EAT & DRINK GUIDE
Originally published on Thursday, 25 June 2009
Serpentine Bar & Kitchen

ADDRESS
Serpentine Bar and Kitchen
Serpentine Road
Hyde Park W2 2UH
website
map
TIMES
Open Monday - Sunday 08:00-20:00
It’s not that I’ve got anything against picnics but creating the perfect, Blytonesque spread and finding the right idyllically leafy spot (not to mention crease-proof, summery - yet not too revealing - outfit) can sometimes feel a bit too much like hard work.
Which is why I’m all for the new breed of stylish cafes that are popping up in London’s parks: Mr Peyton led the way with Inn The Park in St James’s and now the Benugo boys, Ben and Hugo Warner, have given the cafe next to the Lido in Hyde Park their own stamp of old-fashioned English charm.
There are country lawn staples like ham hock and tarragon terrine with piccalilli as well as the slightly more adventurous whole roast mackerel with green beans, and organic ‘Benugo Gelati’ for pudding, all at pleasingly reasonable prices.
You can either eat inside the cafe - with it’s central Fifties-style snug of armchairs and standard lamps - or take a table, deck chair or beanbag on the spacious deck outside and watch everyone messing about on the water.
Or, if you’re dead set on finding that perfect patch of grass, you can always pick up a variety of picnicy bits to go or one of their speciality hampers – not forgetting lashings of ginger beer.




