Eat & Drink
Originally published on Tuesday, 8th June 2010
South East Scene
It had to happen. East London’s 15 minutes of foodie fame has been stretched to the limit, and with South East folk – amongst the most area-devoted of all Londoners –beetling away so creatively over the last few years, the Twenty-Tens might be their decade.
Two manors with a special place in my heart (as I grew up in both) are Kennington and Deptford. Never ones to miss a wave, Tom Peake and Co. (of Renaissance Pubs ) have just opened Tommyfield on Kennington Lane promising a butch, market-led menu of fish and chips, steaks and pies. But they’ll have to work hard to compete with recently-refurbished local favourite The Black Prince.
My money, however, is on Kennington Tandoori, where a clientele of politicos and local colour make for an entertaining mix of ‘Yes Minister’ meets ‘Sexy Beast’ – last time I was there I met a man called Essex – powwowing over some of the freshest, zingiest Indian food I’ve had in a long time.
A whistle and wink away from Hannah Barry’s Peckham gallery, meanwhile, The Deptford Project Cafe is serving fry-ups, sarnies, sustainable coffee and homemade cakes from its 1960s railway carriage. And hot-to-trot oriental sandwich bar Panda, Panda, which specialises in Vietnamese bánh mì baguettes, also does a great line in noodles, bubble teas and tofu puddings – better than they sound.
So as the saying goes: you can take the girl out of South London ... but she might just be heading back there soon.
Info
Tommyfield
185 Kennington Lane, SE11 4E2
www.thetommyfield.com
The Black Prince
6 Black Prince Road, SE11 6HS
Kennington Tandoori
313 Kennington Road, SE11 4QE
www.kenningtontandoori.com
The Deptford Project Café
121-123 Deptford High Street, SE8 4NS
www.thedeptfordproject.com
Panda, Panda
8 Deptford Broadway, SE8 4PA