London Local Custom Tips by joits

Tiny cars...

Not really a custom, just didn't know where too put this. Due to the relatively tight quarters in the city of London, people are very fond of smalll cars.

One car in particular is the Smart Car. Its a two person car that's perfect for driving in central London as parking can be hard to find.

Coming from Southern California, where I'm surrounded by huge trucks and SUVs, I kinda think a car that small is hilarious and pretty cute and pretty cool.

Website: http://www.thesmart.co.uk/index.html

No Refills...

Not sure how important this is for some people, but for me... I drink a lot of soda or juice when I eat. In the US, we usually get all the soda we want. Free refills. That's why whenever I ate out, I usually just got tap water, its the only refill they give. With everything already so expensive in London, I preferred to order water because I didn't want to spend about $10 a meal just on drinks. I went to Wagamama with friends and someone ordered a Sprite, and it came in this small bottle... and it was like two pounds! Geez.

Waiter behaviour

In the states, the waiters are pretty attentive. In very good restaurants, the waiters will usually pass by your table every few minutes to check on you.

In England, they take your order, bring your food and they pretty much leave you alone. I didn't eat in any expensive or fancy restaurants, but in the few restaurants I did eat in, during the meal, I didn't really get to see much of the waiters.

That's great because sometimes you can have a conversation without being interrupted. But its not great if you run out of water or you need something else and you have to call on your waiter.

Also, when it comes to bringing the bill, in the US, they bring it as soon as they get the last plate. I've noticed in the UK, they sort of wait on you until you ask for it.

This may not be the case for all restaurants, its just something I noticed when I was there...

Escalators

Something that I miss about England is their escalator ettiquette. In the states, people just stand anywhere, but in England, the proper custom is to stand on the right so that people who want to climb a bit faster can easily pass on the left side. Don't forget this because if you are travelling around London via the underground, this is something you will frequently encounter. Don't be that annoying tourist who stands on the left side and wonders why people are staring at them. London is a very fast paced city and has equally fast paced residents looking to get somewhere!