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.
Negatives: We just can’t understand why it isn’t full all the time!
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.
Negatives: None that we’ve found so far; hopefully the honeymoon period will never end.
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.
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.
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?
from the soon-to-be relaunched Lambeth Archives website
The Roebuck, 1972, now The Dog House
The King’s Arms, 1972
The White Hart, 1972, now the Tommyfield
The Cricketers, Kennington Park Road, 1945
the derelict Lamb & Hare public house, 41 Kennington Lane, 1950
The Black Prince, 1974
The Tankard, 1880
The Horns Tavern, which stood on the corner of Kennington Road and Kennington Park Road until 1965
from the soon-to-be relaunched Lambeth Archives website
The Old Red Lion in the late 1930s
Kilner House protest squat, Clayton Street – more info here – plus ca change
Methley Street, 1975 – nothing has changed except the cars
Kennington Road, 1950
Cleaver Street, 1975 – bit of a different vibe from today
‘Reclining Figure’ by James Butler A.R.A. – bring this back to Cleaver Square please!
Brook Drive, 1985 – looks tranquil right?
Bonnington Square, 1981 – the year the squatters moved in
More soon.
The Hangout cafe was the previous occupant of this site (on Kennington Green at 344 Kennington Road, next to Papa John’s), which was derelict for years prior to that. Although The Hangout seemed fairly popular, we weren’t entirely surprised when it closed down as the manager and the chef were having a stand-up row throughout our visit, and when our food eventually arrived, we could understand why.
The new arrival is Rare Burger Co. which very much looks like a chain-in-waiting in the vein of Honest Burger et al. But haven’t we already passed peak gourmet burger in London? Quite possibly, but whether Rare Burger Co. turns into a successful chain or not, we’re tipping the Kennington branch to last a good while.
First of all, there’s nothing like this in the area – Dirty Burger is the closest thing, but that’s more of a shack in the middle of a gyratory, and we think we’re right in saying that Black Acorn at Artworks is no more.
Rare Burger’s proprietor is friendly and modest, telling us they want to perfect what they do before doing any marketing. They’ve done a good job on the interior and branding.
Most importantly their burgers are great. The shrimp burger was seriously indulgent for £8.80, and this beetroot burger (£7) was delicious and moist.
We didn’t stay for dessert but people on Facebook are raving about their cheesecake (£3.50). We’ll be back there soon to give it a try.
They also serve brunch options like avocado on sourdough and various eggs options.
Address: Rare Burger Co, 344 Kennington Road, London SE11 4LD.
This pub used to be the Grand Union, and before that it was Bar Room Bar, but is now under new ownership – The Draft House – and has reverted to its original 1825 name of The Tankard – bravo.
It was always a great site – at the junction of Brook Drive and Kennington Road, the other side of Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park from The Three Stags, which is invariably busy. Bar Room Bar’s stock-in-trade was opening late night on weekends (rather unusual up this end of Kennington), and the later it got, the dodgier the crowd got. But its greatest asset has always been its terrace, once used as a viewing platform for the curious to observe patients in the grounds of the original “Bedlam” next door, now the Imperial War Museum. And, in common with every other old pub in Kennington, Charlie Chaplin and his dad used to hang out there.
So what have Draft House done with it? Well, for one they’ve built roofing on the terrace – great for a summer’s day, even if rain is threatened:
Downstairs the layout is the same but there’s lots of pale wood and bright red paint:
They have a big selection of craft beer in bottles and on tap, the latter of which can be bought in paddles (a little flat when we tried their three bitters – teething troubles no doubt – they’d only just opened after a super quick refurb):
And for the teetotallers they do Brewdog’s Nanny State:
We’d described the food as “comfort gastro”, heavy on grease, salt and beige colouring. This was beer battered cod and chips (you can see the salt):
This was buffalo cauliflower (go easy on the Frank’s hot sauce):
Chicken schnitzel – no complaints here:
They do a good veggie burger with smoked cheddar:
We’d like to see them add a few more green items to their menu, but they do do veggie scotch eggs, moist on the inside:
As you can see from the above, the pub was packed and noisy when we were there, so we’re optimistic that The Tankard and The Draft House will be in Kennington for a long time to come.
We’ve been blogging less recently but we will be back, and meanwhile we remain active on Twitter and Instagram.
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Also check this out for some great photos of Kennington in bygone eras. This is 317 Kennington Road (where Barnard Marcus is now, and not 317 Kennington Lane as the archive says) in 1966. What was Barron & Shepherd? A Google search suggests it might have been a timber yard.
The Kennington brunch revolution continues! As of the weekend just gone, Kennington’s finest Indian restaurant Kennington Tandoori is serving breakfast and brunch from 9am to 4pm every Saturday and Sunday.
Naturally we were there on the inaugural day to see where the KT ranks in the league of Kennington brunches, and the answer could be straight in at number one. If we compare it to our previous favourite The Tommyfield, the food is as good – maybe better – and the menu is longer and more adventurous. It’s a “white linen” brunch which feels very civilised, and the room smells nicer than the Tommyfield.
KT offer three items under “fruits, grains and seeds” – granola with yoghurt, passion fruit coulis, plum compote and honey for £7.95, Madagascan vanilla porridge with mixed berries and a side of honey, also for £7.95, and these moist, flawless blueberry pancakes with caramelised bananas and maple syrup for £8.95:
The Indian influence shows through more in the mains, which range in price from a paneer salad for £7.95, up to black truffle folded eggs with wild mushrooms on sour dough for £14.95. More unusual options include The KT Octopus Temptation (we weren’t tempted) and Lamb Shank Nihari (we were very tempted but managed to resist for now). They also offer Eggs Florentine and Royale, a beefburger, and this avocado and sourdough toast with poached egg, feta cheese and KT tomato salsa for £10.95:
Full menu here, which says “We’ve loads of ideas for future brunches. Why not tell us yours?” via their Facebook or Twitter. As KT are renowned for their love of feedback, there is just one thing we’d change – they should serve what is surely the ultimate Indian breakfast drink – mango lassi.
Kennington Tandoori is at 313 Kennington Rd, London SE11 4QE.
