GREAT BRITAIN - Best of Europe 2014 - page 867

Sofra Turkish Restaurant is good for quality Turkish with a touch of class. They
have several menus: meze (Turkish tapas, £4-7), vegetarian, and £10 fixed-price meals (also
£10-15 main dishes, daily 9:00-24:00, 36 Tavistock Street, tel. [phone]).
Sitar Indian Restaurant is a well-respected Indian/Bangladeshi place serving dishes
from many regions, fine fish, and a tasty £15 vegetarian thali . It's small and dressy, with
snappy service (£10-17 main dishes, Mon-Fri 12:00-24:00, Sat-Sun 15:00-23:00, next to
Somerset House at 149 Strand, tel. [phone]).
Belgo Centraal serves hearty Belgian specialties in a vast 400-seat underground lair.
It's a mussels, 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. It's often more fun just to
grab a spot in the boisterous beer hall, with its tight, communal benches (no reservations
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; daily £8 lunch spe-
cial 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. [phone]).
Neal's Yard is a surprisingly colorful courtyard full of cheap, hip, and healthy eateries
near Covent Garden. The neighborhood is a tabouli 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 £5 vegetarian meals, £8 dinner plates, Mon-Sat 12:00-20:30, Sun
12:00-17:30, 2 blocks north of Covent Garden Tube station at 31 Neal Street, tel. 020/
7836-0239).
Masala Zone is a colorful London chain serving up accessible and reliably good Indian
food.Youcanorderacurry-and-ricedish,a thali (metalplatterwithseveralsmalldishes),or
their street foodspecials. Each branch hasits ownpersonality; the oneat Covent Garden has
giant, colorful marionettes suspended from the ceiling (£8-12 meals, daily 12:00-23:00, just
off the top end of Covent Garden at 48 Floral Street, tel. [phone]). Other locations
include Soho (9 Marshall Street) and Bayswater (75 Bishops Bridge Road).
Near the British Museum, in Fitzrovia
To avoid the touristy crush right around the museum (and just southwest, in Soho), London-
ers head a few blocks west, to the Fitzrovia area. Here, tiny Charlotte Place is lined with
small eateries (including the two listed below); nearby, the much bigger Charlotte Street has
several more good options. The higher street signs you'll notice on Charlotte Street are a