Interesting Activity: Ask a Taxi Driver to take you to his/her favorite restaurant

It's social media, designed to be entertaining and make money for the You Tuber. Their goal to continuously come up with things to post. So, for your average, sensible safety conscious tourist, doesn't make as much sense to do it. Though it never hurts to ask a taxi driver about their favorite restaurant or site to not be missed when already in a taxi.

Certainly in London, the drivers you find in black cabs are mainly from outside of London. Most travel in from their McMansions in Essex and Kent to work in central London. Sure, they'll know the places they drop their fares off at but I don't imagine there's many black cab drivers eating out in central London on a regular basis. Again, another sweeping generalisation, but Uber drivers are usually from a different demographic, and while more likely to live in one of the London boroughs, I doubt there's many with the time or finances for such frivolities as central London dining.

As far as being a risk in terms of a fare or safety, fare yes, safety no. Getting into a cab and asking such a question is setting yourself up for being taken for a mug. The little wheels in the driver's head would be whirring immediately with thoughts of how much money they can extract from you by running up the meter. When you book an Uber the destination is already set, so that's not going to work.

As Helen wisely states in the first reply of the post you link to -

Time Out London is a great place to look for restaurants.

That's your best bet.

https://www.timeout.com/london/food-drink

I'll stick to the recommendations of established restaurant critics over the views of a random taxi driver.

Taxi drivers are not only often not local, they are increasingly also immigrants. Driving a car is one of those skills that you can easily transplant from eg. Syria to Switzerland, and with modern navigation systems you don't even need to know the city anymore.

So I think that if you were to ask a random taxi driver in eg. Basel or Zürich to take you to his favorite restaurant the result might be very interesting. But it probably won't be a Swiss restaurant...

Personally, it's not my cup of tea. I'm too much of an introvert, and I would feel like I’m imposing on someone who is just trying to do their job.

However, to the point about this being calculated social media, long before YouTubers started doing this for clicks and revenue, television pioneers like Anthony Bourdain, Andrew Zimmern, Rick Steves, et al., perfected this exact street level, improvisational approach. By relying on unscripted interactions and unique sourcing rules, they built the standard that today's creators are just emulating.

I don't necessarily imagine many tourists actually trying this approach out. Too many travelers plan out every restaurant selection and cement them into rigid itineraries. As for sticking to "established restaurant critics over the views of a random taxi driver," I cannot help but be reminded that Anthony Bourdain advocated for a philosophy based on the idea that workingclass locals, like cabbies, market vendors, and line cooks, know where the real, authentic soul of a city’s food scene lives. Their recommended kitchen beats the gatekeeper's menu.

It's social media, designed to be entertaining and make money for the
You Tuber.

True. But some you tubers are more responsible than others. Harrison heavily focuses on local restaurants, tends to avoid chain restaurants in his videos, encourages viewers to hit local spots, and has a London food map of local places he likes in the city (for a small fee, of course: $9).

And he asks many others there favorites: random people on a random London street... and even wealthy Londoners on a wealthy street. Spoiler: he tends to like the food at recommendations from random middle class people a lot more than those from wealthy people.

Certainly in London, the drivers you find in black cabs are mainly
from outside of London.

The first driver Harrison asked about his favorite restaurant responded with a cheeky, "Do you know Essex?"

...which you could have seen had I not messed up the link 😬.

As for sticking to "established restaurant critics over the views of a
random taxi driver," I cannot help but be reminded that Anthony
Bourdain advocated for a philosophy based on the idea that
workingclass locals, like cabbies, market vendors, and line cooks,
know where the real, authentic soul of a city’s food scene lives.
Their recommended kitchen beats the gatekeeper's menu.

If I could hit a "Love" button on the RS forum, this comment would definitely get a love.

So I think that if you were to ask a random taxi driver in eg. Basel
or Zürich to take you to his favorite restaurant the result might be
very interesting. But it probably won't be a Swiss restaurant...

Yeah... the immigrant drivers in Berlin and Amsterdam whom I've asked their favorite restaurant never mention German or Dutch restaurants. I kind of like that.

I cannot help but be reminded that Anthony Bourdain advocated for a philosophy based on the idea that workingclass locals, like cabbies, market vendors, and line cooks, know where the real, authentic soul of a city’s food scene lives.

Certainly in terms of London that's bollocks though. An upper middle class fantasy. Cabbies generally hate what modern London stands for. Try getting in a cab and asking what the driver thinks of London Mayor Sadiq Khan, low traffic neighbourhoods and measures to reduce air pollution and climate change, cyclists, Muslims and multicultural London in general. You're going to get some pretty spicy views.

Owning a green badge that allows one to drive a hackney carriage has traditionally been the preserve of middle aged white men. There has been some shift over the last decade or so, but it's still predominantly a white boys club. They don't represent London at all. It wasn't until Uber came around that the playing field was truly levelled for those of varying ethnic backgrounds and black cab drivers don't like it. The taxi drivers' union, the LTDA, has fought tooth and nail to maintain the status quo in the face of a changing city.

That said, if your penchant is for a recommendation for a £2 cheeseburger and a £1 cup of tea at 3am served from a van underneath some railway arches, a taxi driver is your man.

eta: I feel bad reading this back now, totally ripping into black cab drivers. I'm not going to do it again. I feel it's like my opinions about the royal family. Best I keep schtum and let folks from RSE enjoy it for what it is when they come to London. Sorry!

Gerry--

Going along with your theme, Harrison asked a cab driver to take him to his favorite place for breakfast. The driver responded, "I don't know of any places." So, Harrison went to the next cab in line and was taken to a breakfast spot. Overall, the cabbies took him to 4-5 places that he really liked -- I think one he liked enough to put on his restaurant list.

based on the idea that workingclass locals, like cabbies, market vendors, and line cooks, know where the real, authentic soul of a city’s food scene lives

This always brings me back to the oft quoted idea to eat where the locals eat in order to find the best food. In the UK that's likely to lead you to a Wetherspoons, Toby Carvery or a Harvester all of which serve mediocre food but importantly is cheap. That's the driving factor for most people.....price. For many people, including on this forum, food isn't that important for them and price and convenience are the top priority.

A prime example, this week I had lunch at a moderately expensive restaurant in Palma. The food was very good and I was surrounded by a mix of foreign tourists and Spaniards (although I had no idea if they were locals). Nearby was a scruffy trailer knocking out cheap burgers and other fast food. It was very popular with what appeared to be locals but the food did not look appetising.

So yes, I'm inclined to go by a restaurant critic's recommendation (it's not all high end, Michelin starred) over the simplistic "eat where the locals eat".

This always brings me back to the oft quoted idea to eat where the locals eat in order to find the best food. In the UK that's likely to lead you to a Wetherspoons, Toby Carvery or a Harvester all of which serve mediocre food but importantly is cheap. That's the driving factor for most people.....price. For many people, including on this forum, food isn't that important for them and price and convenience are the top priority...

I don't disagree with you. If you "eat where the locals eat" almost anywhere, you'll often end up at a mediocre restaurant for the exact same reasons of price and convenience.

But your point brings me to a larger question: Why do we feel the need to base our restaurant selections on anyone else's rigid travel maxims, rules, or recommendations in the first place? Whether it is a Michelin guide, a local cabbie, content creator or a television host, we are still outsourcing our choices.

We all know what we like, what attracts us, and what turns us off. Perhaps the real soul of travel dining isn't about finding the ultimate hidden gem approved by an external authority or gatekeeper, but rather trusting our own instincts and stepping into a place simply because it smells good or looks intriguing to us.

I remember seeing the cabmans, green shelter huts in London. So if asked, a cabbie might consider a meal here their comfort food and take you to one of these historical sites! ;)

I haven’t tried this yet (and probably wouldn’t as far as “just take me there”). But it reminds me that when my daughter lived in Dubai and I visited, people would say things about how expensive it was. And they weren’t wrong. But there’s a whole different side to eating there beyond where well-to-do tourists eat. Good food, far less expensive - just a different approach. I’m not sure what a taxi driver would have recommended and now I’m sorry I never asked.

While I have gotten decent restaurant recommendations from locals, hotels, hosts, and even an Uber driver, I am always reminded that if you insist on going to the places the locals recommend and eat, you are as likely to wind up at McDonalds or Burger King as some local spot. Even at a local spot that is recommended, the food is more likely to be cheap than good.

I’ve found that B&B hosts in Italy will give great recommendations! I preface it with asking where’s an inexpensive place for a small lunch and a nicer place for a local dinner, for instance, will result in what I’m usually seeking.

But one of the comments about McDonalds also applies. Finishing up a month-long trip, I ate at McDonald’s a couple of times when I just want a quick cheeseburger without the longer lunch, plus my last day I really needed some veggies for a headache while riding several trains, so I was able to pop into the Florence train station McDonalds and pick up a mixed salad.

I've watched the video now and it went pretty much as I predicted. Dudes that don't come from London recommending posh places that they drop their fares but wouldn't eat at themselves. The only exception was Sapori in Horseferry Road which did seem to be frequented by taxi drivers, but looked decidedly meh :) One just randomly dropped the YouTuber in Soho and left him to get on with it and another dropped him at a place that was closed. Brilliant! Good idea in theory for a YouTube video, but you'd be better off just choosing some places completely at random from Time Out imho.

Some great cringeworthy interactions. I was pleasantly surprised that not all the taxi drivers had thick Essex accents though. Maybe the trade is diversifying more these days. None of them appeared on camera, just in case HMRC was watching. Here's all the destinations that he went to.

Sapori, Horseferry Road - https://maps.app.goo.gl/HqshkBeTXgM9kVmy9

Granger and Co., Westbourne Grove - https://maps.app.goo.gl/KxDRBjBPB1wShBqY6

Khan's, Westbourne Grove - https://maps.app.goo.gl/jxRYbxEL28DMoodbA

Meet Bros, Craven Road - https://maps.app.goo.gl/DbdoRz9tQAZyPEym6

OKA, Kingly Court - https://maps.app.goo.gl/G4bKwVQqKfHwz1sJ7

Thanks for watching the video and listing out the places! Granger & Co is an expensive Australian chain restaurant- it's good enough but seems a peculiar choice to me for "favourite London restaurant." I have to admit I haven't heard of the others.

I certainly wouldn't do this myself for many reasons (may not have the same taste in food, may take you somewhere really expensive, may just take you somewhere run by a friend, etc). Also I'm just very rarely in a taxi in London as we have such good public transport. However, we have in the past, when chatting to driver who's not originally from the UK, asked where they go for food from their home country. It's a way to get recommendations for cuisines you might not know a whole lot about (e.g. Kurdish).

He should do one with golf course clubhouses and Toby Carverys in Chelmsford or Sevenoaks and it would be spot on I bet.

Regardless of the country, we've found that for lunch suggestions, some of the best sources are the retail clerks in the various local shops. They seem to know the places that are good, inexpensive, close by and where one can be in and out in a reasonable amount of time. Can't think of a single time we've been disappointed following their advice.

Where the YouTuber visited Sapori in Horseferry Road is great for lunchtime choice. Loads of places. British government is pretty much run from offices around there and there's thousands of people at work. The Home Office (equivalent of the US State Department?) is based there, and pretty much all the government departments have offices within a few blocks.

I used to to be around there for lunch a lot when I worked at an art gallery near there. I don't think I ever used Sapori, but they do deli sandwiches to go. I used to go to Gianni's, which is pretty much next door, 100 yards up from Lambeth Bridge. Strutton Ground has a food market with some really good stalls at lunchtime and several sit down places, including a chippy and Chinese, and is a few minutes walk from there. I ate falafel often from there. I'd also go to Pret, Tesco Express and Sainsbury's Local, rather less interestingly. It's only a short walk from Westminster Abbey and The Houses of Parliament if you're visiting those and need some lunch with local workers. I'd take a sandwich to go down to sit by the river or in St John's Gardens, which is a pleasant little park right on Horseferry Road.

The Regency Cafe is right around the corner too. Really high quality greasy spoon caf. You might wait a while for a table at peak lunch time.

Regency Cafe - https://maps.app.goo.gl/6G9eoap2WS35WDdn7

Gianni's - https://maps.app.goo.gl/xtmhJmpXqH4YANw27

Strutton Ground - https://maps.app.goo.gl/3ozUwVFKBZ2pcgnd8

Tesco Express, Monck Street - https://maps.app.goo.gl/K9UqnNgWTDb8VMvUA

St John's Gardens - https://maps.app.goo.gl/A9zkwuWKQq5UMo1i9

Victoria Tower Gardens - https://maps.app.goo.gl/fDZiSDre5HcXUEhy9

I don't disagree with you. If you "eat where the locals eat" almost
anywhere, you'll often end up at a mediocre restaurant for the exact
same reasons of price and convenience.

I do think there is a difference between "Where do you eat?" and "Where is your favorite place to eat?" I would expect the latter gets less mediocre restaurants than the former.

I would like to offer special thanks to Gerry for his/her contribution to the thread including the restaurant recommendations.

Someone used the word "rigid" above. I don't think most of us are choosing restaurants based on rigid criteria. I imagine we all draw from multiple sources. I'm working on a trip to Bohemia Moravia in the fall, most of the time will be in Brno. I actually have a little list of restaurants I'm forming. Sources include

• Honest Guide recommendations (yup... YouTube channel)
• Blogs of locals
• Blogs of travelers
• The Brno TI's "Gourmet Brno" guide -- locals nominate places... "an independent jury of professionals from outside Brno evaluates their recommendations to ensure objectivity"... the result is 67 recommendations across multiple categories from restaurants to cafes to takeaway
• Recommendations from the guides I will use to visit places... "What's your favorite place to eat?" 🙂🙂🙂🙂
• Google Maps "peak ins" for spots near places I will be (found a superb Italian place in Amsterdam owned by a husband-wife team from Rome this way)
• Rick Steves guide. Bahahahahahahaha. It does not even recognize Brno's existence.
• Once on the ground, I will ask a young hotel staff... a store clerk... a cabbie... for their favorite place to eat.
  
• Once on the ground, I'll be on the lookout for a place that speaks to me

I travel for a couple of weeks every February to Mexico and enjoy the different cuisines. For the past few years restaurants have radically increased prices along with changing the menu to seafood, steak and pasta. Frustrated, we asked the taxi driver to suggest a local restaurant with authentic Mexican food. He took us up into the hills to a nothing looking place that had a fantastic patio and view and even better food. We are heading there again in February and so hope the restaurant is still in business.

This may be a bit off topic, but if you are looking for places to eat in Brno, we had a very nice lunch here several years ago: https://brnorestauracepivnice.hotelpegas.com/
This was definitely a place that "spoke" to us.

Just a note that Brno is actually not in Bohemia- in fact it is the capital of Moravia, a different region of the Czech Republic.

could have blindfolded me and given me darts to fling over my shoulder at a paper map and I might have been as successful

but I wouldn't get the clicks

Diane--

It's fun when someone helps you find those nothing-looking restaurants with great food. I had a great guide in Kagoshima, Japan, who took us to a nothing-looking place with 6-8 tables in the middle of nowhere on the island where the volcano is; the restaurant served quite wonderful vegetarian cuisine.

And thanks for a positive experience with a taxi driver recommendation.

Cat VH --

Thanks for the restaurant recommendation. It's a 7-minute walk from my hotel. Looks like a nice atmosphere. I'll add it to the list.

Thanks, too, for the correction on Bohemia. Typing at 11 pm after a 13-hour work day (the place is a bit short-handed at the moment) leads to careless errors. It's fixed!

could have blindfolded me and given me darts to fling over my shoulder
at a paper map and I might have been as successful

but I wouldn't get the clicks

Probably would depend on your personality, your on-screen likability, your ability to communicate in an entertaining manner, and your prior YouTube work product/following.

Credit to the content creator... Asking a cabbie to take you to his favorite restaurant isn't exactly a hot influencer trend. In fact, this is the first time I've ever seen that in a video. (For the record, I have no interest -- financial or otherwise -- in the content creator other than just finding his videos entertaining).

Just another random thought. Y'all know I work in a museum and handle visitor questions daily, and I have to admit, "where should I eat?" is easily my least favorite question to answer. Being a local doesn't mean I dine at every single restaurant in town. I’ve been to a lot of them, but like anyone else, my personal favorites consist of a small handful of spots in my routine rotation, which may not align at all with a visitor's tastes or expectations -- and I hate seafood.

For instance, breakfast is my go-to meal out, and it's every morning of my days off at the exact same cafe. I get the same large coffee and the same toast with orange marmalade and sausage. I go there simply because I like it, the staff are great, and I can sit in my same little corner, get lost in my tablet, and people watch.

Also, a real issue with the question is that most visitors who ask it don't actually know what they want. Without any parameters, I feel like I'm just blindly rattling off a list of random restaurants, hoping something sticks. And that’s the main disconnect with the whole "ask a local" travel maxim. When tourists ask us for our favorites, they think they are getting an insider track to a curated culinary adventure. In reality, my absolute favorite spot is just a quiet corner for routine comfort food, which is rarely the spectacular, novel experience a tourist is actually hunting for.

VAP—

I‘m just curious… how often do you get asked by guests where to eat?

Usually a couple times a day. It becomes more common during spring break season, then in the summer and autumn when general visitation goes up between the school years. It is usually couples, friend groups and older families. Not usually families with young children.

I would like to offer special thanks to Gerry

Cheers Dave! It's great when someone posts a thread and takes the time to come back and chat about the topic. Thank you!

but I wouldn't get the clicks

Nigel, a man of your maturity and wisdom would do great surely. YouTube is far too slanted towards these youngsters!

Very interesting thread. but I do not recommend the you try that in NYC, unless you are looking for a restaurants that serves the food from th driver's home country...I'e gotten a few ideas that way, but they were no secret...

If I am on a tour, I ask the guide. If I am shopping, I might ask the clerk. Perhaps asking the front desk clerk would be ok, but they often have no idea or recommend the same touristy places to everyone.
I would rather just walk around and look at the menus or specials.

Dave,

If you're a regular YouTube watcher you may enjoy videos from this channel I'll link to below, Gary Eats. The majority of his reviews are of London eateries. He's a bit more in my age range than Harrison Webb and seems like a nice down-to-earth bloke.

https://www.youtube.com/@GaryEats

I'll check out Gary Eats!

The first time my wife and I went to New Orleans together I asked the cab driver for his personal recommendations, but only after I realized that he was both local and interesting. His recommendations were all spot on. While people were lined up across the street in a very long line for an oyster bar, I was seated at a better one without a wait. While people were queued up for a morning Benya, we were enjoying ours along with a nice cup of chicory coffee. He hooked us up.
I'd be careful about asking a random cab driver for his recommendations, but if you vette them before trusting them, there's no harm in it. What I generally do is try one recommendation and decide if it's legit.

@Ms Jo

I would rather just walk around and look at the menus or specials

Yes! Walking along restaurant-filled streets is one of the great joys of traveling to Europe.

There's something bothersome and self indulgent about this "activity" -- that is roping some unsuspecting person into your social experiment. It's analogous to being caught up in someone's flash mob, do you remember those?

I would assume that most taxi drivers just want to take you where you want to go, not think about what restaurant they should take you to. It also has an air of superiority, in so far that this working class person knows all the best and cheapest places to eat away from all the other losers. If this became the latest tourist trend, I could see it becoming point of angst amongst taxi drivers.

I agree with the original poster, if the topic of restaurants came up with the driver then you are free to discuss it, otherwise, no.

I would assume that most taxi drivers just want to take you where you
want to go, not think about what restaurant they should take you to.

I'm guessing if you gave a generous tip, they would be pretty happy about it 🙂

If only we had a resident cabbie on the RS forum who could comment...

I started watching Harrison but he tries too hard to get clicks. He does similar stuff in Paris.

As I recall, he didn't have great luck with restaurants. I believe there's a cabbie vlogger who tried the same thing and discovered that cabbies are not the most discriminating of diners.

Nigel.... real darts and a paper map? Could be lots of clicks based on what else was over your shoulder and at risk.... a bit of dark humor I'll let y'all fill in the blanks on......

I don’t necessarily agree with the idea that this activity is inherently bothersome, self-indulgent, or carries an "air of superiority."

As I mentioned earlier, being an introvert I wouldn't do this myself. I'm not good with small talk and I'd feel like I'm imposing on someone just doing their job. But there is a big difference between finding a question personally awkward and viewing it as ethically problematic. Turning this into a calculated "social experiment" seems like an over-analysis.

Beyond a YouTube video, at the end of the day, it's usually just an extroverted traveler trying to strike up a conversation. The driver can always just say, "I don't know any places." You don't have to want to do it yourself to see that we might be taking a harmless interaction a bit too seriously.

Oh, I believe it’s definitely at the very least elitist. Consider this characterization: You there, working class person of the proletariat. Take me to the place where your people eat, I want to experience the real Europe, away from the maddening crowds of these bourgeois foreigners. If this became trend, for example on Tick Tock, I’d bet you would start seeing a lot of 50 mile long cab rides.

If you're a regular YouTube watcher you may enjoy videos from this
channel I'll link to below, Gary Eats.

I watched a few of his videos. In one, he mentioned agreeing with Harrison Webb's assessment of a restaurant 🙂. His videos are intelligent.

I started watching Harrison but he tries too hard to get clicks.

Part of the YouTube game, I guess. But I don't think he's over the top on that. I like his sense of humor. I watch more for entertainment than food knowledge, I think.

I fall into VAP's camp over joe's camp on the nature of this. I don't see it becoming a Tik Tok craze, and I think at most, a person is going to do what I do -- ask a chatty driver for where he likes to eat when in a new town as opposed to hailing a cab specifically for the cab driver to take them to a restaurant.

I watched a few of his videos.

Good! He covers a nice spread of the expensive / celebrity chef places and also deliberately goes to some really terrible spots.

I've just watched the video he did with Harrison Webb. The UK's Most Expensive Burger. Quite entertaining!

https://youtu.be/ZDjk3UFRI64?si=EEbDT8HFbGHydxKF

Thanks for the link... an interesting and entertaining episode. It led me to episodes of Gary eating subpar Gordon Ramsey food. I ate at a Gordon Ramsey fish-n-chip shop in DC once. Mediocre.