Christopher

Many of the places that serve food on Lordship Lane (I hesitate to use the word restaurant about places like Liquorish & The Magdala) have stated on menus that they buy their meat from william Rose - and WR definitely do supply to trade - so they should be free range, no?

Went yesterday with my lovely wife for lunch and had the following... 2 x starters (mine was mussels with chorizo and they were superb) 2 x main courses (both had wonderful fresh Torbay sole with home made tartar) 2 x sides (salad & new potatoes) 2 x desserts 1 x large mineral water 1`x double macchiato 2 x glasses wine (less than we would normally have - but I'm abstaining for January) TOTAL = ?75 (not inc service) Bargain. Well cooked, fresh, well sourced interesting ingredients, good service, clean, bright well tendered environment. They are an example to the rest of East Dulwich, honestly. You cannot have a similar meal for two in Yauatcha for ?75 I'm afraid - unless you come out of there hungry. Sorry. Franklins is an excellent local restaurant that is in the same price bracket as the other decent restaurants in the area (I'm thinking of The Rosendale, Number 22, The Palmerston and Upstairs in Brixton). Franklins (and, imo, the others I mentioned) are much better restaurants than any of the Village restaurants or any other on the strip - but you get what you pay for, don't you? I'd hate to see any of those places drop their prices by 15% just to snap into line with any other local restaurants (real or imagined, Nero) with no regard for quality. Anyway - they are probably the most consistently busy restaurants in the area, so I don't think they really need to do they?

I think approx ?30 - ?40 a head for decent 2 course meal with wine & coffee in an environment as nice as Franklins is a bargain. Its fantastic. best eaterie on the strip.

char1ie Wrote: > > You'd be the best person to tell us about that > Steve. If you need pointers I guess for > Weatherspoons it is about a strategy of low cost, > multi-locations and discount prices. For somewhere > like Lewis & Clarke the aim is trendy, central, > well-located with great lighting, friendly staff > and 'exotic' drinks and cocktails. High prices, > high costs, very high start-up cost. > > Business strategy guides your decisions. Are you a > local boozer (CPT), a high street trendsetter > (Black Cherry), gastro (Palmerston), student > hang-out (Inside 72), etc. Once you have decided > what your strategy will be then the decor, > service, prices, service, product choices and > music must all fit. If your choice of strategy is > right and you make the right decisions then you > will succeed - like all these boozers are doing. > > If your pub or bar is a local boozer trying to be > a gastro, or a trendsetter that doesn't quite > work, then you are screwed. Tell us about your > strategy. > > > Charlie Well said Charlie... Combined with the "loss leader" factor in Supermarkets - we get a very skewed opinion of what constitutes "value"... In a pub / bar / restaurant you are sitting enjoying your beer in a seat for, say 30 minutes. You're served by staff, the beer has been chilled at the bar's expense, you're using their glassware (that they will then clean), the heating is paid for by them... Lets say that the "normal" price for Becks in shops is around 80p - ?1.00, then I honestly don't think that ?3.00 is too expensive at all. If beer is only worth what you pay for it in the supermarket, fine, buy that, drink it at home and leave that seat in the bar for somebody else!

The food in all of their* pubs is crap. Let's face it. The Crown & Greyhound, The Phoenix, The Southwark Tavern, The White Hart - all the same. Nice beers though - which is what they are most concerned with I guess. *THEIR = "Castle" which is a group within Mitchell & Butler - the same people that have such fabulous pubs as O'Neil's and All Bar One...

That's a good price for decent wild oysters... is the stall licensed? Be nice if they had champagne / guiness / Txakoli..?

Says more about the reality of Lordship Lane than anything I've heard / read in the last 3 years.

Keef Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > MrBen, just to clarify, Punch Taverns own the CPT, > but they sell the lease to people who then > effectively do what they want with it. It's > current owner made the decision to paint it, and > paid for the patio out front and the > reupholstering for the seats and all that. > Unfortunately, she's just left the place to rot, > and wants rid, so someone else will buy it from > her (there have been a couple of people looking at > it) and then do as they see fit. Punch Taverns > really have nothing to do with the pub other than > to supply the beer. For the record, I know one > interested party was exploring the possibility of > extending out back to build a kitchen. The CPT - If that back room isn't the "restaurant" and the front bit "the bar", with a genneric "gastro-menu" by this time next year, I'll eat my hat... and my trousers...

We got one - just by North Dulwich station

The Rosendale - very good - really like it - and definitely pushing the gastro and wine boundaries - but not very "pubby" is it - with all that ultra clean officey furniture in the bar area and its incredibly weak selection of real ales... BUT What a con that whole Time Out thing is! The nominations were put together for this year's awards BEFORE the Rosendale was up and running properly in its current format! The whole thing stinks of nepitism / over-active PR agencies... Best gastro pub in London? The Rosendale? No way... Best Gastro pub in SE London? Well, its better than the Herne & The Palmerston... for sure...

The Chinese and English menus at Dragon Castle have been merged - all the interesting bits are on the English one too...

http://www.london-eating.co.uk/4305.htm

Ate at Chopsticks for the first time on Sunday and tend to agree with most of what has been said (friendly service, nice enough environment but food a complete let down - won't bother again)... My favourite two Chinese restaurants in the general are are Dragon Castle (great restaurant - food is brilliant with some unusual dishes - and they actually have a decent wine list - unusual for a Chinese) and Lamoon in Camberwell - on Denmark Hill. Lamoon delivers up to ED and is far better than any of the ED Chinese restaurants. Nice place to pop into too - not too far to walk from the Phoenix...

rob Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > The pain of a SE24 postcode when just over the > road it's SE21 must be hard to bear... Not particularly Rob, no. The gist of my posts on this thread is that I'm open minded about the area and not hung up on post codes.

Good news! I thought I'd found some kind of secret coven! I just found it quite funny that there are several posts at the beginning of this thread be-moaning the lack of a live music venue in the area, when there's one on the doorstep (if you live on the Dulwich side of ED).

Hit a nerve have I?

Busted! My post code is SE24 (Herne Hill) I live just by North Dulwich Station. Lordship Lane is closer to me (the Magdala, William Rose, Moxons, Fredericks end) than Herne Hill Station The road next to us is SE21 My local is The Dog. I'm probably closer to that particular section of LL than many of the contributors to this forum who actually live in Nunhead or Peckham but clasp on to LL by their finger nails in the hope that the magic ED effect will visit them soon. Truth is that I enjoy all of Dulwich. But you're right, this is the East Dulwich forum. I guess though that if we're arguing on the "postcode" note that there shouldn't be any discussions on the anything in SE15 either!

Herne Hill.. strange area really. The Half Moon Tavern's freeholder is actually the Dulwich Estate. It is closer to Dulwich Village (arguably the centre of "Dulwich") than say the EDT or the Palmerston... Herne Hill really isn't a "town" at all. Its a busy junction where Dulwich meets Brixton, Southwark meets Lambeth. The Half Moon side of the railway line is Southwark - and arguably "Dulwich", whereas Brockwells, The Escape etc are on the Lambeth side - and arguably "Brixton". Brockwell Park is really Brixton's Park... Herne Hill (the road that heads up towards Denmark Hill / Camberwell) and the few streets off it are the only bits that escape either of these definitions. Just because there's a train station called Herne Hill, doesn't mean its a separate town!

Well - 15 minutes maybe! But you won't know unless you try...

The Dog, The Phoenix, THe Commercial, The Southwark Tavern + lots others are a group called "Castle Inns" which is owned by Mitchels & Butler. M&B are one of the biggest pub cos in the UK (a FTSE 100 company). They run managed houses rather than tennancies. Expect to see a child friendly pub with interesting beers, average wines (for a pub) and bad food. Much like the Dog. For those of you crying out for a music venue in the area there is The Half Moon in Herne Hill - 10 minute walk from Lordship Lane. When will readers of this forum click that "Dulwich" does not start and end on Lordship Lane?!