Some upmarket restaurants dress up English food (often quite well) but it is basically the same as the stuff that you can find in any good pub in England.
Back in the day (and still in Canada) the Olde English Parlor used to be a more “upscale” kind of place. The fare wasn’t as “pubby” but the meals were still along the lines of roast lamb or roast beef, with Yorkshire pudding etc., but were talking several courses, and decadently rich and hefty servings. It was within the “fine dining” range of experiences.
But now it’s just another pub.
Legend has it that prominent (and very middle class) British politician Peter Mandelson, while visiting a chip shop in his working class constituency, sampled the mushy peas. His verdict: “I must say, this guacamole is delicious”.
(joke © Neil Kinnock 1997)
There’s also the Duke of Perth in Chicago.
When I went to London I had a lot of pub food and I thought it was quite good. No complaints here. (and no, I wasn’t drinking a lot at the same time)
Usram, which part of Reading ae you from? I’m a Cavershamite meself.
There’s also the one down on Midlothian Tpke in the Pocono Green shopping center. The name escapes me.
unclviny, the former owner of The Ale House (where I spent much of my 20s, 30s and 40s) has opened a new place called the Stag’s Head. It’s on Portsmouth between Shephard and Greenbriar, and I go there often for bleu cheese burgers.
Why are they called bangers? Because they look like a man’s most masculine of areas? All the better to bang you with? WBS K TNX
Do you have any idea how insulting that question is? :mad: It’s like saying that the only American food is burgers and pizzas :rolleyes:
Anyway, instead of ranting, I’ll just point out that Raymod Blanc left France for Britain to get away from bad cooking and to get hold of decent ingedients. And boy, can he ccok!
http://www.henleycafe.co.uk/
http://www.edenrestaurant.co.uk
http://www.adlards.co.uk/
http://www.the-savoy-group.com/simpsons/restaurants-and-bars/default.asp
Are also fine ENGLISH restaurants
In my time as a Scots ex-pat in the city, I would occasionally be dragged to the Duke of Perth by well-meaning local friends. And so this became the scene of the only dining experience in my life where I was nearly sick from the smell of what someone else at the table was eating (for the record, fish and chips). While regular, every-day Scottish eating habits are terrible by most standards, I grew up used to such food and this was a botched version of it.
Mind you, the Broons and Our Wullie cartoons in the toilets were a nice touch.
The fad in London these days is for “gastropubs”, in which there’s a strong emphasis on fancy-ish food, with a main course costing about a tenner. A sort of halfway-house between a pub and a restaurant. They’re getting a bit too samey now, but it’s a definite improvement over the traditional pub grub - if you can afford it.
I didn’t mean to insult I just didn’t know any better. In looking at the restaurant’s menus it’s quite interesting. Only Rules and maybe Simpsons (for some stuff) has what I think of as “traditional” heavy, filling English cuisine. All the rest seem to have a sort of nouvelle English cuisine with French undertones. The Henley Cafe has a sort of lunch counter menu did you mean for this one to be included?
Nashville, Tennessee has the Sherlock Holmes Pub .
Also a restaurant, they serve a variety of dishes. I love their fish & chips. Irish food, too.
Friendly couple runs it.
Near Vanderbilt University.
Funny you say that. (although I’m purposefully misinterpreting it!) Check out this place:
http://www.churchillsrestaurant.com/
It’s a 5-star “British” restaurant. From their website: “In the elegant style of an English country manor… Eight centuries of authentic architectural and decorative pieces set off the antique furniture brought over from the British countryside.”
But, ummmm, here you’ll find that the food is NOT British, it’s French:
http://www.churchillsrestaurant.com/html/dinner.html
Also from their website: “Under the direction of Pascal Sanchez, the French culinary creations combine the art of nuance, the zest of surprise, and… the catch and mood of the day.”
So, it’s the best of both worlds; British atmosphere and French cuisine!* If you’re ever in the Ft. Lauderdale/Miami area you should check it out.
*I apologize for the slight diss on British food, bit it IS an “English restaurant equivalent to a French bistro”
Trying looking beyond the French names. I can see:
Smoked Scottish Salmon
Cold Scandinavian Seafood Platter
Shrimp Cocktail with English Cocktail Sauce
Roasted Pheasant with Cider and Honey
Shrimp Flambé with Whiskey
and a lot of non-nation specific stuff like “Smoked Duck Breast Salad”.
But anyway, I am still of the belief that few countries have English restaurants because there are hardly any in England either. Pubs are/were our restaurants where our food developed. Other countries see pubs as drinking establishments that sell low quality food on the side. We don’t.
In my experience I can walk into just about any city in the western world and easily find traditional food from the British Isles - I just look for the nearest British/Irish pub.
It is funny how the Brits have a reputation for formality, yet if you want to enjoy British food you end up going to the most laidback and relaxed places in town to get it.
But isn’t this true of every country? I mean, there are hardly any “Italian restaurants” in Italy or “Czech restaurants” in the Czech Republic – there are just regular old restaurants. Restaurants don’t usually claim to specialize in a particular cuisine unless they are outside of the country in question. Presumably, there are upmarket restaurants in England without any other ethnic affiliation, and those are English restaurants, even if they don’t advertise as such.
I’d say that a much bigger issue is that British food has (unjustly, IMO) acquired a bad reputation elsewhere in the world, as many of the posts in this thread suggest.
I think I probably stated it badly. In the United Kingdom there are few restaurants that serve traditional British food, that is for pubs. Britain just didn’t have restaurants for her own food, restaurants were for exciting foreign things. Pubs were/are for British food and IMHO that has extended to foreign countries.
It doesn’t help that our sense of humour is based around takign the piss out of ourselves. If someone else takes the piss out of food/teeth/public schools then we are rather likely to laugh at them instead of taking offence liek other countries do.
I get the cracks about bland British food all the time in Sweden. I can only guess that they are just repeating what they hear on American TV shows, as even my cough previously unused British taste buds find the majority of Swedish food bland. They even manage to make imported food like Chinese and Indian bland, which is quite a feat.
The Indian Restuarants in Paris knock out the most namby-pamby curries you will ever come across.
I asked the staff why this was and the reply “the French vcan’t take highly flavoured food”.
My mother works in an English cafe in Tennessee. It does indeed serve spotted dick. Oh how that makes the old ladies who frequent it titter.
Personally, I would see no reason for the existence of any English cuisine in the US other than to fulfill the desires of homesick expats. Real English food is usually so bad. American food is much better.
I may have been that man, did your date by any chance have a hook on his left hand and a dueling scar?
Seriously, the ‘Cat and Fiddle’ in Los Angeles was always fun. Overpriced food, loud soccer… 'cuse me football games on the telly and obnoxious blokes with accents stealing all my girlfriends, just like a trip to the real England!
Here’s a thing…
The closest that most English people go to eating in an “english” restaurant are local cafes, big greasy breakfasts a speciality (yum yum). These are without fail RUN BY FOREIGNERS, usually from places like greece, turkey, cyprus etc, and do they do Mediterranean food, do they bugger.
Incidentally there are plenty of English restuarants around in London. Here’s one of the best:
Check out the menu.