Are there English restaurants in England nowadays?

[BrainGlutton]

Apparently there were none to speak of in 1945, when George Orwell wrote “In Defence of English Cooking.” After describing several delicious British culinary specialties, he says:

It will be seen that we have no cause to be ashamed of our cookery, so far as originality goes or so far as the ingredients go. And yet it must be admitted that there is a serious snag from the foreign visitor’s point of view. This is, that you practically don’t find good English cooking outside a private house. If you want, say, a good, rich slice of Yorkshire pudding you are more likely to get it in the poorest English home than in a restaurant, which is where the visitor necessarily eats most of his meals.

It is a fact that restaurants which are distinctively English and which also sell good food are very hard to find. Pubs, as a rule, sell no food at all, other than potato crisps and tasteless sandwiches. The expensive restaurants and hotels almost all imitate French cookery and write their menus in French, while if you want a good cheap meal you gravitate naturally towards a Greek, Italian or Chinese restaurant. We are not likely to succeed in attracting tourists while England is thought of as a country of bad food and unintelligible by-laws. At present one cannot do much about it, but sooner or later rationing will come to an end, and then will be the moment for our national cookery to revive. It is not a law of nature that every restaurant in England should be either foreign or bad, and the first step towards an improvement will be a less long-suffering attitude in the British public itself.

Has that changed since then? If I visited the UK today, could I easily find a good, not-too-pricey restaurant that serves potatoes roasted under the joint, etc.?

[Kolak_of_Twilo]

Ummm… I thinky your linky is messed up.

[BrainGlutton]

@Kolak_of_Twilo

Ummm… I thinky your linky is messed up.

Sorry, try this.

[msmith537]

London has a lot of gastropubsthat sell English food.

[Argent_Towers]

According to Anthony Bourdain, traditional English cooking is coming back into style. He mentions one chef, Fergus Henderson, who specializes in old fashioned meat-and-potatoes dishes. I get the impression that English food is basically just “comfort food” - a lot of meat, potatoes, bread, baked stuff, cream sauce - but I don’t see what’s so bad about this. A friend of mine once made an English dinner for me and a group of people - leg of lamb with caper sauce, mashed turnips and potatoes, and “spotted dick” pudding. It was all sensational. I think the stereotype of English food as bad is utter bullshit, perpetuated by food snobs.

[SciFiSam]

An awful lot of pubs sell food these days. There are a lot of pubs that sell Thai food, for some reason, and most pubs sell other food alongside traditional English food, but it is very, very easy indeed to get a yorkshire pudding, a roast dinner, English breakfast, shepherd’s pie and so on. Some of those pubs are highly-regarded when it comes to food.

A lot of cafes sell traditional English food, too, alongside other types of food. They’re not high-class restaurants, but they are often good. Pie and mash shops still exist, as do fish and chip shops.

Then there’s Stanley’s. A search on toptable or similar sites will reveal quite a few similar places.

In short, it’s not common to find a restaurant that sells only English food, but it’s very common indeed to find restaurants that serve English food as well as other cuisines.

[SciFiSam]

Edited - DP due to bad internet connection.

[Tapioca_Dextrin]

If you want to go traditional English, there’s, er, this

All the food at School Dinners is good, old fashioned home cooked British grub. Freshly prepared and served by friendly St Trinian Head Girls and Eaten Boys in a fun party atmosphere.

:eek:

[GorillaMan]

@Argent_Towers

I get the impression that English food is basically just “comfort food” - a lot of meat, potatoes, bread, baked stuff, cream sauce - but I don’t see what’s so bad about this. A friend of mine once made an English dinner for me and a group of people - leg of lamb with caper sauce, mashed turnips and potatoes, and “spotted dick” pudding. It was all sensational.

That’s exactly the kind of thing Orwell was talking about - and as others have said, it’s possible to buy such meals in plenty of places

[Petrobey_Mavromihalis]

Going for an English

In case you don’t get the context they’re taking the piss out of how English people behave in curry houses. Less true than when it first came out, but not by much.

[Princhester]

The Good Pub Guide, which is now on the web, has fabulous recommendations. You can have a comfortable and distinctly delicious holiday going from Good Pub to Good Pub, and very many of the Good Pubs recommended for food do traditional English dishes.

[FriarTed]

@Tapioca_Dextrin

If you want to go traditional English, there’s, er, this

All the food at School Dinners is good, old fashioned home cooked British grub. Freshly prepared and served by friendly St Trinian Head Girls and Eaten Boys in a fun party atmosphere.

:eek:

I’ll take the Head Girls and I’m sure other Dopers will take the Eaten Boys.

[vivalostwages]

@Tapioca_Dextrin

If you want to go traditional English, there’s, er, this

:eek:

“Eaten” boys? Yummmm…

(I assume they misspelled it on purpose.)

[wolfman]

@Petrobey_Mavromihalis

Going for an English

In case you don’t get the context they’re taking the piss out of how English people behave in curry houses. Less true than when it first came out, but not by much.

That damn funny.

But what’s a ‘gammon’ steak?

[BrainGlutton]

Have any English Dopers eaten at “English pubs” in the U.S.? How authentic is the food?

[Ukulele_Ike]

It’s been a while since I’ve been in England, but I’ve had nothing but good meals in pubs and small restaurants between Devon and Cornwall. While driving through Exmoor we remarked on the signs warning against running over sheep…that night we had some fine mutton chops, assuming we were eating roadkill.

Harder to find a good dinner in London, unless you go to a Chinese or Indian restaurant.

[Baron_Greenback]

@wolfman

That damn funny.

But what’s a ‘gammon’ steak?

I’m pretty sure it’s what is just called ham in the US. In any case it comes from the hind leg of a pig, and is a two-ish centimetre cut, often served with something sweet like pineapple or apple.

Here’s a recipe:

Roasted Gammon with Cider and Apples

[Ximenean]

@wolfman

That damn funny.

But what’s a ‘gammon’ steak?

It’s like really thick bacon. Our style of bacon, not that streaky stuff.

I like how they have a cheesy photo of St. Paul’s Cathedral on the wall
Attention to detail there.

[Baron_Greenback]

@Ximenean

I like how they have a cheesy photo of St. Paul’s Cathedral on the wall
Attention to detail there.

Ahahaha. I’ve seen that sketch a few times, and this has only just now dawned on me.

[Ludovic]

@BrainGlutton

Have any English Dopers eaten at “English pubs” in the U.S.? How authentic is the food?

I was wondering that, too, but the one time I’ve eaten at an “English Pub” in America it not only was like what I thought English food would be, it also was like the food described in this thread. Like American “comfort food” but not so much into deep-frying the living daylights out of everything.

I’d also prefer that sort of food to nearly anything (especially a curry to my American palate) at the end of an all-night bender, but I take it at that time of night most of them won’t be open…