I'm really pleased to hear you had a good time in London, it is a nice place to visit. When I lived and worked there I used to get annoyed at tourists getting in the way but on reflection it's actually nice to see people enjoying themselves.

It's true about the food in London. There are a lot of chain-restuarants there that are pretty ordinary. Really good food is expensive in the city, reasonably priced but nice places can be tricky to find without some insider knowledge. In touristy spots you get a lot of the big chains.

The UK just doesn't have a cafe or bar-restaurant culture like the continent. I remember the food in northern Spain, even in crummy dirty bars was wonderful in taste, range, variety.