To think traditional English food is overrated?

English food is a bit shit because most of it is simply a piece of meat - cooked. Some vegetables-cooked.
just cooked. Fried or boiled or roasted. There is little if any culinary skill. No clever blending of flavours. Little seasoning. Just raw food cooked in the most basic ways.

A wide range of truly fantastic cheeses (proper cheese, not supermarket blocks)
Kippers
An excellent proper pork pie
Ditto game pie
Trifle
Dressed crab
Black pudding
Jugged hare
potted shrimps
PIGS IN BLANKETS.

I agree. I love things like Thai food as feel it's balanced- different crunch and smooth textures, sweet, salty, sour, spicy, aromatic. Whereas British food just...isn't. I personally find it a bit bland and samey.

Of course we don't eat like the tudors. Swan and porpoise don't feature too highly on most meal planning lists.

Watch a documentary about the food they ate then. The reason the British were called rost bifs by the French is because the British excelled at roasting meat over a fire. Whereas the French at the time were stewing their meat.

But you're not on here criticising bourguignion or cassoulet, coq au vin or boeuf en daube. Despite them all being meat in a gravy type sauce.

Originally bolognaise contained no tomatoes and was just very slow cooked meat but you're not complaining Italian food is shite.

It's fucking stupid and tiresome to say an entire cuisine is rubbish. Any cuisine cooked badly is rubbish and British cuisine cooked well is just as good as any other. Pretending otherwise just makes you look as thick as the mince that you clearly don't know how to cook properly.

Also cauliflower cheese is the best vegetable side dish. Ever.

Strong disagree.

I like food from all over, but british food has something of its own - BUT - it heavily leans on the quality of the cooking and the ingredients, because the seasonings are salt/pepper/mustard and some herbs - it's not drowned out by chilli or fish sauce (well, except cheese on toast with Worcestershire sauce of course, fair dollop of fish sauce flavour in that).

I often feel like other cuisines use spices to hide the flavour of the meat, rather than to elevate it.

Personally, I think the most overrated cuisine is Italian. Sure, it's generally tasty, and Cacio e pepe is beautiful in it's purity, but it's so heavily pasta with tomato and cheese, or veggies in oil - to my mind, that's stodge. Not decent fish and chips.

Totally agree! No one thinks British food is good and it’s a shame as there are some nice things. Sure I wouldn’t rate it as the best in the world but I don’t think it’s as bad as it’s made out to be.

Absolutely! Nothing better. But, hush; don't tell everybody ... if you know, you know.

I think it’s underrated really, everyone moans about crappy carveries and things that no ones had since 1980s school dinners. Aside from Italian, where is good for everyday food? There are lots of other places in Europe that go heavy on the meat and overcooked veg but no one disses them. And lots of the nice dishes from other cultures that have been mentioned on this thread are often things that you’d have on special occasions, for everyday eating a lot of things are more on the plain and simple side.

Another 'To think....' plopper. Will it never end?

YANBU. It's not a great fit for vegetarians like me. Nearly all of the examples given by posters so far need meat or fish!

People calling British food stodgy - when badly cooked it can be. But so can most cuisines if people serve up too many carbs and not enough flavour. I've had biryanis with bland, mushy rice and bowls of soggy noodles served with a couple of limp carrots and a few emaciated shrimp and no discernible flavour but soy sauce and bowls of limp pasta served with a tomato based sauce so sweet you could serve it with ice cream.

Equally I've had fantastic roast dinners with crispy roast potatoes and a rainbow of vegetables. I've had light aromatic Pad Thai served with crunchy roast peanuts and last night I had the most fantastic vegetable biriani with dal and paneer. It cost £3 from a street vendor in Penang and it was a taste sensation.

If food from anywhere is bland or stodgy it's because it was badly cooked.

A proper English high tea! Huge plates of salmon and cucumber sandwiches on white bread, sausage rolls, pork pie, radishes, ham, tomatoes, lettuce, bread and butter; followed by Victoria sponge cake and scones with cream and jam and of course, a pot of steaming hot tea to accompany it all.

Agree 100%.

Unless the ingredients are absolutely top of the range, it all tastes like slop.

The Italians know a thing or two about food IMHO, but pretty much the food of any country is better than the rib sticking, artery clogging rot gut we come up with.

British desserts are elite.

British desserts are nice. But we hardly ever have "traditional" British food now. It's boring. I do like a good roast dinner but a lot that you get out are not as good as decent home cooked stuff.

I love a good roast, english breakfast or meat pie. Apart from that I don't eat much traditional English food. I prefer Asian cuisine so mostly eat that.

Fish pie. I bloody love fish pie. One of the nicest of traditional british foods.

I could happily live off Italian food for 95% of the time, but sometimes I just fancy bangers and mash with onion gravy, welsh rarebit, a slice tea bread or a lovely light scone with cream.

All carb heavy - that's another C word lol

My grandad was a butcher and I still dream about the rib eye steak he used to bring back, gran cooked it to perfection with thick chips cooked in beef dripping and fresh veg from their allotment.
Whenever I go to an Italian restaurant and order rib eye I always think "ah English food with a tomato garlic sauce on".
Don't even get me started on the liver, onions and bacon, fresh lamb cutlets with crispy roasties, pork chops with homemade apple sauce, pigeon pie with leeks, rabbit stew, steak and kidney pie, proper good English food.
We've just forgot to cook properly and happily stick a handful of chilli into some noodles to think we're being clever or reinvent cheese on toast as a pizza.

I totally agree that any menu can be abysmal in the hands of a terrible cook. However, “Traditional English” meals feel like they are purely substantial plates made to make your tummy feel full. Other cuisines feel like an adventure on your tongue.

A good plate of fresh fish and chips is delicious in its own right and on the odd occasion. However, I would feel terrible and unhealthy if I ate this kind of food regularly.

I have listed quite a few earlier, and many other people have too. I don’t know where exactly you’ve dined, but they don’t sound like the best places so I feel like your opinion might be somewhat skewed. I have eaten at toby carvery, harvesters (do they still exist?) to proper lovely gastropubs and fine dining. Check out the Michelin guide for example, or watch Masterchef the professionals.

I love multicultural food, but something doesn’t sit right with me about someone having moved to this country 25 years ago bashing British food.

It's just batter. I don't get the way some people rave over them. Quite bland unless you have gravy on it.

English food - amazing roast dinners with all the things is total perfection.

And, proper seaside town Fish & Chips with mushy peas 😋

Followed by a plethora of pudding choices, what more do you need?

(P.S I'm not English, but don't do haggis, whisky or cullen skink 🤢🤢🤢🤮🤮🤮🤫)

Well it's not overrated because I don't know if it is highly rated but I love roast beef with Yorkshire puddings, bangers and mash, pie and mash, fish and chips

Sunday roasts, FEB and afternoon tea are all English.

That's a pretty good showing.

Maybe you need to research the best recipes for each dish?