Randomness Guide to London

Hello friends. This week your correspondent is sitting at Heathrow waiting for a flight out of this place, but for those of you staying behind you could do a lot worse than our featured article this week...



It's Dar Marrakech, E15 4QZ, a Moroccan/Lebanese restaurant in sunny Stratford. Load up on their Lebanese mezza, where they're happy for you to chop and change to your greedy heart's desires.

We have two new pages. One is for Granger and Co. in Clerkenwell. It does incoherent fusion food in a nice, sort-of-gastropubby way. Most importantly, the food is tasty.

We also have FARM:shop (sic) in Dalston. It's a cafe though, not a shop. Also, it's a cafe, not a farm (although it does have a garden, some chicken coops and a 'mushroom farm') so I guess we can allow that bit. No food sampled on this visit, but will be interesting to try their local Dalston produce.

There's one updated article, on Mapps Cafe, a basic caff near Hackney Wick. Decent grub, good for local workers needing to load up before a heavy day.

This week's featured article is a ivy-covered pub in West Brompton, The Atlas, SW6 1RX. It's many years since it's been in the Good Beer Guide, but it's decent.

Two new additions are Crate, a brewpub and pizzeria in a sort of West Coast US style, out in a former industrial unit of Hackney Wick; and Court Cafe, a greasy spoon by Elephant & Castle.

We've now marked Lemon Monkey in Stoke Newington as closed, because it was replaced by the Monkey Bar some time ago. It still serves cake and coffee for the daytime crowd, so it's apparently not completely different.

Also, an online commenter points out that The Castle pub in Battersea is actually still open, despite closure earlier this year due to being sold to developers. It's still under threat though, so good luck to them!