Randomness Guide to London

Evening all! This week's featured article is the Grosvenor in Hanwell, a large Good Beer Guide pub with decent food (their website features a picture of some delicious-looking toad-in-the-hole) and some nice old-fashioned tiling on the exterior.

New to RGL are Karahi King and the Preston, both in Wembley. Karahi King is a laid-back Indian cafe where you can bring your own booze, while the Preston makes up for its Ember Inns blandness with free lime and soda and generally good accessibility.

The article for the Oval Tavern in Croydon has an update following a visit. Although it's not the closest pub to East Croydon station, it looks like a decent place to spend some time waiting for your train.

Pubs you should not wait for a train inside, as they have recently been on fire: the Beehive near Baker Street and the slightly less swanky New Cross Turnpike in Welling have both temporarily closed while they pat out the flames. Meanwhile the Ravensbury in Mitcham is not on fire but is also temporarily shut while its new owners figure out what to do with it, and the Fitzroy Tavern (which I feel I must point out is in Fitzrovia) is having a major refurb, and due to reopen next summer. Doctor Who fans will have to find somewhere else to meet up for now.

Finally, Sam's Brasserie and Bar in Chiswick has shut, to be replaced by a branch of Foxlow (owned by the Hawksmoor dudes). I am not keen on Foxlow as a brand, through no real fault of theirs - they replaced Homa in Stoke Newington which did extremely awesome takeaway pizza, a fact I only found out about just before they shut for good! Foxlow are clearly to blame for me not paying attention to local pizza opportunities for the previous 8 years.

This week's featured article is Tian Fu, W12 8AR (formerly known as Bamboo House), a Sichuan restaurant in Shepherd's Bush that serves loofah! Thankfully it is at the edible stage, before it turns into a scrubbing brush.

We have brand new pages for Caballo Bikes and Cafe, a cafe and bicycle workshop on Clapton's trendy Chatsworth Road, and the Parish, an Irish pub in Wembley that had the hurling on telly during our visit yesterday.

The pages for the Albion in West Kensington and the Lamb Brewery pub in Chiswick have both had significant updates after recent visits, as has my old local the Tichenham Inn in Ickenham, a Wetherspoons wherein I spent many a happy hour during my lunch break in Sixth Form as a responsible adult. Bonus history fact: the pub's name comes from 'Ticheha' (pronounced 'Ticky-ha'), which is how Ickenham was listed in the Domesday Book!

But it's not all rose-tinted Anglo-Saxon fun-times I'm afraid: Ciao Baby Cucina in the Shepherd's Bush Westfield, Cool Monkey in Holland Park, the branch of EAT in London City Airport and the Greyhound pub in Oval have all closed.