Bars and Restaurants

Food and drink are part of the culture of each Country. When people speak about Spain, they think of bulls, beach, sun, and…tapas!

To be honest, so far I haven’t enjoyed British food so much. Here there is a great mix of cultures and at the end the most interesting thing is to have the opportunity of trying food from almost every country in the world. It is quite obvious that Indian restaurants are the most popular among them but there are others nationalities with a lot of tradition.

So far I haven’t been to many interesting places at all. It is my fault because London has the widest selection on offer in Europe and I have to try more in the second Half of my first year. But I’m going to list the most interesting ones compared to what you can find in Madrid:

- Bars:

Two fantastic places to visit in my opinion are the “Londsale” (above in the picture) and “Beach Blank Babylon” both in Notting Hill, both are reachable from my apartment on foot. The first one is the typical English bar with very good cocktails, good pop music, modern decoration, friendly atmosphere and nice people. I don’t recommend having dinner here as I think the food is not special at all. The 3B’s is more pretentious and expensive but I have to admit that the cocktails are the best ones that I’ve ever tried. I tried a Whisky Sour there and I’m going to repeat this another day.

I dropped by Eclipse, in South Kensington, one Friday some weeks ago but we spent so little time there and we made the mistake of not trying the famous martini melon, so I have to come back another day.

And walking down Soho I found by chance a nice Lounge Bar: The player. Very recommendable for having a drink or have a light dinner if you are in the City centre.

Why have I mentioned all these places that are very strong on cocktails? It is because we don’t have tradition about cocktails at all. There we like only the “combinados”, mixing only a spirit with a soft drink but in a bigger proportion than here. A “rum with Coke” in Madrid is like a double in London or more.

I would like to mention the lack that I’ve found here concerning wines. As the prices are so high, it is not easy to find good wine on the menu. And if you find them, they are not affordable. I think it is still a question of culture and it is not a priority yet. Here the wine is not served properly, I mean, you can see here a glass of wine completely full whereas in Spain everybody fills only half glass just to taste it each time. It is like in Spain we enjoy the flavours more. Here people speaks only about grape varieties like Shyra, Cabernet Sauvignon…this is ok but of course, Rioja and Ribera del Duero, both use “Tempranillo” as the grape variety and the wine is completely different. And what about the ageing of the wine? Again here it seems that it is not important, actually I almost haven’t found aged wine when it is something basic to assess a wine. So questions that I’ve listened to some waiters like “do you want tempranillo or shyra? for me it doesn’t make sense.
But as always I state, I’m sure that in London you can find at least some places with a great wine culture as here you can find everything, but above I speaking generally.

- Restaurants:

To be honest I’ve gone out relatively often for dinner but not to good places. I feel that my colleagues are not really interested in good food but more in the style or the atmosphere of the places. Instead in Madrid we had the objective of trying a new good restaurant at least once a month. But really good restaurants are not so easy affordable here as in Madrid. So far I can only point out one very good Indian restaurant in Regent Street that is really worth it: Veeraswamy. It is absolutely fantastic; the execution of the dishes was more from perfect. Their flavour led you to India. I enjoyed it a lot.

Near my office, Waterway, along the Canal in Little Venice is quite appealing with a warm atmosphere, more than good food and a wide range of wines. It is a trendy restaurant rather than a place for gourmet people. And during the summer you can take advantage of the terrace outside beside the canal.

Just because it seems like a kind of underground place I found quite interesting a Brazilian restaurant called “Barraco”. I went there with an Italian friend who is an expert in Brazilian stuff and according to his opinion it was like being in Rio! It is in North of London, close to Kilburn Park.

Ah! I mentioned that in my “Dutch night” that I had an appointment for a birthday last Saturday. At the end we went to “La Floridita” with a Cuban flavour in any corner was good enough to take into account for another weekend.

What I would really like is to try a good English restaurant and I hope I’m going to make it soon.

Well, I adore London, but concerning food … I have to recognize that I’ve lost with my move, I’m looking forward to eating Spanish food at Christmas!