The Rishi Sunak £10 meal deal

To stimulate the economy and get people spending again Rishi Sunak –Chancellor of the Exchequer and the most implausible waiter in history –introduced ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ which took effect on 3 August. The scheme entitles diners to 50% off their main meal (no booze) up to a value of £10 in both restaurants and pubs. If you’ve seen the crowds in Greater Kennington restaurants over the past few days, this is the reason. 

We decided to inaugurate the season visiting local French bistro Toulouse Lautrec. TL has been hit by a double whammy of being closed for the past three months both as a restaurant and as a live Jazz venue. Your ravenous scribe had the chicken chasseur; a meaty chicken dish with spiced tomato sauce, well cooked mushrooms, and just the right amount of tarragon. As it was served in the skillet that kept it at the right temperature to be served on a plate with homemade mash. Highly recommended.


My associate indulged in the confit duck burger served deboned on a sesame brioche bun with a surprisingly smoky relish. We don’t usually associate smoky with French food but it worked. Said associate got far too excited about the homemade mayonnaise and chunky chips, which were as massive as they appear in the image. For the dessert, my associate had the (insert breathy female Masterchef porn voice) melting molten chocolate fondant —– with hazelnut ice cream. Without the additives (i.e. wine) our bill came to just under £29, which for a French meal and a pudding ain’t that bad.

There are a lot of local restaurants taking part in this scheme. To see if your favourite is on the list stick your postcode into this snazzy thing to find out. You know you want to…

The Top Ten Best Restaurants in Kennington – those that didn’t make it

Before we publish our definitive list of the top ten best restaurants in Kennington, we thought we’d shout out of some of those that didn’t quite make it for various reasons fair and foul.

Toulouse Lautrec – they just celebrated their tenth anniversary and we hope they last for many more decades, but when it comes to food, we were more Lobster Pot people (RIP).

Toulouse Lautrec - Kenningtonrunoff.com

Frenchie Bistro – great if you eat duck but not much good for vegans (Artworks where Frenchie Bistro was located has now closed permanently)

The Frenchie Bistro duck breast - kenningtonrunoff.om

Dragon Castle – we once saw a mouse in the dining room and have never been back, but we keep checking the food hygiene rating in vain hope of improvement… what is it with Walworth Road establishments and their dire food hygiene ratings? How long can you be rated as “needing improvement” before the Food Standards Agency take serious action?

Dragon Castle - kenningtonrunoff.com

The White Bear – we like this huge pub with its theatre, garden, beehive and restaurant… We always feel like we’ve left London for a small town in Somerset when we go there. The food is decent but a little overpriced.

The White Bear Theatre Pub new exterior - kenningtonrunoff.com

Rare Burger Co – a welcome addition to the Kennington restaurant scene, with friendly service and beetroot burger and shrimp burger options for non-meat eaters. It just didn’t quite make the top ten. We’re told, although we haven’t had a chance to check this, that Rare Burger Co has closed now – shame if true.

Rare Burger Co shopfront - kenningtonrunoff.com

Above The Stag – the menu at this LGBT+ theatre looks appetising but the one time we tried to eat there, they were closed for a refurb.

Above The Stag - kenningtonrunoff.com

Aobaba – really good Vietnamese food but the atmosphere is hindered by it being in a supermarket with plastic seats and strip lighting.

Aobaba - kenningtonrunoff.com

Nandine – we’ve heard great things about this shack on St George’s Road but decided to limit this list to places you can sit down and eat in the evenings. For places to eat lunch, check out our Top Ten Best Lunch Spots in Kennington list from a while back – most of the places are still open happily.

Theo’s Pizzeria – several people recommended this new pizza place where Mamuśka! used to be on the former Southern roundabout in North Kennington. We asked about vegan options and they said “Vegan customers have either or both of our house salad or a tomato based pizza to which they can add a range of veggie options. We don’t do a vegan cheese but customers often bring their own and we are happy to add that to pizzas”. We appreciate the reply but in an era when Pizza Express offer two vegan pizza options, this wasn’t quite enough to tempt us to Theo’s.

Theo's - kenningtonrunoff.com

Amici – we do eat at Amici, and like their fish dishes, especially in summer in the courtyard, but atmosphere wise we preferred it when it when it was where Doost is now, and almost always full!

Perdoni’s AKA Riverside 2 – we also eat here, but feel it is a little overpriced.

Florentine – friendly but located in one of London’s worst looking buildings (the Park Plaza “Waterloo” hotel), and the food is too salty!

Di Lieto Bakery – this place sounds amazing for pasta but doesn’t qualify because not open in the evenings (yet?).

Café Van Gogh – we haven’t visited yet – no excuses as this sounds right up our street.

Jihwaja/Seveni/Daebak/CheeMC – we love that there are at least four Korean restaurants in the area but left them all out as there’s not much to choose between them. Seveni is probably our favourite for food, Jihwaja for karaoke, and CheeMC for chicken lovers including Jay Rayner.

24 The Oval – this is some people’s favourite restaurant in the area and understandably so, but we’d say it’s better for meat eaters and lovers of rich food. Plus it’s not cheap.

24 The Oval exterior - kenningtonrunoff.com

The top ten restaurants in Kennington – those that didn’t quite make it

Mamuśka slipped out of our top ten this year as we have had occasional stodgy dishes there, but those dishes may well have been authentically Polish, and if you’ve never been, you really should go for the experience and the atmosphere.

Mamuska - kenningtonrunoff.com

Emanuel also has a great atmosphere and feels authentically Peruvian – maybe a a bit too authentic at times.

We’re reasonably regular visitors to Amici, at the junction of Windmill Row and Kennington Lane, which is a decent, friendly Italian. They have outdoor seating in the courtyard which is great when the weather’s good. To us Amici represents the old Kennington where the likes of the Duchy Arms, Brunswick House and Doost (from the same owners as Amici) represent the new, but long may it last.

We have a soft spot for Brasserie Toulouse Lautrec and we’re grateful there is live music (mostly jazz) in Kennington every night, but we’re bigger fans of their brunch than their bistro evening menu.

The food at Kennington Tandoori is a cut above your average curry house, and probably marginally better than Gandhi’s (who are also very good and do a great value vegetable thali). KT have nice bright premises with a front that opens onto the street – pleasant in the summer months. But we’ve talked before about their “customer is always wrong” attitude. We had another run in with them this year where we complained, they rather aggressively told us we were wrong, so we provided proof to back up our complaint, which was met with silence. We don’t want to give any more details for fear of being banned. And it’s not just us – see their Tripadvisor page for some real pearls.

Kennington Tandoori - kenningtonrunoff.com

Anyway, we’d love to see all these restaurants burst into the top ten next year, and would welcome suggestions of any we’ve missed.