British food doesn’t always have the best reputation, which is strange as every experience I had was good. It is true that the last few years chefs like Rick Stein, Gary Rhodes, Jamie Oliver, Gordon Ramsay and many more have done many efforts to show that British food is more than only fish and chips! They try to show that there are so many good local products that one should be proud of! Every time I visit a foreign country or city I at least have to try one local dish meal. Like the saying says: “When in Rome do as the romans” when in Britain….. All the times I was in Great Britain I have always eaten well, which doesn’t always have to mean “expensive”. When you are ever in London and you feel like trying real British food made with local products grown by local farmers, I would suggest trying one of the “Canteen” restaurants. As you might already expect, the restaurants are like canteens, but don’t worry they really did their best to pimp the interiors (different in every Canteen restaurant). So no boring school canteens 🙂

We came here to eat of course, so let me start talking about the food. I took a Beef pie (I love pies) and my fiancée another great British classic, smoked haddock :-). How better to end our meal than with a slice of carrot cake (although I have to admit I would have also enjoyed a slice of bread pudding). I have admit that choosing wasn’t easy as there were so many great dishes on the menu that I wanted to try… (and I cannot always be greedy)

We enjoyed our real British meal very much and you will never hear us say that British food is bad! Simple and good, that’s a combination that is always a success. So if you are looking for traditional authentic British food, Canteen it the place to be. We went to the Canteen at Covent Garden, as this way after our dinner we could enjoy Covent Garden by night in a Christmas atmosphere 🙂

The only thing that would have made this dinner better for me is if I could have tried English/British wine… I know they exist or aren’t they worth drinking? (Although I would find that hard to believe)

If you need some more convincing of great British food,  watch one my favorite BBC shows “Saturday Kitchen”, and see how great British food can be!

Canteen

Website: http://www.canteen.co.uk/

Address (the one in Covent Garden)

21 Wellington Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2E 7DN