London Dining To Electrify Your Trip. Plug In Anywhere.

ANGLER.

A modern Michelin dream of shiny ceilings mirrored to reflect not just our merriment but the blood and sweat and tears of the kitchen in which Chef Gary Folks and his crew braised them.

It is the pursuit of perfection, sure, but more than that it is a push of locally sourced ingredients from British waters to the top gun of modernity in British cuisine. The elite. Best of the best. I mean there's London and then there's Michelin star London. Would be a once in a lifetime special occasion and this is just the type that you can get only in London and who knows when you'll be back?

What's that? You're looking for something a little more on the cheap? The hell you are. It doesn't get any cheaper than Michelin starred restaurants because that little Michelin star means Angler is held to a degree of cleanliness higher than any standard you've ever held yourself to about anything, and that the produce you're eating is not just highly seasonal but cooked to the absolute perfection of humankind's knowhow.

Shucks, since we're baking layers of promises into our Michelin starred evening, why not add that the sommelier, selected by one of the top chefs in the world, knows how to suggest a pairing of wine that isn't as random as your eyes-closed point into a leather bound wine list but pairs wine with food like morning pairs dew with a long, cool night.

Then of course, there's the service, of which I've found is of the friendliest in the world, and will share the evening with you if you let them. They know it's a special occasion, and they don't work the hours they work and to the degree of perfection that they work them to just to see the people they do it for forget it all. Engage them.

Of course, when you're done with your victory of dining better than almost anyone in the world tonight, return to Angler's den of low lights and blankets and drinks better than anywhere else in the world tonight. I dare you to find as many promises packed into the dollars you spend at Michelin restaurants anywhere else. Why wander lost in London’s streets and evenings forgotten when you can be guaranteed victory. How much would you pay for all of those things separately? Combined into a Michelin restaurant, it's the best value around.

BAILEYS FISH AND CHIPS.

But I see your point.

So how about fish and chips in Chelsea at a place called Bailey's with locals and the owner greeting you and offering you a spot at the bar.

Here you will find not a shelter from being lost on London’s streets for the evening but a promise to send you out the door wonderfully so.

MAZE GRILL.

It's a Gordon Ramsay restaurant that is small and inviting and charming and buzzing and with equally so waiters like Stefano who spent all evening with me talking about and recommending London and with chefs who are given free reign to create and serve their own dishes.

Gordon Ramsay trained under some of the best chefs in the world and that includes Marco Pierre White and Gordon holds his own restaurants to those standards and has some of the best run restaurants in London.

BERNERS TAVERN.

Of course, all of those chefs are emphatically British and speaking of emphatically British—what about Berners Tavern, which flips the term wall art into art wall and which is a fifteen minute walk from the emphatically British, British museum?

It's funky and a bit rushed but it's a nice quickish little sit down before the museum.

MELE E PERE.

Or, speaking of conversation, what if we sat at the window of Mele e Pere and savored our modern Italian which shuts our mouth with savoring in preparation for Les Misérables the show at the Queen's Theatre, which is only like three minutes away on foot.

Queen's Theatre is where Les Misérables first opened to the world and is where it still has the rotating stage and is where Eponine and Marius and Jean Valjean remind us in no uncertain terms that conversation amongst friends is no causal thing but is a spark in woods that have not seen enough rain for playing with such things.

And that you never really know where an evening might end, if done right.

After all, before we heard the people sing, they were sitting around the table, talking, intimate, warm against the drafts. So choose carefully. Sparks happen.