The Daebak Reunion

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In our relentless pursuit of  gastronomic excellence, sometimes referred to as gluttony, we recently revisited Korean joint Daeback in Vauxhall. Daebak hardly needs our support as it’s always rammed with on trend young foodies which is a good sign. Or it could be a horrible sign. Anyway, our visit was inspired by our recent office discovery of hot new acts Stray Kids and Blackpink. In the real world they’ve been around for over a decade and have played Wembley Stadium. But when you’re stuck working in an underground bunker one loses the sense of time.

Daebak has a varied menu, including Korean classics (fried chicken, bulgogi, bibimbap) alongside more traditional Japanese dishes which are also served in Korea. We are again joined on this excursion by office ‘fun guy’ Phil from Accounts.  We wanted the classics and chose Korean fried chicken and beef bulgogi, along with some steamed rice – all to share. The chicken is available in various sizes and with a variety of sauce options. One of these was sweet cheese but Phil murmured/slurred something about that combo being “just whack” and so we opted for soy-garlic sauce. The chicken was salty and super crispy with a great deal of sauce suitable for dipping. It was all boneless, and suitable for our bone averse culture. The small option is an easy starter for two or a mains for one.

Moving on to the main event. The bulgogi (say it like a pro… bull-gah-gi) was something that Phil was expecting to be spicier although was pleased with the generous helping of steaming finely sliced beef strips. This had quite a sweet and savoury quality and very moreish. If Phil had done his research and was remotely sober he’d be aware that bulgogi is rarely spicy. You’ll need to look elsewhere on Daebak’s menu for that, and spicier options abound. However, there are spicy additives on every table. On previous visits we’ve enjoyed the fermented, intense cabbage based bibimbap.

One feature of Daebak is the quick service, making it more suitable for a midweek treat.  There are Korean beers, sojus (alcoholic fruit drink) and wine. Phil made good use of the quick service and beers and the result can be found in the photo he took on the right ‘of the whole table’..  The crowd tends towards twenty-somethings and all-in-all, it’s a great value stop.

Best element – Cooling and sweeping open doors with Vauxhall vistas.

Worst element –  Cooling and sweeping open doors with Vauxhall vistas.

Childhood and War

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We recently attended the moving exhibit Childhood and War at the Imperial War Museum and can definitely recommend it. This expansive and well thought out exhibit is by no means just for kids, but the presence of them was unexpectedly delightful.

Childhood and War covers how children were affected by war from WW1up to the conflict in Ukraine. The WW1 room features a doll that we quite frankly found terrifying, and features a hastily abandoned children’s unmade bed. If you’re expecting the unmade bed of Tracey Emin, its over at the Tate and would be wildly inappropriate for this setting. The exhibit is in places immersive, and puts you into a wartime living room and a cold war kitchen. An example of its nod to adulthood, there is an interactive rotary phone that anyone under 45 wouldn’t have a clue how do use and we witnessed a nine year old punching the digits, dismayed that it didn’t light up.

One reason that this exhibit is interesting to local history buffs is that long before the era of £15,000,000 flats, in WW2 Greater Kennington was very much a working class set of neighbourhoods and replete with children. Given its location many of these kids would have been evacuated to rural and more middle class areas, and films document this well. A reimagined evacuation rail carriage is especially powerful.

As you scroll through the exhibit you get a sense of what children lose during war but also their resilience. War is a confusing experience for them, but also draws out innate toughness and beauty. Expect to see wartime artwork by children, letters, and even art created by optimistic German children in a detention camp. The last section deals with the impact of war on children very recently, including Syria and Ukraine.

And as we’ve been banging on about for almost a decade, the IWM is by no means a celebration of warfare but if anything serves as a reminder of the determination of those affected by war including Jews, women, infrastructures, and in this exhibit children. And over the years IWM has been incrementally evolving into a memorial of the horrors of war as opposed to a celebration of military might.  As it’s the lazy days of summer what’s better than seeing a scary doll or a smelly unmade bed?

Childhood and War is on now until 27 February 2027 and like everything in life, including this website, is totally free.

Kindness Cafe and a Quiet corner of Kennington

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Today we find ourselves in the sun drenched serene summertime courtyard of the Jamyang Buddhist Centre in Renfrew Road to check out their new café called ‘Kindness’. Frequent readers might recall that there was a previous café on their premises run by the brilliant Louie Louie, which managed to go bust shortly after we reviewed it. We accept no culpability in that outcome.

The Buddhist Centre occupies an old courthouse that once prosecuted the likes of the Kray twins and IRA terrorists. With that background it’s a glorious asymmetry that the building should now be sufficed with serenity, and for the first time in ages now mostly open to the public. After sticking our noses in rooms where people were meditating, an employee intervened/stopped us and offered a small tour. Still extant are the Victorian corridors and waiting rooms of the courts, with the primary room transformed into a Buddhist library which is open to the public. And most wonderfully the previous prison cells have been turned into Air BnB spaces! And as some of you’ve only witnessed a prison cell without really being given the option to leave, these feature original doors that you can open and close at times of your choosing.

Moving on to the Kindness café, it started appearing on our radar when a fan sent us the pic below of a customer with the most amazing hairstyle, which is already being copied by people here in the office. In August the café is open only at weekends and is a tranquil hideaway in an otherwise untranquil Greater Kennington. We enjoyed a rich, decadent carrot cake full of nuts and buttercream icing. Otherwise it’s a lunch venue serving affordable vegan/veg fare and for a good cause. But please don’t undertake the unkind pursuit of walking into a room of blissfully quiet meditators and blurting out ‘amazing, look at all the PERIOD FEATURES’, as it just becomes awkward.

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The Nellie

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An implausibly matched duo from  Observer team recently attended the opening of Queer cocktail bar The Nellie in Elephant Park. This consisted of office ‘fun guy’ Phil from accounts and our diversity lead Marcus, who’s claim to diversity rests in having dated a Dutch guy for six months. What could possibly go wrong?

The Nellie occupies the site of the not very good Latin restaurant Cheeky Chicos, and prides itself on being a quiet refuge in a busy location, and the Elephant is far from quiet. The focus at The Nellie  is cocktails, which can be time consuming to create but gratifying after a patient queue at the bar. This sedate nature of the place was confirmed by Phil/Marcus, but we can imagine this vanished by their second round.

Phil ordered a bloody Mary and Marcus a spicy margarita. There might have been further beverages consumed but this wasn’t recorded or remembered. Phil vaguely described his Mary as ‘very tomatoey’ with an abundance of vodka and pepper. Marcus more lucidly described his spicy marg as mixing citrus orange liqueur, and tequila accompanied with a firey kick not often comfortable to the UK palette. Other punters were enjoying Stonewall beers and wines. Phil WhatsApped us something about the toilets being nice but when the quality of loo roll was detailed management found this content to be a bit compromised.

The Nellie serves food which Marcus viewed with a degree of curiosity. In a move of uncharacteristic scrutiny he connected the  improvised swag, a remaining fake cactus, a surreal lady on the keyboards  to a menu  almost identical to not very good Latin joint Cheeky Chicos.  With this discovery he bolted out of his upholstered armchair and shouted ‘in the name of Gaga I know what’s going on here!’.. It would appear that  Cheeky Chicos lives on but has been reimagined as an upmarket gay bar by means of a few pride flags and photos of Oscar Wilde. Listen, we all have bills to pay so hats off to the Chicos mafia for making such a bold but slightly odd transformation.

The Nellie is a fun night out for our Queer readers and people who like sitting amongst giant fake cacti. They offfer loads of outside space and is a great way to spend a sweaty evening. As for the Observer staff reading this, we’ve told you a million times not to trust Phil with a camera whilst at the pub or anywhere else for that matter as the results are, shall we say, ‘unhelpful’.

The Mongadors and Circus Culture of Edwardian Kennington

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In the 19th and early 20th century Greater Kennington was home to many entertainers as it was a cheap place to live and close to the theatres of the West End. This fine culture of performers and eccentrics influenced a young Charlie Chaplin and other people we’ve written about such as Henry Evanian, a trailblazer in the field of cutting people in half, and also circus performers The Craggs, who found fame by tossing their siblings around a circus bigtop. And today we meet jugglers Pierre and Mathilde Chambeyron, aka The Mongadors, a family of comedy jugglers who toured the world from their base at 132 Kennington Park Road.

Pierre and Mathiide were French and worked in the circus world for a number of years before jumping the pond in 1914 to immerse themselves in a much larger music hall circuit.   They started as a double act,  but incrementally included their children and were amongst the first European acts to feature the passing of objects. The objects included tennis racquets, gloves, plates, flowers, and specialised clubs. This was highly choreographed and undertaken while on the floor, leapfrogging or jumping. And while all of this excitement was transpiring  Pierre himself was stage right doing magic tricks.  We’re not sure about the child protection  issues related to throwing plates and tennis racquets at children but at least it paid the bills.

As the family matured and the children hopefully recovered from wounds inflicted by flying tennis racquets, they evolved into performing a criss cross routine, which is their biggest contribution to juggling culture (it’s a thing).  When the parents retired the younger ones evolved into presenting more intimate shows. As hard as it is to comprehend, under different guises the family continued to perform until the early 1970’s, which means this amazing family’s profession persisted from the late Victorian era to the trouser suit era (below). And if you don’t have friends and need a new hobby there is even an online Juggling museum in which the family figure prominently.

Jack the Chipper

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We just paid an Observer visit to new Chippie on the block and it’s the unfortunately named ‘Jack the Chipper’ in Sayer St. in Elephant. It’s part of a micro franchise and this third location is run by a father and daughter team. It exists as both a takeaway and as a higher priced dine in establishment with other options to order such as burgers and pasta (but don’t). On this occasion we were accompanied by Marsha from Business Support, who needed her spirits lifted after worrying that she was about to be replaced by AI (she is).

Jack the Chipper works as both a traditional fish and chips takeaway service but also, with the same menu but higher prices, as a dine-in restaurant. This isn’t like the chippies with a few afterthought tables, but a proper restaurant experience with full table service, and a bar. The menu covers all the chippie classics, including sides such as mushy peas or pickled onions. Marsha ordered haddock and chips. While she was chewing she noted is that the batter was light and the fish tasted fresh. The chips are proper, thick, chip shop chips, made in-house without resorting to Mr McCain or a freezer. There are even reassuringly large bags of potatoes out front.

Your scribe ordered the frankly quite fancy sounding grilled seabass with cherry tomatoes. Playfully assorted was garlic, lemon parsley, capers and baby potatoes. The seabass flaked easily and had a delicate, mildly sweet flavour. Each portion comes with tartare sauce and lemon, as is correct procedure and salt and malt vinegar was on the table. We could have done with a bit more tartare sauce; I’m sure we would have been granted had we asked With an airy ambience to the restaurant and substantial outside seating, this is a good place to stop. We feel reassured that everything was of high quality, which it should be for £22

At the Observer we pride ourselves on being the least ‘woke’ site you’ll find, but we draw a line under your name, Jack. Ten years ago it might have been very clever to name your gaff after a serial killer of vulnerable women but its 2026 and its not on. When you arrive at that giant deep fat fryer in the sky you’ll understand this, but hopefully before. In spite of the name we hope Marsha had a nice evening as she wistfully and correctly pined ‘this might be the last time I eat out for a while’.

Three Buds

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In this climatically challenging spell we’re having, ice cream becomes less of a luxury and more of a need. We’ve just undertaken an almost unheard of face to face interview with Sarah, who’s just opened gelato/coffee/bagel spot ‘Three Buds’ right in the middle of Vauxhall park. The buds refer to Sarah’s kids aged  3, 5, and 7. How she’s managed to start a business with three little ones whist we struggle to find a dropped paper clip eludes us, but this isn’t about us.

Sarah’s lived in Greater Kennington (Vauxhall) for 10 years and recently left her job in the City as she spotted a hole in the market for a quality café in Vauxhall Park. She was inspired by seeing her neighbours and kids using the park and wanted to extend that community feel by creating a space where they could relax. The concept of her business is to select food that she would want her kids to eat. So the gelato has no artificial ingredients found in creams you might get in Tesco (a supermarket). In fact, their gelato is sourced from the same supplier that’s used by the Italian embassy.  Whilst there we indulged on (don’t judge us) pistachio, vanilla and strawberry, Belgian chocolate, strawberries and crème, and salted peanut butter, the latter being vegan. All rich and delicious. And if you’ve never eaten five gelatos at 10am it’s a whole different vibe.

We don’t usually accept freebies but as we’d already broken the fourth wall by pitching up in person we thought ‘screw it’ and accepted a creamy and balanced  iced latte and a raisin bagel with homemade berry crème cheese. This was an example of breakfast fare and Sarah explained that they have a range of lunchtime bagels as well. The bagels are sourced from NYC and ours was doughy and excellent. Sarah road tests all of her goodies, such as coffee beans, before they hit her café. When asked how she makes margins work as food prices increase, Sarah put on her sunglasses and said, wearily, ‘I don’t know’. So this is our call for you to pop over to Vauxhall Park and say hello to Sarah and her new local business. Oh, and buy things.

Free Garden Museum and a Scary Tony Blair Gnome

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Over at the Garden Museum on Sunday (the 12th) they’re having a Neighbours Day and we think its something that you might just want to get your hands dirty for as its yet more free stuff. There will be workshops on flower arranging and pressing, seed bomb making, face painting, and live music. This is mostly kids stuff which we’ll avoid but is great as some of us in the office were once kids ourselves.

The best part of the day is that the museum itself will be open for free (usually £17, which we think is a bit steep) and there will be periodic tours of the exhibits and the beautiful decommissioned church in which it is set. For those who haven’t been, the museum encompasses bedding design, implements, seeds, old lawn mowers, FlyMos, and descriptions of how certain plants were brought to the UK. There is also a small art gallery and you can climb the medieval tower. The garden gnome collection is particularly impressive 

Neighbours Day is on Sunday from 11-4 and is totally free. And by ‘neighbours’ we think they’re liberal in their definition. And this will be your chance, and these chances don’t come by very often, to meet a scary garden gnome that looks JUST LIKE TONY BLAIR. 

Free Cycle Repairs and Free Bikes to Ride!

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As most staff here at the Observer are on a very low wage, we spend a large part of the day researching free things with the flimsy pretence that we’re trying to help people. And today we take a healthy departure from our usual ‘eat and drink until you’re broke’ posts by telling you about Mr. Bike. Mr. Bike is an initiative by Cycling UK with an aim to get people back on the cycling road by providing simple repairs and to teach you how to do them yourselves. Here are the upcoming clinics. Free, just turn up!

Tuesday, 7 July (today, people!) from 4pm at the Pimlico side of Vauxhall Bridge

Saturday, 11 July from 11:00am Outside the Costcutter in Stockwell Green, SW8

Monday, 13 July  from 4pm at the Pimlico side of Vauxhall Bridge

Tuesday, 14 July from 4pm at St. Annes church, Vauxhall (in front of Vauxhall Park)

Saturday, 18 July from 10am Corner of Vauxhall and Jonathan St. Vauxhall

Saturday, 25 July from 10am Tea House Theatre, Vauxhall

Tuesday, 28 July from 4pm Dog House Pub, Kennington

And if all this healthy business wasn’t enough, London’s Santander Cycles will be free on Sundays throughout July, as Transport for London is offering unlimited 60-minute rides every Sunday all month from 5th to 26th July and all the codes you need are on their website. And as you are all responsible adults here, we would like to remind you that cycling on the pavement and hitting people is illegal. And yes, this includes intolerant Jehovah’s Witness people flogging books.

Matiz – A Mighty Fine Latin American Joint

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Perched at the periphery of the Observer catchment area near St. George’s Circus, we find ourselves at new kid on the block Matiz to sample their pan Latin American cuisine. Matiz is curiously located next to the delicious yet more pricey joint Paladar restaurant which we reviewed in 2021 and dined with a B list pop star. As they serve the same cuisine we queried if the establishments were in some way related. They deny the coincidence but frankly we don’t care as the food at both establishments are great.

Matiz is a family owned business and everyone who served hailed from either Spain or Latin America and is well located as its close to the wonderous Latin American offerings in Elephant Road. On group office outings we long ago learned that splitting main courses ends in bloodshed or a chopstick crammed into an ear, so we avoided the mostly Latin American mains and shared Spanish tapas. The group ordered up a range of classics with free flatbread served before. We recommend hanging on to the bread to soak up the juice of the tapas. This message didn’t appear to apply to Kevin from personnel who chose drown his sorrows over his recent hair loss by downing two bowls of the aforementioned flatbread.

The ordered classics included chorizo al vino, gambas al ajillo, mushroom croquetas, calamari and patatas bravas. All were tasty and well sized and plenty to share among four people. Remember to order spartanly as you can always just order more, and the delivery is quick. A special shout out goes to the chorizo al vino which was perfectly rich and chunky, and the gambas which may be the most garlicky thing we’ve eaten this year (that’s a compliment). When Karen from Finance wanted an open mouth kiss at the end of the evening we were able to use the gambas/garlic consumption to escape.

An even bigger shout out is owed to the  ceviche Peruano, which worked well as an additional small dish. It consisted of bite sized pieces of sea bass well marinated in lime juice mixed with onion and Peruvian-style crunchy corn and sweet potato. It’s a lovely, refreshing plate and perfect for the summer. Wines were reasonably priced, including some sub-£30 and our Rioja rosé was spot on for a warm evening. But please be aware that the value rather dissipates when bottle number five hits the table. A fun night in a part of Greater Kennington often not visited by locals like you.

As we’re on a Latin American theme, the prospects don’t look good for the Latin food outlets and indeed the culture in Elephant Road as the malevolent shopping centre emerges behind it. They also need our support lest they be turned into a Joe and the Juice or, lord in heaven help us, Gail’s Bakery. Adios!