Luke's London Eats

As an avid food lover I was excited to experience London's culinary offerings. When I learned St. James School provided a vegetarian-only menu I was a bit discouraged, but that feeling was lost when I began to actually try the stuff. The meals here are nothing short of phenomenal. I have also found amazing places to eat in my trips to the city. While I've caught a couple weird looks trying to get a good angle on my meals for these photos, here are some of my favorite things so far ...

I'll start with one of my favorite meals from St. James, a stuffed baked potato filled with cheese and various veggies ...

One of the desserts from St. James really had me feeling like I was at home, an apple crumble. It was delicious ...

Now for some of the meals I've had in central London. I found this Italian restaurant that looked quite good called Strada. Here is a penne pasta with white sauce and salsa verde ...

Before I left St. Louis I filled up on Qdoba burritos believing Mexican food would be hard to come by in London and the stuff I could find would not be very good. I was wrong. This place is called Lupita and I can easily say it is the best Mexican food I have ever had. The plate on the left contains two arrachera quesadillas, which is basically steak and onions. The plate on the right contains two campechano tacos, which consist of arrachera steak, pork chicarron, and salsa guajillo ...

I found another great Italian restaurant right near Waterloo station called Bella Italia. This dish is called Pollo Formaggi al Forno. It contains chicken and crispy pancetta in a rich four cheese sauce with giant shell pasta and a cheesy crumb topping ...

Another meal that really reminded me of home was this fried chicken plate from one of my favorite places called Joe's Southern Kitchen. They do a pretty good job of capturing the southern U.S. vibe, playing bluegrass music and serving American whiskeys like Knob Creek and Jim Beam. Beam is surprisingly hard to find here ...

I have tried not to go to the same place twice, but Lupita is just amazing. This meal was a bit smaller in proportion than the one above, but I just wasn't as hungry. The classicos nachos were light and incredibly delicious, and of course I had to have a mojito ...

I found this peculiar place off one of the main roads in London -- an area called The Strand. It's a bit of a hole in the wall, but their food is flat out delicious. It's a burger joint called Dub Jam and they serve tropical style burgers and play reggae music, giving you a beach cabana feel. I had never really thought about avocado on a burger but it turned a skeptic into a believer. My phone was actually low on battery when I was there so I had to grab this picture from the web ...

This is only the first month, so I'm sure I will find some more restaurants to rave about.