London South Lambeth Restaurant Guide

“A Georgian mansion on a huge roundabout in Vauxhall, surrounded by high-rise apartment blocks” makes a “fabulous”, “brilliantly quirky and enjoyable place for a meal that feels more like being at a brilliant dinner party than a restaurant”. A showcase for LASSCO (‘England’s prime resource for Architectural Antiques, Salvage & Curiosities’), “the room is uniquely bonkers” – crammed full of antiques and architectural salvage, all for sale and lending the space “a slightly faded elegance”. Service is “charming”, and the food a “good example of seasonal-British (although many of the dishes have been around for a few seasons now)” from chef Jackson Boxer and his team. There’s a “disparate and varied crowd at lunch time – thus it’s rather good for discrete business – and an edgier, clubbier (younger) crowd of an evening”. Top Menu Tip – “the Dexter beef with bone marrow and crispy shallots is the best steak tartare in the world!”

“Peerless pub food” has won renown for this acclaimed gastropub near Vauxhall, which can hold its head up high in comparison to its more famous sibling, the Anchor & Hope in Waterloo – but where it is marginally easier to get a table. “Relatively simple but very imaginative” British dishes are “expertly cooked, on a tasty and regularly changing menu”, and it’s “still a proper pub too”. (“If this place was on my doorstep, I’d be there all the time… it is and I am!”)

“Stunningly good Sichuan food” is tipped by the small fan club of this simple two-floor two-year-old near Vauxhall Park. “I prefer it to nearby Canton Arms and Brunswick House… and they set a high bar!”

2022 Review: This once-thriving burger brand from Nick Jones’s Soho House group has been reduced to a single branch, under the arches in Vauxhall, and a supporting role at stablemate Chicken Shop in St John’s Wood. Fans reckon it’s “good for when you’re in a hurry” – perhaps they should hurry, while it’s still there.

2023 Review: ‘Where there’s tea there’s hope’ is the philosophical underpinning of this “quirky café”, which occupies a converted pub by Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, and “does amazing breakfasts” and “unusual teas”, plus yummy buns. “They are a tea house though, so there is no coffee available!!”