Is there an equivalent to the U.S. Chowhound site for London? Looking for a board/site/forum about restaurants and food but one not subsidized by advertising.

Chowhound.com's International board is heavily used by Londoners. Most of them are very knowledgable and have the same high falutin' tastes as the regular users who post about New York. They eat at the best places, and when they eat cheap, it is really off the beaten tourist path.

My husband and I had the worst meal ever by following Chowhound advice in London. We splurged for a Shanghai banquet that was so strange, that we still laugh about it years later. We ate parts of animals that I would rather never think about, let alone eat. But they loved this place on Chowhound.

I think I am a very sophisticated foodie, but those London Chowhounders make me seem like an amateur. I can't afford what they eat, and my tastes sure aren't sophisticated enough for chicken's entrails and pig's snouts.

It is worth checking out though, because there are loads of London posts. Try the Ctrl + F option to search the International board at Chowhound for London. Again, loads of posts.

This is my opinion of that board, of course, and others may totally disagree with my evaluation.

You might also want to take a look at the eGullet forums:

http://forums.egullet.org/

Here's one I use a lot:

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

Readers are invited to submit reviews and there are a lot of them for some restaurants. I don't think I've ever seen a restaurant there with all good or all bad reviews -- you really have to read between the lines to get a good idea if you might like it or not.

One of the things I like best about the site is the search function. You can enter name of a restaurant, or better yet type of cuisine, area of London, or even click a tube station and get lots of restaurants near it.

Try the England section of eGullet.com.

I know this isn't quite what you asked for, but you may be interested in Hardens restaurant guide. It is superb and it's never let me down - I've used it to search out restaurants all over England. You can access it for free via www.waitrose.com and then search for Hardens. It gives you the London restaurant guide, and the rest of the UK guide as well.
You can search by cuisine, area etc.
M

Thanks for the replies. Will check out the sites suggested.

I agree that Chowhound has too many high falutins with large expense accounts, but I can generally also always count on some of the Chowhounds to give me the little gems that are either downright cheap or little known, at least in New York. (The Rome advice, though, left a bit to be desired.) That is the info I need for an upcoming trip, since the dollar to pound exchange is so bad. I agree that so many of the recommended London Chowhound inexpensive places tend to be in neighborhoods I may not be in, given that we only have a week to spend this time in London and will be staying in WC1 (other times we were in Kilburn and Hampstead). I'm not gonna feel like traipsing to the far reaches of Zone 2 just to try a hole in the wall, no matter how good. I guess closer to my trip I'll post specifically on Chowhound for cheap suggestions in certain neighborhoods.

Morgana, I have a question about Hardens Guide - is it like Zagats, where any Joe Blow can give his opinion, regardles of whether he's even eaten at the restaurant or not?

Hi
Well, yes I suppose Hardens IS a little how you describe it! Have a look at www.hardens.com for more background info. However..........I read somewhere that each entry has to have hundreds of positive comments to be there, and it is also a very well respected guide to eating out, which let's face it, can be somewhat hit and miss. I travel (and eat out) all over England, especially the north, and have used the guide extensively and trust it completely - it's never let me down.
I'll give you an example - on Sunday I was staying in the North Yorks Moors and in the evening went to a small (and somewhat touristy but very pretty) village that had 3 attractive pubs all serving food. Two of the pubs had plenty of space in their dining areas, in fact they were almost empty. The third was heaving with people - and that's the one that I had made a reservation with! Simply because I had spotted in in the Food Guide, as had others obviously! It was wonderful - I had meltingly gorgeous steak and kidney under a light suet crust, with creamy mash and minted peas........all for just over a fiver.
The Hardens books themselves give more details than the website, but the website is free to access of course.
Hope this helps and good luck.
M