You'd think an American's first meal in London would come from some other place, well, other than EAT. In hindsight, however, this was not a mistake.
This place is like a Famima for Los Angelenos. Only they serve hot food, too. As a foreigner stuck amid foot traffic on busy Oxford St., this place served as a nice respite from the throngs of people who quickly walk by you with nary an eye contact. Off of Regent St., I walked alongside the outside of the eatery and peered in. The menu board indicated they had a couple of interesting soup options. Short of ramen or pho, there probably wouldn't have been anything I'd want more; so, I walked in.
I can only comment on what I ate during my first -- and so far only -- visit. What I ate, however, was pretty satisfying. As a Wednesday special, they served two types of soup: Italian meatball soup and Thai butternut squash. I opted for the latter, getting a small cup size, and paired it with a pork banh mi. (They have banh mi here, of all places?!)
While the soup was as good as I hoped -- and definitely something I'd order again -- the banh mi failed to meet my unfairly high expectations. While that's not to say it was bad, because on the contrary it was ok; it was probably the fact that I grew up within short driving distances to a mecca of banh mi shops that I shouldn't have expected to draw comparisons.
As I traversed about London, I'd soon find out that EAT. is actually a chain of eateries. At the duration of my stay I found myself going to three different EAT.s (one being at the Gatwick airport). I'd have to say that this was my favorite of the three. read more