recommend a restaurant in London!

It's my girlfriend's birthday this weekend. Taking her to a show and then dinner/drinks in the evening.

I don't know the restaurant scene at all. My budget is up to £100-150 for 2 or 3 courses with drinks for the two of us. We like seafood, prawns, crab....or a good steak is never bad. No italian, I don't think it's good value for an expensive meal. can anyone recommend a good restaurant (central london would be good), doesn't necessarily have to be seafood.

Thanks!

I'll pimp again, I'm not scared of being a stuck record. Still my fav restaurant.
http://www.latrompette.co.uk/
Not centre but easy to get to on tube.

Or have a look on www.totable.com brilliant website.

If you fancy some Vietnamese / asian fusion Bam Bou is pretty close to that area and I quite enjoyed it. I don't normally eat in the West End, so there's probably much better.

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/place...cal_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CCgQqgUwAQ

Here's a list I made a while back, still all good. I went to Hawksmoor the other day and it was great. Go for cocktails there before hand, they have a bar with great drinks.

http://www.goodmanrestaurants.com/ Goodman, steak.

http://www.thehawksmoor.co.uk/ Hawksmoor, steak.

http://www.rules.co.uk/ Rules, classic British.

http://www.terroirswinebar.com/ Terroirs, wine bar/French small plates

http://www.hixsoho.co.uk/ Hix, British (+ a great bar)

http://www.joelrobuchon.co.uk/ L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon, French

http://www.the-ivy.co.uk The Ivy, European + celeb spotting

http://www.thewolseley.com/ The Wolseley, European

http://www.barrafina.co.uk Barrafina, tapas

http://www.boccadilupo.com Bocca Di Lupo, Italian

http://www.polpo.co.uk Polpo, Italian small plates

http://www.yauatcha.com Yauatcha, Chinese

http://www.gauthiersoho.co.uk Gauthier Soho, French

http://www.galvinatwindows.com Galvin at Windows, French (great view)

http://www.hibiscusrestaurant.co.uk Hibiscus, French

http://www.gordonramsay.com/maze/ Maze

http://www.squarerestaurant.com The Square

http://www.wildhoneyrestaurant.co.uk Wild Honey

Should give you a few choices. Its worth looking at Square Meal, Top Table, London Eating and Urbanspoon but take the reviews with a pinch of salt. Cheese and Biscuits and London Eater are my two favourite London food blogs, worth looking at if your in town often, they have some great cheap gems.

p.s. this represents a great list of Londons best http://londoneater.com/2011/05/14/kangs-living-restaurant-guide-v3/

Oops, didn't see that its this weekend, scrub 98% of those lists, you wont get a table this late (unless you eat at 6 or 10). Check out Square Meal and Top Table and see where has space then go from there...

You could do the ALC at the ledbury for that - worth a go. It's probably the top restaurant in London right now. You'll struggle at most of the other top notch places but the ledbury is surprisingly reasonable given how good it is.

http://www.theledbury.com/Food/Lunch.aspx

Just noticed it's this weekend.. might be a struggle at that notice

Of all that I've been to, my favourite restaurants were:

Zafferano - Italian.
Theo Randall - Italian.

Rhodes 24 - British.

The Greenhouse - Modern European.

Maze - French (ish).
L'Autre Pied - French.

Tamarind - Indian.

Hakkasan - Asian/Oriental.

Kai - Chinese.

Some may be over budget, but they are all excellent.

Quilon

An excellent michelin starred Indian restaurant. Specialise in South Indian food, a lot of seafood, fish prawns etc.

It will be completely unlike any Indian food you have eaten before.

Folks recommending Maze - Remember Jason Atherton left over a year ago to set up Pollen Street Social, like a lot of Ramsay places it's supposedly gone downhill.

oli collett said:

Folks recommending Maze - Remember Jason Atherton left over a year ago to set up Pollen Street Social, like a lot of Ramsay places it's supposedly gone downhill.

Click to expand...

Didn't know this. What a shame.

Boxwood Cafe doesn't exist anymore either, I really liked that restaurant.

Justin said:

Didn't know this. What a shame.

Boxwood Cafe doesn't exist anymore either, I really liked that restaurant.

Click to expand...

its been replaced by Pierre Koffman, which last time I went was a level above what the boxwood cafe managed.

Maze has definitely gone downhill since Jason Atherton left. We used to go there for a work lunch fairly regularly but haven't been for 6 months now.

A great place in london that isn't too expensive is Bar Bouloud. Very casual and not too expensive, but the best burger's you'll get in London.