 |
| Winstons |
Knowing where a pub ends and a restaurant begins makes naming London’s oldest restaurants a contentious business. The word “restaurant” only appeared in the capital around the 1820s, though before that there were plenty of taverns (pubs) and hundreds of street stalls that sold food. A handful of dining places known as “French ordinaries” appeared in Soho after 1685 with the first wave of Huguenot immigrants. Otherwise, dining out was seen as a masculine and rather the 1890s. Here’s a selection of venerable eating places that are still in business:
• 1742
Wiltons (55 Jermyn St., SW1) was established as an oyster stall in Haymarket. It has changed location several times since—most recently in 1964—but still specializes in seafood.
• 1757
Thomas Simpson opened Simpson’s Tavern (Ball Court, Cornhill, EC3), London’s oldest remaining chophouse.
• 1798
The oldest restaurant in London on its original site, Rules (35 Maiden Lane, WC2,) opened as an oyster bar and is now known both for its lovely dining room and classic British cuisine.
• 1828
Simpson’s-in-the-Strand (100 Strand, WC2) was a coffeehouse, chess club, and smoking room for 20 years before becoming known for its classic British food.
• 1867
Still a Soho institution and pre-theater favorite, Kettner’s (29 Romilly St., W1) was opened by a chef to Napoleon III at a time when French food was becoming fashionable in the capital.
• 1874
These days the food at the Criterion (224 Piccadilly, W1) receives mixed reviews, but chances are that you’ll spend so much time being dazzled by the opulent dining room—arguably London’s most spectacular—that you may not even notice what you’re eating.
• 1889
The City’s skyscrapers bristle on all sides, but Sweetings (39 Queen Victoria St., EC4) remains a throwback, its listed building having survived both bombs and developers. The food—almost entirely fish—is also still much as it was a century ago (lunch only).
• 50-plus
Two dining places that have passed the half-century mark are Mon Plaisir (19-21 Monmouth St., WC2), which claims to be London’s oldest French restaurant, and Greig’s (26 Bruton Place, W1), a traditional steakhouse in Mayfair.
Written by Tim Jepson & Larry Porges in "National Geographic London Book of Lists", National Geographic, Washington, DC, USA, 2014. Digitized, adapted and illustrated to be posted by Leopoldo Costa.