Londons ethnically diverse eateries, you can eat truly cosmopolitan food
by Guy Dimond
London just isn't like the rest of Britain. It's still true that finding a good meal in rural Britain—or even some of the larger cities takes sleuth-like skills and a well-thumbed copy of The Good Food Guide, but London has become a center of excellence which is now on a par with the best food cities in the world, such as New York, San Francisco, and Sydney. And this has happened within the last 15 years or so. If you haven't visited London for a few years, then you're in for a big shock.
London always had the makings of a great restaurant city, but for some reason it just didn't take off until the 1980s. London's a wealthy city; it has a huge population (over seven million people, depending on where you consider the boundaries of "London" to lie); and it's a multicultural city, so there's a score of diverse communities who have brought their food cultures to the city. Londoners are less conservative in their dining habits than other British people or, indeed, other Europeans. And, of course, London doesn't just comprise British-born people. Britain has long been a member of the European Union; as more European countries join, chefs from Stockholm to Lisbon are able to work legally in London. Equally, young chefs from Commonwealth countries, such as Australia and New Zealand, find it easy to get work
(for a couple of years at least). And when Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997, many of the best Cantonese chefs decided it was time to move to London, making London's dim sum some of the best you'll find anywhere. Chefs apart, London itself is an ethnically diverse city: by the year 2050, more than half of London's population will have one or both parents of Asian or African heritage.
London's multiculturalism is only a precondition of it being a great city for eating out—what has really driven the restaurant boom is the growth in disposable income. Between 1986 and 2001, there was an increase in the average household income of around 40 percent. This occurred at the same time as a drop in the cost of living (in real terms). This might be hard to believe as London is still the most expensive city in Europe, but Londoners simply have more money than they've ever had. And think back to the 1980s; for a short while, Greed Was Good, and the previous British reserve about throwing money around in bars and restaurants evaporated.
The colorful dining room at The Square Restaurant in the heart of Mayfair.
The glitzy Criterion brasserie, located on Piccadilly Circus, London's only neo-Byzantine restaurant.
The Warrington hotel, formerly owned, in the late 1800s, by the Church of England, now a bar and restaurant.
Restaurateurs such as Sir Terence Conran sniffed the change in mood and realized that the time was right to build lavish, opulent restaurants. One of the first of the grand designs was Quaglino's, which Conran modeled on the Parisian brasserie La Coupole. It was spectacular; it was pricey; it also served good food. Conran judged that Londoners were ready to appreciate the theater and fun of eating out, and were no longer just concerned about portion sizes and price. Conran continues to build an empire of expensive but well-managed restaurants to this day.
A revolution was also happening at the other end of the price scale. Cheap fast food in London had previously been dominated by second-rate pizza and pasta places, or kebabs and burgers; there weren't even many good sandwich bars. Then, in 1986, Pret a Manger opened its first sandwich bar, selling ready-made but high-quality sandwiches, and now there's one on every major street in central London. In the 1990s, espresso chains took over the high streets, though these are more clearly modeled on (or even owned by) State-side chains, such as Star-bucks. Asian food in London had previously been dominated by Chinese takeaways and Indian curry houses, but in 1992 Wagamama created a huge stir when it opened its first branch. Food from the Far East had previously been "ghettoized", but Wagamama's intriguing mix of Japanese-style noodles mixed with Southeast Asian flavors was a huge hit. The restaurant is cheap and theatrical. The huge, minimally designed space features shared bench seating, fast turnaround, and quick-moving lines (no bookings are taken). Alan Yau, its creator, sold the growing chain, then went on to set up Busaba Eathai (which does a similar thing with Thai food) and, in 2001, opened Hakkasan (a very glamorous Chinese restaurant serving dim sum at lunchtime).
Besides the mass-market budget restaurants and the big names like Conran, there is also a quieter revolution going on in London's kitchens. It started a long time ago, arguably with the cookery writing of Elizabeth David in the 1960s. However, it took until the 1980s for her Mediterranean approach of using the finest ingredients and preparing them simply to start appearing on smart restaurant menus. Previously, London's top chefs had been pursuing the Michelin route—using the decades-old French approach of lots of butter, cream, meat, and reduced sauces. French haute cuisine was becoming less appealing to a more health-conscious public.
Early pioneers of the so-called "Modern British" cooking included Alastair Little opening in Soho in 1984, and, also in 1984, Sally Clarke who introduced "Cal-Ital" cooking to London (having learned her approach from Alice Waters in Berkeley, California). Soon their style of cooking became the norm. However, the term "Modern British" is a misnomer; there's not much that's typically British about ingredients like lemongrass or harissa, or cooking techniques like char-grilling or searing. The term "Modern European" is now usually preferred (and it's much the same as "Contemporary American" or "Modern Australian" cooking). If you singled out London's top 100 restaurants, around 70 could be categorized as "Modern European".
The British still like their pubs, even though by the 1980s many London pubs were owned by a handful of brewery chains selling mass-produced, insipid, or badly-kept ales and lagers. The reaction to this was not a groundswell of people clamoring for real ales; instead they switched to other drinks—bottled beers and pre-mixed alcopops—where at least the quality was consistent. A few pubs continue to champion real ales and even microbrewed ales, but one of the biggest changes is that London's pub owners have realized that there's money to be made by serving customers good food as well as drink. One of the first and most influential gastropubs was The Eagle in Farringdon. It strived to be a happy mix of both pub and dining area, so there was no pressure to just eat or drink; the beers were good, there was even a decent wine list, and the cooking was an unusual style of Iberian-inspired dishes. It was a huge hit, sparking a wave of spin-off gastropubs and restaurants, such as the much lauded Moro. London's gastropubs go from strength to strength. Some of the best meals I've eaten this year have been in gastropubs, not chi-chi restaurants.
The Chef at Satsuma, in Soho, shows of a bento box.
The Blue Posts consist of four pubs in Soho, London, which serve a number of well-cellared and popular beers.
London is a genuinely exciting place to eat out, because there's something for everyone. If you like budget "ethnic" restaurants, there are delightful cafes like the Sudanese Mandola in Notting Hill, the Vietnamese Viet Hoa in Hoxton, the Burmese Mandalay on the Edgware Road, or the Turkish Mangal in Dalston.
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