I think for the same reason people assume France has good food. "English cuisine still suffers from a relatively poor international reputation, being typically represented by dishes consisting of simply cooked meats and vegetables (so called "meat and two veg") that need to be accompanied by bottled sauces or other condiments after cooking to make them more palatable. Many Francophiles think that food served in England often fails to reach the same general level of excellence that can easily be found across the English Channel in France. In fact French president Jacques Chirac in 2005 openly proclaimed that English food was the second-worst in Europe, after Finnish. However it can be observed that traditional English food, with its heavy emphasis on 'meat-vegetable-and-potatoes' falls squarely into the north European tradition extending from Austria and Germany to the Low Countries and Scandinavia, albeit with a marked French influence. During the Middle Ages, English cuisine enjoyed an excellent reputation;[citation needed] its decline can be firmly traced back to the late 18th century when the majority of the English population began to move away from the land, and was compounded by the effects of rationing during two World Wars (rationing finally ended in 1954), followed by the increasing trend toward industrialised mass production of food. However, in Britain today there is more interest in food than there has ever been before, with celebrity chefs leading the drive toward raising the standard of food in the UK. In 2005 British cuisine reached new heights when 600 food critics writing for Restaurant magazine named 14 British restaurants among the 50 best restaurants in the world with the number one spot going to The Fat Duck in Bray, Berkshire and its chef Heston Blumenthal. However, many of the restaurants, while located in the UK, do not serve traditional British cuisine - for example, Le Gavroche which serves French food - or are headed by non-British chefs such as Pierre Gagnaire. Gastropub ready meal from Marks & SpencerDespite the availability of better quality fare, pre-packaged "ready meals" that require little preparation time have become more popular over the last 30 years - but they have themselves advanced considerably from their very basic beginnings." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_cuisine#Reputation_abroad

Is it "the grass is always green on the other side" issue?

Basically, there's a general perception that British food is bland. Partly because there are are so many different cultures with fantastic cuisines and also because Britain doesnt have many traditional and distinctive dishes. And Britain doesnt help itself as more of its restaurants are Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Italian, French, etc than they are British!!!!!

I thought the food in England was really great compared to what I ate everyday in France. The restaurants in Paris looked great at night, but the food sucked to be quite honest! I guess that's why they let the patrons smash their plates on the floor after the meal.

I think the perception comes mainly from the fact that British people, by and large, do not cook very much. On continental Europe part of the daily routine is to cook up a tasy nutritious meal and dine with the family around the table, but that largely does not happen in the UK, processed TV dinners more often than not being the norm. In reality, European food can be utterly vile, some French cheeses, Paella, calzone and other European foods can be horrid. British food on the other hand, while having invented the deep fried mars bar, also has some excellent cuisine, Aberdeen angus beef, Venison, Salmon, and Cheddar cheese being the best anywhere in the world, British people just don't take the time to cook it, so i think the bad British food thing is actually about British peoples bad attitude towards the good food we have available to us.

Because it used to be very bad indeed. But that is back in the 19th century. British food has moved on a long way - mostly by adopting everybody else's cuisine - and is mostly not that bad. The best of British food is as good as any in the world, and ordinary British food is the equal of most and better than some. The worst of British food, however, is worse than the worst of others.

Have you had any? You would not be asking if you had.

What the about the British cheeses like Red Leicester,Double Gloucester and the various cheddars from our major counties? I think the reason for the decline in British cusine could be down to the amount of other restaurants that promote indian,chinese and fast food. Another reason could be that long hours that we work and the apparant laziness or lack of time to spend on preparing a proper family meal at home, hence the decline of people's cooking skills.

because people eat too much fast food and cant be bothered to cook. if you take time experimenting with different foods and flavours british food can be as good as other foods.

British food is NOT bad! When I visited for a month I loved it all, from the meals at my relatives' homes to the pubs, roadhouses, everywhere.

British food is bad? Since when, I've never been there so I don't know, I was under the impression that they eat a lot of the same foods as Americans. What do Brits eat that Americans don't eat on a regular basis? I hated spanish food because it was all seafood and I hate seafood.

Well I was there for a week. The only meal I liked was at an Italian restaurant in London. My stomach was quite glad to get back, although the rest of me enjoyed the trip. Sorry... I can't think of any "English" restaurants here in Southern California. We have French, Italian, Chinese, Mexican, German, etc. Plenty of countries aren't represented as being famous for their food. Y'all still make great pop music and civilizations, eh?

Probably because they have culinary delights such as : Toad in the Hole. Black Pudding. Spotted Dick. Tripe. Lava Bread(Made from Seaweed). Pigs Trotters, Jellied eels etc.

Do they!!? What fiends! Maybe becuase we all have differnt tastes, People in Britain think that the Americans live off fast food. How true that is, i dont know.

I'm not crazy about British food because of the lack of spices.

I've managed to survive on it since I was born, and I've never heard anyone call it bad before. I love our food! Bangers'n'mash with gravy, is there really anything better?

People go on so much about British food being bad, because during World War II food was rationed and there was short supply if any of herbs and spices, therefore England was dubbed "bland". It has continued to carry that stigma until the early eighties. England has in fact been called the ethnic dining capital of the world". The Fat Duck was named the best restaurant in the world in 2005 and in my opinion rightly so, any foodie should eat there it’s the equivalent of going to the superbowl. Julia Child while dining in my restaurant answered the ever asking question once that so many dinners ask me which is "how come you can cook the food in England is so bad" she answered in her perky voice "well when was the last time you dinned in the old country" to the un educated diner ... they replied "well we where last there in 1974... Julia replied "Well the food here in the states was not that good then either" enough said....

Because they don't know what british food is! People assume that British food is just fish and chips, bangers and mash and full english breakfast. They pick the most boring of British food (maybe even the worst of British food) to tipfy what British food is, and do not realise the scope of the ingredients we farm here, and the great seafoods that form so much of British food. It's like me saying "french food is bad" because I don't like the idea of eating snails, and once ate a really bad meal in a French restuarant. Or "Italian food is bad" because I don't like pasta. It's just ignorant unless somebody has lived here for a period of time, actually tried a variety of British food, and does not find it to his taste. Also, because they buy in to the myth and outdated sterotypes - British food was absolutely terrible taste wise during different patches of history. Particuarly, during the food rationing of WWII and the 1950s - This is where many agree that the sterotype originally came from, when the Americans came over to the UK and were given absolutely awful food. This is 60 years later now though and we now have access once more to a wider range of ingredients, and the seasonings and spices we had used since the 1300/1400s but had to give up due to the ration. Some of the best chefs and best restaurants in the world are British. I love British food =)

The only time in my life I got food poisoning was in London. McRibs from McDonald's. I was so sick I saw nothing but the Changing of the Guard.

British food "the best in the world". http://cookingresources.suite101.com/article.cfm/british_food_best_in_the_world The cliche that it is the worst helped England beat France to get the 2012 Olympics. See what the French President said in the above article. He was made to eat his own words. Up yours Jaques.

"In England, there are sixty different religions and only one sauce." Attributed to Voltaire (1694-1778) Domenico Caracciolo, attributed (18th Century) "England has three sauces and three hundred and sixty religions, whereas France has three religions and three hundred and sixty sauces." Talleyrand http://www.foodreference.com/html/qsauces.html

People love to whine and bitch about everything under the sun, just to hear the tune of their voice. No reason needed. Besides, not only do I enjoy British food but I also love the good folks of Britian. :)

I think that they are repeating old tales, or are leaning on old memories. When I went back over to England fro 2 weeks in 2004, I traveled quite extensively, eating out twice a day. I enjoyed plenty of good food. On Sundays especially, the pubs/restaurants prepared some fine meals.

I'm British and I don't hear people going on about how bad our food is.

I've lived mostly in America, but my mother was quite English and grew up there in WWII, and as a result, even as long later as the 90's, she still seemed to think that fried eggs and baked beans with runny (lack of proper nice) sauce was a meal (God that used to smell disgusting). But growing up with rationing made her feel that way. She'd put butter even on a peanut butter sandwich (YICK!) and in general, sorry but it's true...England isn't known for it's food. It is bland. Notable exceptions _ for me - though: Fish & Chips, with malt vinegar (when I was a kid over there, they still sold them in an actual old newspaper) *smile* I'd buy them that way now if they still did! Those were the best fish and chips ever. ...Also hot buttered muffins with real marmalade and tea (Americans know of neither). And a roast lamb and yorkshire pudding dinner with mint sauce is particularly English (you wont find that in the States anywhere, but it's lovely, and I miss it. OH! Also English chocolate is made with real cane sugar (Americans use corn sweetener) (b**st**ds). But except for those few items...ooh, wait, I really treasured Birds hot custard poured over some spice cake or strawberry-rhubarb pie in a bowl. (or apple crumb pie) MAN! Americans don't have puddings like that. .............. And my grandfather - whom we stayed with in Felixstowe, in the 60's (I was young, but I remember!) - he'd butter bread slices and put them right on the wire cage over the top of the heater, and this would toast them and cause the butter to melt right into the bread. We'd get this with chocolate milk for elevenses ("Eleven-zees" is late mid morning snack time). *big warm smile* *memory of warm happy feet in socks, watching F-Troop (IN COLOR!!!), eating elevenses* Man. It don't get that good anymore. ............But yea, other than my happy memories, in the States, you can go eat Chinese, Italian, French, Greek, etc...but I've never ever heard anyone say "Hey you wanna go eat English?" You just don't have any dishes that stick out, for some reason. ....Oh, what about Chicken Curry? That's not English though, but I'm told it's very very popular there. (Okay, Red Dwarf told me this (so it must be true) ....I make this all the time, but no one here understands.

British food could stand to use something called: Spices.

Because they haven't really been here, they have never tasted British food and they go on about how bad it is just to annoy us.

Because of all the "greasy spoon" dishes.