EATING IN LONDON - London 2015 - page 666

just to grab a spot in the boisterous beer hall, with its tight, communal benches (no reser-
vations accepted). Both sides have the same menu and specials. Belgians claim they eat
as well as the French and as heartily as the Germans. This place, which offers a stunning
array of dark, blonde, and fruity Belgian beers, actually makes Belgian things trendy—a
formidable feat ( £ 10-14 main dishes, open daily 12:00-23:00; Mon-Fri £ 5-6.30 “beat the
clock” meal specials 17:00-18:30—the time you order is the price you pay—including
main dishes and fries; no meal-splitting after 18:30, and you must buy food with beer ex-
cept Fri-Sat; daily £ 8 lunch special 12:00-17:00; 1 kid eats free for each parent ordering
a regular entrée; 1 block north of Covent Garden Tube station at 50 Earlham Street, tel.
020/7813-2233, www.belgo-restaurants.co.uk ) .
Neal's Yard is a surprisingly colorful courtyard full of cheap, hip, and healthy eateries
near Covent Garden. The neighborhood is a tabbouleh of fun, hippie-type cafés. One of
the best—nearby—is the venerable and ferociously vegetarian Food for Thought, packed
with local health nuts (good £ 8 vegetarian meals, Mon-Sat 12:00-20:30, Sun 12:00-17:30,
2 blocks north of Covent Garden Tube station at 31 Neal Street, tel. [phone]).
Union Jacks, a venture of British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, fuses traditional British
ingredients to make inventive modern dishes. Jamie's wood-fired pizzas are topped not
with cheese and tomatoes, but roast pig shoulder or oxtail and brisket. While this sounds
risky, he pulls it off with great flavors, plus fun “fizzy drinks.” It sits right inside the
Covent Garden market hall ( £ 5-8 small plates are very small, £ 10-13 pizzas, £ 15 classic
British dishes, daily 12:00-23:00, Covent Garden tel. [phone]).
Good Chains near Covent Garden: This area seems to have a branch of nearly every
London chain, including Masala Zone (particularly fun branch at the top end of the mar-
ket has giant, colorful marionettes suspended from the ceiling, 48 Floral Street), Côte
(17-21 Tavistock Street and one closer to Leicester Square at 50-51 St. Martin's Lane),
Busaba Eathai (44 Floral Street), Thai Square (166-170 Shaftesbury Avenue, plus one
next to Sitar Indian Restaurant at 148 The Strand), Wagamama (1 Tavistock Street),
Byron (behind the London Transport Museum at 33-35 Wellington Street), Loch Fyne (a
couple of blocks behind the square at 2 Catherine Street), and Nando's (66-68 Chandos
Place). For descriptions, see here .
Near the British Museum, in Fitzrovia
To avoid the touristy crush right around the museum (and just southwest, in Soho), Lon-
doners head a few blocks west, to the Fitzrovia area. Here, tiny Charlotte Place is lined
with small eateries (including the first two listed below); nearby, the much bigger Char-
lotte Street has several more good options. The higher street signs you'll notice on Char-
lotte Street are a holdover from a time when they needed to be visible to carriage drivers.