to think the standard of restaurant food in England is, in general, very low?

[cailindana]

I love eating out. When I lived in Ireland I did it all the time. My home town is very small compared to English towns (though big in Irish terms!) and it had a wide range of excellent restaurants and pubs that served really really good food. Not cheap, but excellent quality and well worth what you pay for it.

Here I find the quality of food is really poor. It's very easy to eat out cheaply here but very hard to find somewhere that does really good food. I live in the East Midlands and it is exceptionally hard to find a restaurant that just does simple food but to a very good standard. For example the pub near where I used to work in Ireland did delicious homemade vegetable soup with homemade bread and gorgeous toasties on homemade bread as their lunch menu. Nothing at all fancy but very high quality and always done to perfection. Here, I can't find anything nearly similar and quite a few times, even in expensive restaurants, I've had food that wasn't cooked properly or just wasn't very appetising. Today we paid £34 for two very basic burgers that were served with frozen chips and tesco-standard coleslaw along with a very tiny children's meal. For that money in Ireland (generally) you would be guaranteed that everything would be very high quality, including handmade chips and coleslaw, frozen or packet stuff just wouldn't be acceptable.
Is it just that I live in a bad area for restaurants or is this just general thing around England?

Liverpool is fantastic for food now, but I agree that you have to know where to go. All the places I like are independents, apart from Byron burger. I hate paying for food that I can cook better myself.

I'm in the SE send have no problems finding great placed to eat. I also can't remember the last time I had bad service in the UK.

You say East Midlands like its one small town. Have you actually eaten in a representative sample of its 3 cities, 100s of towns and 1000s of villages pubs and restaurants?

I live in a village with 2 pubs that we've food, ones awful IMO, a chain with ping & ding food. The other is great with everything made on site. Just keep trying places

Food in Ireland does tend to be very fresh. The country is still agricultural and people take a pride in food. It is definitely possible to eat well in England to, but you usually have to pay ...

you don't think there is pride in food in england?

I'm sorry, but where is all this amazing cheap food in Ireland? I have obviously been going to the wrong places...

I'm not sure if there is Petula, or it is certainly in a minority. If there was, there wouldn't be so many chains, and you wouldn't have the ridiculous situation where you have the chain version and the independent in the same vicinity and the chain is packed and the independent is empty, despite selling much better food, often at a lower price.

If I ever go back to Ireland, I'll be back on here looking for recommendations, as it was all very poor last time I went. Very plain and meat/fish/vegetables all overcooked - it was like being in the 1950s.

i ate some lovely food in ireland, recommended by the guide books and campsite owners mostly

it was a genuine question onilkleymoorbahtwat, but it seemed a shame to assume the same attitude throughout the whole country. there seems to be plenty of pride in local food where i grew up, but obviously i can only speak for that area.

Hello happyagainoneday, you're very near me. I've never been to the Fox and Hounds, I shall give it a go on your recommendation.

I was in Ireland last year to go to a wedding. I can honestly say it was the most expensive place I have ever been. Even more than Finland and Venice!

The food was dreadful

I hated it and its put me off going back.

I have had plenty of lovely meals in UK and other countries.

YABU

I've despaired of pub food for a long time. Far too many cases of chef's gone to Iceland. Found a little gem close to DS1's school, though. Even the Scampi doesn't scream of fresh from the wholesaler's - they batter it themselves!

We are a little spoilt here, near Durham. Lots of fab cafes and independent restaurants. Not gourmet food, but often well cooked. Some of the best ones are in the most surprising locations, too.

Never been to a high end restaurant and not sure I CBA. Some of those chefs appear to be allergic to vegetables.

For anyone near Liverpool/Lancashire, the colliers arms in crank has the most gorgeous home cooked food, not particularly cheap but you get what you pay for, it's just off the east lancs but feels a million miles away from city life:) it's like driving through postman pat 's village.

Depends where you live. London = some of the best restaurants in the world. My local small town (Bedfordshire) has one excellent pub restaurant and two acceptable ones. On the other hand Wigan (where some of my rellies live) is shite.

the "cheap" thing is relative though

when i was at university in newcastle we wouldn't go to x place because it was too expensive - we didn't have the funds and it was pricier than other places we could go to that were still nice, if not quite as nice

i went back not long ago and of course most restaurants seemed really good value because i am now used to home counties prices

sandiacre Chinese restaurants don't do puddings because you don't normally have anything sweet at the end of a meal. You might get given fruit or a choice of two sweet soups. Ice cream would never be on a Chinese menu, neither would banana fritters. Sliced oranges are authentic though!

Desserts are eaten at special dessert shops and I don't think anyone in Britain would order real Chinese desserts. DH would eat some of them but not most.

Where I am in Hampshire I would say all the Chinese are dire. London on the other hand is good. I remember there are nice ones in Birmingham and Manchester too.

And definitely avoid chain pubs. You need to find the small independents.

Most pubs seem to do brake brother shit. Used to run pubs and they all got it in and it's horrible, cheap, frozen crap. On holiday last week and didn't get one decent meal, the food we had at home was better. But places were busy and ppl seemed to like it. The friends we were with did but DH and I were not impressed at all. YANBU.

Must be where you live OP - I'm in London so spoiled rotten for good food that can be cheap or expensive depending on your budget - just been on holiday in Kent (Margate area) and the food was excellent there too - lovely pub grub reasonably priced - maybe you should open a restaurant??

Go to Ireland quite a lot but get fed by family so can't comment on their restaurants!

I quite like the Indian I was taken to in Birmingham too. But it's not East Midlands.

Also I thought the Indians around our way was good. But the Indian girls I worked with told me they were all shite. They wouldn't go to any of them I think I just have a crap palate for Indian food.

OneLittle - I think what sandiacre is talking about is the same thing I mentioned upthread - there was (and apparently is) a restaurant called Mr Mann's, which did these puddings that were ice creams inside the fruit in question (lemon ice cream in a lemon, coconut ice cream in a coconut). You used to be able to get the same in loads of Chinese restaurants all over the place ... they were the classic 'fuck, what can we serve these weirdos who want something sweet after their dinner?!' pudding.

When I was little I thought they were incredibly exotic and cool.

But, when I was little I was living in the East Mids in the early 90s, and we have established that wasn't shit hot .

LRD ah. I'm trying to imagine lemon icecream in a lemon now. Is it a whole lemon? Or just lemon halves, with the flesh scooped out and icecream in?

Tbh it's the same with starters. The meals are organised in a different way that it's not natural to order one dish per person or have 3 courses. What is it with the prawn crackers too.

And wouldn't the lemon be really sour?

Do they recycle that coconut? They are quite expensive in the uk isn't it? I can't image how they get an endless supply of coconut shells to serve icecream in.

Maybe I'm overthinking it!

Lemon halves, scooped out. It was the height of sophistication, but always a bit smaller than you expected.

This restaurant (I googled for a picture) still does them: www.jiajiaathlone.com/jia%20jia%20restaurant%20desserts.html

As for the frozen food. We used to joke about a pub near my work have chef number 1 and chef number 2 etc. And them being the microwaves. It is the worst pub I have ever been. But it's close to work.