rolfene

My husband and I will be staying at 45 Park Lane in London next month for just a few days. I was wondering if anyone could recommend a good restaurant near our hotel. It surely doesn't need to be 5-star! We just like great ambience and a chance to sample great London food. Thanks!

nytraveler

You're in the middle of a huge city - why be limited the the couple of clocks near your hotel?

Also, it would help to know what cuisines you like and dislike (great London food can be any one of many types) and what your budget is.

Waynedean

Hard Rock Cafe or Trader Vic's or Lobster and Burgers. All very close.

Waynedean

Oops, do you mean british cuisine? Hard Rock is consistently good and ask for Nora. You'll love her. As far as British cuisine I guess someone else needs to comment.

sofarsogood

The best restaurant near your accommodation is www.alainducasse-dorchester.com

rolfene

Thanks for the recommendations. To respond to nytraveler great point! We just thought it would be nice to walk wherever we're going. But if you know a restaurant that requires a cab, we are surely open to hearing your ideas. We have gotten a lot of great ideas from people on fodors.com so love hearing everyone's input

nytraveler

Well you've been given the names of a number of places and while they're all London food - as in food made in London - I'm not sure any are traditional British food.

Hard Rock is a burger chain with mediocre food and they make a lot of their profit selling t shirts. Trader Vics is an aged pan asian place - although I haven;t been so don;t know if the food is any good. Ducassse is good - but again, not British.

For traditional British food try Rules if you can get a reservation. It;'s the oldest restaurant in London and has been serving traditional British food for more than 200 years.

Smeagol

Not far from there is San Lorenzo, great Italian. If you liike Chinese. Good Earth is just along the Brompton Road.
friend of mine ate a Alain Ducasse a few weeks ago, said it was terrible.........
Why anyone would go to Hard rock when you have the whole of London on offer is beyond me.

A VERY traditional Britsh restaurant is Heston Blumenthal in the Mandarin Oriental, which is not very far at all.

I like Langans, which is a cab ride away ( or a nice stroll on a summers lunctime/ evening) they do some great lunch offers too.

Avalon2

Wolesley is very good ,Our favorite for almost 40 years at 2 trips to London each of those years is La FAamiglia at World's End .J sheekey is great for sea food.

flanneruk

Hard Rock was invented in London, and is far more typical of what Britons eat than any other suggestions round here.

Is San Lorenzo really still going? I honestly thought it'd died of old age. Like most suggestions so far, it's miles away from Park Lane - and there are hundreds of proper restaurants a great deal nearer.

There are no decent neighbourhood restaurants within a kilometre of Park Lane: you can eat in some poncified hotel restaurant (which breed along Park Lane like rabbits). Or walk or get a cab to a proper place further away.

Anyone who tells you they've been eating at the same London restaurant three miles away for 40 years is, by definition, uninterested in food. No doubt institutions keep looking interesting that long in South Dakota. London's a real city.

Anyone who calls Blumenthal "traditional" can't understand English, though if you want a mostly brilliant English chef playing games with old English cook books (hence, self-evidently, serving food no-one ever ate, but fascinating nonetheless) Heston's as good a place to eat as anywhere if you can afford his prices.

The simple answer to the question, though, is to go to the Hardens or Time Out sites for informed advice on London's restaurants.

What you're getting here (apart from Blumenthal) is a list of places that at some time in the last 50 years (San Lorenzo is currently celebrating its 50th, so presumably someone's still eating there. Though whether they're still alive is moot) had 15 mins of celebrity.

No doubt they still appeal to elderly foreign tourists who remember a magical moment of their youth. But if you want a decent meal, there are hundreds of better alternatives within a 15 min walk.

travelgourmet

Kai Mayfair is quite nice. Certainly not a neighborhood restaurant and not at all British, but I thought it excellent. Maze on Grosvenor Square was also excellent when we were last there (the branch in NYC, however, is another story)...

Though they have become a victim of their success and the service can be rushed, the food at Arbutus is quite nice and hits the "British" mark. Maybe a later seating might calm the service down.

For something approximating comfort food, we liked Tom's Kitchen in Chelsea.

Others in no particular order - Yauatcha, L'Autre Pied, Leong's Legend...

You might want to give St John (St John Soho will be much easier to get to) a try if you really want to sample something particularly British. I was supremely disappointed when I went for dinner, but I might have simply ordered wrong, as everyone else in the party looked at me like I was crazy. The rarebit was pretty awesome, though. And I did have an excellent breakfast at St John Soho.

The best meals I had in London though would be between Texture and L'Atelier du Joel Robuchon. I have not been to 28-50, but I would definitely give it a look, based upon the excellent meal I had at Texture (the chef is involved with 28-50).

Bette

Hi rolfene,

Try La Genova near the American Embassy. We eat here on every trip to London (sometimes more than once). It is our favorite restaurant in London. Book ahead.

http://www.lagenovarestaurant.com/

Tulips

San Lorenzo was already terrible when the late Princess Diana used to frequent it. La Famiglia is a pleasant family restaurant, but miles from Park Lane, and really not worth the trip.

The Wolseley is great, and it's walking distance (book now). It's a beautiful restaurant, and prices are fairly reasonable.
There's a beautiful indian restaurant in Knightsbridge; Amaya.
You're also not far from Shepherd Market; there's a lebanese restaurant Al Hamra, that used to be good (though we have not been for years). There are a few restaurants in Shepherd Market, some with outside tables.
Enjoy!

OReilly

I like this simple restaurant in Shephard Market:

http://www.thelittlesquare.co.uk/

Up toward Grosveror Street, this restaurant has the best gourmet pizza I have ever tasted:

http://www.rocketrestaurants.co.uk/

OReilly

I've been to Amaya (several years ago) and it was lovely, but have no recent experience.

If you like Indian food, at the high end of the market, London has two of the very best restauants, located in Mayfair:

Benares, Berkley Square - innovative (check out toptable to find special offers, or 'two for one'). You will not be disapointed! :
http://www.benaresrestaurant.com/

Tamarind (more traditional):
http://www.tamarindrestaurant.com/

But, I equally like the much cheaper Cinnamon restauarants (Indian-Western Fusion):

The posh Club in Westminster:
http://www.cinnamonclub.com/

The experimental Kitchen at Liverpool Street (my favorite):
http://www.cinnamon-kitchen.com/
If you dine at 630-730, you can get two courses for ~ £20, and they have a very respectable wine list, and service is excellent. Book through Toptable.co.uk.

I found the one in Soho a bit ordinary, but it had just opened.


Regards Ger

welltraveledbrit

If you want to try a get two star Michelin place for a reasonable price try the set lunch at Hibiscus in Mayfair which we loved.
Not as close by but not far, is L'Autre Pied which someone else mentioned. I've got pictures and a review on my blog (along with the link for Hibiscus). Again we've been there for lunch and always enjoy it.

http://somuchmoretosee.blogspot.fr/2...in-london.html

Travel gourmet mentions Arbustus which I'd also recommend as a good food/good value option though I don't think of it as particularly British, it also happens to be covered in the blog post above on Michelin Bargains in London.

Have fun and eat well!

tuscanlifeedit

Here's what I wrote in a brief London report recently. You can click on my screen name to find the rest if interested.

Places we ate: Medlar (fabulous); the Harwood Arms (fabulous food, service a bit short on what the prices would have one expect); lunch at Pierre Koffman (a very very good Deal for such nice food and service); Bistrot Bruno Loubet (great food; too glamorous and buzzy but still fun); the Wolseley (where I saw RUFUS SEWELL, and I'm a big fan) and two delicious meals at downmarket favorites, Tayyabs for Indian and Masters Super Fish for fish and chips. We had reservations for Zucca on Saturday night, but had already eaten way too much, so stayed in, watched television, and had sandwiches. Through the week we had many many treats from Paul, Borough Market, and Fortnum and Mason's, which we were having a hard time staying out of.

I left off Medla and Harwood Arms which were both great. Harwood Arms had the single best dish of the trip, a lamb plate, and also as widely reported, fabulous soup and bread.