Harrod's Food Halls, London

While Fortnum and Mason was pretty, it was nothing compared to Harrod's - whose food halls rivaled those in Japanese department stores. They were amazing! There are 4 halls total -- 1) Prepared foods with a few mid-range counter restaurants (dim sum, sushi, and tapas); 2) Coffees, teas, biscuits, etc. 3) Fresh produce, butchers, seafood, poultry; and 4) Candy and the casual eateries - pizza, gelato, deli.

Not only are the halls themselves beautiful, with lovely mosaics, chandeliers, etc. the food is also artfully presented. These pictures don't do it justice, but here you go.

Fortnum and Mason, London

We had a stop in to the super hoity-toity food store Fortnum and Mason in Piccadilly, 300 years old and counting, holding Royal Warrants as Grocers to HRH the Prince of Wales and HM the Queen. Known for its prettily packaged gift hampers, teas, biscuits, confectionery, and wines, the store was like a Tiffany's for food.


Fortnum and Mason
181 Piccadilly
London
W1A 1ER

St. John's, London

Throughout our trip we kept it pretty on-the-fly in terms of our meals, but the one place we knew we wanted to eat at and made a reservation for in London was nose-to-tail guru Fergus Henderson's St. John's. The smell of fresh-baked bread as we walked in to the clean white space was so enticing... Did I mention that we had no good bread in Scotland? So we happily dug into the homemade bread basket, while we perused the menu.

We decided on 3 small plates -- bone marrow, served in traditional fashion with parsley salad, sea salt, and more delicious bread; cauliflower, fennel, and butter bean salad; ox tongue with bread and green parsley dressing -- and one large plate: hare saddle with lentils.

It was so wonderful to eat fresh crisp vegetables - crunchy fennel and cauliflower with creamy butterbeans. The ox tongue was super tender; bone marrow, of course, such a simple pleasure. And the hare was a nice medium rare, simply seasoned.

Redneckhunter finished the meal with a refreshing lemon sorbet with vodka.

St. John's Restaurant
26 St John Street
London
EC1M 4AY
020 7251 0848