# Is it still impossible to get good English cooking in a restaurant in England? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 28, 2014, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-still-impossible-to-get-good-english-cooking-in-a-restaurant-in-england/691878 "2014-06-28T19:05:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2014, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-still-impossible-to-get-good-english-cooking-in-a-restaurant-in-england/691878/1 "2014-06-28T19:05:17Z")
George Orwell concludes his famous 1945 essay [“In Defence of English Cooking”](http://orwell.ru/library/articles/cooking/english/e_dec) thus: > [@](#): > > 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 picture changed any since 1945? ---
**Author:** ![Erdosain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/erdosain/32/7284_2.png) [@Erdosain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Erdosain)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2014, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-still-impossible-to-get-good-english-cooking-in-a-restaurant-in-england/691878/2 "2014-06-28T19:32:18Z")
Is this a serious thread? We’ve done this a million times. I’m embarrassed for you. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2014, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-still-impossible-to-get-good-english-cooking-in-a-restaurant-in-england/691878/3 "2014-06-28T19:35:59Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Has that picture changed any since 1945? No it’s still all powdered egg and eel’s kidney round these parts FFS :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![RobDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f07891/32.png) [@RobDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RobDog)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2014, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-still-impossible-to-get-good-english-cooking-in-a-restaurant-in-england/691878/4 "2014-06-28T19:38:33Z")
> [@Baron\_Greenback](#): > > No it’s still all powdered egg and eel’s kidney round these parts FFS :rolleyes: Eel’s kidney? Luxury. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2014, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-still-impossible-to-get-good-english-cooking-in-a-restaurant-in-england/691878/5 "2014-06-28T20:34:37Z")
> [@Erdosain](#): > > Is this a serious thread? We’ve done this a million times. [Are there English restaurants in England nowadays?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=514964) “We” have done this at least once before. > [@Are there English restaurants in England nowadays?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-english-restaurants-in-england-nowadays/493919/1): > > Apparently there were none to speak of in 1945, when George Orwell wrote [“In Defence of English Cooking.”](http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090414/ap_on_el_gu/jerry_brown_3) After describing several delicious British culinary specialties, he says… ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2014, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-still-impossible-to-get-good-english-cooking-in-a-restaurant-in-england/691878/6 "2014-06-28T22:33:34Z")
nm ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2014, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-still-impossible-to-get-good-english-cooking-in-a-restaurant-in-england/691878/7 "2014-06-28T22:34:35Z")
> [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](#): > > [Are there English restaurants in England nowadays?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=514964) :o I’d forgotten about that one . . .