rglondon | Entries tagged with ha9

Evening all! This week's featured article is the Grosvenor in Hanwell, a large Good Beer Guide pub with decent food (their website features a picture of some delicious-looking toad-in-the-hole) and some nice old-fashioned tiling on the exterior.

New to RGL are Karahi King and the Preston, both in Wembley. Karahi King is a laid-back Indian cafe where you can bring your own booze, while the Preston makes up for its Ember Inns blandness with free lime and soda and generally good accessibility.

The article for the Oval Tavern in Croydon has an update following a visit. Although it's not the closest pub to East Croydon station, it looks like a decent place to spend some time waiting for your train.

Pubs you should not wait for a train inside, as they have recently been on fire: the Beehive near Baker Street and the slightly less swanky New Cross Turnpike in Welling have both temporarily closed while they pat out the flames. Meanwhile the Ravensbury in Mitcham is not on fire but is also temporarily shut while its new owners figure out what to do with it, and the Fitzroy Tavern (which I feel I must point out is in Fitzrovia) is having a major refurb, and due to reopen next summer. Doctor Who fans will have to find somewhere else to meet up for now.

Finally, Sam's Brasserie and Bar in Chiswick has shut, to be replaced by a branch of Foxlow (owned by the Hawksmoor dudes). I am not keen on Foxlow as a brand, through no real fault of theirs - they replaced Homa in Stoke Newington which did extremely awesome takeaway pizza, a fact I only found out about just before they shut for good! Foxlow are clearly to blame for me not paying attention to local pizza opportunities for the previous 8 years.

katstevens

Afternoon everyone!

This week's featured article is for Roti King At Euston Chinese, funnily enough in Euston. It's a small Malaysian restaurant that shares its basement space with Euston Chinese, so make sure you get the right menu. The food sounds excellent value for money, especially the lamb curry. Worth a visit if you're not in a hurry.

There are major updates to the articles for the JJ Moons Wetherspoons in Wembley (not to be confused with the JJ Moons in Ruislip Manor, or the one in Tooting, or the one in Hornchurch), and the White Horse, a a Fuller's pub in South Harrow.

We have a few new articles too: Bite near Northolt tube station is a Polish cafe serving inconsistent pancakes; M & D in Deptford, a Japanese restaurant with adequate sushi; and the Coach & Horses in Ickenham, site of many legendary outings by your author in the late 90s. Happily it is now around 3 changes of management on from that which BARRED ME FOR LIFE for smuggling in chip-shop-chips when the pub had stopped serving food. Readers, I ate my contraband sheltered from the rain in the nearby Pump, where my thoughtful chum Kirsty brought me out a pint. But enough nostalgia! The Coach still has the best beer garden in Ickenham, but for a quick drink you're better off in the Wetherspoons down the road (mercifully it's not called JJ Moons).

Finally, Taste Inn in Lewisham has renamed itself China China. Personally I think 'Happy Smell' is a better name, but there you go.

ewan

This week is that week when the Good Beer Guide is released, so we can add all the new Good Beer Guide 2014 pubs, which Kake and bob have been diligently adding, helped by a few others. I shan't try to sum up the views of our sterling reviewers (you should read the entries to find out their favourites), so here is a list of those with new entries in RGL as a result:

In the centre:
* The Chamberlain (Aldgate EC3);
* The Exmouth Arms (Clerkenwell EC1);
* The Hung, Drawn and Quartered (Tower Hill EC3);
* The Sun (Covent Garden WC2); and
* The White Swan (Covent Garden WC2).

In the North:
* The Bohemia (North Finchley N12) [PS already closed! BOO!];
* The Bull (Highgate N6);
* The Charlotte Despard (Archway N19); and
* The Stag and Hounds (Lower Edmonton N9).

In the East:
* The Bell (Walthamstow E17)
* The Duke's Head (Walthamstow E17); and
* The Sebright Arms (Haggerston E2).

In the South-East:
* The Royal Standard (Blackheath SE3);
* The Ship (Borough SE1); and
* The Star Inn (Plumstead SE18).

In the South-West:
* The King's Head (Earl's Court SW5); and
* Powder Keg Diplomacy (Battersea SW11).

In outer London postcodes:
* The Barking Dog (Barking IG11);
* The Europa (East Molesey KT8);
* The Feathers (Rickmansworth WD3);
* The George Staples (Sidcup DA15);
* The Jolly Coopers (Hampton TW12);
* The London Apprentice (Isleworth TW7);
* The Moon on the Hill (Sutton SM1)
* The Tailor's Chalk (Sidcup DA14);
* The Three Tuns (Uxbridge UB8);
* The Windermere (North Wembley HA9); and
* The Woodman (Farnborough BR6).

There's also a stub article for The Viaduct in Hanwell, so if anyone would like to visit and let us know how it is, why not do that? We'll get along eventually, I'm sure.

One other pub addition, not in the GBG, is The Change of Horses in Farnborough, which is upmarket traditional. If you're going to go all the way to Farnborough you might as well try a couple of pubs, eh?

Reported closures, are, er, the Bohemia (see above). It was a nice pub, I hope it will be back... :(

There are significant updates to the entries for The Red Lion in Isleworth, The Portrait in Sidcup, and Ye Olde Whyte Lyon in Farnborough.

There is a temporary closure for The Pilot Inn, a wonderful and lonely pub in North Greenwich. Meanwhile, The Gate vegetarian restaurant in Hammersmith has reopened.

kake

Image © Ewan-M

This week's featured article is Books For Cooks, W11 1NN, a Portobello Road bookshop and cafe devoted exclusively to books about cooking and food.

Recent additions to RGL include Deli Felice, a nice little local cafe near Rotherhithe Station; Bermondsey Brazilian Shop, a small Brazilian cafe and grocery shop on the Bermondsey/Rotherhithe borders; Canteen, a British restaurant in Canary Wharf; Preto, a Brazilian rodizio restaurant in Putney; and New Aroma, a Sichuan/Fujian restaurant on Gerrard Street in Chinatown.

Only one reported closure, but it's a big one: Pacific Plaza in Wembley, mooted as the replacement for the much-missed Oriental City, has now closed in its turn.

The Pacific Plaza website claims that the closure is temporary, but problems have been evident for some time. The supermarket failed to materialise despite being promised as "opening soon" for over a year, their PR agency reported repeated non-payment of invoices last December, and at the time of writing the Doki (crockery shop) website states that although all Pacific Plaza tenants had been paying their rent, Pacific Plaza was not paying their own rent to Wembley Retail Park.

kake

Image © Kake

This week's featured article is Lola Rojo, SW11 6QL, a tapas restaurant on Northcote Road in Battersea offering modern takes on traditional Spanish tapas.

(Accessibility: Two steps up to get in. Can't remember if there are more steps inside. Some of the seating is on high stools.)

Recent additions to RGL include Tea Palace in Covent Garden, Gerrard's Corner in Chinatown, Byron at the Intrepid Fox in Soho, and Villandry on Great Portland Street. We've also got a few updates on Pacific Plaza (still no supermarket, sadly).

Two reported closures: Green and Red in Shoreditch and the Market Place Cafe near Oxford Street. One reopening: Lina Stores in Soho.