London restaurant suggestions
 

We will be in London for three nights - staying at the Bloomsbury hotel on Great Russell street. We would love restaurant suggestions. We don't get a lot of ethnic food in our small New Mexican city (except of course Mexican) so we are really looking forward to having some variety - (we love and miss Indian food very much so plan to definitely indulge in "curry"). What are your favorite restaurants? (we are open to all price categories except the really high end, but splurging on an elegant meal could be fun too) Thanks in advance.

Dishoom in Covent Garden is a great choice for mid range curry.

Hat marine is a Michelin starred place if you want to go big.

Tamarind - not hat marine

We had a lovely dinner outside on the terrace at the Dalloway last week. I thought it was part of the Bloomsbury Hotel but neither the restaurant's nor the hotel's website indicates that. http://dallowayterrace.com/

I'm not a fan of Indian food but I had some great meals in Laondon last weekend. Merchants Tavern in Shoreditch is my favorite in London. Perfect mixture of great food, ambiance and service. Black Roe is a new spot in Mayfair. More than just poke. Amazing flavors. I can't wait to go back.

We really enjoyed a small French restaurant called le Bistro Savoir Faire. The address is 42 New Oxford Street, to the left at the end of Bloomsbury Street. It has good reviews on Trip Advisor, too.

Lots of restaurants in Charlotte Street, not too far from your hotel.
Roka for Japanese.
Honey & Co for Middle Eastern food.

For Indian: Thrishna near Marylebone High Street. It's a modern Indian, food is not so heavy there.

Indian food.... To think a part of the sub-continent's cuisine with a population of 1 1/4 Billion has to be described as such a simple concept. :-)

Do you have a view of what type of food, or just somewhere vaguely foreign with some spices in it?

Here are a couple of places I like:-

Little Social
http://www.littlesocial.co.uk/

Cichetti which is Italian food
http://www.sancarlocicchetti.co.uk/

Beautiful building esp the ceiling. I used to go here years when it was the Berners Street Hotel, now it has been renovated.

http://www.bernerstavern.com/

Very good value French brasserie
https://www.brasseriezedel.com/

Middle eastern food
http://thepalomar.co.uk/

thank you everyone - excellent suggestions and I will print and take with me.

And Bibloburger - be kind. Yes, we love Indian and Middle Eastern and Thai and Afghan and pretty much anything we've ever tried. We just don't get much besides Mexican and all American beef where we are so hungry for other choices. any and all suggestions most appreciated (I think I had my first Tandoori visiting England in the 90's and was so blown away by the flavors that...well it changed my palatte)(:

For Indian food, I can definitely recommend Dishoom. I particularly like their chai, the black dal, the lamb biryani, and a pomegranate chicken salad. I hear their breakfast bacon naan (with bacon from the Ginger Pig) is amazing, but sadly have not managed to make it there for breakfast yet. Next time, perhaps I shall. There are multiple locations and there is likely to be a wait at prime times but they manage the queue well. The food here is, if I recall correctly, an homage to a particular type of Mumbai cafe. Even if you don't eat there, the website is appealing.

If you have never had chaat (Indian street snack food) then you might enjoy a place like Masala Zone or Roti Chai. I do have access to chaat, where I live, so didn't try either of these restaurants (and I am sure there are more), but it might make for a fun meal.

My favourite Indian meal in London was at Gymkhana. We walked in and got lucky with a table, but I'd book. The food was amazing and the service stellar, but warm and friendly. The cocktails were amazing and do be sure to check out the toilets. The idea here is to evoke the Raj era, but the food speaks for itself. I highly recommend it.

We wanted to try Trishna, one Michelin star, owned by the same people as Gymkhana, which focuses on Southwestern Indian seafood dishes, but we ran out of time. On the list for our next trip it goes!

London has other Michelin-starred Indian restaurants. We had a delicious and impeccably served set lunch at the Cinnamon Club, which I thought was good value. They also made some very impressive and creative cocktails.

On our last trip, we were just a little too early for Hoppers, which is again the same team behind Gymkhana and Trishna, but serves Sri Lankan street food. Next time this will be a can't miss.

That is all I have off the top of my head for Indian food.

I find the websites of Time Out London, Londonist, and, especially, Hot Dinners to be helpful for restaurant information, since Chowhound seems to be moribund.

I hope you will have some great meals, and a good trip.

oh wow, let's see if we skip all the sight-seeing we could just eat our way through London - thanks everyone!

Masala zone is a chain with average food at best.

The best Indian restaurant in the World (it has won Michelin stars AND has been awarded the best restaurant of the UK) is "Gymkhana". It is high end, but the prices are not that high as one may expect. Been there, the food is out of this world..
And for casual Indian, try Dishoom.

It's hardly the best Romanian in London. First, it's in Ilford where no tourist would ever go. Second, the one and only TA review only managed to achieve "terrible" status.

Pretty sure it is advertising Odin :)

I think Bilbo is asking for the specific type of Indian food, which has numerous regional varieties just like Italian, Chinese and American. What you're looking for is kind of generic.

That said, one good resource is Timeout.com and also check out londontown.com

Thanks everyone for your help - I carefully printed it out and brought it with me, but fatigue and location have won the day so far....Last night we were wiped from arriving at 3 am the night before so ended up eating here at the hotel at one of the restaurants suggested above: Dalloway Terrace. It was excellent - cream of pea soup and roasted duck salad for me, pork belly and scallops for hubby. Everything was perfect.

Today we were up at Greenwich and found a little vietnamese place for lunch - don't have the name but it was on the main street and was excellent.

and then tonight again tired so went across the street to an Indian Restaurant recommended by DK guidebook - Malabar Junction - it was again excellent.

Still hoping to at least get to Dishoom....

And one last suggestion - for our last night we went to Asia de Cuba on St. Martins road - fusion Asian cuban food - fantastico!

If you are a fan of the Indian cuisine, London is hard to beat