rglondon | Entries tagged with sw1

Good evening ya'll!

If you're looking for advice on where to seek out Japanese noodles in the City, "udon" well in reading this update. Koya serves up udon in a variety of temperatures in a rich and salty broth. Expect solid competence in a modern setting, with efficient service.

Two new articles have been added: Ma La, a Sichuan restaurant in Westminster which can accommodate small and large groups, though you might benefit from scattering across smaller tables if you want to reach the lazy susan. There's also Planet of the Beans, a child-friendly cafe in Selsdon serving an interesting interpretation of eggs royale.

Updates have been made to Ealing Park Tavern, where a pint of lime and soda is £2 and the mains are tasty, albeit on on the small side. Updates have also been made to The Speaker, a small pub in Westminster with a good selection of beers that passed the RGL drinkable taste test.

If you're looking for Stanfords, an excellent map shop in Covent Garden, note it's moved around the corner from Long Acre to Mercer Walk.

That's it for a fortnight as we prepare for and recover from Croydon Fun Weekend :)

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.

katstevens

Evening readers!

This week's featured article is for Kiraku, a Japanese restaurant-pub combo, near Ealing Common tube station, where the quality of the cooking justifies the above-average price tag.

We have new articles for three veggie and vegan-friendly cafes: the Rail House Cafe in Victoria has some interesting breakfast options, the St Gabriel Ethiopian Delicatessen in Finsbury Park has flavoursome food in big portions, and Cafe Provencal in Herne Hill offers breakfasts and burgers that make up for their lack of structural stability with high levels of tastiness. But wait - there's more new cafe pages! Le Delice in Ladywell sounds like a pleasant, relaxing place to pass the morning, while Morden-based Romanian cafe Time In Ro feels like it should be a pun, but on what, I'm not sure (frankly there's Morden enough puns available in the area already).

Rounding off the week, there's an update to the Ladywell Tavern page following a recent visit, while the Gowlett pub in Peckham ('East Dulwich borders') has closed down.

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

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.

ewan

Hello and welcome back as RGL takes you to...

Leafy Forest Hill, where our featured article, cafe Teapot, SE23 3HF, awaits you. It's not big, but it will do you a good panino, and child-friendly portion sizes if you have children with you, which you may not.

There's a new entry for Jackson and Rye, a chain bar/restaurant in Richmond. I know there's one in Soho, as I've walked past it many times, but that's not a review. You can follow the link for that but be warned, there is a distinct lack of blueberries.

Finally, the reported permanent closure of Matsuri, a teppanyaki restaurant in St James's, by Piccadilly. You might miss some of its excellent food, but you won't miss the prices.

katstevens

Evening everyone!

This week’s featured article is for A Wong, a modern Chinese restaurant in Victoria - quite different in style to last week's featured Chinese restaurant! There’s plenty of interesting dim sum on offer - the mushroom and truffle steamed bun sounds like a good choice.

There’s a brand new page for the new Curzon cinema inside the Goldsmiths campus, in New Cross. Meanwhile the New Cross Turnpike is not actually in New Cross but in Welling, and is now reopened after last year’s fire.

Some pub closures to report: the Obelisk in Chingford is on the market, and Wetherspoons have sold both the Cap In Hand in Southborough, the Plough and Harrow in Hammersmith and the Picture Palace in Ponders End.

katstevens

Fresh Fields Market, Croydon, London CR0

Happy New Year to all our RGL readers!

Our first featured article of 2016 is Fresh Fields Market in Croydon, a supermarket that stocks interesting craft beers, including some on cask.

A whole bunch of new stuff has arrived over the Xmas break: also hailing from Croydon is An Nam, a Vietnamese restaurant in the Wing Yip centre, and just across the Purley Way is Tigris, serving Middle Eastern food. A fast train to Victoria will plonk you outside the St George's Tavern, a large, busy Nicholson's pub which you can book out for events. Moving East to Limehouse, the Husk is a coffee shop and community space run by the London City Mission, just down the road from the Old Ship (a trad pub that still has some carpet left) and Shanshuijian, a Chinese restaurant specialising in a tasty-sounding lamb hotpot.

Holland Park tube station has decided to sit out most of 2016 and get its lifts replaced instead. After hauling myself off the sofa and back into the office today, I have to say don't blame it.

katstevens

at the Aleksander, Twickenham, London TW1

Evening RGL crew!

This week's featured article is for the Aleksander, a Good Beer Guide pub in St Margaret's, which also does good Italian food. Did you know that St Margaret is the patron saint of both Lowestoft and kidney disease? What a combination of responsibilities that must be.

New to RGL is A Wong, a modern (and busy) Chinese restaurant in Victoria with a range of tasty-sounding dim sum including quail egg croquette puffs. The service appears to be a bit hit and miss though.

Some news from my old North London haunt of Stoke Newington: the Defoe pub (which closed over the summer) is about to reopen as the Stoke Newington Tea House, which, while still a pub, claims to serve a hundred different types of tea. I didn't even know there *were* a hundred different types of tea. I wonder if they do PG Tips?

ewan

Hello all

Welcome back to another week at your Randomness Guide, London edition.

The featured article this month is Po Cha, SE1 7RG, a small Korean restaurant out the back of Waterloo station, relocated from St Giles High St. If you can fit in, you'll enjoy the bibimbap.

Four additions are: Melucci's Italian sandwich shop in Bexley; Cafe Spice Nigerian restaurant in Peckham (meat and stew are your meals there); Brazil's Cafe in Chesham (attractive building, not too much meat in their salt beef sandwich, also it's in Chesham); and the Jasmine Thai Kitchen also in furthest-flung Chesham (patchy but efficient).

There's a significant update to The Gamekeepers Lodge pub in Chesham, where sleeping dogs lie.

We've heard that Chimes restaurant/bar in Pimlico has closed.

Finally, note the new address for Mamuska! Polish canteen, which is no longer in the Elephant Shopping Centre.

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.

ewan

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.

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.

katstevens

Afternoon RGL crew!

Our featured article this week is for Venerdi, E5 0LH, a friendly Italian restaurant on Hackney's trendy Chatsworth Road that serves a lovely plate of ravoli.

There's an update to the article for Chai Corner cafe in Croydon (following its change of location), and three closures to report: the Captain's Cabin pub in Piccadilly, Bento Box in Holborn and Chawol in Clerkenwell.

Finally, SM Pinoy in Croydon has changed its name to Eurasia, though it still sells the usual Filipino groceries and (as far as we can tell) has not always been at war with Oceania.

ewan

This week's featured article is Adchaya, SW19 1AZ, a Sri Lankan canteen-style restaurant in Wimbledon, that serves large filling meals for £5, and plenty of spicy food. It also has some excellent South Indian dishes too.

One new article is Brasserie Rayon d'Or, a bar/restaurant in Croydon where it looks like you can just get a drink if you want, probably the best you can hope for a place named after synthetic fabric (PS it's not really).

The reported closure is Cafe Naz, a Bangladeshi restaurant on Brick Lane, which may only be closing temporarily (we're not sure).

It also seems as if The Captain's Cabin just off Haymarket has closed, but we haven't verified this, and would appreciate more info.

ewan

This week's featured article is The Horse and Groom, SW1X 7BA, an unpretentious mews pub, albeit in a very upmarket part of town. Sadly, its great age and lesser size mean that it's not very accessible.

Our one addition is Lime Orange, a Korean restaurant with good beef but too many onions. Kake, are you learning Korean now?

One reported permanent closure is Roganic, a fine dining outpost for Simon Rogan which was only ever set to be open two years (whether this makes it a "pop-up" or not, I'm still not clear on) and has indeed closed after two years.

Moving south to Croydon, the old Fish and Grill has been renamed to Brasserie Vacherin, under the same ownership.

Finally, a closure of sorts is The Northgate, a pub in De Beauvoir Town which has now reopened as The De Beauvoir Arms. At least it's still a pub.

ewan

Hello all! Sorry for being a day late, but this week's featured article is Wenlock and Essex, N1 8LN, which is at the foot of a dull office block but is quite a pleasant bar with a good range of drinks. Admittedly I've only visited extremely off-peak, but the burger was top notch.

The new article is a branch of Pizza Express in Clerkenwell, where Goswell and Clerkenwell Roads join.

Two temporary closures are The Ebury sort-of-pub-sort-of-restaurant-maybe-bar in Pimlico (closed for refurb until 2013), and The Catford Bridge Tavern in, well, Catford (closed until we hope the property's owners realise it's quite the best pub in the area, and get sick of forcing all the locals to walk halfway to Forest Hill to enjoy the Blythe Hill Tavern, or halfway to Lewisham to enjoy the Ravensbourne Arms).

There's also one impending closure, which is Ship of Fools, the West Croydon Wetherspoons, which it is planned to return to being a Sainsbury's (having been one far in the past). Because we need more Sainsbury's.

ewan

28°-50° Wine Workshop and Kitchen, Marylebone, W1

This week's featured article is 28°-50° Wine Workshop and Kitchen, W1U 2NE in Marylebone. For those wondering, apparently most vineyards are located between 28 and 50 degrees latitude. They don't even say on their website, so maybe it's just really obvious?

The one addition is Longdan Express, a Vietnamese and pan-Asian supermarket near Hoxton station on Shoreditch/Haggerston borders.

There's an update to Hackney Picturehouse cinema entry, by me, the gist of which is that it's a really nice cinema (comfy seats, big screens) and the cafe/bar is excellent too.

Reported permanent closures are: Chicago Rib Shack in Knightsbridge; and The King's Arms near Victoria station, which has closed and is set to be demolished along with all the other pubs in that area (The Stage Door, The Duke of York, The Stag) to make way for a new DEVELOPMENT called Victoria Circle. Yay.

ewan

Hello! Unusually this week the featured article is not a place but a category: the Good Beer Guide 2013. Every year on the release of this guide, Kake uploads the 2013 pub information, and as a result a number of new pages are created in RGL (which she and other contributors try to visit before the publication date).

It's worth pointing out that the new articles that have been added as a result do not represent all the new 2013 GBG pubs, just the ones which didn't already have a page on RGL.

The new articles which are not GBG-related are: Dost, an Indian street food restaurant in Uxbridge; Bookworm, a second-hand bookshop in Carshalton; Raizes, a Brazilian restaurant in Bethnal Green; and Cafe Z Bar, a greasy spoon cafe in Stoke Newington.

So, those new GBG articles:
* All Inn One in Forest Hill;
* The Angel in Hayes End;
* The Argyll Arms in Soho;
* The Barnsbury in, er, oh guess;
* The Beehive in Bedfont;
* The Black Lion in Essex's Epping.
* The Botanist in Kew;
* The Coal Hole on the Strand;
* The Elm Park Tavern in Brixton;
* The Forester in West Ealing;
* The Grenadier in Belgravia;
* The Greyhound in Keston;
* The Hare in Bethnal Green;
* Howl at the Moon in Hoxton;
* Noble Green Wines, an off licence (not a pub) in Hampton Hill;
* The Old Sergeant in Wandsworth;
* The Queen's Head in Downe;
* The Railway Hotel in West Wickham;
* The Rising Sun in Surrey's Epsom;
* The Sir Michael Balcon in Ealing;
* The Sun in Carshalton;
* The Sussex Arms in Twickenham;
* The Swan in Hammersmith;
* The Three Greyhounds in Soho;
* The Walnut Tree in Leytonstone; and
* The Windmill in Mitcham.

No closures reported this week.

ewan

Somers Town Coffee House, Somers Town, NW1

This week's featured article is the Somers Town Coffee House, NW1 1HS, which despite its name is a gastropub near Euston station. It's been refurbished since it was a French-themed pub.

There are four additions this week: The Clapton Hart pub in Lower Clapton, another fine Antic outpost; Shane's on Chatsworth, a restaurant not too far away; The North Pole, a self-described craft beer pub in Islington; and Tramlink Route 4, a new tram route on the Tramlink in south London using some extra double-tracking (but no new stations).

There's been an update to the stub entry for The Lord Palmerston, a Geronimo Inns gastropub in Dartmouth Park.

Five permanent closures have been reported: Ping Pong's branch on Goodge Street; the Texas Embassy Cantina by Trafalgar Square; Melati, a Malaysian restaurant in Soho; The Compass, a gastropub in Pentonville, at the end of Chapel Market (reopening as another gastropub called Hundred Crows Rising); and Langton's Bookshop in Twickenham.

Finally, confirmation that Morgan M has fully moved from its site in Holloway to Smithfield.