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 Frenchie Bistro

Newish French restaurant The Frenchie Bistro is now vying with Marcel & Sons for the title of our favourite Artworks restaurant.

The Frenchie Bistro exterior - kenningtonrunoff.com

It has by far the nicest interior of any Artworks restaurant, making it somewhere you can go for a night out with friends or a date as opposed to just a snack or a working lunch:

The Frenchie Bistro interior - kenningtonrunoff.com

Founders Romain and Nadia “pride themselves on their fresh ingredients and home-made products. All their food is prepped on site and served ‘a la minute’ with no waste.” The menu is short, although it has already expanded since our visit. At the time of writing, the plats are duck confit burger (£8), raclette monsieur toastie (£6), and deep fried duck legs (£5), while the grill options are 30 day aged côte de boeuf with bearnaise sauce (£20), and we had the duck breast (£10) which wasn’t the tenderest we’ve ever tasted, but it was close:

The Frenchie Bistro duck breast - kenningtonrunoff.om

This is the toastie (vegetarians may not be regular visitors to The Frenchie Bistro, nor indeed to France). If it looks a little burnt then it was, but it tasted great all the same:

The Frenchie Bistro raclette monsieur toastie - kenningtonrunoff.om

This was the salad, for only £3:

The Frenchie Bistro salad - kenningtonrunoff.om

The duck fat chips (£3) were awesome:

The Frenchie Bistro chips in duck fat - kenningtonrunoff.om

They also have a selection of cheeses and seem to have acquired an alcohol license since our visit, offering La Chouffe beer from Belgium for £5 or bottles of wine for £16.

The Frenchie Bistro chef & kitchen - kenningtonrunoff.om

They’re open Wednesday to Sunday 10am to 10pm [update: as of Nov 2015 their new opening hours are Tue-Thu 6pm-10pm / Fri  6pm-11pm / Sat 10am-11pm.] at Unit 8, The Artworks, Elephant Road, London SE17 1AY. They don’t take bookings and there aren’t many tables, but if they’re full there are plenty of other Artworks options.

The Artworks food courtyard

The Artworks box park has switched its focus to food outlets – a great move in an area that was previously lacking in lunch options, despite having plenty of office workers. Elephant Shack is no more, but our favourites Marcel & Sons have moved next door into Elephant Shack’s old premises, and are joined by a number of newish arrivals.

This week is due to be another mild one so a good time to visit while it’s still warm enough to eat outside at lunchtime.

The Artworks food court - kenningtonrunoff.com

We had the £5 half pizza lunch deal at Elephantastic Pizza which was as good as it looks:

Elephantastic Pizza lunch deal - kenningtonrunoff.com

Elephantastic Pizza - kenningtonrunoff.com

Unit 4 Kitchen is from the people behind the Balham Kitchen and they specialise in serving classic British dishes in chapattis. Unlike some of their neighbours, they’re open on Saturdays and Sundays until after lunch:

Unit 4 Kitchen - kenningtonrunoff.com

We’re trying to be vegetarian, else we would have had a biodynamic, organic burger in a toasted brioche bun from Black Acorn, who stay open for dinner on Friday nights:

Black Acorn - kenningtonrunoff.com

We’ve heard great things about Tasty Jerk, the Caribbean take away. Likewise Love Fresh Vietnamese. And we’ve had an evening meal at The Frenchie Bistro which was great – more on that soon.

As well as the food options, there’s The Six Yard Box – a sports bar for people who wouldn’t be seen dead in sports bars. They sell local craft beers including our beloved Kernel. As you can see, it gets very busy when there’s a game on:

crowd at the Six Yard Box - kenningtonrunoff.com

Long Wave Bar & Cafe is the place to hang out and work on your laptop, plus they’re licensed to sell alcohol, unlike many of the food outlets:

Long Wave Bar & Cafe - kenningtonrunoff.com Long Wave bar - kenningtonrunoff.com

One of the juicers at Spark juice bar has won an award for his juicing but he needs to spend more time and training the others – we’ve been twice when they haven’t been able to make a juice to order because they don’t know how:

Spark juice bar - kenningtonrunoff.com