Can anyone recommend some good basic restaurants in London-basic fare ie, steak chicken, salads. Thank you.

My London friend took me to Caffe Uno in the S. Kensington area when I was last there. It is Italian, good food, prices seemed very reasonable. I think there are several in the city actually.

The best cheap Italian, huge servings and gorgeous home made deserts - BAR REMO just off Regent Street on Princes Street - pizza, pasta, chicken, fish.
ASK PIZZA do great salads (and pizza) but if you are trying to stay healthy their salads are big and the lowest price for a regular meal in London.
For something slightly different try SARASTRO on Drury Lane - http://www.sarastro-restaurant.com/indexfr.html VERY unusual for a very good price - have the lamb WOW then have the cheese desert. You can't go wrong!
STOCKPOT on Kings Road does homemade style meals for a very cheap price - beef, lamb, chicken, fish, veg & chips.
THE ORANGERY at Kensington Palace do steak & chips, chicken & veg and lots more for a very reasonable price for main & drink. And what an experience.

Brown's Restaurant on St. Martin's Lane near Leicester Square is good. My favorite dish is the steak, mushroom, and Guiness pie with sticky toffee pudding for dessert. (Not connected with Brown's Hotel.)

I recommend Brown's, too. I had their risotto cakes last year - wonderful! And their sticky toffee pudding is the best I've ever had.

Pret a Manger has good sandwiches and is a nice alternative to fast food if you're looking for a quick lunch. It's a chain.

When we were in London we enjoyed Bella Pasta and Duke of York (upstairs), both near Victoria Station.

Bella Pasta is a chain, I believe, but the food was really good. However, it did great very crowded and the service was a little slow.

The Duke of York had reasonably priced daily specials and the food was pretty good.

If you are near Parliament, try the Red Lion Pub (again upstairs). We had lunch there -- great food at a reasonable price.

We also really liked Pizza Express. It's reasonable, with good Italian food (more expansive menu than pizzas), and it looks classier than its name implies. They have several locations around town.

Chelsea Kitchen on King's Road has a big menu and is inexpensive for London prices (although it's far from gourmet food).

We also liked Belgo Centraal -- a Belgian restaurant and beer hall that has a "beat the clock" special of mussels and frites or roasted chicken, and you pay the price you order (e.g, 6 GBP if you order at 6:00)

Susan

I would not recommend many of the above suggestions.

Certainly avoid Pizza Express and Ask Pizza. These are chains and whilst edible once in a while can not be said to serve good food. If you like good pizza go Eco in Clapham (Clapham High Street).

Certainly do not consider Browns. Browns is a chain and whilst the one mentioned above is probably the best oo the lot, the food is still awful.

I suggest that you buy a restaurant guide on arrival from a large book store. I can tell you of many good restaurants for good cuisine in London but I don't want to send you to south London if you are based in north London.

Also look at www.london-eating.co.uk

Thanks for all the replies. I might mention we are fussy New Yorkers and used to good restaurants (good food doesn't mean pricey). We are staying near Marylebone if that helps.

Marlebone is a good area for eating out. There are many local restaurants serving a wide array of types of food. If you do a search on this site oir the one I mentioned above you will get lots of upto date reviews.

GLM, maybe if you had mentioned your "fussiness" up front, you would have saved us from giving you our obviously (according to backpacker) bad opinions.

I agree bettyk -- I was responding to a post for some good "basic" restaurants and was unaware that I was replying to a "fussy New Yorker." I would have saved my comments.

I'm glad I didn't respond when I first saw this post. I couldn't figure out exactly what you were looking for, but suspected from the way the post was worded that you were just looking for cheap and average "basic" food. I never would have guessed you were a "fussy" person looking for something quite good. In order to answer these general questions, I think we need a lot more information -- price, location, type of food, atmosphere, etc. Any type of restaurant imagineable is available in London, so it seems pointless to just randomly suggest a few without regard to any specifics.

ASK is horrid!!!! Absolutely worse than leftovers from Olive Garden.

Aunt Judith, who lives in Kensington, likes Lemonia and Spoon.

I'm sorry I wasn't more specific - when I say "basic" I meant non-ethnic, non-British, non-fussy gourmet - just a good steak, piece of fish, salad, pasta, etc. well-prepared and tasty. I certainly did not mean pizza express. I guess basically American food. I don't feel like being adventurous.

Non-British??? Are you daft?? What do you think we eat in England?? Sorry, darling, but we had been eating steak, chicken, fish, and salads, long before your two-hundred-year-old country was even a thought. You have seen too many Yank movies that portray us as eating mutton and broth, washed down with mead. You are coming to the land of Newton, Shakespeare, Swift, and Chaucer, sweetie. Fill your suitcase with Jif and diet Dr. Pepper if you don't like our food.

The reason so many ill-informed travelers think they can't get a good meal in London is because they are looking for "basically American food". American - whatever that means, usually does not travel well. Why not broaden your horizons a bit. You can find just about ANY cuisine in London.

>>when I say "basic" I meant non-ethnic, non-British, non-fussy gourmet - just a good steak, piece of fish, salad, pasta, etc. well-prepared and tasty. I certainly did not mean pizza express. I guess basically American food. I don't feel like being adventurous.<<

If you could find "American" food in London, I would think it would be considered Ethnic. Usually that means food which is from some other region other than where one is. Of course, I'm not sure what you mean when you ask for American food except for hamburgers since our food is so diverse and regional.

I would think that when you are in Britan, if you don't want either British food or Ethnic food, you will starve since everything should fall under one defintition or the other.

Frankly, GLMDesigns, with your attitude, I'm wondering why you are bothering to travel.

Many Americans go to Aberdeen Angus Steak Houses. They are a chain and are all over central London. They sell a traditional steak prepared for Americans. No Brit would ever eat in one. Perhaps some American fodorites can advise on whether an Angus might be a good option?

You surely jest. I always tell American friends to avoid anywhere that has "steak" or "inn" in the title.