London -- The Cotswolds -- Paris
May 15-29, 2005
Restaurant choices:
Breakfast was not included with the room and the hotel's buffet breakfast was unbelievably expensive, so most mornings we stopped at the Pret a Manger down the street. We seemed to always be heading somewhere and skipped meals or grabbed "something" to keep us going.
Our favorite restaurant was Hason Raja, a recommnendation from the hotel's concierge. We like it so much we ate there twice. The garlic naan, "leavened bread with garlic baked in a Tandoor," was delicious. The Murg Tikka Massala was amazing. Their description: "cubes of succulent chicken cooked in a rich cream and tomato sauce; enriched with honey and butter." With ingredients like that, how could they go wrong! The dollar was weak while we were touring with a pound costing about $1.82. Dinner here was about 35 GBP for the two of us, about $64. Hason Raja is located at 84 Southampton Row, Russell Square. www.hasonraja.co.uk
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Le Cafe du Jardin, 28 Wellington Street, Covent Garden. Popular restaurant for the theater crowd. Dinner was fine, although not really memorable.
I had a solo lunch one day at Ayoush, 58 James Street. It was on my list to have couscous at least once on this trip. The best couscous I ever had was from a tiny restaurant in Antibes. Unfortunately, Ayoush's couscous did not live up to my expectations. The atmosphere was pleasant enough, and I was grateful that they saved belly dancing for the evening.
After touring Windsor Castle we stopped for tea at The Crooked House of Windsor, 51 High Street, www.crooked-house.com. The building dates back to 1687, and is indeed crooked. We sat upstairs in a tiny room and enjoyed our only afternoon tea of the trip. I'm sure the Lanesborough has nothing to worry about. We each ordered "The Earl of Sandwich," that included asparagus sandwiches, salmon and cucumber sandwiches, scones, clotted cream and preserves, and the house tea. I hope to never again have an asparagus sandwich. Back in 1992 when I visited London with another friend, we saw Spotted Dick on numerous menus. We snickered each time but did not venture to order one. So, I was determined to try it on this trip. This was the only time I saw it on a menu, and it turned out to be quite tasty -- sort of a warm carrot cake with a sauce. What really struck us as odd was that when questioned, two of the servers did not know what the dessert (or as they call it, pudding) was. It must be something they put on the menu for us tourists.
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Spotted Dick
The Earl of Sandwich
Belgo Centraal in Covent Garden was recommended on www.fodors.com/forums, a travel bulletin board, and also in my guidebook. They offer a mid-week special where you pay based on the time your order. I didn't realize the offer was only from 5:00 pm to 6:30 pm. -- we ordered at 6:45 pm. I had mussels in a Thai curry sauce with rice and a side of rye bread. Marian ordered chicken with chili in a spicy sweet/sour sauce and a beer. The total came to 28 GBP. Overall, the food was good and reasonably priced.
Someone on Fodor's recommended New World in Chinatown, so I thought I would give it a try. This was a solo dinner as Marian took a full-day tour to Bath with London Walks. Having skipped lunch I made up for it here with wonton soup, shrimp har gow, and Singapore noodles. The total cost for this banquet was 13 GBP, and I thought they did a decent job.
We walked through Chinatown the next evening and chose the restaurant that had the most people in it: The Crispy Duck. Another good sign was that there were Asian people eating there. Critique: the dumplings were good, the broccoli in oyster sauce was too salty, and the egg rolls were inedible.
