Ben's Canteen - St John's Hill, London

A short stroll up from Clapham Junction station lives Ben's Canteen. To look at it from the outside you'd be forgiven for not thinking much of it or for thinking that the huge BC sign on the outside is a little garish, but after stepping in you'd change your mind.

I first heard about it when I was looking up dog friendly places to have brunch in my area. Ben's Canteen was one of the few places that allowed dogs. I know, this doesn't strike you as the most hygienic of ideas, but if you're a dog lover and you'd like to have a delicious brunch with your husband and dog at your feet (not both of them obviously) then this is the place to go.

The Canteen in of itself is rustic yet trendy. Old wooden desk type tables seat diners at the back while the front has a quiet bar type feel to it, by day a nice place to grab some juice and by night a nice place to grab a beer.

I can best describe the dinner menu as eclectic. It's got quite a few diner type dishes: Mac & Cheese (£4), Fish Tacos (£5) etc... But then they throw in a few curve balls like Pig's Cheeks in a Green Sauce (Salsa Verde I came to understand, and I think by calling it 'green sauce' they were purposefully trying to dumb down the fanciness £6). There was also quite a lot of Mediterranean slash Moroccan flavours running through the menu.

What I think they are trying to do (and rather successfully) is portray themselves as a more upmarket diner. This can be construed as contrived, but it's up to you to decide that. Personally I thought it was a little try-hard, but equally successful in its aim.

Between the 6 of us we pretty much tried all of the dishes from the 'small plates' section of the menu. This included the rather delicious 'Epic Scotch Egg' (£6), the Braised Lamb Flatbread (£4.50) and the Grilled Squid and Chorizo Salad (£6). The flatbread was so so, the egg was indeed very good and the squid was nothing special. My favourite thing however were the Deep Fried Pickles (£4). They were absolutely fantastic. The concept of frying a pickle is truly American and hard to get your head around at first, but once you try it you'll be going back again and again. I also have it on good authority that the BBQ Chicken Wings (£6) were wonderful.

Burgers take up a large part of the 'large plates' section of the menu. A few of our party had the BC burger (Beef Patty topped with Salt Beef and Smoked Cheddar £9) which is described as 'one of London's best'. That's worthy of note, they do tend to big themselves up on the menu: 'epic egg, best burger' etc... Fries you have to order separately so expect a cool £12 for a burger and chips (my husband had the Sweet Potato Fries £3.50, which weren't all that crispy but still good).

All in all it's a great place for food. The feel and ambience is lovely also. I look forward to going back because their brunch menu looks ridiculously good. Dinner for 6 totalled £150 including drinks so it wasn't diner cheap, but you get what you pay for and on this occasion I think their prices matched their food.

Ben's Canteen
9/10
140 St John's Hill
London SW11 1SL
Tel: 0207 228 3260
www.benscanteen.com

NB: We went for brunch this morning. The Eggs Benedict were delicious if not slightly cold. The Breakfast Burrito was to die for. Cheesy scrabbled eggs, warm chorizo, pure luxury. £27 for brunch was a little steep though, but worth it.

Wing Yip Supermarket - Croydon, London

Wing Yip is a mammoth sized Chinese supermarket that sits just off Purley Way. It's a place you can go to and spend the entire day walking down aisle upon aisle of every kind of oriental sauce, dip, dumpling you can imagine.

The frozen section is vast too. Case in point, they have an entire aisle dedicated to prawns.

At the back you'll find industrial sized things (for restaurants I imagine). I'd never seen a 1 ton bag of rice before or indeed a little Chinese man trying to manoeuvre it.

And alongside the frozen food and sauces they also have a section dedicated to Chinese cookware and a section for fresh fish and oriental vegetables. You can get hard to find veg like Morning Glory (a long stemmed leaf that are used in stir fries).

The only downside to Wing Yip is that it's quite expensive. I spent over a hundred for not much at all.

If you're heading that way then I recommend you park up in their free car park and make a day of it because aside from the supermarket there are a few restaurants and a Chinese bakery.

Wing Yip Supermarket
9/10
544 Purley Way
Croydon CR0 4NZ
0208 688 4880
www.wingyip.com

Franco Manca - Brixton, London

I first came across this place, nestled in between the various food shops in Brixton market, a few years back. It had a lot of hype in the area at the time. I went, I ate and I then knew why.

2 main things make Franco Manca stand out from all the other pizza places in the area: 1. Their complete respect for produce and 2. The fact they only use slow rising Sourdough bread as their base and the pizzas are 'baked in a wood burning oven made on site by specialised artisans from Naples.'

At first when I saw Franco's location I was a little stumped. Brixton market is a highly West Indian market selling everything from pigs feet to cassava to Scotch bonnets, so how could a trendy pizza place work amidst all this? For whatever reason it did, and did so well in fact that they have expanded to Chiswick, Northcote, Westfields and Balham.

The pizzas are a good size and they lie just between thin and deep crust. The sourdough was good but I don't think it was any sort of new revolution in pizza making. I just told myself it was healthier so I could eat more. The toppings were also of very high quality (mind you they could have stuck a few more on, I counted 4 pieces of Chorizo on my £6.95 pizza).

Some people think that with only 6 pizza choices on the menu it's a little limited. I'm in two minds. On the one hand it's nice to have a simplistic and clean cut menu, but on the other I like my old favourite of Pepperoni and Jalapeños (which I can get there but need to pay extra). Maybe it's a good way to make you try new things. Like I said, two minds.

All in all Franco's offers high quality pizza at very reasonable prices and that's all you really need when you feel like a slice.

Franco Manca

8/10

Unit 4

Market Row

SW9 8LD

tel: 0207 738 3021

www.francomanca.co.uk

Menu: http://www.francomanca.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/FRANCO-MANCA-WINTER-20131.pdf

Ranoush - Kings Road & around London

Ranoush is dotted here and there around London. It's an offspring of the larger Maroush empire (Maroush own not only this one but also, Beirut Express, Randa, Sidi Maarouf to name a few). There is very little difference between them. Ranoush serves juice, Maroush is slightly more expensive and bigger but in essence they all serve good quality Lebanese food, all to the same standard and all in very similarly decorated surroundings.

The first time I heard of Maroush was when I was in school and in the same class as Mr Maroush's daughter Randa. On lucky days we'd pop over the street for a Shawarma wrap. From the first bite I took around the age of 14 I was hooked.

Up until last night Maroush, Ranoush or whichever oush I went to was always a place to grab a Shawarma wrap on the go (they open late too). They're not huge and cost around £7 but they are damn tasty. Hot freshly sliced and well seasoned chicken wrapped in fluffy bread and filled with garlic sauce, chilli sauce, pickles and salad. How could you go wrong?

A few nights ago I went to Ranoush on the Kings Road. Rather than have the same we sat and had a proper dinner. The inside was very small and tightly packed, but pleasant enough. We decided to share 4 hot Mezza (tapas style plates of food). We had the Falafal (£5.50), Hommos Shawarma (£7.50), Grilled Halloumi (£6.50) and Soujok (spicy sausages tossed in lemon £7).The Falafal were huge and crispy on the outside yet fluffy on the inside, and the Tahini sauce it came with complimented it immensely. Wow is all I can say about the Hommos Lamb Shawarma. It comprised of a small bowl of Hommos topped with crispy yet succulent pieces of lamb. This along with the hot balloon like pieces of bread meant we could make little wraps. The Halloumi was odd in texture. They were cut in huge chunks and were spongy. Normally when you buy Halloumi and grill it at home it crisps up on the outside, stays soft for about a minute and then hardens. This one however did not, leading me to believe the cheese was made in-house. The texture didn't bother me but my husband wasn't convinced. Finally to the Soujok. They looked a little like Merguez sausages. I really did not care for them. I know they were home-made but the meat tasted odd to me and the lemon sauce it came with just didn't work. Oh well, 3 out of 4 ain't bad.

At the end of the meal they gave us a very generous plate of fresh fruit and a few little pastries like Baklava.

The total bill came to £33.50 including two Cokes. We were truly stuffed and very happy. Ok it's not the most comfortable environment to eat in, and if you go at the weekend I can imagine it would be so packed you'd have to stand and eat, but the quality is so high I would consider eating on my feet.

Ranoush
10/10
338 Kings Road
London
SW3 5UR
Tel: 0207 352 0044
www.maroush.com