Casual but nice places to eat and drink London.

[waleswhaleswails]

I'm meeting a friend I haven't seen for a long time in London, I'm so excited to be back and meeting friends. She lives south coast and I live north. We're both getting the train.

In my head it's going to be glorious (it's July) and we can sit outside with wine, watch some people and eat nice but not over priced food.

My friend tells me London is all about the prebooking these days so even though it's midweek we need to get a plan in place.

I'm wondering about canal side? But north London is not an area I know well. I've spent all of lockdown in a country bubble with my family and I'm so excited for adult chat and people, but not mental central Piccadilly.

Tell me I'm not asking for too much? I've been waiting for this for so long.

Barge East - Hackney Wick
Aprea - Haggerston
Summerhouse - Little Venice
KERB - Camden

The new development at the Regents Canal by King’s Cross is nice, plenty of pubs and restaurants to choose from.

@AngeloMysterioso

The new development at the Regents Canal by King’s Cross is nice, plenty of pubs and restaurants to choose from.

Agreed. There are lots of places in Coal Drop Yard and Granary Square and many of them are quite large so you may not have to pre-book. The Lighterman on Granary Swuare is lovely and we were able to get a mid-afternoon walk-in for an outdoor table on Saturday.

The White Hart in Whitechapel isn’t taking bookings at all, all walk-ins and it wasn’t hugely busy last night. I’ve also had luck with easily booking the Albion in Shoreditch.

Which stations are you both coming into? If you can both get the Thameslink there are lots of nice options around London Bridge or St Pancras.

Thanks all for suggestions, I'll spend some time looking at them all.