Loving Food in a Place That Isn’t Known For Food

By Sydney Strickland-Broden

London is not known for having great food. In fact everyone will tell you it’s bland and not to be excited about it. So I wasn’t. However after arriving and exploring for a few days I realized that London is a very diverse and cosmopolitan city. It isn’t just white English people. There were all kinds of people from all over the world. So I quickly became excited for food again, not for the American or English food but for all the different ethnic foods. Here are my reviews for some of the places I tried:

Indian:

Right around the corner from the hotel there was a place called Light of India. I knew the food would be good because Indian food always is and you can’t go wrong with butter chicken or chicken tikka masala. But I was most surprised by how fancy this restaurant was. They had white table cloths and real candles! Then at the end of our meal they brought us warm cleansing clothes and candy. So if you’re looking for good food and an experience. I definitely recommend it.

Asian:

I ate at two Asian places but the one I want to review is some hole in the wall place in Chinatown. I don’t remember the name but it was fantastic. I mean how could you go wrong? It was authentic Vietnamese spring rolls and chow mein type noodles.

Italian:

Bella Italia had a great atmosphere and our waitress was so kind and not to mention really pretty. However the food wasn’t really anything special. For the most part it tasted like any pasta I could get at home. I got Carbonara and it was flavorful but at the same time a little underwhelming.

Portuguese:

I was very unaware that Nando’s was Portuguese inspired but it was really good. I got a platter to share with a friend and we were able to pick two flavors of chicken and four sides. For the chicken we got a lemon pepper flavor and what they called mild. Both were absolutely delicious, they were juicy and super flavorful. As for the four sides we got mashed potatoes, coleslaw, spicy rice, and some sort of veggie salad. Unfortunately this is where they fell short. Don’t get me wrong the sides were all pretty good but the mashed potatoes were a little dry and the coleslaw was very vinegary. The spicy rice and veggie salad were perfectly fine though. Overall I recommend trying super good! One final note to add: while all these restaurants have good food and kind service workers, they are really bad at getting water to you if that is your drink of choice. Soda and alcohol come in the blink of an eye but water is tricky.

Just don’t get discouraged, keep asking and they will eventually bring you the smallest cup and carafe of water. But nonetheless it’s still water.