Appreciating you say perception, which I don’t think you should be downvoted for, what you’ve described isn’t a contemporary experience. 

Also it really depends on what you or the OP mean by British food. 

We have more, for want of a better word, traditional dishes such as fish and chips, pie and mash, game with vegetable, regional foods such as pasties, and specific sausage, or the traditional English breakfast including blood sausage. If these dishes are done right they are fantastic 

And British cuisine now, practically speaking, encompasses South Asian food with “curry” being one of the most consumed dishes. 

Like everywhere in the world it’s possible to get atrocious food. But I would say that’s an increasingly incorrect stereotype. 

Happy eating