Randomness Guide to London Menu

Good Beer Guide pub in Deptford.

It's made up of three rooms; the one on the left has the entrance, the bar, a TV, and a small amount of seating. Up a few steps to the right is a more spacious room which also has a bar billiards table, a skylight, and displays of (purchasable) local art on the walls. There's a beer garden out the back, reached via yet another room.

The bar has six handpumps, and usually around five real ales on, all well-kept and tasty. They usually have London Pride and ESB plus three less-common ones. In March 2007, the guests were two from the Surrey Hills Brewery (one of which was Shere Drop, £2.45/pint) and one from the Wye Valley Brewery. In September 2008, the guests were Sharps Doom Bar, Dark Star Best, and Cottage Brewery E-Type; the last of these ran out during our visit and was replaced with Everards Tiger.

They also have a chiller behind the bar with up to twenty types of bottled Belgian (and some other) beer. Ewan has tried a few of these, including Chimay, Captain Cooker, Kapitell, though it can be a little difficult to tell what these all are, as there does not appear to be a list written down anywhere. Budvar and Budvar Dark are both available on draught taps.

No piped music, at least on our September and October 2008 visits; a commenter known only as "Bill" tells us that there's never any piped music but sometimes they have the radio on quietly.

As of September 2008, food is served noon-3pm and 6pm-9pm Monday to Saturday, and 12:30pm-3:30pm Sunday. The options are fairly standard for pub food, though there are also specials which may be more interesting.

On a visit in January 2008, Martin's pork chop and mash with peas (£7) was simple and tasty, and Bob's and Adam's fish and chips (£8) looked excellent - a big thick chunk of cod in crispy batter. Most food options were around £6, and there were three vegetarian options listed (a curry, a nut roast, and something else).

However on a subsequent visit in April 2008, the food menu had become a lot shorter and more basic. The scampi and chips was fine as was the ham, egg, and chips; both were under a fiver. Another visit in October 2008 confirmed that the food menu was still fairly short; Kake's scampi and chips (£5) was fine and arrived very swiftly, along with an impressive array of condiments (tartare sauce, bottled salad dressing, ketchup, mustard, salt, pepper in a proper grinder, and vinegar). Bec also seemed pleased with her cheesy chips.

Note that as of October 2008 the menu on their website is out of date, resembling the January 2008 selection much more closely than the actual October 2008 one.

On AndrewB's June 2007 visit, there was free wireless, but Kake was unable to connect to any networks in September 2008.

Accessibility: Shallow step up to get in, more steps to get to the toilets and the bar billiards.

See also:

• Beer In The Evening comments
• Fancyapint review
• Time Out review
• Brockley Central comments
• Deptford Dame review
• icedinkeats review
• Qype comments
• Deptford Misc article on the pub's history

GPS data collected by bob on a Garmin eTrex, 1 April 2007, and released into the public domain: OSGB 537173, 177901