Category Archives: cafes and restaurants

The Simply Bread Revisit

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We recently paid an overdue revisit to takeaway sandwich joint Simply Bread in Black Prince Road in Vauxhall. It’s run by the team from the excellent Jolly Gardeners pub a few doors down. Sandwiched between the two was Ginger Provisions, their noble but doomed foray into the retail supermarket world which itself deserves huge plaudits.

For this meal we were once again joined by our gastronomic collaborator Karen from the Finance team. Still resplendent in her post GLP appearance, she ordered the falafel and hummus sandwich, citing that it was vegan and therefore, in her own parlance, ‘totally healthy’. When we pointed out that falafel is deep fried, Karen replied ‘whatever, its vegan’. Karen observed that the falafels were not made on site, and had probably spent much of their brief life in a very cold place (ie a freezer). What offset this was a delicious hummus and well roasted peppers and courgettes. Overall Karen proclaimed it to be a flavourful and substantial addition to her day. If not quite as virtuous as she cares to admit.

Your scribe had the spicy tuna sandwich served on granary bread. The spice kick was furnished by Korean chili flakes augmented by those tuna bad boys peppers and sweetcorn, mixed with a guilt laden level of mayonnaise. With both sandwiches the portions were huge, and could easily have been nibbled on for the rest of the working day but of course were devoured quickly. In addition to lunchtime sandwiches, Simply Bread opens at 8am and offers the usual amenities of teas, coffees, flat whites, and pastries before you travel to work. Even if that travel is only to a laptop in the corner of your bedroom.

If you’re a restaurateur reading this, please be aware that we get loads of offers of free food from establishments wanting us to darken their door. We praise you, but this rather defeats the spirit of this website. So if you see a gaggle of overworked yet glamorous people lurking at your corner table, it might just be us but you’ll never know.

Save Maderia Star!

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At the Observer we tend to avoid campaigns as that would make us no better than, say, Loose Women. But rules were made to be broken and we’re adding to one.

Madeira Star has been an institution in Kennington Cross for over thirty years. It is one of the few places in Greater Kennington where normal folk can grab an affordable lunch or a decent(ish) fry up. The landlord has decided to not renew Madiera’s lease, the likely reason being that they calculate that a large chain would pay more rent. This would be a true loss to Greater Kennington, as through the years what Maderia has become is more of a community gathering place, and its loss takes away not not only an institution but part of our identity. What is being proposed by the Change.org petition is for Lambeth to step in and protect it as a community asset.

We have to confess that our ulterior motive is that we possess an irrational fixation that any vacant property will be replaced by that scourge of the high street….Gail’s Bakery. And Loose Women, if you’re reading this we do love you. In fact, for reasons relating solely to journalistic research two of the team were in your audience in October. We’re in the picture below between Janet Street Porter and a minor Nolan sister. Yes that us in the grey, right in the middle.

To join the movement click here. Unless you enjoy shelling out £8.90 for a sandwich and £3 for a cup of tea.

Because we all Need a Fresh Start

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Establishments reviewed by the Observer have an unfortunate habit of going bust shortly after they’ve been benighted with our pixie dust, and thus was the case with Unique at 63 Black Prince Rd. in Vauxhall which uniquely managed the feat a mere five weeks after our review. The new occupant is coffee shop ‘Osoji’, which roughly translates to ‘fresh start’ in Japanese.

To these events we usually invite Phil from accounts but he’s lookmaxxing at the moment and unable to even drink a cup of tea. When we pointed out that tea in fact has no calories he muttered something about controlling the amount of fluids in his body, which is funny as he’s never said that in a pub. Moving on, Osoji has the regular staples such as loose leaf tea, cappuccino, flat white, Americano and others.. and on our visit we encountered ACTUAL ITALIAN PEOPLE. We didn’t understand what they were saying but they certainly looked content with their espressos and macchiatos. Thrown into the mix is also a nice assortment of pastries

The demographic of Osoji consists of earnest dog walkers, mums dropping their kids to school, and folks scurrying to work. Customer service facing local businesses live and die largely on their ability to engage with customers and this was in evidence on our visit, as the staff were funny and engaging. It appears that new owner Nancy already knew some of the punters as she worked there before, and it shows. Overall, Osoji is solid spot for a quick brew or to work (they have WiFi). And Osoji, if you’re reading this please be aware that we love your subtle nod to Japanese design

Taro

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We’ve often pondered the why there aren’t more sushi joints in Greater Kennington, and have placed this into the category of the unexplained. Other examples of the unexplained are why people talk about their personal lives over the phone on the 59 bus. Or why you never see a baby pigeon. The only quality sushi joint in our manor is Taro near Kennington Cross. It is so acclaimed, in fact, that it’s been on our Top Ten© list since opening  in 2018. We went on a Tuesday evening and the place was buzzing with friendly, hair flicking folk.

Karen from Finance is still resplendent in her new post Ozempic glory so she left the tempura prawns to your scribe who found them light, airy, but with that savoury crunch we all expect. The sushi came as it was freshly prepared by the chefs in a Izakaya manner from the open kitchen. Izakaya is equivalent to ‘pub food’, but more importantly this word is a great one to throw out in order to impress/condescend to your friends during said meal. Among the first to emerge was the Ebi gyoza. In the inside they managed to stuff prawn, leeks, and cabbage. It was pan fried and delicious with a vinegar soy sauce.

We personally don’t approve of rainbow hued maki rolls with flecks of gold. However, we fully accept that we live in an era of Insta and TikTok where an image can immediately determine the life or demise of a company. And so they arrived, along with a spicy tuna roll and tofu. The rolls were stuffed with cream cheese, chives, prawn and crunchy veg. They were topped with a generous slice of fish and finished off with a dollop of Kewpie mayo. The tofu  was pan-fried and coated in a sweet/savoury sauce made from soy, mirin, and sake. Delicious. As for the tuna, At one point Karen had three large rolls in her mouth at the same time requiring us to lean over and say, tactfully, ‘let’s not go back to the bad old days Karen’. Karen nodded in agreement as she was unable to talk. Evidence if it is needed of the appeal of spicy tuna.

Taro is open seven days a week and also on all delivery services for  the Gen Z’ers who can’t be bothered to walk down the street. Lots of love.

Roam Community Cafe – End the Cycle of Jinxism!

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We often find ourselves strolling past a former Victorian pub at the corner of Tyers and Johnathan St. in Vauxhall and long ago consigned it to ‘jinxed property’ status, as it’s variously been occupied by everything from a creche to a jujitsu studio. It’s with great glee that we can announce that it’s now a community owned coffee shop called Roam with a soft play and role play area downstairs. And for those of you unaware of the concept of soft and role play, it’s about toddlers playing on safe surfaces as opposed to what you might undertake on any given Saturday night.

On the tranquil ground floor Roam serves the usual battalion of pastries in addition to espressos, flat whites, and soft drinks. Our tea was just £1.50. For those lucky/unlucky enough to have little ones, there is a lift down to the basement café. For £4.50 parents can enjoy a range of toys and activities suitable for under 5’s, and they even have a slide. Again, we’d like to remind our readers that the slide is just for kids. In our now famous clandestine guise as normal people, we got chatting with the owners who explained that the concept was derived from them being mothers of little ones themselves and were seeking a place where both the kids and parents can have some variety while chatting with other parents. Both owners also live locally, which we found doubly exciting.  

The ingenious concept behind Roam is that you can support a children’s café without actually having to see children. Don’t get us wrong, we love kiddos. In fact some of us in the office were once actual children ourselves. The Observer celebrates every (good) local enterprise which occupies vacant spaces and especially those which are female owned and operated. On your next work from home day, check them out and end the cycle of jinxism!

#1 The Ten Best Best Places to Eat in Greater Kennington (+ One Sunday Roast)

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THEOS

It’s the moment that Observer staff have been fainting in the corridor over (or it could just be that we work in an underground bunker). For the best place to eat in Greater Kennington we’ve chosen Theos in Elephant because of its creative toppings, great sourdough base, their delicious Pannuozzo wood fired lunch sandwiches, tiramisu, and good price point. We are aware that recommending the best pizza in Greater Kennington is fraught with opinionated tension and might even cause small dough based riots in Kennington Cross so we’ve sealed the hole to the bunker. The runner up pizza is the 400 Rabbitts, in Elephant Park for their wonderful bases and decor which makes you feel like you’re eating in aisle 7 of Ikea.

Gorgonzola
Anchovy

On the pizza front Keith from HR had the aubergine and Gorgonzola. An adventurous choice; the aubergine was very soft and this was offset by the sharp hit of pecorino followed by the blue hit of Gorgonzola. Your scribe had a ‘blood pressure through the roof’ salt kick of an anchovy, capers, olive and mozzarella pizza. All the salty elements were balanced well, and the best element of these pizzas is that they are served on a sourdough bread that is blistered on just the good side of incineration.

Theo’s recently won an award for best Tiramisu in London, and in our opinion it is well deserved. It ticked all the boxes of ‘Italian almost trifle’ with a perfect balance of strong coffee, dark chocolate, creamy mascarpone and served between layers of soft cream. 

While writing this article several staff people became rather obsessed with the very notion of Theos’ panuozzo sandwich so we unlocked the door to the bunker and headed over there. Your scribe had an panuozzo with olives and onions and mozzarella dripping out. To create an illusion of health the base was Ortiz tuna. Keith had the sausage and gorgonzola with mushrooms. Mind you, we will need to run to and from Theos 65 times to burn off the calories, but it was delicious nevertheless.

The tuna, but in reality they all look the same

#2 The Best Places to Eat in Greater Kennington (+ 1 Sunday roast)

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Adulis

All good things must come to an end, and after six years at the top spot the lovely Adulis Eritrean in Oval has been dethroned. For almost 30 years Adulis has quietly served up tender and well cooked meats, huge kirchat platters, zingy stews, great service, and all the wait staff have great hair. And they were serving tasty vegetarian fare long before it was cool. And we’re loving the slightly kitsch retro design aesthetic.

If Eritrean food is new to you, or even if it isn’t, the best launching point at Adulis is the sampler plate  called ‘Kirchat’ (there’s a vegetarian version as well). It is fundamentally a selection of their best meat and veg dishes served on a platter usually featuring Kifto, which is tender meat cooked in ‘we know its bad for you but we cant help it’ ghee and its to die for. All of the dishes have have a sweet and sour, almost vinegary tinge to them. They gladly pimped our 2 person serving up to 3 as we had a third diner, and the pic is below.  Please don’t let our bad photo below put you off, as Eritrean dishes don’t in reality look like cat food.

The dish above is served on a platter with a base of bread called ‘injera’, which is a leavened pancake made with sourdough (and if you run out you can get more for free). Almost all meals here are served with it and the whole shebang is to be eaten with your good hands (or cutlery for the timid). We also recommend the chicken stew ‘dorho’ with loads of herbs and further recommend the prawns. They also have some fine looking vegan options.

On the drinks front, we usually have the Kenyan beer ‘Tusker’ or a South African white. Having said that, the speciality of the house is their Adulis honey wine. We’ve had this previously and let’s just place it in the category of ‘experimental’. The staff are very friendly and a good chunk of the punters are (tick!) Eritrean themselves. The place also wafts with the aroma of their coffee and popcorn ceremony.

ርሑስ መመገቢ!

#4 Top Ten Best Places to Eat in Greater Kennington #4 (+ 1 Sunday Roast)

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Kuma

If you’ve ever seen the crowds at Japanese/Korean joint Kuma in Kennington Cross you’ll know that they hardly need our support, but they’ve earned our coveted and profoundly ssubjective 4 spot for the second year. They’ve earned this due to their spicy, diverse and innovative fare served at reasonable prices. 

We started with Kuma’s best known dish, Korean Fried Chicken. The options were – traditional, spicy, or sticky soy garlic and we chose the latter. The medium portion was huge and suitable for two. It had a great crispy crunch and slathered in a sticky soy garlic sauce. For the mains your scribe opted for the chicken bulgogi (say it like a pro…..boo-GOH-gee) which were very thin strips of chicken grilled on a BBQ coated with a hearty sauce called gochujang. Spring onion featured and it was consumed in lettuce wraps. It was billed as ‘hot’ and it certainly was, and so generous that your scribe couldn’t finish it.

Kim the intern had the Kimchi Bokkumbap as a main; a Korean fried rice dish with the national ingredient kimchi (spiced fermented cabbage) topped with barbecued beef strips. A bit like Chinese stir fry rice with a heavy dose of red chilli sauce. It was topped with a fried egg and came with miso soup, and again was a very generous portion. Best washed down with a Cass or Asahi Super Dry beer, but not for Kim as she’s aware that our gratitude ends with a Pepsi Max  

We love nothing more than sticking our noses where they don’t belong, and towards the end of the meal we went to the toilets and might have accidentally wandered into the kitchen. We can confirm that sous chef Mike (aka Mike-ro-Wave) was nowhere to be seen and everything is made fresh. 

#5 The Ten Best Places to Eat in Greater Kennington (+1 Sunday Roast)

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Didi and Franc

We’re halfway there already, and the #5 spot is nailed nailed by posh deli and restaurant Didi and Franc. You’d be correct in thinking that Didi and Franc never seem to be open, but they seem to be focussing only dinners. The review below is from a gastronomic visit undertaken in November, 2024. But we returned to buy nibbles in 2025 and the same standards apply.

It’s been long overdue but we’ve finally paid visit to the little restaurant at Didi and Franc in Kennington Cross. For those not in the know, D&F is an upmarket deli/cheese/bread/wine shop that generally sells gorgeous foodie things that you have no practical use for but still want. The cheese section being particularly good. Didi and Franc are real people and usually on hand and possess a forensic knowledge of the food they sell and the items on the menu as they’re the ones who ordered and cook the stuff. The short and precisely primed dinner menu is Italian.

(Still serving Feb. 2026) Karen from finance loves a mackerel, so we shared a smoked mackerel mousse which was light in texture but punchy in flavour, served with some of the delicious sourdough bread sold in the deli. Karen chose to follow this with a vegetarian (possibly vegan) option of mushroom and chestnut tortellini with pesto rosso, cavolo nero and chestnuts. Chestnut feels wonderfully autumnal so it’s nice to see this feature. The generously filled homemade tortellini having a rich nutty taste that went beautifully with a red pepper flavoured pesto and a bit of green hit from the cavolo nero. Karen got so excited that while in the midst of chewing she yelled out, to a shocked room,  ‘this dish a triumph’! Or words to that effect. 

Beef
Mackerel

Your scribe consumed beef shin and red wine tortellini with tomato sauce. This was next level cheffy stuff with a very rich, wine based tomato sauce and seven tortellini stuffed with beef shin so delicate that it melted before hitting the back of the palate. The tortellini was perfectly al dente with a touch of parmesan. Pumpkin pie was a surprise dessert not originally on the menu but that had just been rustled up by Franc himself.

More experienced (read, OLD) readers might recall that the premises now held by D&F was formerly  an Oddbins and a place of sacred refuge after many a fraught team meeting here at Observer towers. So when it first opened we were disappointed at the pearl clutchingly high price of their wines. Well can we confirm that either Didi, Franc or both got the message as the prices are now a bit more reasonable (but still high). And with a certain gift giving holiday just around the corner, D&F could be the perfect destination for your foodie friends. And they also do ‘make your own’ hampers. 

The restaurant at D&F is open during the second half of the week and we strongly advise that you book as the first time we couldn’t get a seat and it royally pissed us off.

#7 The Top Ten Best Places to Eat in Greater Kennington (+ 1 Sunday Roast)

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Bonnington Cafe

Motoring on, and the number #7 Spot is awarded to the very independent Bonnington Cafe, and we recently made a much overdue visit to the Vauxhall institution in Bonnington Square. The Cafe is part of the larger Bonnington Centre, but more 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 British comfort food, vegan Polish fare, and locally sourced favourite dishes (UPDATE FEB 2026 – still occurring). 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 don’t judge us. 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 (maybe not in February) with a storied past that we wrote about previously.

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.