The Traditional English Restaurants of London

I have to admit to a certain vested interest, having created Porters in 1979 to fill what seemed a huge and glaring gap in the market, by presenting interesting, reasonably priced, real English food.

Now that we have been going for just over twenty five years, we could possibly be described as having become somewhat established on the London scene, though we still have a long way to go to match Rules, just at the back of us in Maiden Lane, founded in 1798.

I often describe Porters as serving the sort of fare that you might have hoped to find in a London pub, but ended up curiously with lasagne instead, as sadly, few London pubs offer homemade English dishes, and lasagne sits perfectly on a hot-plate without deteriorating too much!

Still Porters offers a very straightforward deal to comprehend: no Cover Charge, all Starters and Puddings at £3.95, and with most main Courses including a Side Order at £9.95, the bill tends to come as a pleasant surprise rather than a nasty one. It definitely proves that English food can be both tasty and value-for-money.

From 1st October to 30th November 2004 we will once again have a £11.50 two course menu, available at lunchtime
Monday to Friday from 12 noon to 5.30 pm and in the evening from Monday to Sunday after 9.30 pm; plus there is a special voucher that can be printed off from the website offering 10% off the normal menu prices at lunchtime and in the evening, but not in conjunction with the £11.50 menu. Eating out in London has never been so reasonable!

A few of our foreign visitors are still a touch confused by some of our more esoteric dishes like ‘Faggots’ and ‘Spotted Dick’, even though we do add explanations, and now have menus translated into French, German, Italian and Japanese, to make comprehension a little easier.

The stunning and trendy Covent Garden Grill opened next door in September 2004, with great and really tempting food in a stylish setting.

However, you don’t have to take my word for it about Porters, as you can view the full menu, drinks list, photographs and write-ups from Frommers, Fodor’s, Zagat and many more, on the Website.

Richard, 7th Earl of Bradford