Eating out in London

I absolutely love trying new places to eat when I'm visiting London for a day but sometimes I find it's better for planning purposes to think ahead. For this reason I have some 'go to' places across central London where I know that I, and anyone travelling with me, will be happy to eat. This weekend my 'go to' was Tibits on Heddon Street. Heddon Street is a small pedestrian area full of eateries just off of Regents Street. What makes Tibits so different is that it's an exclusively vegetarian buffet where you help yourself to anything from the giant "food boat" and pay by the weight of your plate (plus a bread roll which comes with every plate). This may sound weird but if you apply logic when loading up your plate it's pretty easy to see if your plate will be a cheaper meal or more expensive one. As for the food itself: celery salad sits alongside beluga lentil salad, onion rings alongside Asian glass noodle salad, potato wedges alongside Moroccan spiced carrots. Such is the variety of things they offer you may not get the same thing every day and the menu changes with the seasons. The staff are friendly, even on manically busy days like yesterday, and the restaurant is clean and stylish.

In the name of research I even tried out the sticky toffee pudding and traditional cheesecake - both absolutely scrummy!

Tibits also operate a loyalty card scheme by which you get a free glass of fresh juice when you buy your 6th meal. I got my free glass yesterday!

I also took the opportunity to visit the Real Food Festival. This festival takes place on weekends behind the Royal Festival Hall on London's South Bank. I wasn't sure what to expect but what I found was a diverse range of stalls offering hot food to enjoy there and cakes, breads, cheeses and meats to take home. Riverford Organic was there selling fresh veg and promoting their veg box scheme and John Quilter the food busker was doing his thing in front of a tv camera (hopefully I'll find out when that's being broadcast). I got some baklava from an Lebanese stall as well as some gorgeous spring greens and sanguinello oranges from Riverford. I look forward to my next London trip where I hope to find some new recommendations!