A "Foodie" tour of England - seriously

There are no really great places to eat in Kingston, but there are some good ones. Recommended pubs are The Albion, which does an excellent range of beers (some brewed themselves) and ciders and good food, thoughnot particularly traditional; The Boaters, which is in a park by the Thames, excellent beer and very good food; The Ram, which does more traditional pubby food, and pretty well; and The Wych Elm, an excellent back-street local with the best pint of London Pride you can buy anywhere and good food. The market has an interesting mix of stalls, including some quite foodie ones. There is a superb butchers on Richmond Road called Bevans.

In the Peak District, try a proper Bakewell pudding, which you can only buy from two bakers in Bakewell, and some Derbyshire oatcake, which is especially good with a fried breakfast.

In the Lakes, the best pub food is from The Mason's Arms at Strawberry Bank, but my favourite pub, in fact one of my favourites of all, is The Britannia Inn in Elterwater, Langdale. Superb Coniston beers, and Bluebird is one of the best session bitters available, and hearty proper pub food, added to a lovely location.

You should watch The Trip Season 1!
Try lava bread in Wales.
You'll be in the middle of the British asparagus season.
Kingston has lots of chain restaurants. You'll find the best food in the vicinity may well be international. You'll pay London prices there. Could try and seek out https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g186338-d10517849-Reviews-R_H_cafe_gallery-London_England.html this place in nearby Richmond upon Thames. Currently number 1 restaurant in London on Tripadvisor.

Hi Gwen -

We've had a couple of excellent meals at a couple of pub/hotels near Ambleside - The Drunken Duck, a little outside the centre of the town, and, a little further away, the Eltermere Inn, at (confusingly) Elterwater. Both have websites if you want to research further.

Also in Elterwater is the Britannia Inn, a - very - popular pub which also does decent pub grub and further up Langdale, and worth visiting just for the trip up to the head of the valley, is the Old Dungeon Ghyll pub, which is not particularly gourmet dining, but is a proper hikers pub where you can march in wearing your hiking boots and if the weather isn't particularly clement, drip on the floor while your cag and rucksack dry out, while sampling something interesting from the hand pulled ales behind the bar. It's one of my favourite places, usually because I've earned my pint when I've pitched up there!

Have a great trip!

Ian

Ahh many a happy teenage night spent down at the Boaters!

In London, any of Jamie Oliver's restaurants will reward you with a fine gastronomic experience. British cities, in general, will offer good meals.

In the countryside, however, you may find some more traditional fare, not changed much since the 1970's. We were north of the Lake District this summer, and while the Cumbrian sausages (or white fish) and potatoes were largely made with quality, local ingredients, they were just food to get you through to the next meal, and not necessarily anything extra-special.

A pint of whatever local beer or cider is on tap is the right thing to wash it down.

I see Pete is with me on the Britannia and the Masons Arms is also good, if something of a sod to find in my experience!

Ian

The half-timbered town of Ludlow might be on your way to or from North Wales. It seems to be quite the foodie destination these days, but I cannot suggest a specific place to eat there. I can tell you that lodging was tough to find and prices were rather high when I visited for one Monday night in August. I don't know whether Ludlow gets a lot of long-weekend traffic or the lodging rates are typical throughout the summer. I had the impression most of the visitors were English and quite possibly in town specifically for the food.

In London, I really like Honey & Co and the Ottolenghi offerings (both Nopi and Ottolenghi).

For buying items to cook at home in London, there is Borough Market (which is really touristy now, but still fun to visit), as well as a number of farmers' markets
https://www.lfm.org.uk/markets-home/

As far as things to cook in your flat, perhaps look for seafood or dairy that are not readily available at home. You can find beautiful diver scallops, Dover Sole (expensive!), cheese from Neal's Yard Dairy, clotted cream, etc.

I do not see your post in the Wales forum yet so I will add my comments here. The town of Abergavenny in Wales has become known as a major foodie destination. They have a big festival in September, it even in May you should find some good things in the local markets.

https://www.visitmonmouthshire.com/thedms.aspx?dms=3&feature=1025&venue=1000769&AskRedirect=true

And since you mentioned an interest in walking, I will note that we went to Abergavenny to do the Three Castles Walk, a self-guided walk over three days, visiting three ruined castles, it mainly just enjoying the scenery. It was organized by a company named Celtic Trails, who arranged our lodging, transport, and provided maps and a guidebook. Our lodging was about ten miles outside Abergavenny in a nice B and B, it the four of us had the attached apartment which was nice and roomy. The restaurant nearby provided us excellent meals all three nights. I will have to look back and find the name of the "village", which mainly consisted of the Band B, a few homes, a church, and the restaurant. All I remember is lots of L's in the name.

Llangattock Lingoed was the Village. I seem to recall a Michelin-starred restaurant somewhere near there.

The pub where we ate was this:

http://www.hunters-moon-inn.co.uk
And the B and B with the self-catering apartment was called The Old Rectory. We got breakfast in the main house included, as well as lunches made to order for each day's walk.

I will say more about the walking if you are interested. Offa's Dyke Path goes right through there as well.

The Michelin restaurant is The Walnut Tree. They do, or at least did, really good value lunch, though somewhat pricey in the evening. It's at the foot of Skirrid, so you can walk up an apetite beforehand.

I did a thread a while back on chocolate in London. Note that there have been some losses since then - Alexeeva and Jones is now online only, the Curley shop in central London has gone, and Neuhaus no longer has any London places other than the Harrods concession.

I'll agree with Emma, Jamie Oliver has diversified into the chain restaurant arena and they really aren't that good. There are infinitely better options in London but far too many to list, the best meals I've eaten throughout all my travels have all been in London.

The 'seriously' part of the thread title seems to suggest that a foodie tour of England is something of a misnomer. I think the UK managed to shrug off the perception that it offers mediocre food in the 80's. I don't know anywhere else that offers such a diverse range of food and adopts and absorbs other cuisines so easily.

If you plan on Jamie Oliver places, be careful. They have been losing bucketloads of money and are in deep financial peril, as are a number of High Street shops.

I don't want to defame them but I am worried that before they close they will begin to cut more corners.

Some branches have already closed.

We did a 28 day drive tour of England and Wales in October and had wonderful fish and chips all over England. In Wales we loved the lamb stew.

One of the best fish and chips we had was in a not at all fancy restaurant in Keswick, the lake district.

To JC in Portsmouth - the "seriously" part was a little serious and a little bit a joke. I think everyone knows that England is as diverse as anywhere, perhaps more so, and that you can find great food if you look for it. Which is why we are doing this. We are particularly looking forward to the ethnic food in the London area where we will sadly only be for 4 days. My husband is an archaeologist and historian so we also love the traditional stuff that is less available here in the states. Meat pies, black pudding, even Yorkshire pudding that his mum made every Christmas. My family is from Scotland so when we were there of course it was Scotch, highland beef, great shortbread like my granny, and haggis, which I discovered, can be like any family recipe, either delicious or.......... not. So in a way this is not so much a search for great restaurants as it is a gastronomic cultural tour. Nothing bad to say about Britain in our house. :-)

Wow! The power of the Rick Steve's forum! A couple of 'caveat emptors' about Jamie's Italian chain and today it is announced that twelve of them are to close. That still leaves another twenty five branches, but still......

Hi Gwen -

I also forgot to mention the gourmet restaurant that is L'Enclume in Cartmel in the Lake District, but was prompted to by earlier mention of watching 'The Trip, series one'.

I suspect however that L'Enclume is probably already booked for May even now and mere mortals who are to visit should probably have started saving for it quite a while back! That said, it gets very good write ups and grows the majority of its produce in its own gardens. However as you've expanded on your original post, while it is an evening for gourmands and Bon viveurs, it might not fit exactly with what you were after. But forewarned is forearmed!

Ian

look out for cumberland sausages, Kendal mint cake and cartmel sticky toffee pudding in the Lakes and bakewell tarts in the Peak District

https://www.golakes.co.uk/things-to-do/food-and-drink.aspx

Wow - thank to the local for the updates on the Jamie Oliver Empire fraying around the edges. Hope that gets resolved satisfactorily.

So speaking of English food diversity, we've always treasured eating Indian in the U.K. -- a good curry seems now as British as fish 'n chips.

I've eaten at Jamie Oliver's twice now, both disappointing. Not recommended.

Be sure to check out Brick Lane... Particularly the food stalls in the old Truman Brewery, and the other, larger food stall place very near it, sorry I can't remember the name. Best at weekends.

For food during the week... Spittalfields Market, also near Brick Lane. And good old Borough Market, Weds-Sat.

Many, many other non market based food places doing great food at reasonable prices all over, I always check Trip Advisor before trying a new one.

If you want traditional London foods it is hard to get more traditional than a barrel of oysters, jellied eels or pie and mash, all still available if you know where to look...

Parkin is a Northern English gingerbread cake

Forgot to mention Camden Lock Market also, great selection of reasonably priced street food.