That last pic looks ridiculously good. I want it in and around my mouth.

wow!

The North East also blows away CA for great food IMHO.

I don't know about that.  LA and SF have great restaurants (usually high-end though), and the selection of ethnic cuisine is unsurpassed.  I can't imagine the NE matching our ethnic options here from Asian (Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, Taiwanese, Cambodian, Korean) to South and Central American (Peruvian, Salvadoran, Brazilian, Argentinian) let alone Mexican.

I find our most glaring weakness to be southern style cooking like above and Italian cuisine.  I usually don't eat Italian until I get to Vegas.  For southern, the best we have is probably Popeye's chicken.  BBQ is a bit weak too but not as bad as the other two.

I agree though, the pre-fab strip mall chains hurt a lot.Though this economy seems to be wrecking those if you look at Olive Garden and Red Lobster losses. I can tell you, New Orleans/LA is very protective of mom and pop establishments.  All the big chains have to fight like heck to get permission to build and are often pushed out into the boonies.  NOLA knows where their charm and money lies and aren't going to mess that up by putting a strip mall in the middle of the French Quarter.

There are some exceptional restaurants here in and around London, and there are some really bad ones too, But just try to find a good Mexican place!! I really miss some of the great ethnic choices form back home. 

Lol, reminds me of the last time I had sushi in the Caribbean 

As for seafood in London I try to have oysters at least once every season. So this year, this Friday in fact,  I'm going to Bentley's followed by drinks at the Artesian bar.

I downloaded Drago's menu, just to compare. Britain is not nicknamed 'Treasure Island', due to to the mark-ups retailers can charge, without reason.