Restaurants, London

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It has been a long time, but I'll try to tell you what this restaurant is like. This restaurant at 43 Whitehall, near Trafalgar Square, next to the McDonald's, called S.P.Q.R., is a tourist trap scam. They charge a price that is very high, but not high enough to make it very obvious that it's a scam. The tourists will just think, "oh London must be a very expensive place". I don't think they have the prices for anything listed on the menu. It has a nice picture menu outside to try to entice you to enter.

The prices are very high. £4 for a coffee. £7 for supermarket cake. £20 for a very average pasta. They will say that they don't serve water from the tap and make you buy a bottle. They add a service charge to the bill. They don't take cash. If you don't have cash, you'll have to go to an ATM. If you have Euros, they will exchange it for a really bad exchange rate.

They have changed their name in order to avoid appearing in Google searches and restaurant reviews. Search for S.P.Q.R. and you will find it in tripadvisor along with bad reviews. It used to go by the name Cucina Creativa, which also has bad reviews. It also used to go by the names Borgia and Aotintica. It's only a matter of time before they change their name from S.P.Q.R. to something else also.

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We went to this restaurant "the Oldest fish and chips in London"

The interior is devoid of charm, and not really comfortable.
The food is ok but prices are too expensives.

about £ 35 dish and beer for 2 persons

Avoid restaurants in the very touristy areas eg Piccadilly, leicester square. If you are looking for a meal try a couple of blocks away from the area. You can find much more authentic cuisine usually at a much better price

Unique Suggestions: Research... dont pick the first restaurant you see. Have a look at a few menus. They are all in competion with each other.

Overpriced and average food seems to be the theme of reviews on this restaurant. We took our two children a couple of years ago and they really enjoyed the atmosphere although its true your wallet will take a huge hit!!

20 Shaftesbury Ave London W1D 7EU

Perhaps Londoners are used to paying high prices but for anyone from provisional England or some overseas countries some of the prices charged for food and drink are extortionate.
My tip is to go to the chains - Burger King, McDonalds, Cafe Nero, Pizza Express etc and pay the same prices you would be ( if you are English) used to paying at home.
Have a look at the photo - would you honestly pay £7.50 for take away fish and chips anywhere else in England!

Beware when you are paying your the bill in some smaller restaurants in London. Me and my sister once decided to eat at one of the restaurants in Camden Town, and by the time we asked for a bill, they had a cheek to add 10% on our final bill without our permission. That is really not on and you are not obliged to pay the additional charge, since tipping is optional for parties less than 6 people. I would have understood this, if I had been with 6 people (since many restaurants print that on their menus as well), but there was just two of us. You should refuse to pay for the additional charge, if you're not happy.

Unique Suggestions: Go to a place where you know, you do not have to pay additional charges or tips (if you are on a budget holiday)

It's a restaurant owned by Hollywood stars eg: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis and Rambo, er sorry, I meant Sylvester Stallone. It's an expensive place, and it's not like you're ever going to see the stars serving up lunch is it? Mind you, it would be great seeing them in action as the actual bouncers wouldn't it, especially now they are wrinkly old men.

Unique Suggestions:
See if Arnie, Bruce and Rambo have the balls to throw you out.

Fun Alternatives:
a sandwich?

The more you use these dumps the more of them will open.

If you like Starbucks (and only your deity knows why!) or Coffee Republic, Cafe Costa, Caffe nero... then please do it at home.

We don't want all these rubbish and expensive outlets coming and ruining our streets.

This is not the set of Friends or Ellen. This is a working city with small shops going to the wall because you can drink "cawfee" like back home and give these parasites their profits.

Fun Alternatives: Look for a small cafe that is not part of a chain.

These guys have a tradition of making coffee..... and that will be gone when you allow Starbucks to move in next door.... and London is full of them!

During our visit in December 2001, we had a bad experience with having dinner in a good Indian restaurant in Chelsea. I'm sure that the restaurant took advantage of the fact that we were tourists and were not aware of the local customs. I want to tell you our story, so you will not experience the same thing.

We were a party of 8 and wanted to try the indian food. As we did not know this kind of food and had no idea what to take, the waiter suggested us to take a Indian banquet meal. This was really a good idea. We told him, however, not to bring us the most spicy platters. The food was very good and we were pleased until we received the bill; more than £ 400 for 8 people! We discussed the bill with the boss but it had no sense.
What we did wrong:
this Indian banquet meal was not on the menu, so there was no fixed price. We are used in Belgium that if you ask for a banquet meal, you pay a reasonable price because you get smaller portions of the usually main courses, but it seems that what they did in this restaurant, they charged us the full price for everything they brought and this were more than 8 main courses. They brought f.e. 3 plates with bread. Everyone took some bread from 1 plate or another, but none of the plates was empty. They charged 3 times bread. If we had know it (but of course we are stupid tourists!) we had emptied one plate before starting another and give back the full platters saying we did not use them. We did get spicy platters, of course not knowing this, we tried all platters. What we did wrong was not complaining about the spicy one's and giving them back. Of course they charged us the full price for those spicy platters we didn't want in the first place.

So if you want a mixture of Indian food and it is not on the menu be sure you ask in advance what they will charge you and if there is something you don't like or didn't ask for, surely complain about it and give it back before getting the bill!!!

If you like to go in Soho in an expensive, dirty and cheating restaurant prefer:
SCOTTISH STEAK HOUSE
You will reconize it by red seats and shop-windows which shows the cheated tourists eating bad food.