h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Apart from the places frequented by ex-pats and holidaymakers in heavily-touristed areas like the Costas, are there any restaurants dedicated to traditional British cuisine outside of the UK?

I am led to believe that there are many establishments that specialise in English Breakfast on the Costa Brava.

PP.

I believe that there are, in Nova Scotia for instance.

There are many English restaurants across India - it's a bit of a tradition to 'go out for an English' on Friday nights:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdo79znnHl8

France has plenty, a very good selection of fish and chip shops

How interesting Bob, yes, I see they've even got one in Paris.

I have heard it said that the excellence of British cuisine is not in the dishes, but the ingredients. Top-end Michelin-starred chefs the world over may not exactly be preparing pies or toad-in-the-hole, but they do seek out British beef, lamb and pork, lettuces and cabbages and turnips and carrots, raspberries and blackberries and apples and pears. Many of the things we make are the best regarded of their kind in the world.

Glad to hear that!

Do English pubs count if they do food

Only if they do English food. I went to an 'English pub' in Tokyo once (in Shibuya Station, I think) and although it had a fair amount of wood panelling and so on, all the food and beer was Japanese. I ordered a curry, and it was a standard 'katsu curry' of the kind you get all the time over there.

Is curry considered English food by definition? If so, wouldn't the whole Indian subcontinent's restaurant industry qualify?

There are some types of curry dishes you only find in the UK.

If you go to an "Indian Restaurant" in the UK, you are served British dishes by Bangladeshi waiters. It's a subject of some amusement to my Indian work colleagues.

I pass by this one on my commute every day http://britspubandeatery.com/ The food is not too bad, if British food can ever be classified as 'not too bad'

F S

Looked about right for a good average British pub restaurant, local ingredients will make a difference, but authentic look and feel, if Brits want posh nosh it tends to include french dishes and will start about $90 per head.

Hows the beer?

These guys are doing a nice menus and you are paying a bit less than a British customer for the same or similar

Tell them they are doing a good job next time you pop in

You have given me a challenge, I will have to stop by in the next evening or two to give a proper report on the taps. The sacrifices we make to be a true researcher.

At the risk of going totally off-topic - after all this is h2g2

The local I use most often is http://www.gilldawg.com/ It is only about 15 minutes away, wife and I were there yesterday and I had a couple pints of Stella http://www.stellaartois.com/en_us/home.html

You can even bring your dog!

This is a Guide

F S

I just watched that sketch linked to above. It's brilliant!

Anyway - out in the wild centre of Europe you wouldn't find a British food place, but there are loads of Irish pubs. The food is not really Irish or even British, it usually applies only to the beer.

A crowd of Brits do invade the kitchen in one pub in our town once a year and have a Christmas party with a turkey roast and all the trimmings.

There was a self-styled "Irish pub" in Wuppertal. It was called "The Londoner".

The decor was all orange, too.

Have just checked out the menu of FS's place. It's half British, probably because not all the ingredients are available there. Wonder why they pluralise pasty as "pastys" - and I liked this typo:




>>Served with pas and carrots and choice of homemade mashed potatoes or fries<<

Is pasties not spelt "pastie" in the singular, too? That's not a rhetorical question. The longer I think about it, the less sure I am about it.