rglondon | Entries tagged with se26

On The Hoof Bistro, Sydenham, London SE26

Good morning folks!

This week's new featured article is On the Hoof Bistro, a cafe/restaurant in Sydenham. Reviewers were impressed by the quality and size of the Sunday lunch on offer, and it appears to be a good place to work as well.

And that's all she wrote, as we've no new articles, updates or reported closures.

katstevens

Evening RGLers!

This week's featured article is for Hilltribe, a Thai restaurant in Richmond. All the dishes our reviewer tried came with a lettuce leaf/hibiscus flower decoration, which certainly made the Chiangmai sausages look more colourful: like Esther Williams, in sausage form!

There's a new article for 161 Food And Drink, a wine bar just down the road from me in sunny Sydenham. They have a few interesting beers on offer too, plus a small plates menu, however if you're after substantial veggie options for dinner, in my experience you'd be better off at the Azeri chip shop three doors up the hill.

Staying in Sydenham, there's an update for the On The Hoof Bistro, a cafe run by the same people behind the coffee stalls in Sydenham and Forest Hill stations. I must go back there for another Sunday roast at some point.

Finally, down in Croydon there's an update for Don's Cafe, a traditional greasy spoon with proper formica tables. The sausages here may be slightly less glamorous than Esther Williams, but they get the job done.

mrs_leroy_brown

Listen all ya'll - we've a slew of tasty news in this week's RGL update!

Our new featured article is the Rising Sun, a Sri Lankan restaurant in the Sudbury area of Harrow, not to be confused with Sudbury, Ontario. Weird lighting aside, the set lunch menu looks a great bargain and comes with friendly service to boot.

New articles added include:
- Round Table Books, a delightful children's bookshop located in Brixton Village Market selling all manner of books suitable for humans of all ages.

- Pintadera, a small Italian cafe in my personal favourite of the Norwoods (West). It's got homey decor which is work/laptop friendly; you may need to ask for spread for your toast, though.

- Still in West Norwood, there's Hobby's, a small craft and hobby shop; it's best to go knowing exactly what you want first.

- Mama Dough in Sydenham is a part of a small chain of pizza restuarants which also has a punny menu; the topping combos seem to offer the classics as well as some more nontraditional offerings and vegans & gluten-free dudes rejoice, they can cater upon request. I'm definitely hitting this one up!

Updates were made to Food House, an Indo-Chinese restuarant in Wimbledon, Fred's, a cafe in Brockley, Bridge House, a pub in Penge, O Cantinho de Portugal, a (shock!) Portuguese cafe/restaurant in Brixton, and Casa Morita, a taqueria in Brixton that also offers a selection of Mexican groceries.

Two permanet closures this week - Abuja Connection, a Nigerian restaurant in Crystal Palace, and Angel Road station which has been replaced by the brand-spankin' new Meridian Water Station just half a kilometre away.

mrs_leroy_brown

Good morning and welcome to a bumper edition of RGLly news!

Blythe Hill Tavern, Forest Hill, London SE23

This week's featured article is Blythe Hill Tavern, a Good Beer Guide in Catford within waving distance of of Forest Hill. As would be expected from a GBG pub, there's a good selection of well-kept ale. There's also a large beer garden with a children's play area, and an Irish music session on Thursday evenings. With an atmosphere described as warm and welcoming, it sounds like a cracking good pub to quaff a beverage.

Four new articles have been added:

Oscar’s, a cafe in Ladywell serving pastries and sweets along with stew from The Soulful Food Co. in Deptford.

Rising Sun, a Sri Lankan restaurant in Sudbury, Harrow that delivers value for lunch money with its £5 set menu.

Cobb’s Corner, a cafe in Sydenham on the site of the former Blue Mountain Cafe serving British and Caribbean food.

Brown and Green, another Sydenham cafe in the local chain serving a few mains and light meals in a child-friendly setting.

Updates have been made to the White Hart pub in Harlington and the The King William pub in Sipson.

In closure news, Croydon's Brasserie Vacherin is closed for a few weeks for refurbishment, though we're unsure when or if it will reopen. We Brought Beer, a specialist beer shop in Clapham, has permanently closed, though the Balham and Tooting branches remain open for business.

katstevens

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!

katstevens

Evening all! We're back after a week off, with another featured article: Hasi is an Albanian restaurant and bar in Barking, with no discernible menu. Sounds like the food was tasty though, so certainly worth checking out if you're in Barking and/or want to brush up on your Albanian current affairs.

Two new pages this week! The Pan Tao Garden stall in Tooting Broadway Market serves boxes of extremely good value (if not particularly adventurous) Chinese food, while the Oasis Cafe in Thornton Heath has both British and West Indian menus (including a West Indian breakfast) - no Gallagher brothers sighted on our visit however.

Sydenham's best vegan cafe, the Honey Hive, has had an update following a visit (alas featuring the most terrible vegetable of them all, in 'rice' form), as have the Fox On The Hill Wetherspoons in Denmark Hill and Brasserie Vacherin in Croydon.

The Japan Centre has moved (yet again) just round the corner to Panton Street - its previous home in Shaftesbury Avenue now specialises in ceramics and books. Meanwhile further down Panton Street, the Odeon has closed, and is due to reopen at some point as a rather more 'luxurious' cinema. London Bridge's cinema/bar combo Roxy Bar and Screen has a less glamorous future: it is turning into a KFC. Finally, Croydon's fine dining scene is mourning the closure of Albert's Table (it's currently unknown whether or not it will become a fried chicken emporium, but if so they are welcome to take "Albumen EinstHEN's" as the best name I could come up with in 5 minutes).

ewan

Welcome back!

This week's featured article is Rial Cafe, E15 3BT, or maybe Ruad Cafe if you like. It's a cafe in West Ham with eclectic furniture and tasty lunches.

Our two additions are a MICROPUB in Anerley, the Douglas Fir (run by Gipsy Hill and is fairly minimal in decor, but good beers and WiFi), and Resham in Norbury (an Indian restaurant which specialises in Indian-style Chinese food).

Three reported closures are The Belvedere Hotel in Belvedere (which is near Erith, if that helps?), Beer Rebellion in Sydenham (short lived sadly!) and The Camel and Artichoke behind Waterloo station.

Finally the very fine Claret Free House in Addiscombe is now called The Claret and Ale.

ewan

Another week, another round-up of RGL updates for you!

Our featured article this week is Bob Wines, SE26 5EU, no relation to the bob of this parish. Instead, it's a very handy shop for those living in Sydenham who have need of alcoholic sustenance, offering local 'craft' beers, as well as fine wines, including English ones and a tasty viognier. You can get refillable wine bottles too.

Two new articles are: The Masons' Arms, a pub in Kensal Green which has real ale; and Bread Ahead, a small bakery in Covent Garden with some excellent sweet things.

There's an update to The Thatched House pub (really a restaurant) in Upminster.

Temporary closures are reported at The Lucky Rover in Chessington, and The Crown on Blackfriars Road.

Closed more permanently are: Doukan, a Moroccan restaurant I have enjoyed in Wandsworth; Si Mangia Italian in East Dulwich; and McLaren's Cafe Bar and Grill in leafy Honor Oak Park.

Finally, just a note that The Armoury pub in Wandsworth has reverted to its original name of The Crane, with a refurb to boot.

katstevens

Evening RGL crew!

This week's featured article is for the Sydenham branch of Beer Rebellion, a micropub run by the Late Knights brewery dudes. It's a bit more spacious than the Gipsy Hill Beer Rebellion, which we've also visited recently and thus have a brand new page for. The Sydenham branch has a revolving menu with different popups taking over their kitchen each week (this weekend for example, it was tapas). The Gipsy Hill branch meanwhile has a more stable menu: half burgers, half 'not burgers'.

It's not all about the beers and binary burgers this week though! There are new pages for Saffron, a decent Nepalese/Indian takeaway in Tulse Hill, and for Ponchokhana, a small Bangladeshi cafe in Whitechapel which sounds like a handy place to stop for a 'not burgers' lunch.

ewan

Hello and welcome back!

Here is Rasa, W1S 1AD. It is our featured article for this week. You may be familiar with it as part of a chain of South Indian vegetarian restaurants (well, most of them are vegetarian). This one is a fine representative of the others, so if you've been to one, why not try the Mayfair branch?

Three new entries for you.

Our SE London representative visits Bob Wines, unrelated to RGL sysadmin and regular contributor of that name. Look for local beers and English wines, if those take your fancy. Plus the usual beers and wines of the world.

There's an article for Mr Chilly in Harrow. This one's North Indian unlike our featured article. The key word in the review is "flavour" so expect flavour in your food. I like flavour in my food, that's for sure. Maybe visit on a cold day, so that the name is appropriate. Shouldn't be hard, eh.

Finally, our SW correspondent posts about Punjab House (another North Indian place) in Balham, which is near Tooting, quite easy to get to from there really. Indian "all day breakfast" sounds intriguing.

katstevens

Evening RGLers!

This week's featured article is for the Sugahill cafe in sunny Sydenham. The gang have a record fair every Sunday, so you can enjoy your brunch while listening to (maybe) Orange Juice and (perhaps) The Lovely Eggs. A delight for rappers and non-rappers both!

Non-musical additions to RGL this week: Ezo Bistro is a small but comfy cafe that just happens to be in Barking station (though you'd never know it from the inside). Our ongoing mission to explore the entirety of Tooting continues with the Ramble Inn, a friendly locals' pub with plenty of (keg) beer, while we found the Furzedown in Streatham rather loud and football-focussed for our liking.

katstevens

Bushwacker Wholefoods, Hammersmith, London W6

Evening all! A bumper week to catch up after the Bank Holiday.

This week's featured article is for Bushwacker Wholefoods in Hammersmith, which stocks a whole range of vegetarian groceries including Taifun tofu (I wonder if they have curry and pineapple flavour?

New new new! Craft Tooting is a small craft beer shop by Tooting Broadway station. Further up towards Wimbledon Park we have more beer at the By The Horns Brewery Tap, while the Pear Tree pub in Purley has little jars of beer in front of the pumps so you can see what colour it is (I love it when pubs do this). Not quite so new but existing under a different name: The Aleksander in St Margaret's is now The Alba.

The page for Lion Inn in Thornton Heath has had an update, as have ones for the Sugahill cafe in Sydenham and Imperial China on Chinatown's Lisle Street (which seems to be *the* place to meet your blind date?). Places *not* to meet your blind date, unless you want to hang around outside a now-closed pub: the Red Herring pub near St Paul's, and the Devonshire House Wetherspoons in Crouch End.

Finally, pre-gig Brixton favourite the Trinity Arms is temporarily shut for a refurb. It's planned to reopen in August, hopefully in plenty of time for any attendees of 'Progress Wrestling: Chapter 36 - We're Gonna Need a Bigger Room Again' wanting a pre-bout pint of Ordinary.

katstevens

Evening everyone - Ewan is away for a few weeks so I am back once again, like the proverbial Renegade Master.

This week’s featured article is for Husk in Limehouse. It’s a cafe/community space run by the London City Mission, providing accessible space (and wifi) for working, chatting and eating quiche.

We have some new pages too! Bottledog in Clerkenwell is a beer and brewing supplies shop run by Brewdog, which stocks beers by other brewers too, including some on keg; Chatkhara in Tooting is a no-frills Indian cafe/takeaway; Beer Rebellion in Sydenham is a micropub run by the Late Knights brewery, just down the road from the recently-ish refurbished Golden Lion. Your correspondent visited both of the latter two at the weekend: suffice to say one establishment was more enjoyable to spend time in than the other.

ewan

A bit late this week as I couldn't log in yesterday.

Anyway, this week's featured article is Honey Hive, SE26 5EX, a Caribbean cafe in Sydenham. It's also apparently vegan, which is surprising given that honey is not, but presumably they don't use it in their food... Anyway, it's a friendly cafe in the back of a bookshop.

New articles are: Koffees and Kream, a curiously-spelled cafe ("kafe"?) and bar with semi-industrial feel in semi-industrial Woolwich; The Castle Tavern also in Woolwich, no ale but loads of tasty Ghanaian food; The Cutty Sark in beautiful Thamesmead, although a dimly-lit pub; and The Princess Alice, another Thamesmead pub, a chain built-in-the-80s pub.

So there we go. Thamesmead, people!

katstevens

Evening RGLers! I hope you enjoyed your long weekends.

This week's featured article is for Ades Cash & Carry in Charlton, an African and Caribbean grocery that is retail as well as wholesale. Apparently there's another branch downstream in Thamesmead - plenty of steamed moi moi puddings and ewedu greens for everyone.

There's a new page for the London Beer Dispensary in Brockley, home to the Late Knights Brewery and serving plenty of their own beers, as you'd expect. Also new to RGL is the Honey Hive, a vegan Caribbean cafe in Sydenham, hidden in the Calabash of Culture gift shop. I've walked past several times and didn't even realise there was a cafe inside!

Rounding up our South-East London based news this week, there's an update for Jam Circus, an Antic pub in Brockley. Is your dog or child welcome there? Go to the page and find out!

ewan

We have a rather pub-heavy week of updates this week!

Featured article is The Prince Albert, SE18 6NE, a pub in Woolwich which often goes by the name "Rose's". It's a single-room pub, it does crusty rolls, you'll get a pint of real ale, and it's proper trad.

New articles are: The Rochester Castle (the "Roch" if you live nearby) in London's trendy Stoke Newington, a classic 'Spoons and the oldest one that's still part of the chain (also one of the few that's in an actual pub building). There's also the Dalston branch of the Diner chain, which does the usual 50s Americana vibe with a menu to match, though it seems pricy.

Reported closures are The Cock Tavern under Smithfield Market (this one closed over a year ago apparently), and The Tamworth Arms in Croydon. The latter was a lovely old traditional Young's house, though I wouldn't be surprised if it reappears with a major facelift, as per other pubs in that chain (see the featured article from two weeks' ago). We also believe that Na Pura Portuguese cafe in Nunhead has closed.

On the plus side of the ledger, The Railway in West Hampstead has reopened following a period of refurbishment.

Finally, there are updates to two more pubs after recent visits: the weirdly sanitised and family-friendly The Dulwich Wood House in Sydenham; and The Old Orchard in Harefield, which has big terraces and beautiful views.

katstevens

Sabor Peruano, Elephant & Castle, London SE1

Afternoon everyone! This week's featured article is for Sabor Peruano, a small Peruvian restaurant just South of Elephant & Castle. The portions are generous and the ceviche sounds worth a punt (perhaps give the roasted corn kernels a miss though).

New on RGL are articles for Ades Cash and Carry, an African/Caribbean grocery shop in Charlton, Cafe Jasmine, a servicable greasy spoon in Sydenham, and the Essex Roti Hut in Rainham, which looks to be more architecturally durable than the word 'hut' would suggest. But then again, I can't remember the last time I saw a Pizza Hut located in an actual hut? Terminology aside, if you're in Rainham and fancy some Caribbean food, the Essex Roti Hut should do nicely.

There are a few updated pub articles too: the Prince Albert in Woolwich; the Goodman's Field Wetherspoons in Aldgate and the Phoenix in Rainham, just along from the Essex Roti Hut.

ewan

Welcome back after a wee break. The next update will be after Easter, so in a couple of weeks.

Les Delices de Tresor, New Cross, London SE14

This week's featured article is Les Delices de Tresor, SE14 6TJ. I know what you're thinking from the photo, you're thinking that's a pub! Well, it is a pub still, down the back, but this front bar is now given over to an Ivorian restaurant. It's a one person operation, so expect some flexibility in the opening hours, but it will serve some if not all of your fufu and stew needs.

New entries for Singer Tavern, a Barworks pub at the bottom of City Road, where it meets Finsbury Square: a big spacious place but with a good drinks range. Plus there's On the Hoof Bistro in sunny Sydenham, a friendly little cafe near the station which does excellent Sunday roasts. Finally, Orchard, a veggie cafe on Sicilian Avenue by Holborn, rocking the 70s wholefoods vibe.

There's an update to the Bloomsbury (or Bloomsbury Tavern, if you will), a Shepherd Neame pub which is located in... well, I'd call it St Giles or Holborn, but knock yourself out.

Finally, we regret to report the impending closure in June of Food for Thought, a classic veggie cafe in Covent Garden, basically the origin of that very 70s wholefoods vibe we detected at Orchard (although they do it much better at FfT), and a proper old timer on the scene.

katstevens

Hi all, apologies for the late post this week - I spent the weekend gallivanting all over Penge and have only just recovered.

This week's featured article is for Shahanshah in Southall, a popular vegetarian Indian cafe a little way off the Uxbridge Road. The samosas are fresh, crisp and extremely good value, as is the rest of the menu.

There's a new article for the Hilltop Cafe in Sydenham, a greasy spoon which opens at the crack of dawn - including on Sundays (very useful for those embarking on epic Penge adventures). It's also very cheap, but far more functional than some of its trendier competitors in the area.

Finally, two pub closures to report: the Dartmouth Arms in Tufnell Park and the Elephant & Castle (no prizes for guessing where that was).

ewan

Hello!

This week's featured article is Cineworld Haymarket, which is a cinema I find myself visiting quite often (for membership related reasons). It's an actual old cinema building, which feels rare enough in the centre of town, and screen 1 is excellent. I'd be wary of the smaller basement screens, though.

A new (stub) article is another new cinema, ArtHouse in leafy Crouch End. The other new entry is a write-up of vegan stalwart the Bonnington Cafe in Vauxhall. Depending on when you visit, there will be a different chef, but the food should all be fresh and tasty.

Finally, we've marked the Windmill in Sydenham as permanently closed.