rglondon | Entries tagged with se4

Gidea Park Micropub, Gidea Park, London RM2

Hi RGL readers!

This week's featured article is for the Gidea Park Micropub, where there's plenty of beer and a variety of pork pies on offer. There's a dartboard too, which always worries me a bit when space is at a premium. Like those beds that fold up vertically into a cupboard - it's just asking for trouble.

There's more microscopic beer in Penge, at the Southey Brewing Tap Room, for which we have a new page. The decor may be a little basic but their beers are fresh and tasty, just like Penge itself. There are also two new pages for cafés in Brockley: Fred's and Arlo and Moe are both near Crofton Park station, but which one does 'Sexy Toast'? You'll have to click through to find out...

We have an update to the West Norwood Library & Picturehouse following a visit, which revealed some decent vegan options on the menu. We've also paid the Phoenix at Rainham pub a visit following its recent change of management. They also have a dartboard, hopefully one with a bit more space for their patrons to fling their 'arrers around.

Finally, the Parma Cafe greasy spoon in Kennington has closed, and is now a sushi bar. I wonder if there any establishments that have gone in the other direction, from sushi to spoon?

katstevens

This week's featured article is for Sanxia, a Sichuan/Hubei restaurant in Bromley, where you'll find the marvellously-named dish 'ants climbing a tree' (spicy pork vermicelli). I do like a place that has a menu section called 'Adventurous Dishes' - if you're after some #TripeOfTheDay then you could do a lot worse than here (or their sister branches in Deptford and Fitzrovia). I've gone veggie for 2019 though, so you'll have to eat my portion for me.

Some pub updates, following a recent jaunt to Ealing: the Rose and Crown and the Castle Inn are both Fuller's pubs, with a predictably similar beer selection, but the menus are quite different (no tripe). Over towards Old Street, the Trader is now under new management, and has been renamed to the Whitecross Tap.

The Antic-owned Jam Circus pub in Brockley has closed (a distinct lack of actual jam there, as I recall), as has the Grill On The Market by Smithfields (jam quantities uncertain but I remember it being very noisy), and the Dispensary in Whitechapel (very handy for my office, zero jam). The Big Green Bookshop in Wood Green has also finally closed its physical shop - online jam(s) available only.

katstevens

Evening all!

This week's featured article is for Browns of Brockley, a small cafe that is situated, funnily enough, in Brockley. Right by the station, in fact! If you're not a regular to Brockley, then Browns is likely to have had at least one refurb since you last visited if not more. They also don't take cash at all - no risk of getting a 1 Euro cent coin back instead of a penny.

There's an update for Cafe Adagio in Addiscombe where our correspondent enjoyed the homity pie, but can a homity pie ever be a true pie if it doesn't have a lid? (NB I advise caution before entering the #piedebatezone.)

After last week's pub update deluge, there's yet more news! It's all change in Stratford for the Langthorne pub, which is now called the Abbey Tap, while the Vauxhall Griffin has been renamed to the Griffin Belle. We have one reopening, the Case Is Altered in Harrow Weald, but on the closures list we have the Phoenix in Rainham (hopefully only temporarily), the Yardbird in the shopping centre by Hammersmith station (where will Eric Clapton get a pint of Greene King IPA now??), the Grapes in Sutton (Wetherspoons fans in Sutton will have to be content with the Moon on the Hill instead) and finally the Drunken Monkey in Shoreditch, which is to become the Goose Island Brewpub. If I had to choose between having an inebriated monkey or an inebriated goose in the pub with me, I think I would go with the goose (potentially more violent, but easier to catch).

ewan

Hello all! It's the busiest week of the year at my work, so thinking about places to eat and drink is always a pleasurable divertissement.

Mandalay Golden Myanmar, Kilburn, London NW6

This week's featured article is the extravagantly-named Mandalay Golden Myanmar, NW6 2DB, where you can enjoy all your favourite Burmese food... or is it Myanmarese? I understand there's quite a bit of politics behind the naming of the country, and who would have guessed 10-20 years ago how we'd be thinking about Aung San Suu Kyi nowadays, eh? Ah well, there's still the food, and I'm certainly intrigued to try tea leaf salad, despite some of Kake's adjectives.

Two new entries are for The Hercules, which is the bar in the old Pillars of Hercules pub building, and Naughty Piglets, a wine bar ant tapas-y restaurant in Brixton with a twee name.

Loads of updates pages, mostly for pubs...
* Kulu Kulu in Soho, a Soho sushi place;
* The Duke of Argyll in Soho;
* The Newman Arms in Fitzrovia;
* The King William IV in Leyton;
* Browns of Brockley, a cafe in Brockley;
* The Nightingale on the Green in Wanstead;
* The North Star in Leytonstone;
* Domali, a cafe/bar in Crystal Palace;
* The Crown and Sceptre in Streatham;
* The Duke of Wellington in Belgravia;
* The Dog and Fox in Wimbledon "Village" if you will;
* The Aeronaut in Acton;
* The Roebuck in Hampstead;
* The Sir Richard Steele in Belsize Park;
* The Ivy House in lovely Nunhead;
* The Rye in Peckham;
* The Herne Tavern in East Dulwich; and
* Babur Indian restaurant in Forest Hill.

Finally, there are two reported permanent closures, being The French House, a French cafe in Crystal Palace (not the Soho pub!), and Mr Lawrence in Brockley, a sad loss to the area, which has been on the decline for some time but had been a fixture there for many decades.

mrs_leroy_brown

Wotcher dudes :)

Our featured article is the Half Moon in Herne Hill. After a three and a half year closure due to flooding, it was reopened last March. The live music venue has gone and the pub now also acts as a hotel, bar and kitchen. Why not stop by for breakfast, though maybe skip the continental buffet.

A new article has gone up for Horn of Africa, twixt Brockley and New Cross. The menu on offer appears to vary on the day - who doesn't love a surprise?

Updates have been made to the Victoria Inn in Peckham. Expect a bit of work with your bacon roll here.

That's all for a fortnight as we explore old haunts in search of exciting and updated content :)

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!

katstevens

Afternoon everyone! A slight hiccup disintegrated last week's blog post, which would have had Nunhead's Beer Shop as the featured article. Who knows what Ewan would have written about this new micropub/bottle shop? Well, he wrote the article being featured so you can have a decent guess. Instead I will tell you about this week's featured article, which is for Vijay in Kilburn, a South Indian restaurant which claims to be the first such restaurant to open in the UK (in 1964). It does a decent mathanga erissery along with other vegetarian, meat and fish specialities. Apparently the Indian cricket team have been known to pop in for a biryani following a hard day's batting at Lord's...

There are updates to the articles for the George pub and Mirch Masala (both in Croydon), and the Riverside Bookshop has moved a few yards from Hay's Galleria to Tooley Street. Meanwhile, Swedish haunt The Harcourt has closed for refurbishment until June 2015, and has relocated to the nearby Duke of York (so Eurovision fans will still have somewhere to watch Melodifestivalen this spring).

A whole bunch of closures to report: the clanging chimes of doom have clung for the Marquis of Wellington and Royal Delight (both in Bermondsey), the Iron Duke inside Victoria station (now replaced with The Beer House Victoria - you can probably guess what font its sign uses without even clicking), the Hobgoblin in New Cross (now reopened as the Rose Pub & Kitchen), Broca Food Market in Brockley, Books For Amnesty in Hammersmith, the Duke of Edinburgh in Upton Park, and the Prince of Wales in Hillingdon. I don't think you could have watched Melodifestivalen in any of those places.

katstevens

Hi everyone! This week's featured article is for Broca, SE4 2RW. It's an independent café in Brockley - if you come out of the train station on the East side you can't miss it. Their sandwiches have a cinematic theme, but I couldn't say for sure whether any of them are flavoured with Liam Neeson receiving a series of cryptic text messages demanding that he instruct the government to transfer $150 million into into an off-shore account otherwise a passenger on his flight will be disintegrated every 20 minutes.

As of this weekend, the Barnsbury in Islington has metamorphosed into a craft beer pub called the Hop & Berry. Your intrepid RGL crew will be investigating it soon! Do you know anywhere else that we should be visiting?

ewan

Hello from your belated RGL updates team!

If you're like me, you may be thinking that the featured article this week is some kind of Scandinavian design consultancy (my mind goes straight to "ergonomic", which sort of suggests that kind of thing, but maybe that's just me). Well, fear not, for Ergon, W1U 1BP is a Greek restaurant and deli in Marylebone. It's pretty good value according to my fellow correspondent, but keep an eye on what you're being served.

We have two (albeit related) new articles: one for the Broca cafe in Brockley, home of perky jazz, good service and tasty thick-cut sandwiches; the other for Broca Food Market, a hippy food shop on the other side of the tracks (literally), but run by the same people.

Following refurbishment, the Imperial War Museum in Lambeth has reopened.

Finally, Nivla Restaurant in Camberwell has now closed, so you will need to do further research for your Sierra Leonean eating options in London.

katstevens

Afternoon, RGL crew!

This week's featured article is Good Taste, SE19 1RX, a deli in Crystal Palace that stocks interesting booze and plenty of cheese. The staff seem to know their stuff, too!

We have a new page for the Bedford Tavern, a convenient but civilised locals' pub in Croydon that does pork scratchings. Rumours of a secret tunnel leading to Bedford in the gents are unconfirmed.

Dramatic scenes over in Brockley, where the Jam Circus pub has had a fire - but don't worry, nobody was hurt and the Antic dudes say it should be back open for business ASAP. Maybe they will install a trapeze made of chutney while they're at it?

Alas it's not a particularly happy new year for the Castle pub in Battersea, Sitaaray on Drury Lane, the Jacobs camera shops on New Oxford Street and Cannon Street (the whole chain has been 'pulled', as it were), and the Platform restaurant on Tooley Street - all of them are closed permanently.

However the saddest news of all is that Lituanica has stopped selling the cheese and onion peanuts! Your RGL admins are having therapy as we speak.

ewan

A bit of a busier week this week, and possibly our first featured Wetherspoon's is the Gatehouse, N6 4BD. Being in Highgate, it's a rather upmarket outlet for this budget chain, and has long been in use as a pub.

New additions are: Pitt Cue Co., a bbq rib outlet in Soho; and Roti Masters, a Caribbean cafe in Croydon.

There's an update to the stub entry on North Nineteen, a Good Beer Guide pub in Upper Holloway, now with a full review. I liked it there!

There's one temporary closure for refurbishment, Toad's Mouth Too Cafe in Brockley.

There are also three permanent closures: The Rugby Inn, a pub in Twickenham; Rasa Samudra, an Indian fish restaurant in Fitzrovia (moving its operation to the sister restaurant in Mayfair); and Saf, a vegan raw food restaurant in Shoreditch.

ewan

Pollock's Toy Museum, Fitzrovia, London W1

This week's featured article is Pollock's Toy Museum, a museum of toys set in a couple of adjoining terraced houses in Fitzrovia, just off Tottenham Court Road.

We have one new addition: Browns of Brockley, a cafe and coffee bar in an area of London you can probably guess.

The entry for Loving Hut, a vegan Chinese restaurant in Edgware, has been updated.

The reported permanent closures are two pubs and two bars: The Brewery Tap in Wimbledon and The Glassy Junction in Southall; Jrink in Soho, and 1802 in Docklands.

kake

Image © Kake

This week's featured article is Orchard, SE4 1LW, a nice little bar and restaurant in Brockley.

Vegetarian and vegan options are clearly marked on the menu (the photo here is of the warm lentil and roast vegetable salad, which is vegan), and there's step-free access and an accessible toilet.

Recent additions to RGL include YBR Cakes, a cake shop and cafe in Thornton Heath; Chai Corner, an Indian tea shop and cafe in Croydon; and Manchurian Legends, a Dongbei (northeast Chinese) restaurant in Chinatown.

One reported closure: the Wheatsheaf in Vauxhall.

kake

Image © Kake

This week's featured article is Leong's Legend, W1D 6AX, a small Taiwanese restaurant in Chinatown offering some rather good dim sum. Their xiao long bao are among the best I've had in London.

Recent additions to RGL include the Horseshoe, a craft beer gastropub in Hampstead; the Duke of Edinburgh, a locals' pub in Wood Green; the Pembroke Castle, a pub in Primrose Hill; and the Man of Kent, a locals' pub in Nunhead. It's been quite a pubby week; we also updated our writeup of the Ivy House in Nunhead.

Reported closures are Long Time Cafe in Brockley, Tadim Cafe in Camberwell, and Himalayan Spice in Chiswick.

kake

Image © Ewan-M

This week's featured article is Kris Wines, N7 9LW, an off licence at the top of York Way, about halfway between Kentish Town Station and Caledonian Road Station.

Despite its name (and they do stock wines), Kris Wines very much specialises in beers, which come from all over Britain and around the world. ewan describes it as "excellent", high praise indeed.

Recent additions to RGL include City Caphe, a Vietnamese cafe on Ironmonger Lane near St Paul's; the Orchard, a vegan-friendly bar in Brockley; and the Ravensbourne Arms, a new Antic pub at the Ladywell end of Lewisham.