Category Archives: Stuffing your face

Black Cowboy Coffee

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The other day we had properly distanced but still aromatic chat with John Otagburuagu, aka the Black Cowboy, in his eponymously named coffee and snacks emporium in Elephant and Castle. Black Cowboy Coffee was one of the many businesses turfed out of E&C shopping centre in October, but the cowboy has landed his booted feet in a more high profile spot in Elephant Arcade, at the base of Perronet House. 

John is true Greater Kenningtonian,  having spent part of his youth between the Cotton Gardens Estate and Brittany Point in Lollard St. His early career took him from accountancy to Pizza Hut to working as a cameraman for the BBC. When John decided he wanted a fresh start and open skies he relocated to Houston, Texas. Looking for a new role that also incorporated his passion for travel, John decided, as you do,  to become a trucker. 

John spent a number of successful years crisscrossing America in his truck which he bought in cash as soon as he could. He also settled in Houston with a partner and had three children. When all was moving swimmingly down the road for John disaster struck….he was deported. Ever the optimist, John returned to the UK in late 2013 and found that he had to more or less start from scratch. He went to the JobCentre with the concept of wanting to start a coffee shop, and with a bit of effort he was able to obtain a business loan and find a mentor. It took a few years to come together, but 2015 saw the dawn of ‘Black Cowboy’. 

Black Cowboy Coffee features six coffees which you can also purchase bagged, either ground or still in the bean. He uses organic Arabica beans sourced from Brazil, Ethiopia, and Indonesia. The most popular brew and which keeps the customers coming is called ‘Boca Chica’. He also features latte, Americanos, cappuccino, hot chocolate, and an array of teas. If it’s food you’re after the specialities of the house are the Belgian waffle ‘liege’ and bagels made to order (selections above). There are also a range of paninis and baked goods. 

Black Cowboy is a perfect destination for your daily get out of the house perambulation. However, if you aren’t able to leave the house they are available on Uber Eats and soon Deliveroo. Keep on truckin! 

Restaurants in your Home

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One silver lining of not being able to eat out much in Greater Kennington in 2020 is that you didn’t miss a great deal. Due to restaurants being closed there haven’t been any ‘breakout’ cuisines such as, for instance, a CBD infused poke bowl doughnut ramen taco with a Korean twist. But as 2021 dawns you may nevertheless be yearning for restaurant food that is a calibre apart from the standard takeaway, and we’re here to help. 

A good place to start is with our ‘Top Ten Best Places to Eat in Greater Kennington’ list from March 2020. A few places from the list are remaining shut for the time being, but others have their kitchens open and they need our business or they’ll close forever. Or worse, become estate agents.  Each of them is open for collection, and most also use those home delivery companies which are evil but paradoxically manage to keep us safe.  We hope you find this useful…..

Adulis – This glorious Eritrean in Oval nabbed the top spot in March and they are now open. Available on Deliveroo.

Theos – The best pizzas in Greater Kennington grabbed our number two in March. Available on Deliveroo – Keep an eye on their Instagram for specials.

Prince of Wales – Open for pre order drinks only on 020 7735 9916. This explains the reemergence of people walking around Kennington Cross with milk containers containing what at first looks like pee.  

The Coriander – The best Indian in Greater Kennington grabbed our number four in March.  Available on Just – Eat 

Daebak  –  The quirky Korean in Vauxhall snatched our number five slot in March.  Available on Deliveroo

Kuma  – The Korean/Japanese in Kennington Cross dropped by to visit number 6 in March. Available on Just – Eat 

Taro – The real deal in Japanese canteen food joint devoured our number seven in March. Available on Ubereats and Deliveroo

The critically acclaimed restaurant ‘Louie Louie’ in Walworth Road has just gone vegan and is available for takeway and delivery. And they even deliver cocktails (we’re not sure how this works exactly, but it sounds fun).  Available on Deliveroo

Local institution Bonnington Café in Vauxhall will be cooking again next week, and are open for collection. 

Ok, we’ll throw one takeaway into the mix. Also in Walworth Road is the delicious and slightly bonkers ‘Shawarma Hut’ (below). Picture multiple swirling doners set to house music. We think it’s the best shawrma/kebabs around by a mile and they make their own bread and falafel on site. Available for takeaway. Mexican kebab, anyone?

X Mas shopping in Kennington #2

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From doggie treats to bum lifts to panettone

Before we commence with our run down of how we can treat people we know, lets think about all the Greater Kenningtonians out there who are struggling with the basics. If you would like to help them but aren’t really sure how, the Vauxhall Foodbank is a good place to start. You can either donate money, volunteer, or donate food directly at Tesco Kennington Lane or Sainsburys Nine Elms. 

UPDATE 19.12. 3:00pm. Boris is about to announce that London is moving into the unknown ‘Tier 4’. This might mean that these fine business shut in a few days. You better be quick!

And as you can imagine, our little run down of where to shop locally was only ever going to commence with items of the edible variety – 

Italo Vauxhall and Mimi’s Deli both have a range of Italian foodie gift ideas including wines, beers, spices, panettone (or as we call it ‘stale cake’), oils, cheeses and even posh sauces. Mimi’s has also turned the former seating area into a kind of pop up Christmas shop.  

Mercato Metropolitano has all of the Italian fare outlined above and also feature some Italian themed hampers and they’re also selling wreaths. They have wonderful meats and cheeses but if they sit under your tree for 10 days the smell might rather dampen your Christmas vibe. 

A number of Greater Kennington restaurants such as 24 the Oval and Amici have converted their surfeit of floor space into pop up farm shops with a few foodie gift ideas. Great craft beers at 24 the Oval.

The Beefeater Gin Distillery has a lovely but totally deserted gift shop offering unusual, limited run gins and gin accessories. You can also buy a gift voucher to tour the distillery (we can confirm it’s great fun). Perfect for your loved one who likes a nice holiday tipple or who just has a drinking problem. 

NON FOOD

Mary over at Windmill Flowers stocks not just flowers but also collectables and houseware accessories. 

Caroline and her team at Earl of Bedlam are tailors and makers of swishy clothing for both men and women, including very glam t shirts. They’re studio is open for said shirts and they can craft a gift voucher.

Max and Melia – Greater Kennington’s own Christmas shop. Check out our full review in our previous post.

In addition to books, Vanilla Black also has some nice gift ideas such as cards and masks and also a few food items. We think VB secretly hates us but we’ve moved on with our lives and are plugging them anyway. And since we have you, VB, please get cracking with your upcoming deli and wine shop, Dodi and Frank, a few doors down. We can’t wait.

As this crappy year draws to a close, have you ever thought about the gift of comedy? Our local gold star comedy club Always be Comedy are doing E vouchers for their virtual and socially distanced and live events (which are very surreal) at The Tommyfield. Recently we’ve seen Harry Hill, Al Murray, Sara Pascoe and more. 

The Hound Hut in Clapham road is your one stop shop for everything canine, even refrigerated dog food. We know very little about dogs (although we have been told we resembled one once) but this place is highly regarded. 

Have you ever thought about a gift of a ‘non surgical Brazilian bum lift’? Well you can buy one for a loved one at Oracle Skin Clinic in Kennington Cross. Of course, you may never hear from that loved one again. 

Some of the shops that were ruthlessly turfed out of Elephant and Castle shopping centre in September have found a new pop up home in Elephant Street (that sketchy street behind the station). Great for you younger folk looking for baseball caps, hoodies and clothes. Happy shopping!

The KR Doghouse experiment

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Last night we ventured out to local Kennington watering hole The Dog House as a flimsy excuse to get tipsy in the middle of the week means to ascertain how the new Tier 2 system works in pubs. We do suffer for our craft. 

We were a group of six so we sat outside. The tables were spaced comfortably far apart and half the tables were not occupied. This could have possibly been due to the fact that it was flipping freezing outside (if you’re reading this, Dog House, you might want to think about heaters). A group of seven men arrived and the staff told them they couldn’t sit at the same table, which was laudable. Tables inside were also spaced about a metre apart. 

Now for the interesting bit. You are not able to order a drink before your meal and they must be ordered with the food. The Dog House had an ‘express special’ of a jacket potato at £7 which counted as a mains. We didn’t meander into ‘does a Scotch egg count’ territory. We were able to order more drinks during the meal to our hearts content. Even if it is a technical no no, someone even ordered a drink after their plate had been collected. 

So life is pivoting toward a semblance of pseudo normality day by day. And It’s  even possible to book the tables outside, just give them a call. 

Fun at Oval Farmers Market

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We’re not proud of this, but since The Event took hold in March we haven’t darkened the door of Oval Farmer’s Market. After a brief period relegated to a community hall it’s been back in St. Mark’s Churchyard for a while now, and for obvious reasons is much more spread out, basically wrapping around the whole of the church. 

If you haven’t been to the Market in a while all of the old standards are still on offer; olives, biltong, a range of gluten free things, cheese stalls, fresh fish, coffees, organic wine, and meats. The large veg stall that used to be there is no more, but the proliferation of smaller ones compensate for it. There was also a French/Caribbean food stall that looked pretty delicious and had the buzz. 

Even if farmers markets aren’t your cup of chai, it offers folks a safe way to feel somewhat connected to society again and is a nice place to stroll around. For those still a bit queasy about larger crowds the market also provides a click and collect service.

Afterwards we revisited an old favourite,  Mimis Deli, which we reviewed earlier this year after eating a sandwich there the size of a childs’ leg. The former seating area at the back has been converted into a very tempting Italian food market/gift shop scenario, which is more experimental than Italo Vauxhall. We ate our mighty ciabatta wrapped sandwiches snugly in Kennington Park in the company of runners who had obviously never eaten a child leg sized meatball marinara sandwich in their lives. 

Takeaway Thai at Oaka

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Remember that halcyon time when you could go to a place and consume  alcoholic beverages with your friends? Well, that ain’t gonna happen right now, but some of these places are still serving food. One is Oaka at Mansion House in Kennington Park Road. We’ve always given the place a wide berth as it reminds us of a cocktail bar in the departures lounge at Luton Airport.  We were therefore surprised to discover that they have a pretty tasty Thai menu. 

There were three of us eating, and we had two Panang curries (one prawn, one chicken) and two Pad Thai noodles (one prawn, one chicken). The Panang curries were packed with flavour, plenty of hot (not too hotpot) and sharp spice, a warm hint of aniseed and a rich coconut milk based sauce – it’s fairly liquid but great with some jasmine rice – very tasty. With the chicken option there’s more meat to the dish, but the prawns were nice and fat. The Pad Thai had plenty going on with the abundant veg and noodles and possessed a tingling kick. Generous prawn crackers were thrown in as well. The total came to just over £60

  • All the proof you ever need
  • that we’re not food photographers

Running a website which encourages people out of the house when people should be staying in the house isn’t easy. In the past we have pillioried outfits such as Deliveroo and Just Eat as they encouraged people to sit at home watching Selling Sunset as opposed going out and discovering things. However *grits teeth* we now appreciate the role that they play in keeping us all safe, and we will never throw virtual poo their way again.  And Just Eat, we’ll even forgive you for that bizarre TV ad featuring Snoop Dogg. 

24 The Oval – the place to be for Sunday roast

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If you’re a regular reader you are probably aware of two things. First, we have a serious addiction to eating out. Second, we would rather be jabbed with rusty ice pick than give a biased review. If we feel passionate about something or it’s quirky we write about it. If it isn’t reviewed here we either didn’t like it or it just isn’t on our radar. 

The restaurant 24 The Oval seems to have been on the radar of everyone but ourselves for ages, so recently we went to sample their Sunday menu. Early in lockdown they converted the front of the restaurant into a farm shop. It ‘s still going strong and we reviewed it here.  The setting of the restaurant at the back is unpretentious and the open kitchen and wealth of cookery equipment attest to a restaurant that is led by confident chefs. And 24 defies the current ‘small plates’ trend proudly.  

As it was still warm we were sat in the garden with orchids and succulents and a nice 80’s soundtrack. In an attempt by the staff to sabotage our dream of washboard abs, as an ‘amused bouche’ we were given four mini yorkies and served a further four between courses – and between us we downed nine of them….Moving on…your scribe defied convention and had the seared Cornish cod. It was very meaty and delicately cooked slab served with peas, dill, and preserved lemon. Your scribe was also getting flavours of celeriac..

My very ambitious associate had the lamb roast, which consisted of a pink leg and slow cooked breast, served with a pot of mint sauce (homemade, not Coleman’s). This is definitely posh roast territory so there was some artful piling in the centre of the plate with a construction of various roast vegetables (including some lovely cabbage) and crisp roasties. Then, if that wasn’t enough, there was a separate dish of extra veg and roasties plus a pot of cauliflower cheese. Although at the pricier end of Sunday roasts, this was super quality – and super quantity. 

The crowd at 24 was an eclectic and diverse mix of white middle class people with lots of hair who were under the age of 45. If this describes your good self then you’ll fit right in. If, like us, you do not fit that category you’ll still be greeted heartily. As for the service, it was very causal yet well drilled. 

It’s a Big Town

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In spite of Rishi Sunak’s lauded £10 meal deal, some Greater Kenningtonians are still  reluctant to eat out. This is understandable, as some of our neighbours are taking social distancing about as seriously as, let’s be honest, licking a doorknob. The Runoff team used this reality as a flimsy excuse to order takeaway last week. If you are a regular reader you can probably surmise that this was  not going to be a traditional undertaking, and after research and recommendations we reached a very logical conclusion. Of course, Nigerian street food from Walworth Road.

Big Town is a newish, funky Nigerian street food outlet on Walworth Road just across the street from M&S. Not knowing a great deal about Nigerian cuisine, we took to the internet for recommendations and expectations and ordered the  following –

Jollof rice is most familiar staple of Nigerian food, and we ordered prawn jollof (other meat and veg options were also on offer). It was a generous and delicately spiced affair. Next was the beef suya, which were blackened and grilled strips of beef with a peanut rub, with the consistency of jerky. A bit of a spice kick in the end. The suya chicken wings were also ordered, which were cooked the same way but very much fell off the bone. Both of these dishes were punctuated by a rash of onions.

  • Jollof
  • Beef
  • Chicken wings

The most interesting  item your intrepid gastronomes consumed was the eguasi soup (we opted for the fish variety). Less like a soup and more like a curry, it was a blow your head off collision of scotch bonnet meets palm oil (we know palm oil is evil so please forgive us). It seemed to contain a pureed gourd or squash and definitely pureed onion. It also contained melon. If you order this just ensure you have a giant glass of water to hand. Or in our case wine. 

Eguasi. Look, we never claimed to be professional photographers.

Nigerian cuisine doesn’t exactly meet the lofty altitudes of Italian or Chinese nor does it claim to. However, for a takeway adventure of a weekend it is a great alternative to pizza or chow mein. With hindsight this was rather ‘in your face’ cooking in terms of heat and spices.  And after a full Nigerian meal you certainly won’t be feeling the pang to lick doorknobs.  

Zeitgeist – German beer heaven

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If we told you there was a German restaurant in Greater Kennington you’d probably say ‘get the schntizel outta here’. Well there is – and it’s a gastropub called Zeitgeist in Black Prince Road. The Ethelred estate seems like a rather implausible place for a pub geared at the German community, so we donned our Alpine headwear to check it out. 

Zeitgest has a host of German beers including Pils, Helles, Hefeweizen, Kolsch and Altbier all on draft, with some bottled beers as well. A pint came gratis with our meal, which was a bonus. Of course eating was involved, and I had the Zeitgeist Flammkuchen, which is a kind of Alsace pizza. The base was extremely thin and crumbly, and the pizza consisted simply of munster cheese with pastrami. I’m not exactly sure why it was served on a piece of torn cardboard but lets just call that ‘rustic’, shall we? 

My dining partner had the Jager Schnitzel, which consisted of a generous chunk of veal, well breaded, and a creamy mushroom sauce. The huge pile of chips beneath it, unfortunately, had spent most of their short lives in a freezer.

In summary, let’s just say that eating at Zeitgeist is an activity best undertaken when you’re not entirely sober. But that’s easy, as for the German beers they have 18 on tap varying from the big German brands to the more niche. It’s also a fun environment and usually shows German football and plays 80’s music. The free beer with a mains ends on 31 August so you better get your Gesäß in motion. 

Sayer Street

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We hope you are enjoying ‘Eat out to help out’ – or as we call it – ‘The Rishi Sunak £10 meal deal’ as much as we are. In fact, we find ourselves using the 50% discount as a flimsy excuse to eat out twice as much. And as we say with a mouthful of that seventh slice of pizza ‘it’s all about saving local business’. 

The jury is still out as to whether the mind boggling juggernaut that is Elephant Park is actually in the Runoff catchment area (don’t get your hopes up). However, a nifty little street has popped up there in recent months and it is proving quite the go to spot for foodies. Sayer St* has an array of independent food joints that includes Chinese, Italian street food, jerk chicken, ramen, a few coffee places, and more on the way. 

Sayer St. is anchored by a large and swish looking establishment called ‘Bobo Social‘. To us Bobo sounds like the name you’d give a yappy dog sticking out of a handbag, but we decided to go for a drink and check the place out as it received rave reviews in it’s previous location in Fitzrovia. This place ticks all the boxes for what the hip Elephant Park demographic crave at the moment. Brunch – tick. Fancy cocktails – got ‘em, strange but alluring sounding burgers – by the spadeful. Oh and what else is hmm, yes.. small plates! . The small plates that past our way looked and smelled lovely and looked great, such as braised lamb croquettes and chili squid. And as you can guess, the West End prices now sit snugly in Elephant.

A number of Sayer Street restaurants are participating in ‘Eat out to help out’ but remember to make reservations first.

*Sadly not named after washed up 70’s pop star, Leo Sayer.