London Crawling
London has a trendy, Generation-X scene that most Beefeater-seekers miss entirely. These restaurants are scattered throughout the hipster, gay, and girlie-bar district, teeming each evening with fun-seekers and theater-goers. Even if you plan to have dinner elsewhere, it's a treat to just wander around this lively area. Beware of the extremely welcoming girls that stand outside the strip bars. But if you're curious, head down Great Windmill Street and stop by the door at each of the three bars. Enjoy the sales pitch, but only fools enter — like a fish attracted to a fancy, well-polished lure, you hardly see the hook. Naive guys bite for the "£5 drink and show" and step in...and then can't get out without emptying their wallets.
The Soho "Food is Fun" Three-Course Dinner Crawl: For a multicultural, movable feast, consider eating (or splitting) one course and enjoying a drink at each of these places. Arrive before 18:00 at Belgo Centraal and split the early-bird dinner special: a kilo of mussels, fries, and dark Belgian beer. At Yo! Sushi, have beer or sake and a few dishes. Slurp your last course at Wagamama Noodle Bar. For dessert, people-watch at Leicester Square, where the serf's always up.
Prices, while reasonable by London standards, add up (multiply by 1.8 for approximate cost in US dollars). Servings are large enough to share. All are open nightly.
Belgo Centraal serves hearty Belgian specialties in a vast, 400-seat underground lair. It's a seafood, chips, and beer emporium dressed up as a mod-monastic refectory — with noisy acoustics and waiters garbed as Trappist monks. The classy restaurant section is more comfortable and less rowdy, but usually requires reservations (the wait can be up to 2 hours Fri–Sat without a reservation). It's often more fun to just grab a spot in the boisterous beer hall, with its tight, communal benches (no reservations accepted). The same menu and specials work on both sides. Belgians claim they eat as well as the French and as heartily as the Germans. Specialties include mussels, great fries, and a stunning array of dark, blond, and fruity Belgian beers (even beer ice cream). Belgo actually makes Belgian things trendy — a formidable feat (£10–14 meals; Mon–Sat 12:00–23:30, Sun 12:00–22:30; Mon–Fri £5–6.30 "beat the clock" meal specials from 17:00–18:30 — the time you order is the price you pay — including main dishes, fries, and beer; no meal-splitting after 18:30, and you must buy food with beer; daily £6.50 lunch special 12:00–17:00; 2 kids eat free for each parent ordering a regular entree; 1 block north of Covent Garden Tube station at intersection of Neal and Shelton streets, 50 Earlham Street, tel. 020/7813-2233).
Yo! Sushi is a futuristic Japanese-food-extravaganza experience. It's not cheap, but it's sure to be a memorable experience, complete with thumping rock, Japanese cable TV, a 195-foot-long conveyor belt — the world's longest sushi bar — and automated sushi machines. For £1 each you get unlimited tea or water (from spigot at bar, with or without gas). Snag a bar stool and grab dishes as they rattle by (priced by color of dish; check the chart: £1.50–5 per dish, £1.50 for miso soup, Mon–Sat 12:00–23:00, Sun 12:00–22:30, 2 blocks south of Oxford Street, where Lexington Street becomes Poland Street, 52 Poland Street, tel. 020/7287-0443). If you like Yo!, there are several locations around town, including a handy branch a block from the London Eye on Belvedere Road, as well as outlets within Selfridges, Harvey Nichols department stores, and Whiteleys Mall on Queensway.
Wagamama Noodle Bar is a noisy, pan-Asian, organic slurpathon. As you enter, check out the kitchen and listen to the roar of the basement, where benches rock with happy eaters. Everybody sucks. Stand against the wall to feel the energy of all this "positive eating" (£7–12 meals, Mon–Sat 12:00–23:00, Sun 12:00–22:00, crowded after 20:00, 10A Lexington Street, tel. 020/7292-0990 but no reservations taken). If you like this place, handy branches are all over town, including one near the British Museum (Streatham Street), High Street Kensington (#26), in Harvey Nichols (109 Knightsbridge), Covent Garden (Tavistock Street), Leicester Square (Irving Street), Piccadilly Circus (Norris Street), Fleet Street (#109), and between St. Paul's and the Tower of London (22 Old Broad Street). Get two-for-one coupons in advance on their website (must register first).
For a more romantic experience, Andrew Edmunds Restaurant is a tiny, candlelit place where you'll want to hide your camera and guidebook and act as local as possible. This great little place — with a jealous and loyal clientele — is the closest I've found to Parisian quality in a cozy restaurant in London. The modern European cooking with a creative seasonal menu is worth the splurge (£25 meals, daily 12:30–15:00 & 18:00–22:45, come early or call ahead — request ground floor rather than basement, 46 Lexington Street in Soho, tel. 020/7437-5708).
Updated for 2008. For lots more information, check out our best-selling Rick Steves' London guidebook — or join us on one of our free-spirited London tours!