If so, was it the Anchor & Hope, the Princess or the Fox & Anchor in Smithfields? Or, are you an ingénue and first got knocked up in Great Queen Street?
Well now there is the next measure of London food years and it is the Canton Arms in Stockwell or Vauxhall. I am afraid I am not quite sure exactly where it is as normally estate agents will migrate their target into the gentrified area. So you are not in Brixton but Clapham. I don't know how that applies to Vauxhall or Stockwell as the Canton Arms is halfway between them and neither are gentrified and one offers custard tarts and the other offers gay clubs and Bonnington Square (to be the feature of an upcoming post).
Well to the Canton Arms itself. It is the latest rollout from a mangle of London's best gastropubs. Various parts of it are associated with the Anchor and Hope, Great Queen Street and The Eagle so you know what you are getting; crude warming pub food. And portions. Portions so big you order for 2 and can eat for 5. And this isn't to say the food isn't great. Great Queen Street was my favourite place in the world when it first opened. I worked nearby and probably visited about 30 times in one year including interrupting a friend's romantic meal when he told me he was there with his girlfriend and I didn't let him finish the sentence (he was going to say please don't come) and I just turned up.
So why would you travel to Stock-auxhall rather than going to one of the originals? Well let's discount the Anchor & Hope as you have to beg and wait and wait for a table as they don't do reservations. Then when you get finally get to sit down half the specials are gone and you are stuffed into a dining room that is either atmospheric or trying to recreate a crowd surfing experience. Great Queen Street remains fantastic but the room itself looks like still a grotty refurb of a once bad Sloane bar (which it was). Finally the Eagle. Well the Eagle is wonderful but I can't judge it impartially as it has been the venue of many a great drink and food session over the years. But, it is crowded and not a place to hear your company.
The Canton Arms is a bit different because it is in Stock-auxhall and isn't as popular. It also doesn't crowd you in. There is actual space to wander around between the tables. My elbow wasn't it my neighbour's face but lounging around in free air. It also retains the old boozer frontage which is a good place to wait and get hungry.
For the mains we ordered brilliantly and got a cottage pie. It was inspiring stuff. Far far too much for two people but coupled with a side of greens it was plain addictive and we ate far beyond our hunger levels.
So all I can say is go. It would be my current pick of gastropubs in London.
Price - £40 a head for a full and drunken experience
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These days it's technically, administratively Stockwell but many of us who live locally refer to the area as South Lambeth (as opposed to North Lambeth), "Lambeth" here referring not to the borough, but to the village(s) that once stood here. The library is indeed called the South Lambeth library, so it's not *just* us being pretentious and in denial about our down-market location.
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Lambeth
Glad you enjoyed, although I still think the menu is just a smidgen less ambitious than the other places. It's a minor miracle for Stockwell though.
ReplyDeleteTheir foie gras toastie is also fantastic as a Saturday lunch time snack.
ReplyDeleteI love the way that you differentiate between Vauxhall and Stockwell.
Andrew - as long as you don't want to call it St Ockwell I really don't mind either way : )
ReplyDeleteChris - even in those other gastropubs I would say the dishes which truly succeeded were the basic ones. The ones where they got a bit of meat, cooked it slowly and honestly for far too long and dumped it on your plate. The "interesting" dishes were in some ways less than.
However, for me it is the fact that there is space to breathe that wins it for me. Canton Arms has space to move. Anchor and Hope means eating pressed up against a wall with 30 people waiting for your sport
Gareth - I live in Vauxhall - Bonnington Square - for 6 months so I don't say it without reason : ) I am still trying to pick up the confidence to go to "Hoist"