Food: London vs. Paris
 

Itenerary: 4 days in London, 6 in Paris, 1 in Bath, 2 in Loire.

We're not looking for resteraunts, just general guidance - already have a Zagat subscription (only 3.95/mo for ALL cities).

I've heard Paris is known for better food and prices. But I don't know if I should try to go to any better (expensive) restaurants in London. Teresa and I love all cuisines and trying new types. We also like "In" places, but the food comes first. Does London have any world class cuisine?? Which kind? Should we try English food? I heard Indian food is great in Londond... any other ideas??? How about Paris? We live near NYC with great food and decent prices and are afrid that spening money on better food in Eurpose could be a waste (especially given the exchange rate).

"Does London have any world class cuisine?? Which kind?"

Obviously you haven't heard of a Michelin guide.

m_kingdon

If that was your attampt to defend London cuisine, it flopped. I've heard too many poeple comment that Londond cuisine is poor. No offense. If it is not poor, tell me why please. I can admit that Los Angeles has horrible trffic and that New Yorkers can be rude, but I still love both cities for many other reasons. The focus here is food. And as for guides, Zagat is the best becasue it is based on actual consumer opinions, not some snobby critic or editor.

I can't be bothered to defend London cuisine, when some of the world's finest restaurants and chefs are in the capital. Every city has awful places, and fabulous places.

As for the credibility of the Michelin guide, it is one of the most respected publications by chefs and critics worldwide.

London food is NOT bad. - It just got a bad reputation 50yrs ago or more (because they were hit hard by the war) and for some strange reason they just can't shake it. People who haven't even been to London help spread the word that the food is bad around like it is gospel. (I just don't understand)

There are now MANY good restaurants in London and many "celebrity chefs" as well.

Just like every big city, not every place is going to be good, but that doesn't mean that good food is not to be found in London!

They talk about NYC being an "international melting pot". Let me tell you, NYC has nothing on London. You can find any cuisine in the world there! (I am partial to the Indian food. - London has a HUGE Asian population. Not just Indian, but Chinese too)

I was going to explain how English cuisine really evolved in the past few decades, but this article explains it much better than I can :)

http://www.washingtonian.com/dining/london.html

Good reply MK2! (I agree with you 100%) I was busy writing my post when you replied, so I didn't see what you wrote until I was finished.

My intention is not to quetion whether London has ANY great food? I' sure it does. If you're willing to spend enough, you can find great food in any major city. And from what I've seen, Londond has a good number of expensive places to eat. I'm really trying to undertstand if it's worth spending money on better places in London vs. Paris. I hope I've added some clarity.

i found the food in London to be just fine. London has some world class restaurants and a huge variety of foods. You can find just about anything at any price. I do not go to the very high-end places. I love good food but to spend a couple hundred bucks on a dinner just is not my thing..I'll tell ya one thing..if I DID spend that kind of money on a meal, that bowl would get a SALUTE the next morning!!!! Anyway, some of the pubs have wonderful food..great fish and chips, the Ploughman's lunch, meat pies etc. We had a couple of wonderful meals at indian and thai restaurants. The old thinking that London is nothing but boiled meat and potatoes is just not true. They even have FRENCH restaurants in London...fancy that now. You are also fortunate in europe that the menu is posted on the outside of the restaurants. You can look it over, see what they serve and how much it is and decide if you want to go in. That of course doesn't speak to the quality of the food. I have had some not wonderful meals in London and Paris but for pete's sake it's not like it will be your last meal. I don't understand what you're asking actually. You seem to be happy with Zagat and were offended when someone suggested the Micheline guide. So, use Zagat, and be happy with it. There are many other good guides available in the major book stores. I personally don't use any of them. I just wander around, when I'm hungry I see what restaurants are in the area, read the menus and pick one. Some have been wonderful, some quite average, and lucky for me, haven't really connected with a "horrible" yet. Why don't you go to Timeout? I haven't been on that site for awhile but when last there, there were a lot of restaurant reviews and articles about openings of various restaurants, the chef etc. Maybe that might be of some help to you.

I would definitely visit some upscale places in London ... but you should do both. For instance, if you want to go to 5 "expensive" places, you could do 2 in London and 3 in Paris.

Not EVERY place you go to has to be very expensive. Both London and Paris have really good cafes too.

:)

tony,

I forgot to mention something. - My defense of London food was because of your comment

"If that was your attampt to defend London cuisine, it flopped. I've heard too many poeple comment that Londond cuisine is poor.If it is not poor, tell me why please."

I just did what you asked.

From Atlanta, that was helpful, but even the title of the article is: Eating in London Has Never Been Better?or More Expensive. So my question again is not whether London has any ood cuisine or even if it has more 5 star restaurants, but I'm trying to compare it to Paris in terms of value. Most poeple cannot afford to spend $300 on dinner and I imagine most people on Fodors.com, like me, are looking for VALUE! So that said, where should I spend more money on great meal: Paris or London???

(By the way, the worst meal I ever had was in an Italian place in London. This was 7 years ago. The pasta sauce tasted like katchup and I spent over $40/person. I wish I had some good 'ol Ragu instead. I've NEVER had such a bad meal in NYC or LA. Then again, I didn't spend $150 in London to get to the 5 star places. I guess I need to get a better job.)

I know generalizations are dangerous, but here's one I've formed after spending lots and lots of time in both London and Paris.
While both cities have many fine "world class" restuarants, I tend to be just as happy in Paris eating at many inexpensive neighborhood places. In London on the other hand, much of the time I find that you need to pay more for really good food.

Don't get me wrong, there are many good less expensive restaurants in London, but somehow I feel that the typical restuarant in not going to be even a small fraction of the quality as a major expensive place. In Paris on the other hand, you can often get a meal that really IS just as wonderful in an average neighborhood bistro.

Sorry, posted too soon. To complete my thought and answer your question, I think the big splurge should be in London rather that Paris. In other words, I think you will find a greater difference and the money will be better spent in London that in Paris. Of course there are many worthwhile places in Paris to splurge, but in all honesty unless you are looking for over the top glitz in decor and service, you can easily find really spectacular food without going for the splurge.

Maybe this will help to clarify my Q: If you had about $50/person (27 GBP / 265 FRF) to spend on a dinner in Paris or London, where would you rather spend it. Lets just says that this was a simple choice and that you would not consider any other factors until after you chose the city.

(Note: We will have to eat in both cities. I'm just trying to figure out where we might have more "special" evenings at finer establishments.)

London has excellent Indian and Chinese food. For Indian our favorite is a modest place in Westbourne Grove, the Standard Indian Restaurants. Just thinking about the chicken and lamb tikka makes my mouth water.

I can't remember offhand the Chinese restaurant near Leicester Square that we used to go to, but when the memory returns I'll post the name.

BTW, Indonesian and Thai food are also excellent in London.

Tony,

I couldn't even afford 1 "expensive" restaurant! :)

I think both London and Paris are expensive ... but I always eat at the so called "budget" places and 9 times out of 10 I am happy.

I gave that article because I thought you weren't convinced that London had good food. I was confused.

Yes, there are going to be bad places to eat in London. (like your bad experience) but there are a lot of great places too that are under 50GBP (Personally I would have to eat under 20! ha!ha! I am so broke)

I don't know how to answer your specific question (I'm not even sure I understand it) because you said you had all the food guides. (No offense, but you are REALLY confusing ;) ) Can't you just compare the review to the price?

Do I think food in London is worth it? Yes, I do. - I don't think anyone can give you a better answer than that without getting into specific restaurants!

Patrick, that was exactly what I was looking for! I don't think I composed my question to elecit such a perfect reponse. Thanks for understanding! If more poeple tried to think about what it is we are really trying to say, the world would be filled with less tension.

Hi TT,

France now uses the Euro.

$50 pp is not an "expensive" restaurant, eg, Gordon Ramsay or Taillevent.

I think that there are many good restaurants in both cities where you would enjoy your meals at those rates.

It will be less expensive, however, in Paris. London is a very high-priced city.

Right now the exchange rate in England is just a killer, basically 2 dollars to 1 GBP. So even an inexpensive meal winds up costing a fortune.

I agree with Underhill that some of the best value and tasty cuisine in London (as in NY) is ethnic food like Indian, Chinese, Thai, etc. While I agree with Patrick that Paris has a lot of moderate priced but excellent food, I wouldn't come to the same conclusion about where to splurge. I just think you can have a more memorable dining experience on a splurge in Paris.

While you didn't want specific recos for London, this recent thread not only has affordable suggestions but some London/UK websites that might be useful.

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34513378

Tony:
It is my opinion that the very high end restaurants in London and Paris are equivalent in price, value and food quality. It is also possible to find very poor food with terrible value in both cities BUT this is much easier to do in London. In my view it is because you have to spend more to get decent food in London vis-a-vis Paris.
You noted in a posting that the price range of interest was $100 (c.a. 80 euros) for two. It is precisely this price range where Paris is even better than London. One should be able to find lots of restaurants, brasseries etc in Paris in this price range which have wonderful food. For example in the 7th near our usual hotel there is Le Florimond (19 av de la Motte-Picquet, Le Clos des Gourmets (16 Av. Rapp), and Le Maupertu (94 Bd. de Latour Maubourg). You also can wander down r. Ste Dominique and side streets such as r. Surcouf and r. Cler to find more spots in your price range that serve very good food for very good value. Our experiences in London in this price range have been less successful and usually resulted in poor value due to the higher prices or poor quality of the food.
Good luck and have a great trip.