Eating out in London

[daisydalrymple]

We’re going to London for the weekend for ds1’s 18th birthday. Lots of things planned to see / do, but I’m not sure what to do about eating out. We don’t know where we will be when, do we need to make reservations?? How do we know where to book? Sorry this sounds ridiculous, but especially on his birthday I’d like to make sure it’s a special meal.

You must have a loose plan for the day? I.e. doing a and b activities in the morning and c and d activities in the afternoon? I think you need to have a loose structure of what you can plan to do when and the travelling times between places unless you know the city very well already. If it were me and I was doing, say four things, I would plan lunch for the middle of things (after the second activity) and get lunch somewhere between activity two and three.

Well, decide roughly where you’re going to be when? Is it this coming weekend? I’m in London at the moment, and the excellent restaurant where we had lunch today was heaving with half term crowds.

As a person who has lived in London for years, I definitely think you need to make a plan for where you are likely going to be for the evening.
For a special meal I would always book.
Even some local casual chains like Pizza Express can get busy where I am and I've ended up reserving.

Yes ideally you do need to book or risk being turned away. If it’s just 2 of you, you stand a chance as a walk-in for good restaurants but not guaranteed by any means

Can you work it the other way? So, work out where you want dinner and then plan your itinerary backwards from that.

Are the plans and places you are visiting far from each other?
Have you got an idea of what kind of food or place you'd eat?

You could map it out on Google maps? Heart all the places you plan to visit and either look for a restaurant near to them or if you have a set one in mind, work out the nearest place around it.

100% would book a table to avoid delays.

If you say where you're going, people will be able to make suggestions. Yes for anywhere decent you will probably need to book.

Find a nice restaurant nearish your hotel and end the day there?

You can turn up at any of the market halls for choice of food

markethalls.co.uk/

Like

https://maps.app.goo.gl/akLS8ieWkx8XBw8h9

https://maps.app.goo.gl/nqfgNLAeBmcbyRRHA
Or borough market stalls

I’d always book for a Friday or Saturday night, or for a special meal.

There are places that you can walk in but they tend to have quite long queues, but you might be lucky.

Don’t know how outdated this is, but might be a starting point

https://www.standard.co.uk/going-out/restaurants/noreservations-restaurants-london-ben-mccormack-b1159298.html

You need to make an itinerary. You may want to see / do lots of things but you need to make sure it's workable. And then you can plan food around that?

You can't just say you want to do (for example) the London Eye, a West End show, Harrods, The Sky Garden, London Zoo, Tower of London, Buckingham Palace and then just expect it all to happen. You need to have some kind of plan. You need to think about things that need booking / location and travel time to get from A To B / how long you need for each thing you want to do / where you are staying etc.

Yes as I said in my OP, we’ve got things planned. We’ve grouped it together for ease of moving around across London. I have booked the things that need to be paid for, that’s why I said we have lots of things planned. Familiar with London as far as getting around goes, as DH and I lived there for a few years.

I think I probably didn’t get my question across well, whilst I know where we’re going, i wanted to find good places to eat centrally, (and we’ll be ok to wear our sight seeing clothes rather than dress up for) I wasn’t planning on us just turning up in London and then trying to plan our day. I’ve got that sorted. Just wanted advice on eating out.

so for example on Saturday we’re doing the Wembley tour in the afternoon, which finishes 5ish. Then again on Sunday we’re doing the Sherlock Holmes museum last, so looking to eat centrally after those anytime from 6pm onwards, as we wouldn’t be hanging around Wembley/ Baker Street to eat.

Anyway many thanks for the useful tips about eating out.

I think I probably didn’t get my question across well, whilst I know where we’re going, i wanted to find good places to eat centrally, (and we’ll be ok to wear our sight seeing clothes rather than dress up for) I wasn’t planning on us just turning up in London and then trying to plan our day. I’ve got that sorted. Just wanted advice on eating out.
I think people understood that, but without any idea about what you had planned or where it wasn't possible to advise you.

Where are you staying? How "centrally" do you want to eat and do you want this to he near where you're staying or near any evening plans. Baker Street is central as far as I'm concerned. You're probably best just looking on the map and finding somewhere near where you want to end up and booking if you don't want to say more about where you want to be.

But yes booking usually required. I ate at the Pizza Express next to Somerset House on a Saturday recently and even for the very early child friendly time of 5.15 I was glad I'd booked as it was full about 10 minutes after we arrived.

If you are around Wembley and enjoy Indian food then Atul Kochhar's street food restaurant Masalchi would be a good choice.

We watch ‘Gary Eats’on YouTube, he’s brilliant at reviewing restaurants from cheap, family run restaurants to Michelin starred restaurants. Done loads in London.

No idea if the location works for you but I went to Benihana in Covent Garden recently and they had loads of family groups and celebrations and made it all feel really special for people’s big events. Something a bit unique.

Speedboat Bar on Rupert St- v central and lots of fun, very laid back. Food is great if you like Thai. https://www.theguardian.com/food/2023/apr/02/jay-rayner-restaurant-review-speedboat-bar-london-completely-irresistible-style