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.
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