London Suggestions

Whipped

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Ok, my girlfriend is coming up for a week from Plymouth next weekend and I'm taking a day or two off work. She's only ever been to London once and I'm going to take her down.

What I'd really like to avoid is the bog standard, "This is London! Umm, Oford street then?"

So, suggestions for nice places to go (Preferably cheapish ;)) would be welcome. A nice resturant in the evening would be good to.

Cheers guys & gals.
 

Vae

Resident Freddy
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Most of the museums are free now as are the galleries. So you can go into the Science museum and play with all the fun toys while ignoring all the uninteresting bits :p Maybe Tate Britain or Modern if either appeal?

I suppose you have to take the obligitory walk through covent garden, china town, leicester sq, Trafalgar sq etc

A bit of shopping on Oxford St (but not too much for your sake :) )

London Eye could be a good idea - Get to point out a lot of sights etc without having to go see them up close.

Dinner in the evening. Chinese is a good bet and there's quite a few good ones in China town. You might be able to get away with £15 per head for that.
Try Joy King just north of the nw corner of Leicester Sq or China Garden on Gerrard St. There's some other nice ones on Gerrard St and Lisle St - Just look for the ones with Chinese people in them and without dead ducks hanging in the window. I've eaten in most of the others and can't say I've had a bad meal in any.

For more expensive restaurants try finding a pre theatre menu. L'estaminet on Garrick St in Covent Garden is excellent (£35 per head or cheaper with a pre theatre menu - check out the menu outside).

If you want really cheap food there's an italian called pollo (I'm not sure if the A fell of the beginning of the sign or not :) ) up a side street to the right of Les Mis on Charing Cross Road. You get a decent meal downstairs in what looks like a cafe for a max price of about £5.30 for the main course. It's fairly nice and very cheap if not the greatest quality but above all avoid the wine in there!
 

Scooba da Bass

Fledgling Freddie
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Most of the museums are free at the moment, the British Museum in particular being outstanding along with the Tate Modern. There's a great Dali exhibit down in County Hall at the moment which if you or her have any interest in art really should be checked out, you're also by the London Eye when you come out so if you want to do a super touristy thing get to it. Alternatively if it's cold there's an open air ice rink there.

If you want to do some shopping whilst avoiding the crush of Oxford Street, try Knightsbridge, lots of big name designer stores and far fewer tourists.
Camden Lock is also really nice area to visit for shopping, some great stalls and shops, however if it's raining it's pretty smelly.

As for the restaurant my favourite at the moment is Belgo Centraal over in Earlham Street. It serves Belgien food and has the best selection of beers and wines around. If you want something slightly cheaper maybe try heading into China Town, as long as you don't mind Chinese/Malay/Thai fare you'll be able to pick up a very large meal with wine for a lot cheaper than most places in London.

Give us some more examples of what you are both into and I'm sure people can come up with much more specific locations.

Edit; I type too slowly obviously.
 

pcg79

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go to Maison Bertaux. fkin lovely cakes.

its on Greek Street; near Tottenham Court Road
 

Whipped

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Good so far, I like the idea of the science museum and China Town sounds perfect.
Will drop some hints on the phone to her tonight and see if I can get some more specific queries.
 

Tom

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You must visit The Tower of London, the tours are excellent. Seeing the crown jewels certainly put a lump in my throat.
 

pcg79

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Tom said:
You must visit The Tower of London, the tours are excellent. Seeing the crown jewels certainly put a lump in my throat.
hmmmm
 

Yoni

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My favorite restaurant in London has to be Bertorellis on Firth Street in Soho for a Romantic meal and although I am not a massive fan followed by a late night at a small Jazz bar which was close by (not Ronnie Scotts), don't ask me what it was called I was always incredibly pissed when I went there.

I have no idea how much it costs, on the occasions I went there I wasn't allowed to pay :clap:

Agreeing with Scooba for a change ;) Belgo's Earlham Street would be an excellent choice especially if you are eating early evening.


Apart from the usual Touristy things I used to enjoy a wander around Angel on a weekend afternoon, eating there is quite easy also.

Another great place to find food at a nice price is Church Street in Stoke Newington, it is away from the tourist areas and there used to be a great Tapas bar called Bar Lorca :) (crappy name great atmosphere).
 

Doomy

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Just go portabello road during the day, really cool shops there and then head for camberwell for a club called the crypt (under a giant church) and see what they got going on there.... Last time i went there was a brazillian jazz band called Tropicala and i sat 5 inches from the belly dancing/lead singer lady which was fun :) Really nice little place, has allsorts there from the above to filthy nasty punk music. Well worth a visit .

Lovely food served there too and the staff are really nice.
 

kan

Loyal Freddie
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Anything is better than Plymouth so anything you show her will still have the "WOW" effect.

Please tell me she isnt from swilly.
 

Scooba da Bass

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Yoni said:
My favorite restaurant in London has to be Bertorellis on Firth Street in Soho for a Romantic meal and although I am not a massive fan followed by a late night at a small Jazz bar which was close by (not Ronnie Scotts), don't ask me what it was called I was always incredibly pissed when I went there.

Jazz after Dark on Greek Street?
 

Whipped

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kan said:
Anything is better than Plymouth so anything you show her will still have the "WOW" effect.

Please tell me she isnt from swilly.
Nope, Southway. Although I think I met someone from Swilly once. Horrible person ;)
Last time i went there was a brazillian jazz band called Tropicala and i sat 5 inches from the belly dancing/lead singer lady which was fun
Although probably not entirley appropriate for my girlfriend :D

--

Cheers for everything guys. I've got quite a few ideas now of places we can go. Looks like I've managed to wrangle most of next week off, so with any luck we can do the meal thing and leave the "hyper-shopping" experience to another day ;)
 

Yoni

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Scooba da Bass said:
Jazz after Dark on Greek Street?

Could well be as i said I was incredibly pissed on the occasions i went there and it was about 5 years ago.
 

Whipped

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In which case it could easily have been a busker playing in some darkened alley ;)
 

Whipped

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Had to just add this. Just got a text from the gf.

My parents say I'm mad to go to London. I'll get attack, have my purse stolen, have someone try to steal my bra without me noticing and stick out like a sore thumb because I'm not from London. And you should have your head examined for taking me there!

"have someone try to steal my bra without me noticing" has just had me in stiches for the last 10 mins :)
 

Scooba da Bass

Fledgling Freddie
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Sounds about right, bring her over to South London and you can add gang-raped to the list.
 

k9awya

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london dungeon!

trafalgar sq. used to pwn but they made it illegal to feed the birds? wtf did they do that! :(

tower of london = ummm interesting!
 

GekuL

Fledgling Freddie
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My parents say I'm mad to go to London. I'll get attack, have my purse stolen, have someone try to steal my bra without me noticing and stick out like a sore thumb because I'm not from London.

To be honest, 80% of the people in London are not from London.

The rest is true.
 

leggy

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My parents say I'm mad to go to London. I'll get attack, have my purse stolen, have someone try to steal my bra without me noticing and stick out like a sore thumb because I'm not from London. And you should have your head examined for taking me there!

Her parents have met you then?*
















*burrum tsh
 

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