Christmas Dinner in London
 

My family of 2 adults and 2 children, aged 7 and 11, are travelling from Australia to England in December. We wanted to make the Christmas celebration a special time for all of us but I am finding it very difficult to come up with some suitable venue for Christmas Dinner. We don't want to do anything really 'up market' because of the children. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

First of all - are you staying in a full service hotel? If so they probably will be serving Christmas Lunch (the main meal on Christmas is often lunch, not dinner).<BR><BR>Some restaurants close for up to 2 weeks over Xmas/New years, but all of the major hotels will be serving. The restaurants that are open on Christmas often book up weeks or months ahead. They start advertising their christmas menus in Sept or Oct.<BR><BR>The boats that do lunch and dinner cruises do Christmas meals - but they will be fairly expensive - &pound;65 to &pound;75 pp minimum.<BR><BR>I haven't eaten out in London on Christmas for years so can't give you a specific recommendation. And when I did it was usually in an up-market place geared to adults. Just try your hotel first - then maybe Ben Haines or one of the other Londoners on here will have some suggestions for you.

I am sorry: I have no suggestions beyond the good ones that Janis has made.<BR><BR>Ben Haines

Michele, see the little "text search" box at the top of your screen? Type in "Christmas and London." (without the quotation marks) Then go over to the subject search box just to the right and scroll down to, and highlight, "United Kingdom." Press "find" and many messages from the archives addressing this should appear.

Try "Christmas Dinner and London" in the Text Search box. Eight messages come up.

If you are staying in a major hotel it will have dining available, if not it becomes more of a challenge. There are the places to eat that cost a fortune (the up market types) and even many of them won't be open on Christmas Day and there are the inexpensive places .. a few of which are open. We were in London once over the Christmas holiday and I did notice that some Angus (or Aberdeen) Steakhouses were open. Now they may not be what you had in mind but they are a chain that caters to tourists (and some locals I guess too) and are all over London.

Many, many thanks for your ideas. We are staying at the Dolphin Square Hotel in one of their apartments which, I am sure, would have a kitchen. I have seen some information about getting a Christmas meal from Harrods and then reheating it the next day. Has anyone done this or anything like it? I was also wondering about pubs, etc.

a tangential question:<BR><BR>I live in western USA and we call the three daily meals <BR>- breakfast<BR>- lunch<BR>- dinner<BR><BR>but, where I grew up in the eastern USA<BR>- breakfast<BR>- dinner<BR>- supper<BR><BR>What's the general way of stating in <BR>- London?<BR>- England regions?<BR>- UK as a rule?

Oh - Dolphin Sq is wonderful. If you don't mind having dinner in, you can go to Harrods, Harvey Nics or even any of the major supermarkets, Marks and Spencer, etc. and get either the raw ingrediants or prepared dishes. I'd wait to see how roomy the kitchen is - Dolphin Square has both full kitchens and kitchenettes. If you want to cook go for it - otherwise bring in prepared things. But don't wait until Christmas Eve afternoon - by then many places will be closed. <BR><BR>If you go the prepared foopds route, stop by Harrods/Harvey Nics/supermarket ahead of time to place your order - I don't know what day you arrive but get to the store as soon as possible.<BR><BR>Also pick up candles, Christmas crackers and a plum pudding - you will be celebrating like native Londoners.

Jason<BR><BR>It depends more on social background than region.<BR><BR>Breakfast<BR>Elevenses (mid morning snack)<BR>Lunch (lunchtime obviously)<BR>Tea (4ish)<BR>Dinner (Main evening meal)<BR>Supper (late after going to theatre etc)<BR><BR>Dinner and supper can be interchangeable, and some people refer to dinner as tea. At school,lunch is almost universally referred to as dinner...<BR><BR>Brunch is a late breakfast/early lunch, but not the same as elevenses.<BR><BR>All clear?

Britain at Christmas is best avoided. Everything is closed - even the London underground and buses don't run on Christmas Day. Go to France or any other European country and you'll have a wide choice of restaurants - often with special menus for Christmas lunch - while hotels and public transport are open as normal.