rglondon | Entries tagged with wc2

Hello RGL community. I got back from a three-week holiday Down Under on Saturday (it was lovely!) and I've been a bit jet-lagged since, and a bit busy at work too, hence the delay to this post, a very special episode of the Randomness Guide to London.

You'll be aware of the news. Therefore the first thing to mention is that after this post RGL will take a break for a while. Most of us are now working from home, and avoiding going out as much as possible (some entirely). The latest government and Public Health England advice has been to avoid group socialising and non-essential travel, so it's likely that many of the pubs, bars, restaurants and cinemas will be closed at this point, and given the way things have progressed on the continent, it feels like only a matter of time before that is enforced more strictly. We cannot in all good faith, as of Wednesday 18 March, advise you to go out to any of the places on this list either; if they are still open, you will have to take that decision yourself, but find ways to support them however you can.

The list below was compiled on Sunday, and even in the few days since then, the public health advice has taken a much harder line.

Restaurante Santafereño, Brixton, London SW9

With all that in mind, the featured article is Restaurante Santafereno, SW9 8PR, a popular restaurant in the Brixton Market supporting the Colombian community. Perhaps make it a place to visit when we are able to move freely again.

There's an update to Sala Piquin, also in Brixton Market, formerly Casa Morita. It's moving from just Mexican to regional fusion, with friendly staff, so why not help them out with a visit when it's safe again to do so.

Two reported temporary closures (that aren't related to coronavirus) are: Mirch Masala in Norbury (for hygiene reasons); and Joy King Lau in Covent Garden.

Well, that's our last update for a while. We don't know how long things will go, but it's likely to be for at least the length of the Summer, which is sad. Some places are still offering takeaways or deliveries so please do your best to support small businesses wherever you can in any way that is safe to both you and them, and spare a thought for those businesses who were gearing up to open or rebrand or refurbish in March and beyond. More than that, spare a thought for the many people working in the hospitality and tourist industries who will find life much harder now. Life will get hard for a bit, before things look up.

katstevens

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.

mrs_leroy_brown

Welcome to another week of curated randomness :)

This week's featured article is Out Of The Brew, a veggie/vegan coffee shop twixt New Cross and New Cross Gate stations. Although the menu choices aren't vast, it seems a great place to work with a decent wifi connection and a possible resident dog.

Updates have been made to the Devereaux pub just off the Strand, and London Fields Brewery Tap Room.

We've two reported closures - Swan Books, an indie bookshop in Upminster and Lamberts, a British restaurant in Balham.

In reopening news, the Waterman's Arms, a Young's pub in Richmond, is refurbished and under new management, though we've yet to visit.

rowleybirkinqc

Lao Cafe, a Laotian restaurant in Covent Garden

This week's featured article is the Lao Cafe, WC2N 4HG, a small Laotian restaurant in Covent Garden. Inside it has an industrial look, but there is a huge mural of a smiling person and the food is good.

Two cafes have been reported closed, both permanently: Mimosa, SE24 9HU, a cafe/deli close to the Half Moon in Herne Hill, closed in mid-2019, and Familia Cafe, E7 9BB, a tiny, simple corner cafe by Forest Gate Station, closed earlier this month.

mrs_leroy_brown

¡Buenas tardes!

This week's featured article is Tierra Peru, which as its name helpfully informs, is a Peruvian Restaurant in Islington. Reviewers praise the food's flavour and textures, and the portions appear rather generous.

Four new articles have gone up. In the east, we have Familia Cafe, a wee gem of a cafe in Forest Gate which offers up a Spanish breakfast sure to be a hit with garlic lovers. In central London, we have Lao Cafe, a Laotian restaurant in Covent Garden with industrial decor; best to arrive early as it seems to fill up fast. In the south, we have Rocoto Pepper, a Latin American restaurant in New Cross serving perfectly cromulent tea and arepas, along with breakfast choices and a lunch selection that has a vegan option. Just down the road from SE14, Pho Street in Greenwich is a Vietnamese cafe where unsurprisingly, pho and other noodles soups feature heavily.

Updates have been made to:

- Vasanta Bhavan, a totally vegetarian Indian cafe in East Ham
- Compton Arms, a pub near Highbury & Islington Station
- Akari, a Japanese restaurant near Essex Road station
- Parcel Yard, a Fuller's pub inside King's Cross station

Finally, we've two reported closures - China China, a Chinese restaurant in Lewisham and Village East, a bar and restaurant near Tower Bridge

katstevens

Evening RGL readers!

This week's featured article is for Round Table Books in Brixton Market. It's a small children's bookshop with a focus on inclusivity. It also contains a table (shape unspecified)!

There's a new page for The Kitchen cafe in Lee, which serves breakfast until 11am, bagels thereafter, and banging tunes from Kiss FM throughout. We also have lots of pub updates (and one addition) this week following a successful flaneurs trip:

- The Cricketers, Orpington
- The Hackney Carriage, Sidcup
- Hopper's Hut, Sidcup
- The Greystoke, West Ealing
- The Lemon Tree, Trafalgar Square
- The Elephant Inn, North Finchley
- The Pineapple, Kentish Town

The last time I was in the Pineapple, I got chatting with a dude who said he was the keyboardist in Gorillaz. It was quite an animated discussion! Ahem. Let's draw a smooth Euclidean line under that, and wrap things up with a closure: the Clerkenwell branch of Foxlow.

ewan

Apologies once again for my tardiness in providing you with much-needed London-based updates.

Our featured article this week is Casa Morita, SW9 8LB, a Mexican taqueria in the market at Brixton, which also sells some Mexican groceries. Expect excellent tortillas, and friendly service.

The new article is The Cork and Bottle in Hampstead, which used to be the White Horse pub, and is now a restaurant/wine bar, though they still have ale. The food gets our approval, and may be worth checking out if you're around the area.

Sticking with NW3, there are significant updates to The Enterprise down the hill (possibly not worth your time) and The Duke of Hamilton, returned from its brief stint as a jazz bar.

Finally, The Devereux pub just off the Strand has reopened.

mrs_leroy_brown

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 :)

katstevens

Evening readers!

This week's featured article is for Roti Joupa, a Trinidadian takeaway near Clapham North tube. I don't tend to venture to Clapham much (unless I've got on the wrong Overground train at Canada Water without realising), but I might make an exception for somewhere that sells macaroni pie. I enjoy macaroni, I enjoy pie, I also enjoy tamarind sauce - perhaps one day I will even enjoy Clapham?

Regular readers will recall last week's spoiler alert concerning a jaunt to Bromley ('the place where broom grows'), resulting in new pages for Sanxia, a Sichuan/Hubei Chinese restaurant, and the Star and Garter pub. There's also updates for the Red Lion, the Barrel & Horn, and Indian restaurant/hotel Tamasha, which has ~~mucky pictures in the loos~~ "ancient Indian artwork of an adult nature". One can only hope it's up to the standard of the infamous decor of Cafe Bangla (aka the Princess Di place) on Brick Lane.

How might one get to Bromley, I hear you ask? The direct path is unlikely to involve Cannon Street, but if you find yourself in said station you could visit the Sir John Hawkshaw Wetherspoons or nearby Japanese restaurant Koya. But where *can* you get to from Cannon Street? Douze points to whoever said Sidcup ('a flat topped hill'), where there are three pub updates, for the Hackney Carriage microbrewery, the Alma and the Hill Top Tap.

Right at the top of Green Lanes in Winchmore Hill, there's a new page for the Little Green Dragon pub, and an update for Turkish restaurant Big Seff. There's also a new page for the Temple Brew House bar and microbrewery, just off the Strand.

Finally we come back to Trigger's Bromley, where the Cineworld is temporarily closed, while it transforms chrysalis-style into a Picturehouse.

ewan

Hello welcome back to another week of Randomness. This week's featured article is Domali, SE19 3AH, a narrow cafe/bar in Upper Norwood's Crystal Palace neighbourhood, where you can find mostly vegetarian food as well as some draught beers. Expect to find our local correspondent in there for weekend brunches.

The two new articles are... Roti Joupa in sunny Clapham, a Trinidadian place, primarily a takeaway though there are a few stools from where you can view beach scenes and palm tree decals, though I suspect the food will be the main way you commune with its Trinidadian origins. Sounds like tasty good value to me.

The other new article is Craft Beer Co. in what they like to call Covent Garden. It's been recently done up, and Kake has managed to get a photo of it with no people in, which is not how you'll generally see the place (as it's quite popular).

Four reported permanent closures are for: The Sandrock in Shirley; The Castle in Holborn; the Nordic Bakery in Covent Garden; and Bread Ahead in Covent Garden.

ewan

Hello all! It's Wednesday! You know, Kake sends me updates on Sunday or Monday, but I just like to keep you all waiting in excited suspense to find out what's been going on at the RGL website... (Well, that, or I'm just a bit disorganised.)

東京ダイナー (Tokyo Diner), Chinatown, London WC2

So this week, our featured player is Tokyo Diner, WC2H 7JP, a busy if sparsely-decorated Japanese veteran, which won't take your tips and does a fine agedashi tofu.

New to the team is Blend, another compact Norbury tea and coffee lover with a fine view of railway platforms, offering what we're calling sensibly-balanced food.

We have a breakfast-related update to Affogato, also found in Norbury.

Finally, looks like Hiep Phat in Walworth might be going, but we're not sure yet. Tins and boxes of Chinese and Vietnamese groceries may no longer be available at this location in SE17, but we're just waiting confirmation on its fate.

ewan

I am keeping you waiting this week, apologies, but read on for some fine places!

First up, the featured article is Boca, E1 7DA. This is a cafe in Spitalfields themed around South America! An entire continent of food in such a small space. Anyway, expect empanadas aplenty, and vegan/veg options, hurrah!

Otherwise, we have three updated articles:

* Tokyo Diner, a Japanese restaurant in Chinatown. Try some tasty agedashi tofu, perhaps?

* Cafe Blue, a cafe in sun-struck Purley. It is blue. May not be worthy a visit to Purley if you're not local, unless you're a fan of curly fries perhaps?

* Cappuccino, a cafe in Norbury. It gets busy, and you might not get the breakfast you want, but try the smoothies, smoothie fans.

mrs_leroy_brown

Hello & happy spring-at-last, RGL peeps! :)

This week's featured article is Melisi, an Italian restaurant, bar and cafe very near Ruislip Station. It's a bright and welcoming place, even to our normally Italian-food avoidant reviewer, providing a decent sanger as well as the usual pizzas and pastas.

The India Club article has been updated - a restuarant with a rich and interesting history, though unfortunately those two adjectives don't appear to apply to the food.

katstevens

Evening RGL crew!

This week's featured article is for Squires, a Nigerian restaurant in Canning Town serving at least two different types of pounded yam! I couldn't say if this is a 'typical Naija restaurant' as stated in the window but there are branches dotted around East and South London if you want to find out for yourself. If your prefer a cup of tea in Forest Hill instead, we have a new page for the Teapot cafe, which does a decent panini too.

Pub news! Famed Fitzrovia pie-haunt the Newman Arms is shut for a refurb, as is the Duke of Argyll (a Sam Smiths) in Soho. The Dartmouth Arms in Tufnell Park, the Widow's Son in Bow, the Lucky Rover in Chessington and the Great Northern Railway Tavern in Hornsey have all recently reopened - the latter is now owned by Fuller's, so expect the beer selection to be a little different.

However: the great pub deity giveth, and it taketh away again. The Taylor Walker-owned Devereux has shut, as has the Three Horseshoes in Southall. Also closed for good is Canal 125 on the Caledonian Road, once home to various club nights run by denizens of Livejournal. As small venues go it was pretty terrible, and I'm amazed it kept going that long. Let's hope whatever replaces it is better!

katstevens

Evening folks!

This week's featured article is for Provender, which is not a gritty archeological crime series on ITV3 but a French restaurant in Wanstead with quality napkins and tasty souffles! (Next time on Provender: Detective Ian Provender eats some delicious prawns and then discovers a mysterious amulet on Wanstead Flats - could this be linked to the murder??)

New this week are entries for Battersea Pie Station in Covent Garden, which I keep calling Battersea Stodge Station in my mind (the pies are stodgy but in a good way), and the Crown & Pepper pub in Caterham, which also has a restaurant section serving Indian and Indian/Chinese food.

Affogato in Norbury is temporarily closed while they sort out the drains and the licensing (yikes), but it's good to see the Catford Bridge Tavern reopening. It's no longer an Antic pub but hopefully the new owners will have retained its friendly atmosphere and spacious interior.

Finally, here at RGL Towers we mourn the passing of the best named combination-cafe-and-juice-bar in South Croydon, Juicy Squeeze. A carton of Five Alive just won't cut it anymore.

katstevens

Evening RGL crew!

This week's featured article is for the legendary Stuffins Unlimited in Croydon. This sandwich shop is clearly inspired by the great 2 Unlimited not just in name, but in its cheerful personnel, quick-moving queue, boshing specials and hardcore rave breakfast baps (maybe). Get Bready For This!

First among a bunch of new articles on RGL this week is a new branch of the Nordic Bakery in Seven Dials. I am still recovering from the last time I had one of their extremely strong coffees at the Golden Square branch (approx 8 years ago). The coffee strength at Coffee Express in Belvedere is as yet unknown, but they'll do a weak cup of tea if you ask for one. (If you're after something stronger in DA17, the Belvedere Hotel pub has reopened.)

Elsewhere, in Brixton's Market Row there's Brazilian food at Carioca, while Earlsfield's Cah Chi will do you a decent beef japchae. Last but not least is the Running Horses pub in Erith. Where is Erith, I hear you ask? Well, I was at that pub myself just yesterday and I ate a large sausage roll, but it was dark outside and I got lost on the way, so I couldn't tell you exactly how I got there. Erith: shrouded in mystery! Or you could get the train.

katstevens

Happy January everyone! This week's featured article is for Nusa Kitchen by Liverpool Street station. If you're looking for a quick lunchtime soup stop, you're in luck! If you're not looking for lunchtime soup however, your options will be limited - unless you are in the market for breakfast soup! (I mean, porridge is technically a soup, right?)

Two new articles on RGL this week: firstly, the rather dimly-lit Flat Iron steak house in Covent Garden, which has good value/quality ratio of steak, but meagre portions compared to somewhere like the Hawksmoor. Secondly we have the Candid Café in Angel, which ironically seems a rather good clandestine meeting spot, tucked away off the beaten track, above an arts space. Alas it stops one letter short of being the best of all possible cafés - keep cultivating that garden!

katstevens

Hullo all! Our last round-up of the year kicks off with our featured article, Andu Cafe in Dalston. The menu is both short and vegan! Having a dollop of everything on a massive expanse of injera sounds like an excellent plan. The archives tell me I've already linked to the Captain Sensible song about wot, so here's Wiley instead.

We have a new page for Suda, a busy and modern Thai restaurant in Covent Garden, hidden away in the courtyard off Upper St Martin's Lane, and there's an update for Cristina's steak house in Barking, following a recent visit. The Glamorgan gastropub in Croydon has closed, while Cafe Bohemia off Mare Street in Hackney is due to close in January.

And that's it for 2016 - RGL wishes all our readers and contributors a very Happy New Year!

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.

ewan

Welcome to a new week on RGL!

This week's featured article is Bus, CR0 2BQ. It is a greasy spoon cafe in a bus, up Selhurst way. It's child friendly. Also it's on a bus.

Four new articles are as follows: The Long Room in Tooting, a pub with relatively cheap food; Saravanaa Bhavan in Harrow, a branch of a vegetarian Indian chain, thankfully not too anglicised; Jen Cafe in Chinatown, specialising in hand-made dumplings, a quick turnaround operation with better meat than veg options; and Nusa Kitchen near Liverpool Street station, a fine soup-focused takeaway corridor.

Finally, one reported closure is Oui Monsieur in Stoke Newington, a short-lived French bar/restaurant.