Some reflections on dining out in London.

[Joanbunting Profile]

we have recently returned from a week in London., after 3 years. I know I am getting older but I have observed a number of changes and I wondered if I am jus suffering from old age grumpiness

I was astonished that, even in quite smart restaurants and bars nibles are not automatically served free with drinks. You have to pay for them
There is no bread offered with the meal because that too has to be paid for as extra. i was relieved to find that tap water, usually with ice was available. However the service charges made me really cross - surely that is up to the diner? If you don't keep your wits about you, you can end up pa
Once upon a time (!) you could ask a restaurant to get you a ca - no longer. They just point down the street.

We dined in some places that were so dark we couldn't read the menu. I asked for a torch in one! if you add invasive loud music - even in some very smart places. If you don't have loud music you have neighbours with very very loud voices who seem to believe that that whatever is that what they have to say is so important they have to tell the world.

We did however have some brilliant meals. Perhaps the mots memorable - if so simple was in a tiny Singapore restaurant in the middle fo the university dirtrict where students were dashing in and out to collect their pre=ordered lunches and paying with their phones. We sat and watched the fun while onsuming a delicious soup and then Singapore noodles.
Another was at Nopi, Ottolenghi's place which was tranquil and the food and service were both spot on with protions of a human size not huge plate fillers.

The last thing which quite bothered me was how stressed so many of the serving staff seemed to be, even in Michelin starred establishments.

These are just some of my thoughts and I know they are the reflections of one of more advanced years who has, by reason of living in the French countryside, become somewhat fixed in other ways. I began thinking "Stop the world I want to get off"
but we got home in time!

[Stokey Sue Profile]

I don't actually think most of that is new and I think you have been a bit unlucky with one or two - I certainly have found that most restaurants will call you a cab, though I think with Uber and MyTaxi apps most people just use their own phones so the restaurants don't need to keep a mini cab firm on their books like they used to.

I don't expect nibbles with drinks in London, never have in the 45 years I've lived here, I might get an amuse bouche that arrives during the apéro, but that's about it. Some places (not many) do supply nibbles as their house style, more hotels than standalone restaurants or bars in my experience, part of the caring for guests ethos I suppose, but I don't think it has ever been that common, except on Sunday lunch time in East End pubs or a bit of Bombay mix in a good Indian restaurant, but that's a bit different.

The bread thing is interesting, and again seems to vary with the house style. It seems to have gone with the cover charge in a few mid-range restaurants, and getting rid of the cover charge is a good thing. In many places bread comes with those dishes that demand it (very hipster: "try our house made nduja, served with E5 sourdough bread"), as would any other side, but it comes with the water, for the table, in most of the restaurants I have been to in the last six months or so, and I haven't been charged for it that I remember except in small plates / tapas restaurants where you order everything you want in modular fashion, including bread.- my local, wonderful, tapas restaurant escosesa does that. I have a vague memory of somewhere that the first bread basket was included, but refills were charged, but that's a while ago - posh Italian I think. It does annoy me that they usually try to whisk any bread away with the starter plates

The lack of light is a constant gripe of mine, often combined with menus in low contrast colour on tinted paper However, I think it reached its nadir about 2 years ago and the advent of LED lighting is gradually helping matters, as LED permits the use of inexpensive, interesting, lighting effects that allow pools of light in which menus ca be read by most of us (cf. Darjeeling Express, Dishoom, many modern design restaurants).

The last thing which quite bothered me was how stressed so many of the serving staff seemed to be, even in Michelin starred establishments.

I have seen this in many places I even think it's worse in Michelin star places, where the stakes are higher. But I don't think it's a London thing - I think it's a big city thing, Berlin, London, Paris, Lisbon, Boston, Bangkok, Cape Town etc

The service charge is also interesting, again it has been standard in many places for a couple of decades so hardly new, they used to insist is was fixed (mega row in Conran's Blueprint Café year 2000) but now "discretionary" is more genuine, It makes sense ot me that it is standard for parties in in some restaurants, otherwise it makes dividing the bill impossible (and the staff get nothing). I'm so used to it it no longer registers

I'm intirgued as to what you identifiy as "the middle of the university dirtrict" as I'm not aware of a university distirict in London! Unless you mean Bloomsbury, which King's, LSE Imperial etc would hotly deny... ,

Plenty of wonderful places you didn't get to try of course, - The Dairy (Robin Gill), the aforementioned Darjeeling Express (the lovely Asma Khan), Café Spice Namasté (Cyrus Todiwalla), Trinity (Adam Byatt), Outlaws (I hope it's good, it will be my birthday treat; Nathan Outlaw), and so on

Minor edits for clarity and to remove typosn