Over the next week we’ll be visiting five diverse Greater Kennington establishments that have been partially or totally closed since Christmas. We’ll be giving you the KR lowdown on how safe they feel, how seating works, improvements in their menus, issues of overcrowding, and we might even have a cheeky drink or two or six. Our handy guide to how pubs and restaurants are operating is at the bottom of this post.
As you likely already know, from now until 17 May all food and drink served must be outdoors. However, unlike the last time pubs were open, which feels like 45 years ago, you do not have to order food. Also, venues no longer have to close at 10:00pm. First on our journey across Kennington Land is the Dog House in Kennington Cross, which for the record is open until midnight and 2:00am at weekends. Neighbours must love that.
Your scribe and five selected interns and sales people from the KR office had dinner and drinks on Monday night and it was very full. In terms of social distancing, well, lets just say at least people weren’t licking one another. As you can see by the picture below, the benches were packed tightly under the awning, and if this makes you feel a bit uneasy you might want to opt for the uncovered seats. And if you go this week it is best to reserve.
The food at the Dog House has always been a bit on the ‘meh’ side, but on this outing it was suspiciously ‘meh’. People in our group had burgers, pies, and chicken escalope. We all agreed that the poor quality food could not just be a result of just opening again, and the chips had definitely seen some freezer action which did not used to be the case. The service was slow, but we attributed this to the crowd, and the server was apologetic. The apologetic server appeared new, as did all the other staff that night, and that got us thinking. We asked the server if the pub was under new management. The server excitedly explained that the pub is now operated by mega chain ‘Punch’. Oh dear.
Unfortunately we cannot recommend a meal at the new Punch operated Dog House, but it’s still a great place to people watch and have drinks with friends. When thinking about the new Dog House don’t lose heart as at least it isn’t a boarded up shell. Or worse, a Foxtons.
This pub is a parasite on Kennington. Operates outwith any rules set down.
Look at the state of the sprawl around the corner of the beautiful, conservation protected cross.
Punch Taverns are not to be celebrated. Awful place IMO
“In terms of social distancing, well, lets just say at least people weren’t licking one another. As you can see by the picture below, the benches were packed tightly under the awning, and if this makes you feel a bit uneasy you might want to opt for the uncovered seats. And if you go this week it is best to reserve”