UK restaurants standards ‘improved beyond all recognition'

UK restaurants have "improved beyond all recognition" over the past 10 years ridding themselves of a reputation for "dismal" food, according to a new travel guide.

The 2007 DK Eyewitnesses Travel Great Britain guide assures tourists that they can now eat "very well" up and down the country.

"The UK's restaurant scene has moved far from its once dismal reputation," the guide says.

"Home-grown restaurateurs have risen to the challenge of redeeming British food too and the indigenous cooking (once thought to consist only of fish and chips, over-cooked vegetables, meat pies and lumpy custard) has improved out of all recognition in the last decade."

The guide also praises the revival of hearty traditional dishes such as steak and kidney pie and treacle pudding and the improved attitudes toward children.

"Britain is not the easiest or most welcoming place for young children but things are slowly changing," it says. "Restaurants are becoming less child-phobic."

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By Daniel Thomas

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