Holborn restaurants?
 

We will be going on one of the Original London Walks tours of the Inns of Court. We will have to eat lunch before the tour - anyone know of a good, inexpensive restaurant in the area of the Holborn tube stop? Is there one particular street that has a good concentration of pubs/restaurants in the area?

I've had decent meals at Savoire Faire, on New Oxford Street, a number of times, and it's very good value for the location.

Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese pub on Chancery Lane seems to get rave reviews here & it's nearer to the Inns of Court than Holborn tube.

I presume you are going at the weekend, and that's why you're not using Temple station ?

Caroline: is that place any good? A lot of people here love to say that you should avoid any place with "Ye Olde" in the name.

I've never quite believed it.

Perhaps we should avoid anyone whose thinking is "ye olde."

Ye olde ches. cheese is very good. We ate dinner there and I cannot wait to go back. It was the best pub food I have had.

Dukey, I've never been there myself & yes, as a rule I would avoid anywhere with a name like that - but I have seen several recommendations for it on this board. I think it would be atmospheric.

Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese is delightful. In this case it is not a marketing ploy but really is "ye olde." Charles Dickens and Samuel Johnson were both patrons, and when you enter it you feel like you're stepping back in time. When we ate there the food was good, but I think people really go for the atmosphere. Here's a link to some pictures: http://www.pubs.com/pub_details.cfm?ID=216

Just don't pronounce it "yee oldie". The first letter is not a "Y", it's a thorn, which stood in for "Th" in antiquity, is pronounced "Th", as in "The".

Thanks for the suggestions about Cheshire Cheese - I'm going to try that place. But, it is a little far from the Holborn stop - that's where I have to meet the group to tour the Inns of Court.

About Holborn - are the restaurants in the area (around High Holborn) expensive? I really have no idea what Holborn is like.

I did that same London Walk from Holborn, and really enjoyed it. As far as restaurants around there, I really don't know, even tho I walked that way fairly often when I stayed near the British Museum.

However, I loved Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese! It's so atmospheric, and authentic - and the food was good. I was there for lunch. Even if you don't go that day - go another day!

Ok - I'm excited about Cheshire Cheese - I'll try it. And, Sue4, thanks for confirming that the Inns of Court walk is worthwhile - my wife is a lawyer and she is really excited about that walk.

It's a lovely area. If you want to get in the legal London mood, you might enjoy renting the recent Masterpiece Theatre miniseries of Bleak House. Or if you have time read the book, which is wonderful but very, very long. Much of it is set around the Inns of Court.

The area immediately round Holborn tube is a nondesript jumble of sandwich shops and a few characterless shops, there to trade off the considerable foot traffic the tube creates of people going to and from nearby offices.

There are a few sit-down places in Sicilan Avenue (google it: it's quite pretty on a sunny day), though I've not tried them for decades.

One option is to eat somewhere else, as the tube station is where a number of other areas (like Covent Garden and Bloomsbury) converge. The Cheshire Cheese is about three-quarters of a mile away: I'd eat in the Fryers Delight chippy in Theobalds Rd, but they fry in dripping, which isn't to everyone's taste. Many of us still like the original Pizza Express branch by the British Museum.

Alternatively, take a sandwich into Lincoln's Inn Fields, just behind the station. Have a quick look at the Soane Museum while you're at it.

Or just pop into a boozer. The Princess Louise on High Holborn (which is one of the very few streets in London where we say "on..." like that, as if it was American) is surprisingly pretty. Penderel's Oak looks horrible but the history of its name's interesting. Before it got bought by Wetherspoon's it truly was owned or managed by a Penderel (more often spelt Pendrill) who claimed descent - like everyone with that name - from the people who hid Charles II in the oak tree.

Is the My Old Dutch pancake place still there ? I haven't been for about 20 years but it was passable & would probably be quite cheap. It does giant pancakes with pizza style toppings.

The pancake place is still there.

There's a passable Thai just round the back of the tube station, next to the Ship pub.

There's some very expensive places nearby as well - there's a restaurant open to the public in the Connaught Rooms (the resty is reserved for Masonics) which I've heard good things about (it has to be better than the food in the actual Connaught rooms - believe mme).

There is also the old Pearl Assurance building which has a high-end restaurant in it.

There's a western food all you can eat in Deans Yard which is good value, if not the heights of culinary excellence.

We did that walk and grabbed a sandwich at a nearby Pret a Manger. I love their Coronation Chicken.

Hi, David,

If you want a taste of the real temple life, try to get hold of some of the Rumpole books by John Mortimer. Your wife will love him!

regards, Ann

Mr.Flanner, what's so special about High Holborn that it has things "on" it?

That's just how you say it.

And it's pronounced Hoe-Burn - you don't sound the 'L' unless you want to be laughed at! 8-)

annhig, thanks for the Rumpole suggestion. I have looked around on the net for pubs in the area and found one called Seven Stars.
It's just behind the Royal Courts - can anyone rate this one? Sound very historic.

Fidel:

There's nothing special about High Holborn: it's just an interesting (well to me) combination of conventions.

We usually use "on" only for things on relatively long and important streets, and we always use the whole of a street's name. So the only times we don't use a suffix (as in "Trinity Street") is when the street doesn't have a suffix (as with steets like Pall Mall, Newington Butts or Kensington Gore), or prefix (The Strand, The Mall)

There are only a few streets big enough to get "on" that also lack a suffix or prefix: Piccadilly, High Holborn and Holborn, for example.

So an Americanm, hearing us refer to the Princess Louise on High Holborn might be misled into thinking it's called High Holborn Street but the American convention of dropping "Street" is being used. And that might encourage him or her to think they can get away with using this convention here, when it'll get them into trouble.

As in "how to I get to Waterloo from Liverpool station?" (a question once asked on this board, to which the answer is "get the Northern Line, but you have to go the 200 miles to Liverpool first" ) or asking for Gloucester, a town 120 miles away, when you want one of the many London thoroughfares starting "Gloucester"

You could always ask the guide for suggestions.
I once went on the Dickens walk and the guide pointed out a few pubs where you could eat.

They want to eat first.

Should have said that My Old Dutch is on High Holborn, across the road from the tube station.

Thank you for the note Mr.Flanner. It gave me the same strange sensation I get when I'm on the transport site; for example, "the only times we don't use a suffix...is when the street doesn't have a suffix." But I am starting to learn the ropes -- I wasn't the one who inquired about it here, but one early Sunday morning I breathlessly asked a rather large officer at the Notting Hill Station about the right way to Liverpool...well you can imagine the conversation he gave me after that.

I agree with the choice of the old Cheshire Cheese, despite its having so many tourists

Ben Haines, London
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