London Heat Wave Turns Gourmet Food Tour Into Sausage in a Sauna Experience

KEY POINTS

•An American food writer battled jet lag and a rare London heat wave while touring top eateries in central and east London in late June.
•On day one, visits included Towpath for a fresh produce-forward lunch, The George pub for oversized gin and tonics, and Brigadiers for upscale Indian fare with air conditioning relief.
•Day two highlights were Tavern’s pork chop and The Seven Stars’ historic pub cat, capped by a four-hour pickled and curated tasting menu experience at Cycene with Chef Taz Sarhane.

In late June, as London hit a tropical triple-digit heat wave that apparently caught Brits off guard—air conditioning and ice were treated like unicorn sightings—one sweaty American landed to brave jet lag and culinary quests. Day one featured a pilgrimage to Towpath near Regent’s Canal, where eggplant dip met mint soft serve, because nothing screams combating heat like dairy frozen mint slathered eggplant. Cooling salvation came at the 17th-century The George pub with a gin and tonic so large it qualified as hydration therapy, aided by a rhinestone-studded portable fan whose bling probably distracted other patrons. That evening, Brigadiers, an upscale Indian sports bar (cousin to two-Michelin-star Gymkhana), delivered butter-chicken wings and air conditioning so strong it moved the eaters to near tears. Nightlife? Soho’s jazz club, Trisha's, invited strawberry-and-cream tequila shots with an animal-print clad stranger and dancing to Britney Spears’ “Toxic” with live violins in an oven-like basement, finishing at Quo Vadis for cocktails upstairs, reinforcing the city's motto: 'Just say yes—regrets conducted later.' Day two highlights included Tavern’s melt-in-your-mouth pork chop fighting smoky live-fire kitchen fumes for attention and The Seven Stars pub pawning an Elizabethan-ruff-wearing cat for cozy companionship. Dinner at Cycene meant four hours immersed in pickled, cured, and most impressively, pork-foot-broth-starting tasting menus by Chef Taz Sarhane, crowned the culinary dehydration marathon. British food finally escaped the 'brown and boring' stereotype, though the heat might have aided that spicy transformation.