Ok Autumn we see your game, you’re getting a bit colder on us eh! To combat this we’ve got blankets and we’ve just installed some outdoor heaters.
We’re also going to have mulled wine and a hot toddy to take the chill out of the nights whilst during the day we’ve increased our range of teas from We Are Tea and if you haven’t tried Allpress Coffee then you need to get down here sharpish, it’s cracking coffee.
As we are now taking bookings via Top Table we thought it would be a good time to reflect on our offering.
During the day, Monday to Friday, we’re a cafe which opens up from 8am and frankly we believe we’re the best in Battersea, and beyond. We serve amazing Square Mile coffee and Teapigs tea alongside breakfast, lunch and tea with loads of fresh salads, sandwiches and bites to eat in or takeaway. At the weekends, we serve brunch and we do all manner of tasty things, including homemade Boston Baked Beans with a mighty Full English, Eggs Benedict/Royale/Florentine, Corned Beef Hash and a cracking Bacon and Sausage Bap.
In the evening things really crank up another level as our bar and restaurant swings into action. We serve a small but well appointed selection of wines, our Malbec, Pinot Noir and Pinot Grigio are hugely popular, we’ve got a really cool range of beers which include Meantime’s London Lager on tap and others winners such as locally brewed Junction Ale and beers with attitude (as Jamie Oliver would say) such as 5am Saint and Punk IPA from Brewdog. We’ve also got fizz and cocktails to get your evening off to a great start.
As well as bar snacks that include Mrs King’s Pork Pies, we serve Small Plates (basically modern tapas), our Raclette from Hamish Johnston is a plate of indulgence and then we have a seasonal menu. At the moment you can tuck into Mussels with Bacon and Luscombe Cider, Pork Belly with Autumn Squash, Beef and Junction Ale Stew with Horseradish Dumplings, Sea Bass, Chilli Crab Linguine and Beetroot and Squash Risotto. We also have our Canteen Classics, the BC Burger with smoked Montgomery Cheddar, Wild Boar and Apple Bangers and Mash, a Super Food Salad and an ever popular Sirloin Steak.
At the Canteen we chiefly try to do two things, one is to make sure the prices are reasonable, the other is to make sure the food is tasty – we try and achieve this by using Hero Suppliers. It’s an evolving list but at the moment we’re getting treats from The Dessert Deli, awesome pies from @MyPie1, bread from The Flour Station, meat from Dove on Northcote Road, cheese from Hamish Johnston, who are also on Northcote Road, the best ice cream we’ve ever tasted from Gelupo and lots of other amazing suppliers and producers.
We also want to be a little bit different and add a bit to the local community, so we offer things like a Free Book Exchange, we have free Wifi and free nappies and wet wipes and we give out dog bowls of water. We also do lots of offers, for example you can get a cheap babysitter via our friends Like Minders or you can get a 10% discount if you cycle to the Canteen. Also, before you go big on Saturday, go small with us: £5 for a pint/glass of vino and a slider/flatbread with dips.
We’re still new and we’re still learning and improving, don’t be afraid to give us feedback, @benscanteen
We hope to see you soon and don’t forget, we now take bookings.
We’ve just launched our Autumn dinner menu and we’re so keen for you to try it that we will take 25% off your food bill the first time you do – note you need to claim this before the 1st November.
How to claim
What a gorgeous Autumn day it’s been and the Canteen has been teeming with people taking on our new brunch menu, lots of people were trying our new Corned Beef Hash with homemade Boston Baked Beans (top Canteen tip: add a poached egg).
Now we’re starting to think about dinner and following such a lovely day we’ve got our eye on our new dinner menu and in particular the mussels with bacon from Dove the butcher on Northcote Road and Luscombe cider which is delicious, especially if you add a side of hand cut chips.
If the temperature drops then we might change our mind and go for our new Beef (diced chuck from Dove) and Old Engine Oil stew which comes with Horseradish Dumplings, this was a massive hit last night with people having a bottle of Talia Malbec to go with it.
If you’re looking to simply graze tonight with some drinkies (our bar is open until midnight) then get stuck into our small plates, the Raclette from Hamish Johnston with ham, potatoes and cornichons is a winner and our sliders (mini burgers) always receive good reviews. Oh, and the Flatbread (from The Flour Station) with Stacey’s homemade dips is great for a quick snack before you embark on a big night out.
If you want to book a table for this evening, then click here to get in touch.
Oh and one final thing, don’t forget that we now open for brunch from 9am, see you then for Bloody Marys, great coffee and some lovely grub.
The kitchen have been busy all day preparing for our dinner menu… and the excitement levels are just starting to creep up a notch or two as we near the kitchen opening at 6pm.
We’ve split the menu into Canteen Classics and Seasonal Dishes. On the seasonal front we have,
Here at the Canteen we’ve haven’t just been thinking about how to improve our brunch menu, we’ve also been talking about our dinner menu for a while now and we’ve come up with a new look menu for the Autumn which we’re super excited about… it launches on Thursday night.
We’ve got a bunch of seasonal dishes that we think will lift dinner at the Canteen up a level,
These will then sit alongside our Canteen Classics,
Having just returned from a sneaky long weekend to Mallorca we’re not overly happy with the fact that Autumn is kicking in. To brighten our mood we’ve asked Robbie (our manager) to dust off his old cocktail skills and get making you killer mojitos and anything else you fancy (espresso martinis?!)
We also feel like it’s a night for small plates, although that might be because we’ve been stuffing our face sampling potential new bar snacks! On the small plate front we like the look of the sliders (you have to try the portobello mushroom and halloumi ones, even you meat eaters will love this) and the grilled figs whilst the flat bread and home made dips are a no brainer.
If you do fancy big plates then the cod and chorizo chickpeas is a winner as are the wild boar and apple sausages. See you later.