Here are a couple additional fish & chips choices:
North Sea Fish Company on Leigh St. 3 or 4 blocks north of the British Museum. A small, cozy neighborhood place that also has take away service. Good fresh fish too and a reasonable and surprisingly decent wine list.

Cafe 7 - the restaurant on the top floor of the Tate Modern. Spectacular views of London, creative menu choices and also good value wine list.

In spite of all the negative comments about Harrod's - it's worth going through, if only for the food hall. However, this would be far down the list of places to see if you only have "6 hours in London."

JoeG

JoeG

With the exception of the dreadful egyptian room and escalators, I would agree Harrods is well worth a visit, in particular as previously mentioned the food hall is excellent. I also like the the Hi, TV and Video shop - seriously Hi Tech.

The loos are now free!

frankly with only 6 hours I don't think I'd be wasting it looking for fish n chips either!

do you have a full 6 hours, or 6 hours including getting back to LHR or LGW?

Randall & Aubin on Brewer Street in Soho http://www.squaremeal.co.uk/restaura...?Rest_ID=81098

Every time I go I tell myself to have something else but the fish & chips are just too good here!

Other than that, as previously mentioned, the Sea Shell on Lisson Grove is generally regarded as having the best fish & chips in London.

http://www.squaremeal.co.uk/restaura...?Rest_ID=81189

Enjoy!

Harrods is not a 'must see' if you have only 6 hours; lots of other things to see. But it's not true that it is just for tourists. Locals do shop there. They couldn't survive on tourists buying Harrods mugs and teddy bears. Thought the Egyptian hall is definitely over the top, not to mention the 'memorial' Fayed has done a great job upgrading nearly all departments.
And the 1 pound fee has indeed been scrapped (and there always were 'less luxurious' toilets for free; the ones on the fourth floor, in Way Inn, are particularly nice by the way, all original tiles and carved wood).
If you do not have a lot of time in London, the food halls are not a bad place for lunch; don't know about fish and chips, but there's a good oyster bar!

If you're going to be one of these tourists who simple walk around cooing and ooing "oh look at that, have you seen the price?", then please don't bother going to Harrods.

Harrods is a superb store which has fantastic selections from the collections of virtually every major and not so major designer. Please disassociate it with a place for tourists.

That said, if you want to do some serious shopping, the by all means please do see Harrods.

I imagine that Fish & Chips are not the culinary experience that many foreigners might expect. I sampled F&C from a few different pubs while in London last week and was not impressed. This food is the same quality as a Friendly's or Bob Evans' restaurant platter..

Optimistic

Whilst F&C are not the height of haute cuisine - but cooked fresh in crisp batter with plenty of salt and vinegar it can be great - but never from a pub - the only way is from a proper fish and chip shop out of the paper.

A great place is Masterfish on Waterloo Road further down the road behind the Old Vic theatre ? always packed with London Cab drivers which is a sure sign of a decent F&C shop ? they do a take away service as well as table service!

Optimistic: With respect, the average pub food (so called 'gastropubs' aside) serve rubbish food! You don't go to a pub for decent fish and chips!

It's not a sublime 'culinary experience', granted, but good fish and chips (with mushy peas!) can be just what you want every now and again - and it is traditional. When in Rome....

Back to Harrods, when we were there in 02, they were charging for using the toilets. However, if you had made a purchase, the loo was free. We had just picked up a few teaspoons, which got me in for free. I handed off to my husband, and he got in free as well. I don't know what floor we were on (near the china area) and the bathroom was quite nice, with a variety of lotions and scents on the counter.

All Harods Loos are now free!

<i>&quot;All Harods Loos are now free!&quot;</i>

When did that change?

The last time I had to make use of the facilities was at Christmas time (I never normally need to) and I never had to show my account card (which gained me free access). I thought that this was perhaps in conjunction with their Sunday opening, perhaps I was wrong?

It doesn't reallly matter really for those who patronise it regularly as we are all account holders, and if you're not you can go on the second floor. I hope they haven't dropped the charge, the guards standing inside were always highly amusing.

Th food hall is impressive to me. But there is gaudiness above.

The housewares department is interesting to look around. And at Christmas, they have a nice Christmas shop.