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[personal profile] katstevens
Ii-Ma Sushi, Sutton, London SM1

Evening RGL readers!

This week's featured article concernes my personal highlight of Sutton, Ii-Ma Sushi. Small but perfectly formed, they have excellent sashimi and a fridge full of sake. I plan to visit there in the near future and I am looking forward to it immensely.

Changes afoot in Sydenham, where the Honey Hive vegan cafe (located inside the Calabash of Culture bookshop) has closed. A shame: they did a lovely chocolate brownie.

Meanwhile up in Hackney, my old haunt, the Pembury Tavern has been taken over by the Five Points Brewery, a literal stone's skim away*. Apart from the current lack of food being served, we're not sure if anything has changed yet, but I'd imagine half of the clientele would still be able to help you reinstall Ubuntu if needed.

*Wikipedia says the world record for stone skimming is 121.8m. Google Maps says Five Points to the Pembury is 110m. One burst water main on Amhurst Road and we're sorted!
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[personal profile] ewan
Hello all!

Patisserie Joie de Vie, Barnet, London EN5

This week our featured article is the very French-sounding Patisserie Joie De Vie, EN5 5SN. It's unclear how joyful life will seem by the time you get to High Barnet, but at least once there you can have a crepe or a galette, which surely will help.

There's a new article in the form of Lahpet, a Burmese restaurant in Hackney. I believe the names "Burma" vs "Myanmar" are somewhat political, but as I have no idea what the adjectival form of Myanmar might be, I'm glad the former has been chosen. If you, like I, are unfamiliar with the country's food, then a visit to Hackney may be required, though you may need some patience with the food it sounds like.

There are updates to Shadi Bakery in Croydon (for all your fresh naan needs), Kazan in Westminster (for all your quality Turkish food needs, assuming you don't mind paying a bit more), and Village Bookshop in Woodford Green (for at least some of your book needs).

There's a reported upcoming closure for Dabbous; their final day is 15 July. I guess its period of on-trend success just fizzled out?

Finally the old Chesham Brewery Shop is now called Mad Squirrel Chesham following the renaming of its parent brewery from Red Squirrel to Mad Squirrel. Best of luck with the new name.
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[personal profile] katstevens
candid cafe entranceway
Photo by @quitepeculiar, used under Creative Commons license

Evening everyone! This week's featured article is for Candid Cafe in Angel. I'm glad it's candid in the secluded hideaway sense rather than the hidden camera practical joke sense. As it is, you can enjoy your tea and cake while nosing at the people below queuing for terrible goth gigs at Electrowerkz without worrying about Jeremy Beadle suddenly popping up from behind a pot plant. (I apologise for introducing this nightmare scene into your brains, dear readers.)

There's a brand new page for Tre Viet in Hackney, a noisy but highly enjoyable Vietnamese restaurant that will do you a massive bowl of pho AND bring the bill really quickly once you've asked for it. Cracking. Also new is Frank's Cafe in Limehouse, a no-frills greasy spoon with some room for improvement in their set breakfast ingredients.

Denizens of North East London will surely already be celebrating the full reopening of the Goblin line following electrification works - no longer will you have to get the strength-sapping 41 bus through the endless traffic at Turnpike Lane when a quick jaunt from Crouch Hill to South Tottenham will do the trick nicely. Also reopened is the Beehive in Marylebone. I think this is the first week for ages that we've had more reopenings than closures! Hurray!
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[personal profile] ewan
Hello, welcome back after a brief hiatus. It is that time of year for the Good Beer Guide updates! (Non-GBG-related changes will be in next week's update.)

IMG_20160906_182216068

Our featured article is therefore Category Good Beer Guide 2017. Here is a link to the CAMRA website if you want to see what it looks like and/or buy a copy.

There are many new entries to our database:
* The Beehive in Tottenham (a very nice pub I should have added years ago);
* Brewhouse and Kitchen by Angel station;
* The Broken Drum in Blackfen near Sidcup;
* The Four Thieves, a former Antic pub in Battersea;
* The Hare and Hounds in Greenford;
* J.J. Moon's, a Spoons in Kingsbury;
* The King's Arms, another lovely pub I should have added years ago (it's in Bethnal Green);
* The King and Co. in Clapham;
* The King's Stores in Spitalfields near Liverpool Street;
* The Long Pond in Eltham (see main image above);
* The Penny Farthing in Crayford;
* The People's Park Tavern in South Hackney (a large place);
* The Phoenix in the City of London (Throgmorton Street if you must know);
* The Railway Arms in Oxhey (hey! I hear you say, is that even in London? well no, but it's by Zone 8 Bushey station);
* The Rifleman in Epsom;
* The Shaftesbury Tavern in Upper Holloway;
* The Ship in Gidea Park;
* The Upminster Taproom;
* The Wibbas Down Inn, a Spoons in Wimbledon;
* The Woolwich Equitable.

There's also a stub entry for The Radius Arms in Whyteleafe, which wasn't visited in time to get a full write-up.

A noteable re-entry is the lovely Chesham Arms, which was under threat a few years back, but has reopened and is lovely.

Finally, one that actually entered the GBG last year, but we missed it: The Woodman in Woodmansterne.

Pubs pubs pubs pubs. Go to a pub?
katstevens: (dogswim)
[personal profile] katstevens
banh mi hoi-an

Morning everyone!

This week's featured article is for Banh Mi Hoi-An, E8 1BP, slap bang in the middle of Hackney on Graham Road. It may be small but the banh mi baguettes are fresh and the spiciness level is just right - excellent value if you're in the area.

There's a new article for Martin's Place, a small bistro on Uxbridge's Windsor Street which also does good value food at lunchtime. Perhaps best to avoid the omelettes though. We also have updates to the articles for the White House Wetherspoons in Stockley Park and the Cafe Below, located in the crypt of St Mary Le Bow church on Cheapside. Apparently St Mary Le Bow used to be haunted due to all the black masses being held there in the 12th century (tsk!), but after it burned down in the Great Fire of London (and was subsequently rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren), the curse was lifted and the ghosts scarpered! So you can safely enjoy a nice vegetarian meal in the crypt without having spooky chains rattled at you.

Finally, Thai Rapide on Clerkenwell Road has closed, and is now a kebab place called Chifafa.
katstevens: (dogswim)
[personal profile] katstevens
London Fields Brewery Tap Room, London Fields, London E8

Evening all!

This week's featured article is for the London Fields Brewery Tap Room in Hackney, which serves its eponymous beers in a rather functional, stripped-back environment next to a railway arch. You can also purchase scotch eggs and brewing materials, though brewing beer out of scotch eggs doesn't sound like a particularly good idea. Making scotch eggs out of beer on the other hand...

We also have a new article for the Imperial Durbar, a cafe-bar in Tooting specialising in interesting gin and tonics - served in triple measures! This potential gin-a-geddon has got me so excited that I nearly typed 'tripe measures' in the previous sentence there. The decor is colonial-Indian-themed, while the dinner menu is provided by the Cardamom Club, a local Indian takeaway. It's not just booze and curry, mind: during the day they serve coffee, masala chai and pastries. No tripe, though.
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[personal profile] ewan
Untitled

Hello, it's that time of year, time for the new Good Beer Guide and all the new pubs it brings. The category page for this book is therefore, of course, the featured article.

Before we get into that, there's one new unrelated article, which is Banh Mi Hoi-An in London's trendy Hackney, which will do you a decent noodle salad.

Now this leaves us with all the new pubs for this year, so brace yourselves:

* The Aeronaut in Acton (also a brewpub!);
* The Argyle in Clerkenwell (Hatton Garden area);
* The Black Horse in High Barnet (also a brewpub!);
* The Clarence in Mayfair;
* The Constitution in Pimlico;
* Craft Beer Co. in Brixton (ell, can't complain about the beer selection I guess);
* The Crooked Billet in Upper Clapton;
* The Crown in St Margaret's, Twickenham;
* The Elephant and Castle in Kensington;
* The Flying Pig in East Dulwich;
* The George in South Woodford;
* The Grapes in Sutton;
* The Grove in Ealing;
* The Hops and Glory in Canonbury (Essex Road);
* The Hour Glass in Brompton;
* The Huntsman and Hounds in Upminster;
* The King's Head in Tooting;
* The Leyton Technical in Leyton;
* The Lighthouse in Battersea;
* London Fields Brewery Tap Room by the park of that name in Hackney (really a brewery);
* The Lord Aberconway by Liverpool Street;
* The Misty Moon in High Barnet (ex-Spoons, obviously);
* Oaka at the Mansion House in Kennington (the Oakham Ales pub);
* The Old Bell on Fleet Street;
* The Old Loyal Britons in Greenwich;
* Old Tom's Bar under the Lamb Tavern in Leadenhall Market;
* The Pig and Whistle in Southfields;
* The Prince of Wales in Clapham;
* The Railway Bell in New Barnet;
* The Royal George by Euston Station;
* The Shortlands Tavern in Bromley;
* The Sporting Page in Chelsea;
* The Station Hotel in Hither Green;
* The White Lion in Warlingham;
* Williams Ale and Cider House in Spitalfields; and
* Woodin's Shades around the corner on Bishopshate, by Liverpool Street Station.

There are also two stub entries which will be filled out by Kake in the next week or two:
* The Door Hinge in Welling (a micro-pub!); and
* The Hare and Billet in Blackheath.
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[personal profile] ewan
Hello! And sorry for the slight delay posting this update; all my fault.

Addis, King's Cross, London N1

This week's featured article is Addis, N1 9DT. It's an Ethiopian restaurant at the bottom of Caledonian Road, with plenty of options for veggies and vegans. Looks like everything was excellent, though you might want to think carefully about ordering falafel.

There are three new entries: a Turkish bakery and cafe called Tuana near Archway; Mi Rancho, a Colombian eatery in Nag's Head Market, Holloway, offering tasty street food in an unpretentious setting; and Black Cat Cafe, a vegan cooperative cafe in Lower Clapton.

Reported permanent closures are La Fermata on Tower Bridge Road, and Verru in Marylebone.

Finally, happier news, the old Duke of Edinburgh pub in Wanstead has been rebranded as The Duke and reopened. Looks promising.
katstevens: (dogswim)
[personal profile] katstevens
Maotai Kitchen (農家大院), Chinatown, London W1

Good afternoon RGL crew! It's September, and that means there's a whole bunch of exciting new Good Beer Guide updates in store for next week.

But you'll have to be patient! Here's this week's featured article for Maotai Kitchen in Chinatown. There you can eat a Villagers' Spicy Bowl, filled with spam, pig's blood, tripe, fungus and presumably some degree of spiciness.

We have a new article for the Station Tavern in Brimsdown (that's up near Enfield), a pub with a sensible attitude to lime and soda pricing. There's also an update for the nearby King and Tinker, although 'nearby' is fairly relative once you get out near the M25. In fact there's an entire golf course and a country park between the two pubs, so 'nearby' in this instance really means 'share the first two letters of their postcodes', HOWEVER by my calculations they are only 0.000000000000510334 light years apart which is hardly anything in the grand scheme of things.

Finally, Pogo Cafe has closed (but is apparently soon to re-open as a different vegan cafe), as has the East Molesey branch of Nicolas wine merchants.
katstevens: (dogswim)
[personal profile] katstevens
Charles Dickens

Hullo RGL crew!

It's time for another featured article, namely the Charles Dickens, SE1 0LH, a Good Beer Guide pub in Borough. Highlights include scampi and lovely scrumptious pints of mild!

We also have a trinity of new articles: Tommi's Burger Joint, W1U, a trendy burger place in Marylebone that doesn't appear to have a Ridiculous Queuing PolicyTM; Honest, W1F, another burger hangout which you may recall replaced the Soho branch of Palms of Goa. Finally there's the Cock Tavern, E8, a new brewpub bang in the middle of Mare St, which -- brace yourselves -- does not currently have burgers on the menu. Or indeed, anything else! (Early days, of course.)

Wailing/gnashing of teeth news: RGL-haunt Le Cassoulet, CR2 has abruptly shut! Sniff! Also for the chop: Geeta, NW6, Koreana, HA3, the Case Is Altered, HA3, Cafe Rajistan, E14 and Beaufoy Bar, SW11. Jolly locals' pub the Whitesmiths Arms, SE1 in Borough is also temporarily shut for a refurb (they'd better keep the awesome jukebox).

Zombie of the Week Award goes to the Bloated Mallard, TW11 which has reopened.
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[personal profile] ewan
Mestizo, Somers Town, NW1

This week's featured article is Mestizo, NW1 3EL, a dependable Mexican restaurant on Hampstead Road, near Euston station.

One new article is the Hackney Homemade Market, in various venues in Lower Clapton.

There's an update to Somers Town Coffee House, a pub in Somers Town, which has changed management.

Two reported closures are: The New Cavendish, a greasy spoon in Fitzrovia; and Teapod, a tea shop in Covent Garden.
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[personal profile] ewan
Queen's Head, Soho, W1

This week's featured article is a pub in Soho, The Queen's Head, W1D 7HN, which has come under new management, and seems to be okay.

Notified closures are: Fitzgerald's, an Irish pub in Lower Clapton; Zorya, a bar/restaurant in Chalk Farm; and Nicolas, the Chiswick branch of this chain of wine shops.

Finally, Quilon, the Michelin-starred Indian restaurant, is temporarily closed.
kake: A tan capital R on an olive-green background, representing the Randomness Guide to London colour scheme. (RGL)
[personal profile] kake

This week's featured article is Angel, SE16 4NB, a Samuel Smith's pub on the river, on the border of Bermondsey/Rotherhithe.

Were it not that they don't serve real ale, this would be a fantastic pub; as it is, it is merely a very good one. The upstairs lounge has a great view over the river, and the downstairs is divided into small, characterful areas. Service has always been friendly on our visits.


Recent additions to RGL include Sorabol in New Malden and Ping Pong in St Paul's. We've also updated our writeup of the Queen's Head in King's Cross.

Reported closures are Marie Lloyd Bar in Hackney (now a cafe), Dastarkhan in Lower Holloway (now a different central Asian restaurant), East & West Chinese Supermarket in New Cross, Harem on Brick Lane (now a different Turkish restaurant), and Thai Tiger also on Brick Lane (now an Indian restaurant).

Also, several branches of Oddbins have closed, including the Bromley branch — we're not sure which others have closed and which remain open, so do let us know if you have any up-to-date information.

In more cheerful news, the Rifleman in Twickenham has reopened.

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