Marcel & Sons Mauritian tearoom and restaurant

Posted on November 30, 2014 by Kennington Observer

Marcel & Sons has sadly closed now along with the rest of Artworks, but hopefully they’ll be back soon.

~~Marcel & Sons is one of the freshest, most exciting restaurant/cafe openings in London, but, so far, one of the most low-key.~~

Andy Ng and Randy Tsang used to work in advertising (Andy was a creative director at M&C Saatchi), but they quit the rat race to start a Mauritian tea room, restaurant and showroom in Artworks, the shipping container park at the junction of Walworth Road and Elephant Road in North Kennington. Theirs is the dark green entrance in the bottom left:

Such is their aversion to their former trade of advertising that all they’ve done to publicise Marcel & Sons is start a Facebook and an Instagram account. When we went, we were the only customers in there, but the food and the welcome were so great that perhaps word of mouth will be enough to fill their tiny restaurant.

~~Randy, on the left, is a the fully qualified Cordon Bleu chef, and Andy, on the right, is the front of house:~~

~~If you’re wondering what the cases and shelves on either side are, that’s the showroom element, but we’ll leave that for another day because right now we want to focus on the wonderful food.~~

We’d never had Mauritian food before and we were blown away. You’ll recognise elements from Japanese, Chinese, Malaysian and Korean food, and Marcel & Sons’ take on it has some French Cordon Bleu influence with an emphasis on comfort food (they steer clear of certain Mauritian specialities like sea cucumber and octopus). We could see it catching on in a big way.

There are just three main courses on the menu, but they change every day. We had Bol Renversé which is a sweet yet savoury upside down bowl of rice with homemade Mauritian sausage, sweet wine, onion, garlic, choi sum, fried egg, spring onion and coriander. We liked it so much we even tolerated the shitache mushrooms. The packaging is great too:

~~But the real star dish was Bao Pao – crunchy strips of beef, mazavaroo aioli, pickled cucumber and watercress served in a delicious soft steamed bun:~~

~~The menu was quite meat heavy but they can do a veggie version of Nouik Nain (steamed chayote dumplings).~~

Drinks wise, the Mauritian speciality is Alouda Vanilla, featuring Madagascar vanilla, sugarcane syrup, basil seeds, agar and milk, and yes, it’s as sweet as it sounds. They don’t serve alcohol but you’re welcome to BYOB, or get a drink from the new Longwave bar which has just opened right outside.

They’re closed on Mondays because the market where they buy their ingredients is closed, but they’re open from 11am to 9pm every other day. Get along there quick before the queue stretches out of the door and they open their twentieth branch in the Westfield food hall.

Duchy Arms – now the best pub food in Kennington?

Posted on November 9, 2014 by Kennington Observer

Duchy Arms - kenningtonrunoff.com

The Duchy Arms used to be an old men’s pub (their old website is still live), then after it closed it was briefly a squatted “community centre” with classes on how to feel comfortable with female body hair and such like.

Next we heard of it was an article on the website of an unpleasant but popular newspaper whose name we prefer not to write, reporting that Prince Charles’s chef Visen Anenden had quit to become the Duchy’s head chef, with investment from Prince Charles’s valet Tim McCandless, and the pub (located on land owned by the Duchy of Cornwall) would be serving some of the Prince’s favourite dishes. All of the above live in Kennington except Prince Charles who owns Kennington but weirdly lives elsewhere. The newspaper also reports that Tim’s co-investor is Kowsar Hoque. Could this be the same Kowsar Hoque whose “customer is always wrong” attitude has brought such colour to his Kennington Tandoori’s TripAdvisor page?

So anyway, we finally made it along to the Duchy for Comfort Tuesdays, where they serve comfort foods such as chicken kiev, Home Farm at Highgrove (that’s Prince Charles’ farm) veal burger, and apple crumble. We had the globe artichoke, salsify and chard macaroni cheese which basically a posh version of a rather good dish Pret a Manger have started doing recently:

And the Home Farm at Highgrove Welsh lamb shepherd’s pie:

Duchy Arms Home Farm at Highgrove Welsh lamb shepherd's pie - kenningtonrunoff.com

Both were pretty much flawless. Could this be the best pub food in Kennington? We need to go again on a different night but yes, we think it could. Visit their Twitter to see their menus.

The wine list starts at £18 and stops at £29.50 for a dry sparkling rose. For real ale fans, they have Seafarers on tap for £3.75 a pint, as well as London Pride, and four guest ales in bottles

They’ve done a decent job on the interior as well (not that you can really tell from this photo):

Duchy Arms interior - kenningtonrunoff.com

So if you value great food, get along there soon and often – the Duchy Arms needs support. When we were there, there were ten customers including us. When we walked past on Saturday afternoon, there was one person in there that we could see – the barman. It’s not the most prominent location (on Sancroft Street), but it’s only a quarter of a mile from The Dog House and The Tommyfield and it’s well worth the effort.

Our message to the Duchy Arms is: sort out your website and your marketing – if you put half as much effort into this as you do into your food, you’d be rammed every night. And don’t let Kowsar near your social media.

Update: the Duchy Arms do have a new website, here.

the new look Imperial War Museum

Posted on October 12, 2014 by Kennington Observer

The Imperial War Museum marked the 100th anniversary of the start of World War I by closing for refurbishment, briefly reopening, then closing again without much explanation. Anyway, they managed to reopen for good in July, and we finally made it along a couple of weeks ago.

The cafe has relocated to the Kennington Road side of the building and now has outdoor tables in Geraldine Mary Harmsworth park which is a big improvement.

The food was good too – it’s run by Peyton & Byrne (not Ottolenghi but right up there), and we had a deliciously moist marinated herb fed chicken with slaw for £8.50.

They also have a good selection of cakes:

We were less impressed with the new look atrium, designed by Foster and Partners, which is slightly less spacious and seemed darker.

There are fewer vehicles on the ground floor to get up close and personal with although, thanks to Jeremy Deller, there is the arresting presence of a bombed out civilian’s car from Baghdad:

Admission to the museum is free but at busy times (most of the time), you’ll be a given a ticket with timed entry for the World War I exhibition, which includes a recreation of a WWI trench. That’s the huge queue in the photo of the atrium above – and one thing you can say for the new look museum, so far it seems to be even more popular than before.

The Londonist have a more detailed review of the museum itself.

Sticky Paws Coffee Van

Posted on October 5, 2014 by Kennington Observer

Update (Nov 11th 2014): the Sticky Paws Coffee Van is no more – it has been stolen!

Kennington is the home of Costa Coffee but despite or perhaps because of that, it was hard to get a great coffee here until recently. Then Sally White arrived, then the Coffee Mob van outside St Anselm’s Church, and now there’s another exciting development – Sticky Paws Coffee Van outside Kennington tube station.

~~A very colourful sign will point you in the right direction from the tube:~~

Mr Sticky Paws will be there every weekday from 7am to midday, engine trouble not withstanding. He claims to only use local products from independent suppliers which is not strictly true but sounds like a step in the right direction.

~~And, in a commuter-friendly touch, he offered to add a little cold water to our herbal tea so we could drink it during our tube journey. Not bad for £1!~~

Carnival del KERB at The Paperworks

Posted on September 4, 2014 by Kennington Observer

OK, The Paperworks is technically outside the borders of Kennington but it’s nearby, it’s run by North Kennington’s own Corsica Studios, and it’s great so we’re including it here.

It’s a temporary, outdoor street food, bar and music venue in a long-disused space owned by Peabody.

With a train line running along one side and the remnants of a factory at the other, it looks like something Secret Cinema would have built to host a dystopian film screening, but it’s not – the iron protruding from the brick wall is authentic industrial debris that has been there for decades.

It’s open Friday to Sunday evenings and tomorrow sees their third of four markets by street food specialists KERB (there are also more limited street food options on Saturdays and Sundays). We went along last Friday, when it was Time Out’s no. 1 thing to do in London. There were craft beers, ten or so food stalls, live music and DJs with a Latin flavour, and a cool crowd leaning young but covering all ages.

Once the weather gets cold the plan is to convert it into more of a covered space, then eventually flats will be built here, so make the most of it while it lasts.

Tomorrow’s event runs 5pm to 11pm at The Paperworks, 48-50 Newington Causeway (north of the Southwark Playhouse, on the other side of the road).

The Imperial War Museum finally re-opens today after a £40 million refit

Posted on July 19, 2014 by Kennington Observer

It now features a transformed atrium space and new World War One galleries, which are trailed in this film by Aardman, the company behind Wallace & Grommit:

The current exhibition is Truth and Memory; British Art of World War One, and they’re selling a limited edition Bob & Roberta Smith print commemorating the lost artists of World War One, so they are really trying to make up for lost time with the WW1 commemorations.

The museum is open 10am to 6pm with last admission at 5.30pm. Welcome back ILM. We will be visiting soon and will report back from the recreated trenches on the new look cafe and the rest.

Zeitgeist at the Jolly Gardeners – the only place to watch the World Cup Final

Posted on July 8, 2014 by Kennington Observer

If you’re going to be in London rather than Rio de Janeiro on Sunday, there’s only one place to watch the World Cup Final – London’s premier German gastropub, Zeitgeist in North West Kennington.

Zeitgeist is located at The Jolly Gardeners pub on Black Prince Road, which has 120 years of history as a pub. In common with every Kennington pub of a certain age, Charlie Chaplin’s dad used to drink there, and scenes from the films Snatch and The Calcium Kid were shot there. Since Zeitgeist moved in, the colour theme is black, inside and out – not so jolly anymore. But the schnitzel, schweinebraten, leberkaes, and German beers like Weihenstephaner and Krombacher will soon cheer you up.

They will be showing the World Cup Final on their 4 x 3 metre screen and their 60″ TV. Pay £10 in advance and you will get guaranteed entry, a shot of Vodka Brause and a Currywurst/Bratwurst roll. More info from their black website.

The best breakfast in Kennington?

Posted on June 8, 2014 by Kennington Observer

As regular readers of this blog will be well aware, Kennington has establishments that cater for most needs, but its one relative weak spot has been places to have breakfast or brunch.

Vergies is the nicest of a number of local cafes that offer fry ups in the greasy spoon mould (although it’s anything but greasy in there).

Toulouse Lautrec serve freshly baked French pastries, freshly squeezed orange juice, freshly pressed orange juice and the creamiest of scrambled eggs on weekends and Bank Holidays, but the service can be a little frustrating (some of the staff have limited English and speaking French to them doesn’t seem to work either).

Brunswick House do a good but short brunch menu.

Tea House Theatre’s breakfast is reviewed here.

Sally White do some breakfast options but add star anise to their granola – why why why?

So it’s with some excitement that we annouce that we now have a new candidate for the title of best breakfast in Kennington – The Tommyfield, who serve breakfast between 8.30am and 11.30am on weekends.

One of us had a homemade granola served with Greek yoghurt and a summer berry pot:

And the other had a serving of buttermilk pancakes which came with blueberry compote and mascarpone cream:

Both were excellent, but the lingering smell of drains which has percolated through the Tommyfield for a while now was more bothersome at breakfast time despite a sash window wide open next to the table.

Even if you’re not staying overnight at the Tommyfield Hotel, you can still enjoy their fragrant breakfast of a weekend, menu here.

Rooms at The Tommyfield – Kennington’s newest and nicest hotel

Posted on June 4, 2014 by Kennington Observer

Another of our Kennington Predictions for 2014 has come true – Ace Hotels have opened their latest outpost in Kennington.

Errrrr……OK, that’s not 100% true (yet), but Kennington does now have its own super-bijou boutique hotel in the form of six hotel rooms above The Tommyfield pub on Kennington Cross, and they’ve been decorated in a rather refined shade of industrial chic that isn’t a million miles from the Ace Hotel aesthetic. Our room was all white-washed brick walls, a chair that we’ve definitely seen in the Conran Shop, and a typographic ‘We not me’ print on the wall from the Changethethought collective.

Lovely bathroom too, with marble topped double sink and huge walk-in rain shower:

They launched without any fanfare at all in mid-May, and we were the first guests to stay in Room 3, although we have it on good authority that Russell Kane will shortly be lounging on the very same Super King Hypnos bed shortly.

A launch price of £119 per night per room (including breakfast) is reasonable for rooms that can more than compete with the very best that Airbnb can offer locally, minutes from the geographic centre of London.

If you stay on a week day it’s a DIY breakfast in your room from a pick of porridges, muesli, fresh fruit and juices, and our favourite Teapigs teas, plus a Nespresso machine.

At the weekend, guests breakfast downstairs in the pub from a more extensive menu, available until a very civilized 11.30am. But more of that later.

The Kennington Observer

Surreptitiously observing Kennington, including the suburbs Vauxhall, Oval, Walworth, and Elephant since 2012

Category Archives: cafes and restaurants