As an integral part of the HQ of Allied and Morrison – a top architectural practice – this smart Southwark café is an unusual venture. It’s not without precedent, though: The River Café originally started as the canteen for a firm of architects (Richard Rogers), a tie-up that doesn’t seem to have done either business much harm over the years.
Back in 1986, the River Café was nothing short of revolutionary. The same cannot be said here. In fact, both the name and the concept have more than a whiff of the ’70s about them. On any prosperous suburban high street thirty years ago, you might have found a place with a name like ‘The Table’, and where – as here – the hot dishes of the day would have included a cod dish, a chicken dish and a quiche. As here, there would also have been a help-yourself salad bar.
What has made the place an instant hit with trendier locals born post Star Wars, though, isn’t retro appeal but the fact that all the scoff is really very good. The salads – you mix ‘n’ match, and pay by weight – are particularly interesting (not something you’d have found 30 years ago). Puds are also first class: our bread and butter pudding was something of a highlight. (Chunky sandwiches are available to take away.)
Popularity is a mixed blessing, however, especially as the café’s layout gives visitors few hints as to the intended traffic flow. When the joint is warming up, this lack of organisation undermines any feeling of Zen-like calm which function more closely following form might have inspired. Once the place really gets going, you need to go back beyond the 1970s to evoke the ambience’ to the time when Southwark was famous for its bear pits.
