A new 'Austral-Asian' (yes, both) influenced place where the staff have a great sense of humour. A…read morebunch of us came in for a special whole suckling pig roast feast and had a thoroughly fun evening - mostly because of the amazing pig puns that ensued when our eccentric waiter told us we could name the pig before we ate it (most of which I can't really repeat here!) as he slightly bizarrely paraded it around the table for selfies... I liked the art deco dining room which has great lighting features and daffodil-yellow seating. I enjoyed the drinks included in the menu too, esp the flowery vodka and elderflower welcome cocktail to start and the tim tam martini at the very end (who knew a tim tam could double as a straw?!). These and the little service touches (like individual menu scrolls) helped it get a third star from me. The food was a bit of a disappointment though - I think I'd gotten overexcited by the feasting description. The pig was tough to get much meat from while the lamingtons for dessert didn't really have much flavour at all. There were some treats among the starters like the truffle macancini balls (so yum, please give us more than one each!) and the polenta side should also get a big thumbs up. It meant the £45 a head didn't feel as great value as I'd hoped, but perhaps the a la carte menu offers more substance (and flavour) rather than style (and sowfies)...

Bye bye to Newman Tavern and happy welcome to Dickie Fitz, a new Australian restaurant with a…read morefusion of Japanese flavours. A beautiful transformation from the classic bar look to a more fancy modern theme composed of yellow comfortable lounge chairs, dimmed light and big spherical balls of fairy lights. A nice relaxing atmosphere. Truffle 'macancini' This was highly recommended to us the moment we were handed over the menu and after devouring them I can understand the excitement. Thin crispy coating of tasty truffles making away for a lovely filling of al dente macaroni and cheese. The combination of texture and flavour were perfect. Forget all those generic fried mac and cheese as this is an obvious winner. Beef tartare A fine example of the classic dish. Fresh silky beef, full of bounce and flavour. The seasoning was balanced without being overwhelming, allowing the sweetness of the beef to shine through. The egg yolk was dotted around adding colour as well as binding everything together. Garnished with the addition of radishes and rocket for a more complex bite and flavour. Tuna tataki The texture was mouth melting, bathing in a lovely citrusy ponzu with added avocado purée for extra creaminess and flavour. The simple garnishes of daikon and salad leaves added a nice contrast of texture. Oysters kilpatrick. A new creative take on preparing oysters using bacon to season it and adding a whole new depth to the flavour, finished off with breadcrumb for a nice opposing texture. Seabass carpaccio Fresh and thick, incredibly silky and tender, uplifting the flavour with an orange marinate. It was creative of them to season it with fresh bush lime and tempura batter at your table, adding a nice zest to it and the batter adding some crispiness to the softer texture that slowly melts in your mouth so it doesn't steal the show. Grass fed 28 day aged rib eye steak This was locally sourced from Cumbria. A very sweet juicy cut with a lovely bone marrow sauce mashed with herbs to add another level of flavour. Sadly it was very chewy and tough being full of fibrous tissues making it very hard to fully enjoy. Rib burger A great composition for a burger. Brioche bun fluffy yet held well, patty thick, juicy, packed full of flavour and pink, packed with melted jack cheese giving depth, sweet onions for more flavour and gherkins adding a punch of tang and crunch throughout the whole burger. Delicious!! Fries, chicken salt These were amazing. Just adding a bit of chicken powder gave it umami depth, flavour and not just salty. They were fried perfectly, crispy and fluffy. Wet mash Sounds enticing already. Made with butter and cream made it incredibly creamy. It was full of flavour and depth. Just give me a bowl of this any day as I can just have it comfort food. Kaffir lime Panna cotta Never imagined ever tasting eucalyptus and especially not in panna cotta. I can be honest and say it felt like eating hand cream at first especially with the gelatinous creamy texture and aroma. But as soon I adjusted to the taste I really enjoyed it along with the elderflower sorbet giving it a floral zesty finish. Creative and brave composition but it works. Chocolate fondant, salted peanut, burnt marshmallow. The fondant itself was incredibly thick that it was hard to differentiate the thin layer around it from the rich molten dark chocolate from the inside. It was very smooth, high quality chocolate being able to appreciate the taste of the cocoa. The sweetness and the nuttiness of the peanut brittle added a nice contrast to the bitterness along with the melted coconut marshmallow that added the creaminess to it without the sharp coldness that ice cream gives. Dickie Fitz is definitely not a cheap option with mains ranging from £11 to £32 and that's not including sides. It seems quite hidden being a small restaurant in a pretty dead area. But if you do stumble across this restaurant, maybe working in the area, or after shopping through Oxford Street, then the selection of dishes definitely won't disappoint. Each dish like you never had it before, paired with unusual ingredients, full of creativity with a lot of Japanese influences. Makes everything seem new and exciting. A nice refreshing change. Glad to have discovered it.

In London over the Christmas holiday and took our brother-in-law's advice to try a British staple,…read moreThe Jugged Hare. They are located just outside downtown London and near the financial district. After a long underground ride, we arrived at a classic looking British pub. We were seated downstairs in a very busy dining hall that looked like a proper hunting lodge kitchen. For Christmas eve, the place was packed with large groups celebrating the holidays. We ordered the sea snails with garlic / butter and sourdough, and deer tartar with game chips, mustard, bone marrow and toast. These were good and had a very rustic flare. For dinner, I ordered the red legged partridge, spelt, njuda and kale. The partridge was tough and not much flavor. The spelt and njuda was fantastic and a real flavor bomb. My first spelt encounter but definitely not the last. The kale was fine. The meal was solid but nothing to write home about. The atmosphere and setting was good along with the service. I'm glad we tried a standard English pub but not impressed by the food. Regardless of the meal, it was still a great family memory.

Came here for pre-theater fare before a show at the Barbican. Its proximity to it is a big plus…read more But service was a bit lackadaisical. We arrived with plenty of time and finished our main course with time too but then dessert inexplicably took a while. No servers came over to help and we had to get up to express the fact that our show -- again we ordered from the pre theatre menu and told them of our plans -- started in 15 mins. They finally came over with the dessert which we had to scarf down instead of getting the refund of dessert. Wasn't worth the fight but ruined an otherwise good meal. The burger was terrific for example. They also sat us at a weird table in the back that was difficult for the servers to get to and had sound reverberate so the loud table next to us just dominated the sound in the room. Just shows that a meal needs to have more than a good food to be enjoyable.

It appears to be gone! There is a different restaurant at this location. The cuisine Thai. Looked…read morefine, but we sought out a pub.

The Charles Dickens is a cosy, traditional local pub with great real ales in that slightly odd…read moreno-man's land half way between Waterloo and London Bridge stations. It's only a five minute walk from Southwark underground station, and is pleasantly down-to-earth compared with many of the glitzier places closer to Waterloo or Borough. The exterior is plain and unassuming, with a traditional interior with lots of wood, decorated with prints of pencil line drawings depicting various characters from Dickens' novels. (Dickens lived around the corner around 1824 when, at the age of 12, his father was in the debtors' prison). There are also two Sky TV screens (showing the news when I went). The clientele are a mixture of locals, workers (lunchtimes and after work, but not too many 'suits') and the odd celebrity Andrew Lloyd Webber was enjoying an evening there on my last visit (not that I'm swayed by such things). I found the staff to be helpful and friendly. The main reason for a visit in my view is the range of real ales they have half a dozen hand-pumps, and on our visit had an excellent range of winter ales, including Harvey's Christmas Ale (8.1% ABV!), Okell's St Nick (4.5%), and Rudolph's Ruin (4.6%), as well as Adnams Bitter (4.5% ABV), the hard-to-find Harvey's Sussex Dark Mild (3.0%) and Twickenham Original Ale (4.2%). It was like a little beer festival. They have a food menu of standard pub fare: nothing exciting, but for London the prices are good value for money, and both meat and veg are bought in fresh form the local markets. Starters range from £2.50 to £6, mains from £5.95 to £7.95 for a sirloin steak, and desserts from £1.50 to £2. There's a roast on Sundays. We had a group meal there and both the grub and the service were fine. Actually, the beer's good value too for Central London. Worth searching out.

The best fish and chips I had in London. The fish batter was light, but so flavorful…read more The olives were also so buttery...I couldn't stop eating them. Pimm's cup was refreshing. The sticky toffee pudding was disappointing...too dense. It is the only thing stopping me from giving 5 stars. Also, the location on the Thames is stunning.

My friend and I had our first fish & chips of our trip at Trafalgar Tavern and enjoyed it! It…read moretasted very fresh. We also had a side of beer battered onion rings. We took a river cruise on Thames to Greenwich when we were there and someone at the entry museum suggested we check this place out as it was just a short walk down. We were seated at a table with a river view. We found it unique/odd they required you to pay in advance when you ordered instead of after and we weren't sure why. The staff were really helpful/friendly and brought toffee syrup on the side so I could sweeten my cocktail to my taste as I try to minimize having too much sugar. I recommend it as a place to eat while you explore the sites at Greenwich!

Went in here and waited for about 10 minutes. No one showed up to take an order for food or drinks…read more Got up and left.

After our visit at St. Paul's Cathedral and that terrifying climb to the top, I needed a drink. :)…read moreWe wanted to find something off the beaten path so we started to wander. I'll admit this was not our first choice. We walked into a pub right down the street, but would not serve us because we had a minor. That was their right, but I'll get to that later. So we found Shaws Booksellers. It's a large, bright pub with very friendly bartenders. We ordered our drinks and found a place to sit. We also found an outlet to charge our phones, so that was lovely. It was the end of the day so it started to get busy and thought it wise to move and tuck ourselves away in a corner so that people could enjoy their pints after a long day of work. We had a couple drinks and really enjoy the conversation with the bartenders. It truly was a cute place to grab a drink. We had a large lunch so we didn't order any food, but the menu looking great and the food i saw come out looked fabulous. On our way out we walked by other pub and it was dead. No one is in there. Shaws Booksellers was packed and people were out on the sidewalk enjoying their beverage. So yeah, that felt good. :)

What a let down. We ate here last year and I have been…read moretasting the amazing meal we had from the 2025 trip. I actually am being generous with the 3 stars (it all goes to the view of Tower Bridge I suppose and a clean bathroom) The vegan pie has changed and I did not want to give 20+£ for fish and chips. I ordered the calamari and it was so greasy/oily that I did not even eat all of it. You order via the QR code and no option for water so you need to go to the bar for that. You will also be asked to leave a tip. Hopefully the tip goes to the food runner. Ours just put the food down and left. Not one word said. My husband got a pie and said it was okay but again nothing like last year. There are so many places to eat while visiting London so I was mad that I wasted it here.

So, I had a nice walk around the market and saw this place. Decided to stop and have a drink since…read moreit was located by the river and looked nice. I ordered their "nachos" and a beer. The beer was cold and refreshing. The nachos were extremely soggy and lacked flavor. I ordered a small portion as I didn't know what to expect. I would say that what I ordered probably does not represent their ability or quality of food they serve but what I ordered wasn't great. The server was nice but did bump my beer and spilled it on the table. He did not wipe it and just left it sticky. I felt like I paid more for the view and to sit by the river. As always judge for yourself.

Stumbled upon this spot while looking for something to eat for lunch before a train out from Euston…read moreand was so presently surprised! For being so closely located to Euston, King's Cross, and The British Library, it was surprisingly quiet. We got a small assortment of dishes to split between 3, and everything was very tasty. The lamb and mint pie was delicious, and in a nicely flaky crust. The other small plates added nice additional complementary bites. Would say my next favorite was the chicken and leek croquettes, followed by the heritage tomatoes on sourdough, pork sausage bites, and beets. All nicely washed down with a lager. Portions on the smaller side, which is good when looking for a lighter meal before the train.

Some of the most amazing Fish and Chips we've ever had! We had been expecting tartar sauce or…read moresomething like that, but it arrived with curry sauce. Wowsers, sooooo good!!! We ordered at the bar and then sat down to enjoy the ambiance and food. Good, friendly service. Not super speedy, but we were not in a hurry so it was totally fine for us. My only suggestion would be for travelers/non-locals: Perhaps make it more clear as to how/what to do to order food? We walked in and didn't see any signs about waiting to be seated or if we should seat ourselves and wait for service. Other than his minor thing, everything was fantastic. Highly recommend.

After walking around the Borough Market we found the Old Thameside Inn not too far from it as we…read morewanted a spot to sit down for a few pints. Located close to the London Bridge it was nice to get off our feet for a bit before more sightseeing. Its a cool spot in a converted warehouse building along the water. Great spot for British pub food and a cold beer. Very busy place especially on a weekend but after a few minutes we found a spot to sit. Terrific views with the outside seating. Nice service, spacious, with a cool vibe here.

Well situated on the bank of the Thames, this is a charming old pub…read more Food: Excellent meat pie with mashed potatoes and fantastic cooked carrots. Beer: Enjoyed a beautiful Fuller's London Pride cask ale Ambiance: Old London Pub Service: Pleasant bar service Overall cleanliness: Above average Bathroom cleanliness: average Value: It's London, everything is expensive