London is hot, hot, hot these days. Full of exciting new eateries, pulsating bars and great cafes.
But if you are like me, you didn’t travel all the way to the British capital to eat French food, drink Australian lager or sip espresso in a New York-style coffeehouse.
If you are looking for a few spots that conjure visions of Merry Olde England, they are still around.
But be prepared. Most are overrun with tourists seeking the same experience. But if you concentrate on the place rather than your fellow travelers, the best of the lot are still outstanding evenings out.
Here are my favorite spots to take friends on their first visit to London. All are places to eat or drink that are drenched in tradition.
There may be better restaurants and trendier bars. But when you are finished with an evening in one of these places, you’ll know you weren’t in Paris, Rome, Tokyo, Rio or Los Angeles.
Rules is London’s oldest restaurant, opening its doors in 1798. Just a short walk from Covent Garden, it’s the place to go — especially in the fall for game dishes including partridge, rabbit, deer and pheasant.
There’s also a good selection of fish, and a vegetarian friend found the pasta and potatoes to her liking.
The room is a collection of knickknacks and paintings collected over 300 years. Yes, the place is touristy. No, the food isn’t cutting-edge. But it’s every American’s fantasy of what an English restaurant should be — liveried waiters, roaring fireplace, real ale served in a pewter mug.
I just wish they would get rid of the laminated menus and the electronic notepads used by waiters — they are jarring 20th Century incongruities in a room right out of the 18th Century.
Simpsons-in-the-Strand is my other time machine back to Britain’s empire-dining past. Beef served from a silver trolley in a wood-paneled room with a 19th Century painting of “Four and Twenty Blackbirds” on the far wall. Great duck and lamb too. The top-off is a glass of port and a Havana cigar. You feel ready to colonize the Southern Hemisphere.
Simpsons recently added breakfast to its repertoire, and it’s a hit. If you don’t mind a cholesterol surge, try the Ten Deadly Sins — a collection of fried eggs, bacon, sausage, calf’s liver, calf’s kidneys and a number of other non-nouvelle cuisine items.
Nothing is as British as a pub and even if you are in London for only a few hours, it’s an experience to capture. There are 4,000 pubs in London, and everyone has a favorite.
If meat isn’t your thing, head to the Notting Hill area for a bit of working-class English life: a plate of fish and chips. In one of those quirks of life, the two best places to try deep-fried cod with french fries are within a 5-minute walk of each other.
Geales was for decades the undisputed king of the fish-and-chips scene. Its cozy downstairs room, menu on a blackboard and nice selection of beers make it a perfect stop.
Orders come in large or small — the small being big enough for even a big American eater.
Lately though, a lot of fish-and-chips fans have been heading over to Costas Fish Restaurant, owned by a Greek immigrant family. The kitchen is in the front, tables in the back. The fish is outstanding, and there are more alternatives than at Geales — such as the excellent calamari.
After a meal, it’s time for an ale at a pub. Real ale — bitters, served cooled but not cold. And a real pub — not some fern bar or disco-blaring tavern.
The Citte of York is the biggest pub with the longest bar in the city. But it’s no barn. Everywhere are dozens of little dark wood-paneled niches called “cozies” for one-on-one conversations.
Most of the newspapers have fled Fleet Street, but you can still get the feel of the “street of ink” at Ye Olde Cock Tavern.
Charles Dickens, Alfred Tennyson and Samuel Pepys drank at this Victorian gem. Stop in if you find yourself near St. Paul’s Cathedral.
Even Americans who never have visited London before can revel in a bit of childhood nostalgia at the Eagle. It was immortalized in a verse of the nursery rhyme “Pop Goes the Weasel ” — “Up and down the City Road/In and out of the Eagle …”
Karl Marx used to hang out in a corner of the Museum Tavern, a surprisingly small place just across the street from the British Museum.
The pub has one of the best “pub grub” lunches of such traditional favorites as bangers and mash (sausage and potatoes) and shepherd’s pie.
Even if you have to fly off the next morning, a stop at a few of these institutions will leave you with memories of a wonderful night in Olde London.
WHERE TO FIND THE EATS
Restaurants
– Rules, 35 Maiden Lane. Dinner for two, $100. Excellent-value lunches and fixed-price menus on weekends. Tube stop: Covent Garden.
– Simpsons-in-the-Strand, 100 The Strand. Dinner for two, $120. Less expensive lunches. Set-price breakfast for $15. Tube stop: Aldwych.
– Geales, 2 Farmer St. Lunch for two, $25. Tube stop: Notting Hill.
– Costas Fish Restaurant, 18 Hillgate St. Lunch for two, $20. Tube stop: Notting Hill.
Pubs
– Citte of York, 22-23 High Holborn. Tube stop: Chancery Lane.
– Ye Olde Cock Tavern, 22 Fleet St. Tube stop: St. Paul’s.
– Eagle, 2 Shepherdess Walk. Tube stop: Covent Garden.
– Museum Tavern, 49 Great Russell St. Tube stop: Russell Square.
