Restaurant Review: Ravensbourne Arms

I've reviewed a fair few Antic pubs for my South London Press column before, and they're reliably good if not hugely exciting. The Ravensbourne Arms has something a bit special, though. Worth heading to Lewisham, even...

New pub openings get a hard time sometimes, especially if the word ‘gastropub’ comes into play. But the response to the transformation of old boozer The Coach & Horses into this smarter, food-led pub has been overwhelmingly positive. Residents and local bloggers alike can be heard singing its praises, grateful of a much needed safe, decent pub in a largely bereft area of Lewisham.

Ravensbourne Arms is the latest opening from the Antic group, a growing collection of pubs around south east London which are individual in style but reliable in standard. Previous successes in the area include Brockley’s Jam Circus and The Royal Albert in New Cross, and anyone familiar with these venues will quickly spot the resemblance.

Shabby, reclaimed furniture, wooden floor and an abundance of nic-nacs has become a calling card for the pub group, and pretty much sums up the styling here, too. There’s a large bar area for drinkers and a rotating selection of ales, whilst the menu hovers somewhere between homely comfort food and ever-so-slightly poshed up pub grub. 

Pull Your Own Pints At The Thirsty Bear

The Thirsty Bear is a London first - a pub where you can pull your own pint from the comfort of your table. And it's local to me. If only they had a few more beers on offer... Here's my post originally written for www.londonist.com. 


You build your own furniture because it makes it cheaper. Before you head to the airport, you check in online because it’s faster. When you go to the supermarket you scan your own shopping because you like arguing with electronic women who think you’ve bagged double the weight you ought to. We are in a D-I-Y era.

With the opening yesterday evening of The Thirsty Bear at Waterloo, self-service has come to the service industry, with London’s first pull-your-own-pint pub.

The venue, which replaces the old man friendly Stamford Arms, is the first venture by the appropriately named Robot Pub Group, and though we’ve been made aware of this place in Manchester which uses a similar concept, it’s a brand new one to us.

Restaurant Review: The Three Stags

The Three Stags is one of one of my favourite local pubs in good ol' Kennington. I have a few. This is my review for South London Press.

Kennington isn’t an area short of pubs, and certainly not pubs of the modern, gastro variety. The Tommyfield and The Old Red Lion are a couple of them which have been reviewed and very positively rated in this paper over the last year. The sense of community at The Three Stags blows the competition out of the water, though. It’s tangible from the moment of stepping inside; this is no dining room with a bit of space for people to drink, rather this is a proper pub that just happens to serve food.

Restaurant Review: The Antelope

Here's a restaurant review originally written for my South London Press column, and an impressive gastropub dining destination in Tooting that's well worth remembering if in the area.

Heading to SW17 to review a “foodie pub” I wasn’t sure what to expect. So little is heard of the dining scene in Tooting that it doesn’t foster high expectations. There’s a couple of good boozers, The Antelope being one of them, but even in the age of the gastro, pub food can be hit and miss to say the least.

Set on Mitcham Road not far from Tooting Broadway tube station, you can spot Antelope a mile off. It looks all a pub should be – warm, welcoming and - even-midweek – it’s bustling. This atmosphere continues inside, but it’s once I’ve walked past the heaving bar, through an archway and into the “dining room” that things get exciting. This isn’t tables in a pub, this is a separate enclave and entering feels like being let in on a well kept secret. That said, it’s fairly full so it’s obviously not that well kept.

Restaurant Review: Zeitgeist

Here's a restaurant review originally written for my South London Press column. Zeitgeist is pretty much my local pub and I'm definitely a regular, though for me it's usually more about the beers than the food.

You can count London’s German restaurants on one hand. There’s The Hop Exchange German bar on Southwark Street, Stein’s in Richmond (which claims to be the very first), The Fest in Fulham (which keeps Octoberfest running all year round) and the only one of the lot that’s particularly well-known, The Bavarian Beerhouse on City Road. As the names of all of these places suggest, food isn’t really the main focus – it’s all about the beers. The almost unheard of Zeitgeist is one to add to the list, and it may be the place to break the mould.

Hidden inside The Jolly Gardener’s pub on Black Prince Road, Zeitgeist is mere minutes from the Albert Embankment and Vauxhall station, but could take a long time to find. You most likely would come across it having given up and gone in for a drink instead.