Category Archives: cafes and restaurants

The Ten Best Restaurants in Greater Kennington #10

Posted on by
Reply

(+ One Sunday Roast)

KAIETEUR KITCHEN

After a taking a pause during that-year-we’d-all like-to-forget-about, our  countdown  of the best places to eat in Greater Kennington (+ one Sunday Roast) has returned!  Our profoundly subjective algorithm balances taste and food quality with value for money. Entrants can be either lunch or dinner establishments, and must have both dine in and eat at home options. And of course, all must be in Kennington, Vauxhall, Oval, Elephant or Walworth. The number 10 spot has been grabbed by Elephant and Castle staple Kaieteur Kitchen which we visited only a few weeks ago. Our review is below

As our exercise calendar is looking almost as barren as the wine aisle of Boris’s local ‘Tesco Metro’, we decided to rededicate ourselves to more achievable tasks, namely eating out. A great place to start is the critically acclaimed Guyanese Caribbean restaurant Kaieteur Kitchen. Formerly a long standing food stall outside  Elephant shopping centre, it now proudly has its own spiffy premises for both eat in and take away in Castle Square, across the street from Elephant and Castle overground. It’s a bit tucked away on the first floor, but well worth the effort. 

Upon arrival at Kaiteur everyone is offered either ginger beer or mango juice, served by the very friendly staff and the grand dame of the kitchen, Faye Gomes. The menu at Kaieuter changes weekly, and sometimes daily, and on this trip your scribe had the beef stew served with okra. The okra was a rice based dish mixed with chili and garlic. The beef had been very slowly cooked and could not wait another second to fall off the bone, made earthier with sinew and connective tissue.  Served with carrots, scotch bonnet chili and what appeared to be cassava sauce. 

If you aren’t familiar with the unique cuisine from Guyana, it is essentially food with its foundation in Africa. However, with the movement of labour around the world, the food was heavily influenced by Chinese, Indian and Portugese fare making it quite unique to its Caribbean neighbours. Ka is good, home-made Guyanese fare served with friendly warmth. And with a background of late 80’s slow jams to accompany your salted cod stew, you’ll be glad you broke that resolution only 18 days after you started it, just like we did…. But will it make our much heralded and upcoming top 10???

 

Back Dog Sunday Roast

Posted on by
2

Ahead of our profound and moving, yet highly subjective,  ‘Top Ten Best Restaurants in Greater Kennington’ (plus one Sunday roast) countdown, we recently enjoyed a Sunday roast at local stalwart the Black Dog in Vauxhall and were here to tell you about it. 

Aside from the roast, what the Dog is particularly good at are the starters and bar snacks. With a Spanish/European tilt, what looked good to us were the padron peppers, squid with wasabi mayo, and their signature Scotch eggs. For roast one, your scribe had the sirloin steak roast with a curious spinach and cream mash. The steak was very lean and thinly sliced, with generous vegetables and a not-very-Sunday-roast-but-still-delicious curious creamed spinach mixture. Sides of horseradish and apple sauce were also a treat.

  • Pork
  • Steak

Our Ombudsman Phil had the pork belly roast, which was a thick slice of rolled pork belly topped off with some crackling. The meat was well cooked, with delicious but not overwhelming fat. Yorkshire pudding pulled off the great feat of being soft yet crispy – a triumph. Good veggies alongside, not over cooked. Paul is a gravy man and gave it a big tick. There is also a good selection of Casque Marque accredited ales and beers. And a good value at £17. 

The look at the Dog is one of a fun antiques shop mixed with assorted kitchen tables.  The crowd is an interesting mix of middle class white people under the age of 35. If this describes yourself, then congratulations and you’ll fit right in. if, like us, that does not describe yourself then you’ll still feel at home as the atmosphere is very inviting. But please be warned, that the toilet marked ‘U’ is ‘urinals’ and does NOT stand for ‘unisex’. God knows we’re  not making that mistake again. 

Romeo and Juliet at Southwark Playhouse

Posted on by
Reply

We recently made a visit to the soon to be relocated Southwark Playhouse in Elephant and Castle to see a reworking of ‘Romeo and Juliet’. This production is set in Brixton (a popular neighbourhood south of us) in 1981 with a backdrop of Thatcher, The Specials and Madness. If these names mean nothing to you please ask your parents and feel free to read on. 

In this production the Montagues and Capulets become rival council houses. The presence of pop music has the potential to make the production has the cheesy, but it is subtly done and used in the background. The play sticks almost entirely to the original script, but manages to weave into it a fair degree of humour and levity and the odd bit of swearing and slang. One monologue is delivered while a women is folding laundry and asking audience members to help her. And when talking about Juliet, Paris and Romeo have a bad habit of condoms popping out of their pockets. Exceptionally strong characters are Yinka Awani as a Friar Laurence determined to make a wedding happen come what may, and Fiona Skinner as a hilarious Lady Capulet who at the end of the day just wants to have giant piss up for Juliet instead of a wedding.

This production is part of Southwark Playhouse’s ‘Shakespeare for Schools’ project, will enables over 2000 Southwark kids to see the play for free during a series of matinees, but hopefully with the fucks and shits taken out. This year Southwark Playhouse will be moving to the top of Kennington lane, in the giant and strangely named ‘Uncle’ high-rise. While this has been in the works for ages, we’ve been informed that the move is imminent. 

Romeo and Juliet is on now until 5 February and tickets can be booked here. There are six characters playing 13 roles, so it pays to pay attention. This is a very fast paced production and comes in at 1:45 with no interval, so get a large drink to take in from the very fun café.  And to the bosses at Runoff HQ, we too had a large drink but this counts as a business meeting, like it or not 

Kaieteur Kitchen, or How we Broke Our Diet

Posted on by
1

As our exercise calendar is looking almost as barren as the wine aisle of Boris’s local ‘Tesco Metro’, we decided to rededicate ourselves to more achievable tasks, namely eating out. A great place to start is the critically acclaimed Guyanese Caribbean restaurant Kaieteur Kitchen. Formerly a long standing food stall outside  Elephant shopping centre, it now proudly has its own spiffy premises for both eat in and take away in Castle Square, across the street from Elephant and Castle overground. It’s a bit tucked away on the first floor, but well worth the effort. 

Upon arrival at Kaiteur everyone is offered either ginger beer or mango juice, served by the very friendly staff and the grand dame of the kitchen, Faye Gomes. The menu at Kaieuter changes weekly, and sometimes daily, and on this trip your scribe had the beef stew served with okra. The okra was a rice based dish mixed with chili and garlic. The beef had been very slowly cooked and could not wait another second to fall off the bone, made earthier with sinew and connective tissue.  Served with carrots, scotch bonnet chili and what appeared to be cassava sauce. 

Jan from accounts had the chicken curry. Served on the bone,  it was so slowly cooked that it almost fell off the bone when picked up. It was drier than an Indian curry but just as spicy and rich. Both dishes were served with either roti or spinach rice. We chose the rice, which was reminiscent of Jamaican rice and peas minus the peas with a nice stream of coconut milk. We also shared a side of a midly sweet creamed pumpkin. Meanwhile, the chaps at the table next to us were tucking into deep fried and chunky plantain and meatballs about the dimensions of a baby’s head.  

If you aren’t familiar with the unique cuisine from Guyana, it is essentially food with its foundation in Africa. However, with the movement of labour around the world, the food was heavily influenced by Chinese, Indian and Portugese fare making it quite unique to its Caribbean neighbours. Ka is good, home-made Guyanese fare served with friendly warmth. And with a background of late 80’s slow jams to accompany your salted cod stew, you’ll be glad you broke that resolution only 18 days after you started it, just like we did…. But will it make our much heralded and upcoming top 10???

Dragon Castle

Posted on by
2

There are plenty of things that you can experience in Elephant and Castle. For instance, being hit by a car. Or being mowed down by a Just Eat delivery person cycling on the pavement. But one doesn’t often experience high quality Chinese food there. It’s for this reason that we were devastated when our favourite Cantonese ‘Dragon Castle’ closed in March  2020, but they are now back with a vengeance. 

They taste better than they look

With the cheap chandeliers, plastic plants, lazy Susan’s and even a water feature, at Dragon Castle you delightfully experience the feel of being in a mega restaurant in Beijing without the torture of six lateral flow tests and a 10 hour flight. But alas, you are at the top of Walworth Road. We commenced our feast with the dim sum sampler. Dim sum is a speciality of DC, and they did not disappoint. Crammed with prawns and veg, they were congealed in a very pleasing way and were almost certainly made fresh on the day. 

My dining partner enjoyed a main of braised pork belly and broccoli flavoured with soy and spices which the dining partner described as  ‘delicious and  also generously sized’. A slight sweetness to balance the saltiness and meltingly soft pork was evident. It was a delicious soft fat, as you want, but with a high ratio of pork meat and plenty of it. 

Your scribe ordered the sizzling beef and black bean with green pepper, onion, and chilli. Served with generous soy sauce, the beef was extremely lean and tender. It was just on the right side of spicy with the black bean sauce creating a big, palate clinging flavour. The generous sticky rice portions were served in metal lined baskets looking not dissimilar to mop buckets.  

  • Beef
  • Pork

Dragon Castle is not as affordable as it used to be but still good value for the quality of the food. We ordered draft beer as the wines started at £25. Importantly. there were not a retinue of delivery people scurrying in and out (but DC is on Deliveroo). A fun night out, and the risk of a vehicular injury could perhaps even add to the adventure. 

Kennington Tandoori

Posted on by
Reply

We recently visited local stalwart Kennington Tandoori for a bit of North Indian action. We always had a soft spot for KT before it went all swishy a few years back, so our visit this time was to ascertain value for money. 

Your scribe started with four Momos (think Himalayan gyoza) filled with chicken and a very spicy and pleasing dip.  My dining partner modestly proclaims themselves to be an *coughs* onion bhaji connoisseur, describing their starter as ‘first class’. They were huge (were talking tennis balls) which gave them a great chew offset with external crunch. It was also served with a delightful hot sauce. And to soak up our mains we had an Afghan naan with onion seed hot out of their on-site tandoor. 

  • Tennis, anyone?

For the mains your scribe consumed the king prawn bhuna which consisted of four huge prawns in a tomato sauce with caramelised onion. There were added chilies for a kick with a very well measured amount of kaffir lime leaves. My dining partner felt a bit disappointed with their aubergine and potato masala mains, describing it as a bit bland and not well seasoned. However, this was compensated by the tarka dhal with its rich, warm spices. And of course the Cobra beers just emerged after each course, but we can’t imagine why.

  • Prawn
  • Aubergine

As with so many restaurants, KT is one that appears full even when it isn’t. When our food took a while we initially queried this but when we witnessed the volume of ‘Just Eat’ bags going in and out we realised that much of their custom is virtual, so prepare yourself.  Other than the helmet clad couriers the crowd is a good mix of younger and older locals.  On a visit a few years ago we had the sublime honour (or horror, depending on your persuasion) of sitting between no less than Anne Widdecombe and Ken Clarke. We can’t guarantee that your visit will reach such giddying heights/lows, but you are within the division bell so you never know.  

Is it good value for money? We would err on the side of nearby Ghandi’s, but if variety is what you are after it’s a good change. 

Little Louie

Posted on by
Reply

Earlier in the week we wrote about a collective of independent shops called Elephant Stores in the vast juggernaut that has become Elephant Park. At the core of the collective is a delightful cafe called ‘Little Louie’. Little Louie itself is a pint size, pop up version of the highly acclaimed restaurant Louie Louie curiously located in Walworth Road between a thrift shop and an Iceland.

Little Louis offers all of the cafe staples such as croissants (including vegan), buns, muffins and breakfast items such as bacon on sourdough, salmon, and veggie items, with a broad selection of coffees and teas. We went at lunchtime and opted for their lunchtime staple, toasties. Your scribe had a delicious and well grilled pastrami and emmental with lashings of mustard and horseradish. My colleague opted for the tuna melt with parsley mayo and pepped up with some pickled peppers. They were hearty and filling affairs served in sourdough. We’ve had their basque cheesecake before and it is to die for, even if it means running 30 laps around Kennington Park to work it off.

  • Pastrami
  • Tuna, although we are aware that the sandwiches look identical

While waiting for our toasties we perused the wine on sale and also the beers from the very local Orbit Brewery. We were very excited to learn that at the end of November Little Louis will be open in the evening serving cocktails, wines and beers on tap with a turntable. And if you want to recreate the Little Louie aura in your home you can even buy the tables and chairs in the cafe as they are on sale through an antiques outfit on site. I suppose then Little Louie will force their customers to eat their toasties on the floor but that has a certain earthy charm to it. Elephant Stores also has wifi if you want to create the impression that you are working.


The Three Stags Sunday Roast

Posted on by
Reply

Last weekend the Runoff visited celebrated Lambeth North pub The Three Stags for a long overdue visit to check out their Sunday roast. As part of our contract with management we work on only limited hours at weekends so we arrived at a venue not yet full of patrons, but when full is a good mix of locals, groups, and confused tourists who were led to believe that the pub is actually in Waterloo. The atmosphere is kind of punky with a huge range of music and, on our visit, loads of Halloween decorations and very spookily attired yet well informed bar staff. On that subject, the slightly morbid Chaplin corner is where Charlie last saw his dad alive.

My colleague had the free range pork belly which was a generous, fat and meaty balanced slab with loads of gravy.  The roast hit all the main points well and was a very solid effort. All roasts come with a Yorkshire pudding, which gets a big tick. The roast potatoes were flavourful with a soft middle and some crisp edges, similar to how our bodies have evolved since the pandemic.  The star veg was some cabbage, with just enough bite and surprinsingly very peppery. 

  • We’ve said it before, but
  • taking pictures of food isn’t easy!

Your scribe had the chicken which was a mighty leg and thigh. The stuffing was a bit on the mean side, but was nice and flavourful.  The honey glazed carrots and parsnips weren’t too strong in the honey notes and were so plentiful that we had to leave some on the plate, and  cooked just this side of firm. And the roasts were topped with, um, watercress.  Everything seemed very much home cooked, and that is what you want from a Sunday roast at a good price. And no to mention, they have a good selection of ales.

Although we were certainly carnivorous on this visit, The Stags takes pride in ‘ethical food with an emphasis on more veg and better meat’. And apparently they are South London’s most sustainable pub. In fact, the menu indicates that in order to protect the rainforest they no longer serve beef.  If you’re a true Sunday roast purist, we suggest the Jolly Gardeners in Vauxhall or the very ‘cheffy’ 24 The Oval. But if you live in Lambeth North and want a well priced, dependable,  sturdy and fun roast you could do a lot worse than The Stags. And if your tastes extend to listening to Lionel Ritchie while sitting under a picture of Sid Vicious you’ll fit right in. 

Paladar

Posted on by
Reply

The extremely hip restaurant ‘Paladar’ has been on our radar since it opened in 2018 but our attempts to review the place have been consistently rebuffed by Runoff senior management.  They’ve alternately stated that it’s too expensive, that it’s not technically in Greater Kennington, and then tried to maliciously insinuate that we weren’t ‘hip enough’. When they relented last week we grabbed our chance. 

Paladar is a Latin American fusion restaurant in St. George’s Circus near Elephant & Castle/Lambeth North. The restaurant doubles as an art space, and on our visit featured work by Ecuadorean artist Ulises Valarezo. The crowd is more West End chic than we would expect in these parts, and in fact we were sat next to ‘Leave a Light On’ pop star Tom Walker and loads of people laughing while flicking their hair. 

  • Pork belly
  • Lettuce hearts

The menu is, you guessed it, sharing plates and five items served two people just fine. We were served by a precise, chirpy and professionally drilled service staff who knew quite a bit about what they were serving and actually spoke Spanish to one another.  Highlights were  texture rich tuna tartare tostadas accompanied by a fragrant salsa which  reminded us ever so slightly of a delicious, yet expensive, hand soap. The pork belly tacos had an interesting Chinese crispy duck sticky quality and were wrapped in lettuce leaves as opposed to a tortilla. On the veggie front, we enjoyed compelling, deep fried tapioca croquettes which were savory but just verging on being sweet. We also indulged on chargrilled lettuce hearts with a nut based topping.

Croquettes and Tuna

It is rather amazing that restaurants such as Paladar survived the Covid maelstrom, which partially explains why they send you about a dozen confirmation emails after booking. With a bottle of wine the total bill came to £84 which is by no means cheap but it will teach the management team a thing or two before they accuse us of being less than cool. Money well spent even if you don’t get the chance to sit next to a minor pop star in a bobble hat. 

Paladar also sell South American wines in their adjacent wine shop.  We enjoyed a divine £26 Montes Colchagua Valley Merlot which was less than a tenner more than was going in the shop. 

The Ragged Canteen

Posted on by
Reply

Last week we popped over to the lovely but rarely open Beaconsfield Gallery in Vauxhall to check out their Ragged Canteen. It had been closed since before The Event but has now reopened as a ‘vegetarian, not for profit and kind to our planet’ establishment. So everything we aspire to be here at the Runoff. Well other than those days when we’re dealing with work related stress by cramming a £3 meal deal ham sandwich down our gobs…..Moving on…..

  • Yes we are aware that the sandwiches look exactly the same

Toasties are the main draw at Ragged Canteen, and on this outing my colleague had the carmelised onion, oregano, mozzarella and cheddar. It was nice and crispy around the edge, with a bit of cheese oozing out and well filled. Your scribe indulged in a gherkin and red pepper sandwich. Both on a nice thick sourdough and with all that goodness we just wish there had been more. All sandwiches can be made vegan if you ask them to substitute the mozzarella and cheddar with vegan cheeze.  Frequent readers will be aware that we have a long and somewhat tortured relationship with vegan cheeze so we bypassed this option.  

Also on offer at the Canteen are a host of snacks including croissants, crisps, brownies, cakes and cookies. Also available are a range of teas and coffees. We sat outside in their ample plant filled garden with just one another diner and a giant cat to keep us company. 

The name ‘Ragged Canteen’ prosaically references the buildings’ previous life as school for underprivileged youth in Lambeth, and we wrote about this noble and glorious past a few months ago. When it is open to the public the upstairs gallery is home to some very cutting edge and challenging shows. Some folks here in the office recently enjoyed an immersive exhibit about contemplating seeing art virtually versus seeing it in the flesh with the use of virtual reality goggles.