Jan and John Maggs Antiques

An Anglophile's Guide for Americans Traveling in The United Kingdom

Part 2: Pub Dining

Although when we're in England we occasionally splurge for a fancy dinner in one of Britain’s excellent restaurants, we eat most of our meals in well-chosen pubs, which offer us the best combination of quality and price. One of the greatest pleasures of travel in the UK is finding a good pub and spending one or two hours enjoying its ambiance, people, and fare.

We've found two nearly foolproof ways to find good pubs. The first is to consult one of several published guides to English pubs. The best of these are The Good Beer Guide, published by CAMRA (website), and The Good Pub Guide, both available through most bookstores and online. Good Guides, who publish the second, have a free, searchable website, which features brief online reviews of hundreds of pubs.
 

White hair and blonde alike, enjoying this downtown Dublin pub

After you've chosen a pub, it's a good idea to call ahead. The best local pubs don't usually open their kitchens until 6:00 or so, and many pubs don't serve food on certain days of the week. Sunday nights are particularly difficult, since the best local pubs offer a "Sunday roast" at noontime, then close for the rest of the day. In fact, it's almost axiomatic that pubs serving food on Sunday evening are either branches of one of Britain's large pub chains or are locals frying up prepared meals from the freezer. (As long as your culinary expectations can be lowered, these less-than-gourmet meals can be offset by a good pint or two!) On the other hand, on Sundays we often buy bread, cheese, fruit, and bottled ale from a local grocery store and enjoy a "ploughman's" in our hotel room.

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