We recently made a much overdue visit to Vauxhall institution Bonnington Café in Bonnington Square. We had been a bit concerned that BC had not survived the pandemic but it has emerged phoenix like and is part of a larger Bonnington Centre, and but on that later. 

Bonnington Café was established over forty years ago as a not for profit endeavour and still serves its original purpose of serving affordable (£5 starters £12 mains £5 desserts) vegetarian and vegan fare prepared by a rotating cast of chefs. They also have a BYOB policy to make it even more affordable. At the moment the chefs are creating American comfort food, vegan Polish fare, and locally sourced favourite dishes. Our night was led by Syrian chef Hind Danoun, who passionately cooks her mother’s Syrian vegetarian dishes. She’s in the kitchen on Fridays and some other nights. 

The menus at BC are purposefully very small, and showcase what the chef is working on at the moment. Cliff from the HR team chose the grilled aubergine with tahini and paprika sauce topped with nuts for a starter and he called it ‘sublime’. The tahini was described as creamy and smooth, no clagginess: a light dish of splendidly umami flavours. The lentil kebab main didn’t feel remotely like a kebab to Cliff, so an odd name: lentil steak would have been closer. This was lightly spiced, and benefitted from its accompaniment of yoghurt sauce and a great sumac sauce that made the dish.

Your scribe had the fattoush salad with pomegranate molasses, which was bright and sharp: a little too sour for some tongues but a nice contrast of leaf and crunch. Meanwhile, majouka felt rather like a Syrian take on a vegetarian biryani – which was a result that your scribe could get on board with: simple, tasty, hearty.

Overall, both in terms of pocketbook and what we consumed we left feeling healthy. Well, maybe that £7 bottle of Tesco Malbec we knocked back in half an hour wasn’t so healthy, but your place is not to judge. If you don’t fancy a meal at the BC then pop over to Bonnington Square itself for a bit of a wonder, as it’s a verdant urban subtropical oases with a storied past that we wrote about last year.

The Bonnington Centre has an eclectic sounding programme of activities on the first floor including one called ‘Death Café’, which rather reminded us of the time when Phil brought homemade brownies into the office. They also have yoga and film nights. On our night there were a motley and hungry group of amateur musicians coming downstairs for a bite, while as we left we were serenaded by the lovely tones of other musicians upstairs.