Picture of Honey Hive, SE26 5EX

Honey Hive, SE26 5EX

  • 21 Sydenham Road

Honey Hive was a vegan Caribbean cafe in Sydenham, located inside the Calabash of Culture art/book/gift shop. It closed down in early 2018 due to ill-health of one of the owners.

The information below is retained for historical purposes.

Vegan Caribbean cafe in Sydenham, located inside the Calabash of Culture art/book/gift shop. It opened in September 2013.

It's fairly small, with seating for about two dozen people inside, plus a couple of tables on the pavement. As well as hot savoury food, they do fresh juices, cupcakes, and cakes including gluten-free and sugar-free options.

Kake first visited with a friend on a Thursday afternoon in August 2015. All the tables were occupied when we arrived, but the very friendly and helpful staff brought one in from the pavement for us. Music was playing, not too loud.

We wanted to try some of their sugar-free cakes, but unfortunately they didn't have any that day, so we went for regular cakes instead: strawberry dream cake photo and carrot cake photo. Both were very good, not dry at all, and we wouldn't have guessed they were vegan if we didn't know. Two generous slices of cake, a cup of moringa tea, and a cup of coffee came to £11.60.

Kake and Bec visited again on a Tuesday evening in October 2017. There were four or five other customers in when we arrived around 5:30pm, and others turned up while we were there, though there was always at least one free table.

We both went for their "small" meal, which gets you one grain, one main, and two salads for £7.50 photo of menu. Bec chose brown basmati rice, lentil dhal, "ABC" salad (apple, beetroot, and carrot), and green salad photo, while Kake chose bulgur wheat, chickpeas and callaloo, green salad, and raw cauliflower "rice" salad photo. The bulgur wheat was very good; not stodgy at all. The cauliflower "rice" salad wasn't stodgy either, and had a nicely refreshing flavour. The chickpeas and callaloo were also good, well balanced and well proportioned.

Service was very friendly and welcoming. They greeted us when we came in, asked if we were eating, and suggested we sat in the window seat; we should probably have said no to this (and would have appreciated a warning), since the table there is too low to eat from very comfortably. No service charge was added to the bill.

Kake's verdict: I'd come back if I was in the area.

Accessibility: A step to get in. Toilets are in the basement, down a steep staircase with a handrail on one side.

See also:

Last visited by Kake and Bec, October 2017.
Last edited 2018-05-31 13:54:40 (version 5; diff). List all versions.