The top ten best restaurants in Kennington – no. 1 – The Garden Café at the Garden Museum

Posted on February 26, 2019 by Kennington Runoff

Positives: This is simply one of our favourite ever London restaurants. The seasonal menu changes every day and has never let us down. Hearty, flavoursome, unfussy food, just brilliantly executed.

The Garden Museum cafe interior - kenningtonrunoff.com

Negatives: Their only evening openings are Tuesdays and Fridays. They’re not particularly flexible with substitutions and such like, but only because they take such pride in their plates. The food is expensive but totally worth it. As for the building, we can’t still can’t believe the Garden Museum destroyed their beautiful, tranquil knot garden as part of the development that led to the new Garden Café. If this restaurant had been able to serve diners in the old knot garden on a summer evening, it would have been unbeatable.

Pappardelle, courgettes and parmesan at The Garden Cafe Museum - kenningtonrunoff.com

The top ten best restaurants in Kennington – no. 2 – Louie Louie

Posted on February 25, 2019 by Kennington Runoff

Positives: Most well-off residents of East Kennington have probably experienced Louie Louie by now, as a daytime brunch spot or nighttime bar or party venue. But have you eaten there in the evenings? They host residencies from up-and-coming chefs and they must choose well because we’ve never had a meal there that was anything but great. They serve real ale from the nearby Orbit brewery, and the co-owner Chris is lovely.

Louie Louie - kenningtonrunoff.com

Negatives: The gentrification of Walworth and Elephant & Castle has rightly been controversial and Louie Louie could be seen as a symbol of that, but it’s a genuine local business. Let’s hope Louie Louie can continue to thrive alongside the likes of the Red Lion (the massive old Irish pub) and Oli Food Centre (the Turkish 24 hour food shop opposite with the insanely delicious and cheap pide bread and dozens of different kinds of feta).

Louie Louie bar - kenningtonrunoff.com

The top ten best restaurants in Kennington – no. 3 – Brunswick House

Posted on February 24, 2019 by Kennington Runoff

Positives: Brunswick House has an utterly unique and magical interior, courtesy of LASSCO the architectural reclaim shop, and the building it takes its name from, a Georgian mansion with a colourful history. The atmosphere is always good, the food is inventive and seasonal, and the clientele is cultured – when Florence Welch wants to meet Lena Dunham for dinner, this is where they go.

Brunswick House restaurant - kenningtonrunoff.com

Negatives: Since founder Jackson Boxer, a Kennington resident, started opening hot new restaurants outside of Kennington and became a cover star (and what a dashing one too), we have to say the food is not quite as great as it was, and still expensive. So we’re not the regular visitors we once were – but if you’ve never been, you really should…

Salsify, cauliflower and olive at Brunswick House – kenningtonrunoff.com

The top ten best restaurants in Kennington – no. 4 – Bonnington Café

Posted on February 23, 2019 by Kennington Runoff

Positives: We were recently asked to recommend places for a group of Spanish art students to go when visiting London and Bonnington Café was the only place on our list. It’s off Bonnington Square, a magical, unique place which is surely the crowning achievement of the squatting movement in London (the café was originally a communal kitchen for the squatters, many of whom didn’t have functioning kitchens of their own). The food is crazy cheap and it’s BYOB. It has always been vegetarian and nowadays seems to be vegan as well. Best of all is the atmosphere – never not joyous.

Bonnington Square Cafe - kenningtonrunoff.com

Negatives: The chefs and waiters are keen amateurs on a rota so don’t expect fine dining, but do expect wholesome, tasty vegan food, generally served very quickly if rather eccentrically at times. The café was briefly “threatened with closure” but like 6 Music, this only served to make it stronger. Viva Bonnington Café!

The fifth best restaurant in Kennington – you decided it’s 24 The Oval!

Posted on February 22, 2019 by Kennington Runoff

Marcel & Sons was our fifth favourite restaurant in Kennington but then it closed along with the rest of Artworks. We are gutted, but hopefully they’ll be back before long.

So we made a list of all the restaurants we didn’t include in our top ten and let you vote for your favourite. 24 The Oval was the winnner, narrowly beating Theo’s Pizzeria. A fair result as both restaurants might have made it into our top ten if we were meat and dairy eaters. Amici and Kennington Tandoori – two other restaurants we frequent – tied for third place.

24 The Oval exterior - kenningtonrunoff.com

what's the best restaurant in Kennington that's not on our list?

24 The Oval (21%, 15 Votes)
Theo's Pizzeria (19%, 14 Votes)
Amici (8%, 6 Votes)
Kennington Tandoori (8%, 6 Votes)
The White Bear (6%, 4 Votes)
The Coriander (6%, 4 Votes)
JIHWAJA (4%, 3 Votes)
Dragon Castle (4%, 3 Votes)
Seveni Bar & Restaurant (3%, 2 Votes)
Rare Burger Co (3%, 2 Votes)
Oaka at the Mansion House (3%, 2 Votes)
Café Van Gogh (3%, 2 Votes)
La Luna (1%, 1 Votes)
POTUS Bar & Restaurant (1%, 1 Votes)
The Old Red Lion (1%, 1 Votes)
Maximo Italian Bistro (1%, 1 Votes)
Leños & Carbón (1%, 1 Votes)
The Black Dog (1%, 1 Votes)
The Tommyfield (1%, 1 Votes)
Firecracker (1%, 1 Votes)
Daebak (1%, 1 Votes)
Above the Stag (0%, 0 Votes)
Aobaba (0%, 0 Votes)
Toulouse Lautrec Brasserie (0%, 0 Votes)
Chino Latino (0%, 0 Votes)
Mama Thai (0%, 0 Votes)
Florentine Restaurant & Bar (0%, 0 Votes)
The Elephant & Castle pub (0%, 0 Votes)
CheeMC (0%, 0 Votes)

Total Voters: 72

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The top ten best restaurants in Kennington – no. 6 – Doost Persian Grill

Posted on February 21, 2019 by Kennington Runoff

Positives: About 65% of our Kennington takeaways over the years have been from Doost. The food is simply delicious. The chelo kabab koobideh (lamb kebab) is one of the things we miss most from our meat eating days, although their veggie kebab is great too. We’ve never had a bad dish there. Even their rice is next level.

Doost Persian Grill & Vodka Bar

Negatives: We just can’t understand why it isn’t full all the time!

The top ten best restaurants in Kennington – no. 7 – Adulis

Posted on February 20, 2019 by Kennington Runoff

Positives: Kennington and surrounding areas are blessed with an extraordinary number of Eritrean and Ethiopean restaurants – Red Sea on Walworth Road, the ever-popular Zeret Kitchen on Camberwell Road, St Gabriel Cafe on that sketchy little alley between Kennington Park Road and Kennington Lane, Harar on South Lambeth Road, ~~Beza in Artworks~~ (Artworks has now closed permanently), plus Bar 48 on Brixton Road only recently closed… we even bought some Eritrean food at the Archbishop Sumner school fete once. The pick of the bunch for us is Adulis on Brixton Road – great atmosphere, nice African decorations, Ethiopean lager, and the crazy odour of the coffee ceremony…

Adulis Eritrean Restaurant - kenningtonrunoff.com

Negatives: Every Ethiopean or Eritrean meal we’ve had has basically been the same but that suits us just fine – the food is always delicious and fun if not too photogenic:

Adulis platter - kenningtonrunoff.com

The top ten best restaurants in Kennington – no. 8 – Taro

Posted on February 19, 2019 by Kennington Runoff

Taro - kenningtonrunoff.com

Positives: We were super excited by the arrival of Taro, next to Kennington Post Office, at the end of last year. There are more and more Japanese food options opening up in the area, but some only do takeaway, and not all are well reviewed! SW9 Sushi on Brixton Road in South Kennington is one option for eating in, but Taro, who already have a successful branch in Soho, is a cut above. Really good food, nice and bright interior, and delightful service – they practically give you a round of applause on the way out.

Bento box at Taro - kenningtonrunoff.com

Negatives: None that we’ve found so far; hopefully the honeymoon period will never end.

The top ten best restaurants in Kennington – no. 9 – Gandhi’s

Posted on February 18, 2019 by Kennington Runoff

Positives: Kennington Tandoori gets most of the press, but its problems with customer service linger despite the business being handed on from one generation to the next. What edges it for us is Gandhi’s extraordinarily cheap vegetable thali and particularly the dal – simply the best we’ve ever had. They don’t do the thali for takeaway but if you ask them nicely, they might.

Negatives: Kennington Tandoori has nicer premises, especially in summer when its front can be opened. If you want fancy and modern and you don’t mind playing by their rules, go to the KT. Gandhi’s is more of a traditional curry house and menu.

The top ten best restaurants in Kennington – no. 10 – The Walcot 1830

Posted on February 17, 2019 by Kennington Runoff

The Walcot 1830 - kenningtonrunoff.com

Positives: The Ship was a nice pub with mediocre food, whereas under its new owners and new name – The Walcot 1830 – it really takes pride in its menu. We’d say it serves the best pub food in the area, replacing the Duchy Arms which no longer boasts an ambitious menu by Prince Charles’s former chef, and edging out the Elephant & Castle. We were also delighted to hear they’ve renovated the bar billiards table which was such a big feature of The Ship.

Walcot 1830 outside seating - kenningtonrunoff.com

Negatives: It’s not cheap, and if you don’t like rich food, your options might be limited. Per Vanilla Black, will they ever get a proper sign, or are they doing too well without one?

Sea bass at Walcot 1830 - kenningtonrunoff.com