I was intrigued.

The tai taki were pretty tasty. The cute little fish waffles were filled with very hot, creamy custard. I burnt my tongue on the first one because I wasn't expecting the filling to be so hot.

Keu:

Not long after I had the Chinese fish pastries, I ventured into a nearby Vietnamese restaurant called Keu. I'm still fuzzy on where one neighborhood of London ended and where another began (is neighborhood the proper word?), but I believe this restaurant was in Soho.

I had a banh mi at Keu. The sandwich was not unlike the banh mi sandwiches that I've had back in the US. It was pretty standard with various parts of pig and pickled vegetables served on a French baguette.  The first sandwich ever put into my stomach from Europe filled me up!

It was in this restaurant that I realized I really didn't know proper tipping customs in England. Turned out my server got a very nice tip on top of the included gratuity on the bill...


YHA London Central:

I stayed at a few hostels while on the trip to save money. My first dinner in London was at the restaurant in the hostel I was staying at that evening. I had the Mile End Pizza. The menu described it as black olives, brie, and spinach. I really didn't taste much of the brie, but there was way too much mozzarella. The pizza was a bit of a cheese overload...

I tried a soda called a Tango. It was orange soda...

EAT:

The next morning I had breakfast at a restaurant called EAT. Turned out these were a chain that seemed to have locations around every corner. I ordered an egg pot. This consisted of a poached egg, served over baked beans and topped with avocado and ham hocks. I like the whole beans for breakfast thing.

Borough Market:

I stumbled on Borough Market my accident. It wasn't initially on my list of places to see in London, but walked into it on my way somewhere else. It was a good find because I returned a couple more times during my time in London.

I would rank Borough Market as one of the best food/farmers market I've come across anywhere in my travels so far. The closest food market I've come across to compare was Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia, but Borough Market far surpassed it. They had every sort of food imaginable, both ready to eat and fresh.

The first food I had from Borough Market was from a booth called Pieminister. They had all sorts of meat pies.

I tried the Matador. It was filled with British beef steak, chorizo, olives, and butter beans. I had it with a side of creamy mash and gravy.

This pie was delicious. I wish I could find pies like this back home...

I had food from a booth called Nana Fanny's on the second time I visited Borough Market. This booth served an interesting combination of salt beef and falafel. I was tempted by the falafel, but the salt beef preparation looked more fun.

I ordered a sandwich on rye bread. I had the option to get it on a bagel, but the rye seemed more proper for this type of sandwich. The sandwich consisted of thick slices of the salt beef, cheese, cabbage, pickles, and mustard. The beef was sliced right there, as was the cheese (from a huge wheel), then melted with a blowtorch. It was entertaining to watch when a paper plate caught fire a couple sandwiches ahead of mine.

It was similar to a New York style Kosher deli sandwich, only with cheese and more toppings. I liked it!

Nando's:

This was a chicken chain and I saw several locations throughout London. I ended up at a Nando's right up the block from where I was staying. They had a strange setup that perhaps is a British restaurant thing, but I was unfamiliar with this restaurant custom. Nando's was set up like a fast food restaurant where you order at a counter, but they have a host that seats you and gives you menus. You are seated, read the menu, figure out what you want, then go up to the counter to order. I made the mistake of just walking over to the counter to order. They didn't like that very much...

I had a quarter chicken with peas and chips for my sides. There was sauce on the chicken that was pretty tasty. Unfortunately, it didn't really permeate inside the chicken and it was dry and bland below the surface of the meat. Luckily they did have lots of extra sauce around to remedy the bland chicken. I wasn't very impressed...


YHA London Oxford Street:

I stayed at another hostel in Soho while in London where I purchased breakfast one morning. It included a croissant, cheese, and tea. Not much, but it did the trick for breakfast.

Greggs:

This was a similar style coffee/breakfast shop to Eat, but not nearly as prevalent. Greggs had a little more of a Dunkin Donuts feel. I had a bacon and egg sandwich with brown sauce. British bacon is interesting. More like ham that was cooked until crispy rather than the American style fatty bacon. 

Greenwich Market:

Greenwich Market (or all of Greenwich in general) was another place that wasn't on my list of places to visit in London, but I'm glad I found it. My plan for the day was to take a train somewhere out of London, but I was given the suggestion to do that the next day and go to Greenwich for their Saturday food market. After an interesting train ride (switching from the underground subway type trains to elevated driverless trains), I arrived and decided to get lunch from a booth serving Ethiopian food 

The booth had several pots of various meats and side dishes cooking. I ordered the mixed meat box.

When I overwhelmed with what I should choose, they made me a dish with a little of everything in it. There was chicken, lamb, potatoes, spinach, lentils, and more that I'm forgetting, all served over half rice and half couscous. It was all delicious!

Paul Rhodes Bakery:

While wandering around Greenwich after leaving the market, I walked past Paul Rhodes Bakery and saw a tower of some of the most beautiful meringue cookies I've ever seen. Their window display worked because I went in and bought a raspberry meringue. Unfortunately, they looked better than they tasted with a very weak raspberry flavor and the chalky texture got old quick.

Istanbul Cafe & Bistro:

I went to a Turkish restaurant for breakfast one morning and didn't order any Turkish food. I had an English Breakfast. It came with an egg, sausage, bacon, baked beans, toast, and a garnish of arugula. It was very nice. I like beans as a breakfast food...

Harrods:

I almost skipped London's famous department store. When I walked past on my way to a museum, I decided to step inside on a whim. I didn't realize the huge food section that they had in here! Upon seeing all the deliciousness, I found myself at the pastry counter and ordered a cream cheese & peach vatrushka.

I'm not sure if I've ever had a vatrushka in the past, but the thin slices of peach over a cheesy filling, all in a cake-like bread was very tasty!

Part Two of food from my UK Trip is coming soon...