Pix: Inside The Texas Embassy in London

[editor]

It's been mentioned a couple of times here on HAIF, but I finally got around to shooting some photos of The Texas Embassy in London.

This isn't the same thing as the Texas Legation, which served as Texas' embassy in London during the days of the Republic. That's a few blocks away. This is a restaurant.

The place is decorated like what someone in London might think a bar in Texas might look like if all they knew about Texas and America was gleaned from watching television. The decorators seem to think that Texas is a narrow strip of land along the Mexican border, and that everyone speaks Spanish all the time.

Which is OK, because the wait staff speaks mostly Portuguese. They appeared to be all Brazilian imports. The service, even by European standards, was terrible. The food, even by British standards, was pretty bad.

My wife and I went for dinner on a Thursday. We showed up around 6:00pm, and the only other people in the place were a loud drunken after-work/birthday party being held upstairs by a bunch of Australian ex-pats.

Outside the Texas Embassy. It's in Oceanic House, which was formerly the London offices of the White Star Line, which you may remember as the owner of the Titanic.

The menu and basic place setting. The chips were good, but the salsa was clearly from a jar. Or, being Britain, more likely a can.

An unusual combination of dark and festive.

That's chicken-fried steak in front. Blackened beyond recognition. The taste of the char obliterated any hope of tasting what was inside. On the far side, my wife ordered the fried chicken and got two misshapen charred chicken fingers. The potatoes had the taste and texture of instant spuds from a box. The corn was good, but I've always liked canned corn.

Drawings of guns and knives on the walls. Because it's Europe.

Nothing says "Texas" like a cartoon sign for a liquor store in Spanish.

Graffiti in the hallway leading to the rest rooms.

John Wayne greets you in the men's room. Instead of urinals there is a long metal trough. No photo because someone else was using it at the time.

Lots of college memorabilia hangs around the place.

Follow the hoof prints to the rest rooms.

Way out.

[kbates2]

Big fan of the Coog banner.

[brian0123]

Thanks for the photos. I remember seeing this place when our cab drove by it and I was dying to know what it looked like inside. Bad food by British standards is spooky.

[Subdude]

The menu and basic place setting. The chips were good, but the salsa was clearly from a jar. Or, being Britain, more likely a can.

That's a tin!

The way I figure, it's easy to pick on Tex-Mex food abroad. You'd be surprised at what I've seen passed off as burritos, tacos etc. On the other hand, I give them credit for making the effort. Any port in a storm, as they say.

[jgriff]

I went to a bar called "Texas" in Seoul. It was really bad. It smelled like sewage.