🇬🇧 London II – Eating Out & Pubs

Eating Out!!!

On the topic of eating even though we self catered breakfast and dinner it was really hard to keep our calorie intake down as there was so many beautiful places to eat out here in London.

Peyton and Byrne is directly across from the hospital. We were lucky to stumble upon it when I had a specialist appointment and needed a coffee. We would describe it as a true gem full of a treasure trove of wholesome homemade foods. In the morning they offer fresh fruit salad and yogurt dishes and then at lunch there are a selection of beautiful salads. All day there are a selection of pastries and carefully crafted cakes and scones. They even bake their own breads. Above the door was a sign reading since 1868 which means that this place has been in business for 150 years.

London has so many great healthy burger places to eat at. We tried our old favourite Gourmet Burger Kitchen (GBK), which has my favourite Hollows Ginger Beer and tasty satay chicken and chilli spicy chicken burgers.

Patty and Bun and Coqfighter at The Prince was a trendy popular spot on Saturday night. It has 4 different restaurant eateries, 3 bars all enclosed in an indoor summer English garden. It was like rubbing shoulders with the young rich and famous from the TV show, Made in Chelsea. This made us feel really, really old as we were the oldest people in the pub garden on a Saturday night.

One gorgeous young beauty walked in and started pointing and shouting out in shook as she spotted a table with a 30th Birthday balloon- she screamed in her young British voice – Oh look, she turning 30!!!! In a way that seemed absurd to think someone here would be turning the big 30!!! I was thinking please don’t look at me as you might faint as I am turning 50 soon. The burgers here were great, butter milk chicken and a wonderful vegetarian mushroom.

Another reason we love London is there is a pub on every corner which made for a great spot to have a beer in the heat. The news said that Germany was running out of beer due to the heatwave. Germans drink beer like water and Rob and I are starting to follow in their footsteps as there are so many beautiful pubs to try out. We tried a pub lunch at Greene King in Chelsea, which was a scrumptious wild mushroom pie with creamy British beer. Rob loves the idea of a pub lunch I am sure he wants the heatwave to continue.

Whilst in Chelsea Rob also took me past, The Blue Bird Restaurant which is used regularly for filming Made in Chelsea which is one of our favourite chill out British reality tv shows. The next day I read in the Saturday paper that The Blue Bird is highly recommendable on Private School dating sites as the venue to go on a first date if you want to make a good impression. Well Rob is up with the times!!!!

We did pop into a few other great pubs to quench our thirst on a pint of British ale.

The Prince Albert since 1866 in Battersea.

The Counting House in the city of London in Monument. This elegantly stunning pub used to be a bank and still has the bank vaults in place on the lower floor. What a treasure this pub was!!!

And a pub in Covent Garden called the Round House.

When we were at West End we had to try Tibits Vegetarian Restaurant as it has been modelled off our favourite Hiltl’s Vegetarian Restaurant in Zurich. Tibits was crowded so we did takeaway from the buffet and ate in a nearby park. It was a nice classy looking restaurant but the buffet variety was nowhere near as good as Hiltl’s which had an enormous Indian vegetarian selection. The prices are not cheap and you pay by weight so you really want something special. Britain already does a great job with take away healthy lunches that you can quickly pick up in many places.

We were lucky to find a square inch to sit as the whole British work force was taking lunch in the sun. Finally a squirrel moved and we nabbed his spot. We sat in Golden Square eating our expensive salad buffet with sunflowers hanging over our shoulders.

Earl’s Square Market on a Sunday just across the road from our house was a favourite place for great fresh organic produce and homemade quiches. We loved this cute tiny neighbourhood market held in the school grounds. We brought homemade mushroom quiche and spinach and cheese flans which were so delicious.

We stocked up on seasonal grown produce including beautiful tomatoes, lettuce mix, tiny potatoes, chives and baby zucchinis. For a treat we brought elderflower cheese and olive focaccia. The quaint community feel in inner London was just magical on a rainy Sunday morning.

Another favourite place for a great meal and also fresh produce and condiments was Borough Market as it is laden with great vegetarian options and Indian meals. We had to sample British fish and chips from the Fish Kitchen which was great.

St. Katherine Dock was just a hidden gem away from the tourist crowds. It is such a pretty area and it has so many great restaurants. We wondered if only the locals know about St. Katherine Dock as it so tranquil compared to the rest of London’s hustle and bustle. The hero of this area was different the Dicken’s Inn and the draw bridge.

Spitalfields Market is also great for food and shopping for hand made items though they can be pricey. We had also been to Spitalfield Market a few years ago and it looked as if had had a face lift and more restaurants added???

Box Park in Shoreditch was another area we explored. It has a real hipster feel. Shipping containers are used to create a modern vibe. Box Park fuses together modern street food and a bar on the top floor. Fashion and art are housed on the lower level. We enjoyed a beer here after seeing some of London’s iconic sights.

During our second week we found a great shop to do our shopping called Whole Foods Market in Fulham which we found exceptionally good for veggies, quality free range meat, fresh fish, vegetarian healthy options and it had a great selection of beer, wine and healthy skin care products.