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[personal profile] katstevens
Devereux, Aldwych, London WC2

Our first featured article of February is the Devereux pub, just off the Strand. It's had a recent change of ownership so those looking for the usual Taylor Walker menu will be met instead by a variety of toasties. According to the website, they also sell Curly Wurlys!

There's a new article for Harry Morgan, a restaurant and deli in St John's Wood. Expect salmon bagels, salt beef sandwiches and, if it takes your fancy, a bowl of cold borscht.

It's the dawning of a classic sitcom plot in South Norwood as cafe Nico moves premises over the road. Will the old carpet shop be able to squeeze itself into Nico's previous home with hilarious results? We'll let you know if we see them sending passive-aggressive paper airplane notes across the street to each other on our next visit.

Finally, some pub news to report:
- the Fuller's Brewery Tap in Brentford has reopened after a refurb;
- the Royal Exchange in Paddington is temporarily closed after some sad news;
- Walthamstow Antic pub Mirth, Marvel and Maud is undergoing redevelopment;
- the landlords of the Ealing Park Tavern have decided not to renew their lease;
- the Change of Horses in Farnborough has had a Change of Management; the effect on the weekly Orpington Folk Club meetings is as yet unclear;
- the Load of Hay near Brunel University in Uxbridge has also recently had a refurb. Whether this will stop locals referring to it by a slightly different name remains to be seen.
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[personal profile] katstevens
King and Queen, Fitzrovia, W1
Evening crew, here's another update to kick off your week, featuring 100% pub content.

Our featured article is for a pub that's become one of my 'old reliables' over the years, the King and Queen in Fitzrovia. A haven for office workers and weekend rugby-watchers requiring no-nonsense drinking, it was mere 3 minutes away from my (now-demolished) office back in the 2000s. It has offered the same well-kept pints of Tribute, scuzzy carpet and bookable upstairs room for as long as I can remember.

Sadly another 'old reliable' on the other side of Tottenham Court Road has closed - the Jeremy Bentham is now a Simmons bar (I doubt they've kept the shrunken wax head which looks more like Tim Rice than Jezza B). Other closures include the Station Tavern in Brimsdown, the Well in Clerkenwell, the Balham Arms (guess where), and the Crown near Hillingdon Hospital.

Some slightly more cheering news from Muswell Hill, where the Victoria Stakes has reopened after a fire. The Camel & Artichoke in Waterloo has also reopened, while the Melbourne in Wallington is now The Star and the Norbiton & Dragon in Kingston has dropped any pretense at mythology to become merely The Norbiton. I guess I'll now have to get my dragon content from Duolingo Welsh, which seems very keen that I learn the phrase "mae ddraig goch yn ddiflas" (hashtag #notalldragons).
katstevens: (dogswim)
[personal profile] katstevens
Vijay, Kilburn, London NW6

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.
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[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.
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[personal profile] katstevens
Williams Ale & Cider House, Spitalfields, London E1

Afternoon RGL crew!

This week's featured article is for the Williams Ale And Cider House. It's a cosy Good Beer Guide pub, hidden away in a Spitalfields alleyway, not far from Liverpool Street station. As you can tell from the name, it is keen to promote its large range of beers and ciders, and overall seems like good alternative to the more obvious pubs on Bishopsgate itself.

New to RGL is Ladudu, a Vietnamese restaurant and coffee shop in West Hampstead. It's named after the Vietnamese for 'papaya leaf', and as well as coffee, the menu features a choice of three different Vietnamese beers to go with your spring rolls.

Finally, Dost in Uxbridge has closed. The good citizens of UB8 now have an ice cream shop in its place.
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[personal profile] ewan
Handpumps at the Bree Louise, Euston

This week is that week when the Good Beer Guide is released, so we can add all the new Good Beer Guide 2014 pubs, which Kake and bob have been diligently adding, helped by a few others. I shan't try to sum up the views of our sterling reviewers (you should read the entries to find out their favourites), so here is a list of those with new entries in RGL as a result:

In the centre:
* The Chamberlain (Aldgate EC3);
* The Exmouth Arms (Clerkenwell EC1);
* The Hung, Drawn and Quartered (Tower Hill EC3);
* The Sun (Covent Garden WC2); and
* The White Swan (Covent Garden WC2).

In the North:
* The Bohemia (North Finchley N12) [PS already closed! BOO!];
* The Bull (Highgate N6);
* The Charlotte Despard (Archway N19); and
* The Stag and Hounds (Lower Edmonton N9).

In the East:
* The Bell (Walthamstow E17)
* The Duke's Head (Walthamstow E17); and
* The Sebright Arms (Haggerston E2).

In the South-East:
* The Royal Standard (Blackheath SE3);
* The Ship (Borough SE1); and
* The Star Inn (Plumstead SE18).

In the South-West:
* The King's Head (Earl's Court SW5); and
* Powder Keg Diplomacy (Battersea SW11).

In outer London postcodes:
* The Barking Dog (Barking IG11);
* The Europa (East Molesey KT8);
* The Feathers (Rickmansworth WD3);
* The George Staples (Sidcup DA15);
* The Jolly Coopers (Hampton TW12);
* The London Apprentice (Isleworth TW7);
* The Moon on the Hill (Sutton SM1)
* The Tailor's Chalk (Sidcup DA14);
* The Three Tuns (Uxbridge UB8);
* The Windermere (North Wembley HA9); and
* The Woodman (Farnborough BR6).

There's also a stub article for The Viaduct in Hanwell, so if anyone would like to visit and let us know how it is, why not do that? We'll get along eventually, I'm sure.

One other pub addition, not in the GBG, is The Change of Horses in Farnborough, which is upmarket traditional. If you're going to go all the way to Farnborough you might as well try a couple of pubs, eh?

Reported closures, are, er, the Bohemia (see above). It was a nice pub, I hope it will be back... :(

There are significant updates to the entries for The Red Lion in Isleworth, The Portrait in Sidcup, and Ye Olde Whyte Lyon in Farnborough.

There is a temporary closure for The Pilot Inn, a wonderful and lonely pub in North Greenwich. Meanwhile, The Gate vegetarian restaurant in Hammersmith has reopened.
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[personal profile] katstevens
Dost, Uxbridge, London UB8

Morning RGL crew!

We have a brand new featured article this week, in the shape of Dost, UB8 1QT, an Indian street food restaurant in the thriving micro-metropolis of Uxbridge. Kake loved the dal maa dumpukht on her visit, so if you're in the area why not give it a go? It does takeaway too, in case you're not a fan of Bollywood posters.

Two additions for you: Lituanica is a Lithuanian and Eastern European deli/takeaway in Barking, with plenty of exciting pickled things in jars and a Wall of Dumplings. Further west is Dabbous, a trendy Michelin-starred restaurant in Fitzrovia, which by all accounts is very difficult to get a booking at - well done Kake and friends! Dabbous is slightly larger and noisier than Pollock's Toy Museum just opposite, but their hispi cabbage is way better.

Succumbing to the 2nd law of thermodynamics this week: Cantina in Holborn may have shut (but we need to confirm it), while Bodrum in Stoke Newington has definitely shut because otherwise there wouldn't have been room for the tapas restaurant I visited there a few weeks ago. Unless you start getting into the Many Universes Theory of parallel dimensional space, and let's face it, it's too early on a Monday morning for all that.
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[personal profile] ewan
2013 Good Beer Guide cover

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.
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[personal profile] katstevens
Sekforde Arms, Clerkenwell, EC1

Morning RGL posse!

This week's featured article is the Sekforde Arms, EC1R 0HA, a cosy, old-school Young's pub in the backstreets of Clerkenwell. Last time I went there I ate a reasonably-priced lasange and blimey if it didn't hit the spot. Also one of the bar staff was wearing an enormous chocolate gold medal round her neck. APPROVED.

New to RGL are the Fox Inn in Keston and the George and Dragon in Downe, both located in the London Borough of Bromley, Home of Punk Rock. Hungry? Why not try Dirty Burger, a small but perfectly hygienic pop-up restaurant in Kentish Town? Or how about Chuan Chuan Xiang, a similarly-microscopic takeaway in Chinatown that does extremely spicy skewers?

There's a bumper crop of pub updates as Kake has been doing sterling work on the annual Good Beer Guide round-up: the Capitol and the Dartmouth Arms, both in Forest Hill; the George in the nice SE London Hayes; the Good Yarn and the Queen's Head in my old stomping ground of Uxbridge; and finally the Hut, the Crown and the Prince of Wales down the road in Hillingdon (a bit too far for my 18-year-old self to stomp to).

One closure to report: Soho Silks has metamorphosed from a silk shop (in Soho, funnily enough) into a dry cleaners.

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