aaah rats. I thought that if I were a good farmer, doing my good farmer chores, a great piece of cheese, some bread, various pickled things that my "good wife" had set by, would have been as old as history in Britain (and, practically anywhere else in the world...except native americans, as yet, I haven't discovered that they made cheese yet...)

If you want try good British cheese, try either the cheese shop in Neal's Yard (you can smell from half a mile away, esp in summer). They also have a branch in Borough Market, which in itself has several cheese stalls (though some Italian/French) on Fri/Sat.

Thanks so much to all!

Rules Restaurant near Covent Garden

Maggie Jones is good; it's in Kensington.

Two London restaurant sites I use regularly:

http://www.london-eating.co.uk

and

http://www.squaremeal.co.uk

Both are useful in different ways. London-eating gives vox populi views, while SquareMeal is edited/summarised. The latter often gives a link to a restaurant's website, if they have one. I personally find that very useful as you can check sample menus. Both sites allow you to search specifically for British food; keep in mind that "modern British" and "traditional British" meals will be very different experiences.

Since a couple of restaurants recommended in this thread are in my neighbourhood (Clerkenwell/Smithfield/Farringdon), I'm going to stick my restaurant-review hat on and comment:

Smiths of Smithfield is made up of three different restaurants (each with seperate opening hours and menus). The casual cafe on the ground floor serves food in the daytime only (including breakfast and weekendd brunch), the less casual but not formal second floor dining room is lunch and dinner Monday-Saturday, and the top-floor houses the white tablecloth and prime cuts of meat flagship (open for dinner on Sunday nights). Check their website for menus: www.smithsofsmithfield.co.uk

I have to be honest and say that while I periodically visit SOS (especially the ground floor, with jet-lagged visitors in tow) I find the whole place to be style over substance. Food-wise it is mediocre (all floors) and the service is terrible. BUT the aesthetic appeal of the place (exposed brick, hip music) can't be denied. I walk by almost every day the ground floor is always packed.

The oft-heralded St John around the corner is probably the most authentic example you'll find of the (not so) new Brit-food-revival. Not for the culinarily squeamish. They also have a website: http://www.stjohnrestaurant.com/ I've never been to the all-day branch opposite Spitalfields, though I've stopped by and looked at the menu. You have to book well in advance for this one.

Speaking of Spitalfields, I've been to Canteen and I think it was OK. Not at all as good as Giles Coren made it out to be but perfectly good enough for a hungry tourist checking out what E1 has to offer. They seem to run out of things by dinner, so try to go during the day. Another website: http://www.canteen.co.uk/

I'm going to add two more suggestions to the restaurants list that no one has mentioned yet: Richard Corrigan at Lindsay House and The Quality Chop House.

Lindsay House sits in a Georgian townhouse on Romilly Street in Soho. The surrounds are not exactly ye olde (nor is the food) but as a restaurant it's not as stark and relentlessly modern as St John. Both the decor and cuisine are rich, textured, velvety. A meal at the Lindsay House is an (expensive) special treat. Like Rules, they do game in season. Website: http://www.lindsayhouse.co.uk/

Lastly, back in EC1, the Quality Chop House serves up a less formal but reasonably satisfying trad-Brit meal. The menu is mostly what Americans visiting London in search of British cuisine are looking for: fried haddock and chips, a daily meat pie, the full english breakfast, they might even serve eels, I forget. It's my local so I suppose I'm biased but I think the QCH is way way better than Canteen. I didn't always think so, a few years ago the food was heading downhill fast, but they seem to have done a turn-around in the kitchen about a year and a half ago.
Website: http://www.qualitychophouse.co.uk/index.htm

Be aware that gastropubs a) often require reservations, especially the popular ones and b) don't necessarily serve British food. In fact regular old pubs can be serving up Thai food, so make sure you check the board outside. Fancy-a-pint (http://www.fancyapint.com/) is another useful tool, though not as easy to navigate/search as the two restaurant sites I listed above.

Happy hunting (and eating)!

-mef