Great name. Does it have all the charm and class of London’s Elephant and Castle?
While actual American restaurants do have franchises over here (TGI Fridays, Chili’s, etc) I occasionally find UK restaurants offering “American” dishes which completely baffle me. Often these involve maple syrup as an ingredient, leading me to wonder whether they really mean “North American” or they’re just a little confused. Also, often these are completely vile.
There are also American-themed resturants, which are usually either TGIF ripoffs or '50s-style diners. Grease-o-rama.*
In a previous life (working at another company) we used to take Chinese visitors out to Chinese restaurants. They generally liked it, and didn’t say much about the discrepancy. Although when we took them to the enormous one on Route One north of Boston they were really impressed – it’s a huge restaurant that looks like a Chinese Palace. “We don’t have any restaurants like this where we live,” they said.
I’ve had the opposite experience. One time when I was in Scotland I was taken to “Uncle Buck’s” American-style restaurant. It was pretty standard American fare (although the steak was pretty gristly, which I didn’t point out). My only complaint about authenticity was the chocolate sundae they served as dessert. For some reason, the chocolate syrup was an extremely light brown, such as I’ve never seen in the US. After all the non-US complaints about Hershey’s I’ve read on this Board, I can understand them not serving Hershey’s syrup to their mostly non-US clientele, but I’ve never seen such light-colored chocolate syrup anywhere else in my life.
I have taken a Chinese person to PF Chang’s, both of us knowing it was what it was, and we did okay ordering some of the less-bad things on the menu. As she acknowledged, even “authentic” Chinese (Cantonese/Fukienese, I guess, who seem to run most Western Chinese joints) places are guilty of some culinary sins (WTF is up with all the cornstarch-based sauces?), so some of the gwailo variants aren’t that badly bastardized. But for the most part, no, I have had a hard time (and wouldn’t really even try) getting Asians to suburban “Asian” restaurants (even the hole in the wall places, which can often be, contrary to what you might think, awful). Weirdly, the chains seem less offensive (because they make no pretenses) than the bad places run by actual Asians. The same friend reacted much more badly to some mediocre Chinese food in Soho/London than to Chang’s. (If anyone knows of really good, authentic Chinese food in London, I’m all ears – mostly I’ve been disappointed).
God forbid what would happen if you took a Japanese to Benihana or the mall food court sushi place . . . .
Ha. Flashback to Tokyo’s Cafe Zest, where the renditions of “Southwestern” food included a jambalya (yes, whatever, it’s west of . . . Mobile) that was actually pork fried rice with a fried egg on top.
There is a few of them I have seen - one in downtown Philly, one out in King of Prussia, one here in DC near my office. I am sure there are more but I am not motivated to find out. Because they suck donkey balls.
Fake English does make somewhat of a change from fake Irish, I suppose.
As I said, their sole saving grace is that they show the games. But since I can watch most of them from home now, I don’t really care any more.
(For the uninitiated, Elephant and Castle is a decidedly grotty area of south London, most notable for a hideous shopping centre which used to be bright pink and is now a grotesque deep red.)
Fake Irish pubs do seem to be everywhere. I’ve seen them in Turin, Italy and in Leuven, Belgium. Apart from selling Guinness and occasionally hiring live fiddle bands, most of them are completely un-Irish.
I took an American (the missus) to Eddie Rocket’s, a fifties-style American diner chain that’s popular here in Ireland. Apart from the price (it’s nickname is empty pockets) she really enjoyed it. It looks identical to Johnny Rockets but the food is way, way better.
I’m not sure what the question is. But I can tell you in the case of the Thai restaurants in Hawaii I mentioned earlier, even though my future Thai wife and all of the other Thai university students without exception turned their noses up at them, there were actual Thais owning and/or working in them. You have to wonder: If all of these other Thais thought the food sucked, what did the Thais who worked there every day think?
I think it may come down to availability of ingredients, at least partially. Here in Bangkok, we have just about any ethnic cuisine you could think of, most if not all owned and operated by the elevant nationalities (Italians operating Italian restaurants, Frenchmen French restaurants etc.) and a major complaint here among Western restaurateurs is the difficulty in finding just the right ingredients. This is especially true for Mexican food in Thailand, and I’d imagine its the same anywhere else, too.
The Irish and British pubs in Bangkok seem to be pretty good, much better than most of the ones upcountry. That could be due to the large number number of Brits living here. There’s even a fair-sized Irish population. They all have actual Brits and Irish running them if not owning them.
I saw an Eddie Rocket’s when I was over for a friend’s wedding. How the hell they have not been sued I do not know. Then again, international IP law isn’t exactly my strong point.
Some “British” pubs in the US can be passable. They tend to be the ones run by ex-pats, who realize that there are somethings that just aren’t going to copy over here very well, so they don’t do them.
I always had a soft spot for Penny Lane in Richmond, run by an old scouser. E&C, on the other hand, is a corporate chain. Hanging Oxford & Cambridge blades (oar heads) from the roof is not my idea of an English pub.
Anyone who has spent any time in New Orleans would say that. One of the biggest food disappointments my wife and I have ever suffered was at Chicago’s “Heaven on Seven”, a purportedly authentic Cajun restaurant. As if. We spent a total of one week in New Orleans, staying in an apartment just off Tchoupitoulas, and tried to immerse ourselves and live, as much as possible, as natives. Apparently it left an impression, as the food at “Heaven on Seven” was boring and bland, and I found myself yearning for a debris po’boy.
I used to work with some Chinese women near Leicester Square and we often went out for lunch…
Did you ever go to Wong Kai’s in Chinatown? It’s famous for bad service and good food - you can’t even choose where to sit, and you end up sharing tables with total strangers.
There’s a dumpling place in Chinatown too, but I can’t remember the name of it.
There was a show about Chicago cuisine here that claimed that Chicago’s Irish were introduced to corned beef by their Jewish butchers who didn’t carry sides of bacon.
Busloads of businessmen visiting Oakbrook are bussed to one of our local Chinese buffets, where they eat themselves sick. It isn’t my favorite Chinese buffet, though. That one has a Mexican fellow working the Mongolian grill.
Here in France, I’ve noticed there are two kinds :
the kind owned by an actual Irish guy. All the staff is either that guy’s family, or exchange students who are probably his cousins anyway. You can come in and order a pint in the most impenetrable brogue, and you’ll get it. You can ask for a fight, and you’ll get it too. You can play darts - real, old fashioned, injury-causing darts.
the kind that sells “the Irish experience”, complete with looped Dubliners CDs, green rags to the rafters, and a TV that seems to be set to the Rugby or Panoramic Lakes Channel. Not a hint of red hair in sight. The only beer they serve is Guiness. In a can. You can play plastic darts, on an electronic scoring board that’s on the fritz half the time.
The second kind seems to make better business - all the real ones I knew back in my college days seem to have closed down since :(.
