Speck - Marylebone High St., W1

See my previous posting of the same name for details.

Can yo tell me more about Speck. What is a typical menu? Thanks.

They have daily specials, try www.speck-deli.co.uk to see the sort of pastas that they sell, and indeed serve to you. They do not have a menu as such, the eat-in table seats around ten people only. It is not smart, not fancy, just plain and simple Italian basics.

RUDE, RUDE, RUDE. I have been reading Fodors for a few weeks now so that when I do get to London I will know a little about what to expect. I have asked a few questions and gotten some good answers but it really dissapoints me the way people attack each other for no reason. And beleive me it relly does'nt make you more worldly when you act this way, if that is what you are trying to acheive. I know that I will not be asking any more questions on this board.

I haven't read one rude post on this thread. Do you think it rude to defend one's country against bigotry????? I call that patriotism. Americans aren't the only patriots.

I can't believe in this day and age, with the Internet, news media, and television, that people don't realize that London is an international city. I really, really can't believe that there are people who think that we either eat fish $ chips out of a newspaper or tea and crumpets. How 1957 of you.

Buy the latest edition of "Great Eats in London" (formerly "Cheap Eats in London") and ignore the verbal sparring. It describes the London equivalents to what you would recommend if someone asked you about New York what you are asking about London.

No-one has bothered to say what sort of a restaurant "The Ivy" is!

GLMDesigns is looking for somewhere that can offer good, well prepared, simple food and whilst I'm sure The Ivy's food is well prepared it would be just about the last restaurant in London I would recommend to someone looking for basic dining. Just this week several of the world's best chefs, restaurateurs, and critics voted it the 24th best restaurant on the planet for god's sake!!

I live just off Marylebone High Street myself and I'd recommend "The Providores". It serves excellent fusion food given the relatively low prices, and yes you can order a good steak.

Regarding Sophie's Steakhouse (located halfway down the Fulham Road):
I think this is a good basic restaurant and as such is just the sort of place GLMDesigns is probably looking for. It's deocorated in a simple modern style, it's always busy and 'mains' cost £8-£15. You can't go wrong. Whether I would travel all the way from Marylebone to go there is another matter.

Keep in mind that London is huge, and many of these recs are spread all over the place. We ate at a couple of Italian chains that were decent, Bella Italia and Spaghetti House. In So. Kensington (where we stayed), we enjoyed the Zetland Arms and Hereford pubs. Both these pubs had 'basic' fare and non-smoking sections. The Fish and CHips at Zetland was very fresh and good.

The Ivy isn't particularly smart, people who wear ties to go there stand out as "once in a lifetime customers". I have no idea why it received the rating of 24th in the world. The menu is too classic for it to deserve this positioning - it still serves baked Alaska, albeit an excellent one. It is a quintessential British eatery - how restaurants used to be.

If you can get a table there, the food is reasonably priced - under twenty pounds for main courses, the service good, but the people on weekend - i.e. Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights are the "once in a lifetime" clientele. This type of person rarely ventures out on weeknights so I advise going anywhere worth going to on a Monday-Thursday evening, weekends are vulgar.

Historically, the aristocracy has not acknowledged a weekend, after all how can the week end for one who does not work? They used to refer to it as a Friday to Sunday party if indeed they held shooting parties over a "weekend" period.

But, back to The Ivy, the location itself is dumpy - lots of tramps, users and abusers on the streets nearby, It has all become terribly nouveau "Vicki and Dave" patronise it far too often. If you are an American after something "so English" and wish to don a jacket and tie, dine at The Ritz - fancier French inspired dishes in a beautiful dining room - the "Dave" you get here is Sir David Frost, far classy than some footballer (incidentally why does he buy his wife a suite of jewellery for a reported 1 million pounds? All so she can wear it shopping in Romford Market).

However, back to the original question, once again I've digressed, for "basic fare" The Ivy would be at the top of that category - they do steaks, they do chips, they do chicken, they do shepherd's pie etc.... You could try a chain of Italian restauants - Strada, they have branches all over London, Marylebone High St being the newest one - Italian cuisine, generally excellent for little money. Shepherd's Mrkt in Mayfair has lots of little restaurants that are all inexpensive and offer a relaxed dinner with no pretensions.

Be wary of the Italian restaurants, or so-called Italian restaurants off of Oxford St. the majority of these are for tourists only, and as such the food is of a poor standard.

summersquash - you are so sensitive. You should have visited this board before registration was required if you wanted to see the true meaning of rude - even though I enjoyed it.

Aberdeen Steak Houses - stay FAR FAR AWAY!

ThinGorjus is entertaining as usual - love those posts.

GLMDesigns - Just Go. You WILL find dinner options to please you.

Goddard's Pie House in Greenwich is awesome. Inexpensive, authentic pies in beautiful Greenwich. It gives you a hearty start to the day or a great way to fill your famished stomach. They also have delicious dessert pies, my favorite, rhubarb pie with custard, yum.

www.blurrytravel.com

I like to read www.london-eating.co.uk for restaurant recommendations. You can search on American restaurants,Sophie's Steakhouse was opened not so long ago, allegedly modelled on a Chicago steakhouse. Reviews seem to be OK. Alternatively how about Argentinian restaurants, there are a few of those mentioned in the website.

The Rib Room & Oyster Bar at the Carlton Tower Hotel, Cadogan Place, London SW1. Would fit the bill except for price maybe. Some of our London hotels have superb restaurants.

Guldklump, I am fascinated by that advice, the Rib Room at The Carlton Tower is so dreadfully old fashioned, perhaps classic, but I don't care for that hotel in the slightest. If you are going to dine at hotels, The Ritz, Claridge's, The Connaught.

The Carlton is a little staid, and was never one of the foremost grand London hotels, I wouldn't advise dining there!

The advice isn't compulsory, if you don't like it don't go. There's no need to be fascinated. People's opinion and experiences at all these places vary.

I am the original poster to this question. We got back a week ago. Just as I thought the food options are rather different than here ie I could not find a good salad and was told salads are very scimpy here. Also most sandwiches are pre-made and kind of scimpy and,again things here in NY are just different. The Europeans eat less than Americans. We found a decent restaurant, Christophers, that was quite good, patterned after American steakhouses. I thought the staff was just trying too hard to mimic. We ate at Benihana which was fine, and came upon a Cafe Uno which was actually quite good. A really nice place for lunch, (salads, sandwiches, pizza) is an outdoor place at the square at Convent Garden, I can't remember the name. We ate at the Hard Rock cafe which was a lot of fun, mediocre food. Basically food in London is probably adequate at most and I'm sure if you're there long enough you will find some really good places, but I think mediocre is the word for most London restaurants. New Yorkers are spoiled. London is awesome and that makes up for their lack of great food.

I like Richoux restaurants. There are several of them. They have the type of food you are requesting. (They also serve a basic Tea.) Not too expensive, not too daunting.

My mom and a good friend are going to London in May and we are going the ecomomy route this time. We can't wait to get there and eat the fish and chips, and all the neat English food. We can eat American food expensive or inexpensive all the time at home! An we can't wait to have tea and crumpets!! We are so excited!!! So give us the good hints of where to eat. We don't want to spend big money on food-we would rather eat cheap and spend our money on theater, shopping, and all the neat things to do in London. Any suggestions from ya'll for 3 Texans who can't wait to get there?

GLMDesigns

Some comments on your comments...

"Just as I thought the food options are rather different than here - ie I could not find a good salad and was told salads are very scimpy here."

You could not find a good salad! Well that is not surprising given the list of restaurants you chose to visit! But weill come to that in time...

"Also most sandwiches are pre-made and kind of scimpy and, again things here in NY are just different."

Well things are nmot that different. There are plenty of sandwich bars which will make you a large tasty sandwich for not a lot of cash but you have to know what you want so you can order it. Yes tere are hundredes of shocking places like Pret a Manger (you have them in NYC too now so watch out!) where you do get fowl, srimpy, overpriced garbage. I worked in Midtown for a year and can tell you that the delis that made sandwiches in NY were no better than selecting an Italin deli in London.

"The Europeans eat less than Americans."

Yes well we aren't fat/overweight like most Americans. Perhaps you shuld say "Europeans aren't fat like Americans?"

"We found a decent restaurant, Christophers, that was quite good, patterned after American steakhouses. I thought the staff was just trying too hard to mimic."

This is an American restaurant in London. If you go to a place in NYC and order shepherd's pie (a traditional English meal) it is shite. So you should not expect a huge amount from a place like this. I understand that this place is a tourist trap caterinmg to American executives and wealthy americans on holiday.

"We ate at Benihana which was fine"

Benihana is a tourist trap - probably the worst Japanese food in London. I used to work for a Japanese bank and Benihana is the laughing sytock of Jaoanese restaurants in LOndon. You are a sucker if you went there.

"Came upon a Cafe Uno which was actually quite good."

A shite chain - but you enjoyed it - shows what you view as quality food!

"A really nice place for lunch, (salads, sandwiches, pizza) is an outdoor place at the square at Convent Garden, I can't remember the name."

That is helpful! There aree many places to eat in Covent Garden

"We ate at the Hard Rock cafe which was a lot of fun, mediocre food."

Well that is American and not good. Do you really expect to eat well there?

"Basically food in London is probably adequate at most and I'm sure if you're there long enough you will find some really good places, but I think mediocre is the word for most London restaurants. New Yorkers are spoiled. London is awesome and that makes up for their lack of great food."

To sum up you visited a selctionb of tourist traps. You must be an incredibly thick, stupid or uncultured person.

If I went to NYC and ate at Hard Rock Cafe, a couple of delis, a diner and some of NYC's tourist trap restaurants I would leave disappointed. But I fdo a bit of research and take recommendatioons. Whatr did you achieve by going on this board? I told you to look at a website that reviews London restaurants - www.london-eating.co.uk - you clearly didn;t look it or listen to a lot of advioce given by fodorites. so well done - i think you thouroiughly desevre tro have eaten so badly for choosing the worst restaurnats when offered assistance!

I'm afraid I'm with wealthy backpacker here. You had every opportunity to do some decent research on this board and it seems you didn't follow any of the advice (save Christopher's, which I recommended because you clearly wanted a taste of home). The Hard Rock Cafe, jeez. Surprised you didn't fit MacDonald's in while you were here.

The thing that annoys me is that you're the sort of person that makes bad choices and then goes home spreading the myth that British food is crap. I have eaten crap food in New York, and when I've actually done some decent research I've eaten well. That's life, in any country you care to name.