London Travels: Highlights of Where We Ate During Our Time in London During Christmas

After every trip, we always share a list of the places we ate. This time around, the list is rather large because were in the UK for so long (33 days). So, this is not an exhaustive list of every single place we ate, but rather a list of the highlights. We don’t need to share every time we ate fast food or had a horrible meal.

But we’ll share the meals we loved and the meals that were the worst so you can avoid the places.

This article will be divided into three parts: the London section appearing on Londontopia and then the Dorset and the Cotswolds sections will appear over on Anglotopia.

Strada – Earl’s Court

Strada is a well known chain of Italian restaurants. We find the food quite tasty and we were lucky to have one in the neighborhood we were staying in (South Kensington). We only ate there once. It was a quiet night and we were pretty much the only people in there. Dinner was delicious. But when it was over we felt like we’d been mugged. It was something like £60 for a dinner for two adults, one toddler and a baby that has a free food source (that being Mrs. Anglotopia). Still, at least it was good and it was quiet.

Clos Maggiore – Covent Garden

This was the special place that we chose to celebrate Mrs Anglotopia’s 30th birthday. We booked it months in advance (thanks to the help of our friends). It’s the kind of place you need to book in advance. Located in Covent Garden, it’s a very ‘fancy’ restaurant. The food was very good, the company even better and they managed to make Mrs Anglotopia’s birthday a special event. The evening started with drinks at the Champange Bar in St Pancras (one of our favorite places to just visit) and ended with a cup of tea in our flat. It was a perfect night out. It’s a very romantic setting – so it’s a great place for a date. The cuisine is French.

Barbecoa – City of London

While we were London, we had two ‘date nights’ where we’d arranged a baby sitter. The aforementioned birthday dinner and the next night. We had tickets to see the new Jeeves & Wooster play with Stephen Mangan and Matthew Macfayden (the play was phenomenal). For our pre-show dinner, we chose Barbecoa in the City of London. Barbecoa is a new steakhouse restaurant from Jamie Oliver. It’s also probably the most picturesque restaurant we’ve ever eaten – see the view from our table above. The steak was pretty fantastic. The service was good and they were efficient enough that we made our curtain call with plenty of time (despite the awful central London traffic).

The Patisserie – Earl’s Court

This place is not famous or run by a celebrity chef, but it’s a place that’s special for us. Located on Gloucester Road, right across from the Tube Station, The Patisserie is a great little breakfast place that we usually stop in on our first mornings in London. The breakfast is heartyy and delicious but my favorite thing is the fresh squeezed orange juice machine. Fantastic!

National Maritime Museum Cafe – Greenwich

Cafes located in museums are usually hit or miss but when we visited the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich on a Sunday, we were lucky that they were serving Sunday Roast. It was probably the most hearty and delicious meal we had. It wasn’t too overpriced and fueled us up for hours of exploring in Greenwich.

Zizzi – Southbank

Zizzi is another Italian restaurant chain (the British love Italian food). We ate here for a business lunch at the Bankside location. It had great views of the Thames. Our company was lovely and we had a lovely meal. The only thing we didn’t like about this restaurant is that it’s in a weird location on the Southbank that has no lift access so it was quite a challenge to get both the strollers down to the restaurant.

Byron Burger – Westfield Shepherd’s Bush

I love a good hamburger and I’d heard this place was good. They must be – there’s locations all over London and beyond. We had lunch at the location in the Westfield in Shepherd’s Bush. The food was pretty good, though it was so busy the service wasn’t particularly great. We’d eat there again.

Five Guys – Covent Garden

We love a good lunch from Five Guys, so while were out shopping in Covent Garden we were excited to discover the location of the new (and only) London Five Guys. Now, as much as I love a burger, usually there is something a bit off about the burgers in Britain, the meat just tastes different, which makes the whole package taste different. It’s not bad by any means, just pallete wise much different than the usual burger at home. I’m happy to report that the burgers at Five Guys taste exactly the same as they do back home – as do the fries. Though it will cost you twice as much.

Wagamama – Eart’s Court, Southampton, Heathrow

This is a noodle restaurant chain. I’m not a fan of asian style food but Mrs Anglotopia is and she loved her first taste so much that she ate here a three further times on our trip.

The Winter Wonderfest – Hyde Park

If you’re hungry at the Hyde Park Winter Wonderfest, you have ample food options. It’s more of a street food/carnival variety but there is tons of tasty food around and we had a nice walking lunch.

What are some of your favorite places to eat in London? Please share in the comments!