Fish and chips has been England’s favorite takeaway dish since the late Victorian era. So it was without question a dish we had to have at least once while visiting the Queen.

The Horniman at Hay’s was our pub of choice located on the riverbank very close to the Tower Bridge. It was quite nice inside with a big selection of domestic beer that no one really seemed to care for. We quickly found out why.

It would appear that no Englishman I know actually likes English beer. Being in England, however, we had to try it and what better beer to get in London than a pint of London Pride. While Karolina got the Pride, I got a pint of the Flying Dutchman myself. Both had the same bitter pale ale taste that quickly twisted our faces and made us wish we had ordered Australian Foster’s Jo and Hamish were drinking next to us. Note to self, next time follow the locals!

Our fish and chips orders arrived quickly and with beer in hand we had a traditional English dinner. The fish was good, though it was very plain and could use a little bit of seasoning. And even while our beer wasn’t what we had hoped for and we kept dipping our fish in tartar sauce to give it some flavor, our English pub experience was everything we had imagined it would be, and for that I would do it all over again.