Category Archives: cafes and restaurants

The Ten Best Restaurants in Greater Kennington #6

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(+ One Sunday Roast)

Daebak…..Home of KFC

Since it opened a few years ago Daebak in Vauxhall has been delivering consistent and hearty Korean fare in a very cool street Seoul setting. Word has now spread and it’s more popular than ever. Of note there are a number of Korean patrons, probably enticed by their Korean down home treats such as kimchi pancakes and…wait for it….. potato chips with cream cheese powder, best consumed with the Korean beer ‘Hite’. The review below is from a couple of years ago but we’ve been many times since to explore its great and deliciously unconventional fare.

A few days ago we popped our sweaty selves to Vauxhall to revisit a delightful Korean friend called ‘Daebak’.  It is a small, delightful restaurant not to be confused with the not so charming ‘Jihwaja’ across the road. Well, unless your idea of charming involves hen do’s, stale kimchee and blaring K-Pop. And if it does then this website might not be for you…..

For our meal the three of us ordered soy garlic Korean Fried Chicken (or KFC, a speciality, above), spicy bibimbap,  Katsu curry, crispy tofu, and gyoza. Let me tell you, reader, we were rolling out of there by the end of it. We could have easily dropped one of the main courses as they were huge. We highly recommend the various kinds of fried chicken on order (crunchy, subtle) and the Bibimbap is delicious and comes with two veg. options. I would also experiment with a starter like octopus balls. Great food, and pretty kind on the pocket. If you are going on a weekend it might be a good idea to book, as last time we couldn’t get in we had to go across the street and it wasn’t pretty.

Daebak is at 316-318 Kennington Lane

Pros – It has wide open doors overlooking Vauxhall

Cons – It has wide open doors overlooking Vauxhall

The Ten Best Restaurants in Greater Kennington #9

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(+ One Sunday Roast)

TARO

The number nine spot has been grabbed by the now well established Japanese canteen Taro at the bottom of Kennington Road. Our review below is from 2020, but we’ve been back a number of times since and the food is as reliable as a cocktail party at #10.

Part of the Greater Kennington firmament for over a year now, Taro has consistent delivery of authentic ‘Izakaya’, (roughly meaning ‘pub food’) very similar to  the food you get in Japan, and is good value for money. They also have a menu more diverse than most Izakaya places (not always a good thing but it is in this case), which caters to varied tastes.  Believe it or not there are a number of Japanese joints in our area, but this is acres above the lot (February 2022 – it still is!).

Some staff were in Japan before our Taro visit last year and went to Taro with KR freelance journalist Mark, who lived in Japan for years and served as our culinary attaché. We had sushi (both tempura-maki and other maki) which was fresh and generous on the fish side. We also had fried chicken (above), which was crunchy and equally meaty. For a veg angle we also indulged in juicy tofu steak, with a surfeit of ginger and wasabi. For sides we recommend onshinko pickles and gyoza dipped in soy vinegar. Both veg and meat gyozas are great. The salmon teriyaki bento box at the next table also caught our eye.

Taro can be delivered to your door via Deliveroo,  and you can pop in and take it away. They curiously don’t have a website, but are located at 414 Kennington Road, close to the park.

The Ten Best Restaurants in Greater Kennington #10

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(+ 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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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.