Tag Archives: Drinks

Christmas Eve at Ben’s Canteen

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Ah Christmas Eve, we love it, there is a ‘end of term’ feeling, you’ve finished work and good times lie ahead (and the fact that your family are likely to drive you mad at some stage just adds to the end of school feeling).

Crimbo Eve is also an awesome time to catch up with mates and with that in mind we’re doing brunch, dinner and lots of drinks, including our Winter Pimms Punch.

Christmas Eve at Ben's Canteen

Brunch will be kicking off at 9am, so come in for a Big Ben (our mighty Full English), Eggs Benedict, our awesome BC Burger, that’s topped with homemade corned beef to make it extra British, and plenty more including Bloody Marys and, as it’s Christmas Eve, some fizz.

We’ll be serving our new winter menu with our recently launched beer matching options from 6pm until 8pm. The bar will be open all night and after 8pm we’ll have nibbles (such as pork pies) and a lovely winter Oxtail stew.

Plus @jimmyrhodes83 will be hosting, so you’re in for some serious Christmas cheer – he is definitely Captain Christmas in the Canteen.

Weekend To Do List

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Yay, it’s the weekend!

Here’s our Canteen to do list.

  1. Come to the turning on of the St John’s Hill Christmas Lights
  2. Go and visit Dovetail BBQ on Northcote Road.
  3. Follow our new Head Chef on Twitter and countdown to his new menu (launches next week and it’s going to be amazing)
  4. Read the Meat Winning review of our Burger from Burger Me.
  5. Read our 5 star review from View London.
  6. Before you go big this Saturday night, go small – £5 for a drink and a small plate.
  7. Try out our new brunch menu – we’d love to get your feedback on our homemade boston beans.
  8. Book a table via Top Table.
  9. Have a good time!

Bacon and Egg Pie for Brunch?

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We’ve just made brunch a little bit better by adding a bacon and egg pie from the awesome people @MyPie1.

Pies

For the Antipodeans amongst you this pie needs no explaining, for the Brits, it’s basically a quiche which you can have hot or cold. We’re serving half or whole portions with some chutney, we also recommend a sprinkle of rock salt.

Of course we haven’t dropped the All Day Breakfast Burrito from the menu and neither have we dropped the option of pimping your Full English with a mini steak (it’s how they roll in New York). For serious hangovers we’ve got berocca and bloody marys, we also, personally, think that some fizz in the form of our Prosecco is a good way to get back on form.

Also for brunch, you can now have a selection of delicious pastries, including Chelsea Buns, from The Flour Station, and post brunch we do Teapigs tea and Square Mile coffee and cake (check out the lovely carrot cake from The Dessert Deli) until 6pm when dinner service begins. Please note if you just want drinks then that’s cool with us, the bar is open until midnight.

If you haven’t locked down your Sunday night plans then you should deffo come to Sunday Pie Night, it kicks off at 6pm, click here for details.

The Big Ben – Full English: £8.50

Sausage, back bacon, mushroom, Heinz beanz, black pudding, sourdough toast and 2 eggs (choose fried, scrambled or poached). Add sausage/bacon/tomato/mushroom £1 per extra.

Go really Big – Add a 4oz rump steak to your Full English: £5

Full Veggie: £7.50

Tomato, spinach, mushrooms, Heinz beanz, sourdough toast and 2 eggs (choose fried, scrambled or poached). Add extras: £1 per item.

Burgers

Rugby World Cup Burger: Two Dove the Northcote Road butcher beef patties on a ketchup and mustard base, topped with smoked Montgomery cheddar from Hamish Johnston and gherkins. Served with chips. £12.50

Chef Kirrin’s home made burger with English mustard, ketchup and toasted fennel. Served with chips. £9

Chicken burger, marinated in garlic, lemon and parsley, with chips. £8.50

(add emmental cheese £1, add bacon £1)

Eggs

Eggs Benedict: £7

Eggs Royale: £7.50

Eggs Florentine: £6

Scrambled eggs: £5.95 (with salmon: £7.50)

Bacon and egg pie. Half £2.50. Whole £5

Breakfast Burrito: £5.50

Chorizo, scrambled egg, cheese, sour cream, herbs and chilli.

Breakfast Sarnie: £4

Bacon and egg

Sausage and egg

Sandwiches:

Steak sandwich with tomato and chutney served with fries: £9.50

Club sandwich served with chips: £6

Tuna melt served with chips: £6

French Toast: £6

French toast with bananas and maple syrup.

Granola: £4.50

Granola with yoghurt and berries.

Salads: £6.50

Roast beetroot, goats cheese and rocket salad.

Avocado, tomato, and goats cheese with honey and lemon dressing.

Kids (Big and Small)

Fish finger bap: £3.25

Natural yoghurt pot with honey: £2.50

Jude’s Ice Cream. Choose from: Raspberry Ripple, Salted Caramel, Vanilla, Double Chocolate or Rum and Raisin. £1.50

Retro Coke Floats (Coca Cola with a scoop of Jude’s Vanilla Ice Cream) £2

Affogato (served with a scoop of Jude’s Vanilla Ice Cream)

Hangover Busters

Chase away that hangover.

Bloody Mary Glass: £5.50

Bloody Mary Jug: £18

Berocca and Ice: £2

Bottle of Prosecco: £22.95

St John’s Hill Festival Brunch

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Morning Battersea! It’s the St John’s Hill Festival today, things kick off from 11am. There is a big raffle taking place at 5pm, the Grand Prize is dinner at Ben’s Canteen, The Fish Club, Artisan and Vine, The Plough and the Alchemist. You can buy raffle tickets from our Retro Coke Float and Ice Cream stand (note we’re using Jude’s Ice Cream which is superb), £1 a ticket, a fiver for a book.

Raffle tickets

We’re doing brunch from 9am to 4pm and then we’re doing drinks and cakes until 6pm when our Small Plates/Tapas menu will start. Last orders on the bar is 10.30pm – pop in and grab some last of the Summer Pimms.

By the way we had a great night last with our friend Kate and her awesome DippityBity dips – the Cricket one was an absolute winner. Keep an eye on these dips, they’re gonna go big.

The Big Ben – Full English: £8.50

Sausage, back bacon, mushroom, Heinz beanz, black pudding, sourdough toast and 2 eggs (choose fried, scrambled or poached). Add sausage/bacon/tomato/mushroom £1 per extra.

Go really Big – Add a 4oz rump steak to your Full English: £5

Full Veggie: £7.50

Tomato, spinach, mushrooms, Heinz beanz, sourdough toast and 2 eggs (choose fried, scrambled or poached). Add extras: £1 per item.

Burgers

Rugby World Cup Burger: Two Dove the Northcote Road butcher beef patties on a ketchup and mustard base, topped with smoked Montgomery cheddar from Hamish Johnston and gherkins. Served with chips. £12.50

Chef Kirrin’s home made burger with English mustard, ketchup and toasted fennel. Served with chips. £9

Chicken burger, marinated in garlic, lemon and parsley, with chips. £8.50

(add emmental cheese £1, add bacon £1)

Eggs

Eggs Benedict: £7

Eggs Royale: £7.50

Eggs Florentine: £6

Scrambled eggs: £5.95 (with salmon: £7.50)

Breakfast Burrito: £5.50

Chorizo, scrambled egg, cheese, sour cream, herbs and chilli.

Breakfast Sarnie: £4

Bacon and egg

Sausage and egg

Sandwiches:

Steak sandwich with tomato and chutney served with fries: £9.50

Club sandwich served with chips: £6

Tuna melt served with chips: £6

French Toast: £6

French toast with bananas and maple syrup.

Granola: £4.50

Granola with yoghurt and berries.

Salads: £6.50

Watermelon, cucumber and grilled haloumi.

Avocado, tomato, and goats cheese with honey and lemon dressing.

Kids (Big and Small)

Fish finger bap: £4

Natural yoghurt pot with honey: £2.50

Jude’s Ice Cream. Choose from: Raspberry Ripple, Salted Caramel, Vanilla, Double Chocolate or Rum and Raisin. £1.50

Retro Coke Floats (Coca Cola with a scoop of Jude’s Vanilla Ice Cream) £2

Hangover Busters

Chase away that hangover.

Bloody Mary Glass: £5.50

Bloody Mary Jug: £18

Berocca and Ice: £2

Bottle of Prosecco: £22.95

DippityBits @ Ben’s Canteen

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Our friend Kate has started a dips company, DippityBits (you should follow her on Twitter).

On Saturday night she is bringing a batch of her new creations to the Canteen and giving them away for free, in return for your feedback. The current line up of dips is looking like,

- Roasted butternut with honey cashews
- Grilled baba ganoush with basil
- Hummus with a wasabi kick
- Garden peas and fresh mint
- Creamy artichoke hearts
- Chunky sun-dried tomatoes, coriander and chili

Sound tasty right?

If you want a bit of the backstory on DippityBits before Saturday night then here are some words from Kate…

“DippityBits is my little creation which was born out of absolute love for dips and being able to share these delicious treats with my family and friends. The inspiration for the ingredients has come from my foodie adventures around Europe and Australia.

Pre-dinner drinks, BBQ’s, summer picnics (generally any fun occasion) just wouldn’t be the same without your close friends and some DippityBits! Like cider in the common on a sunny day, it goes hand-in-hand.”


 

We’re one month old

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So one month ago we opened the doors to Ben’s Canteen (getting there involved, somewhat crazily, giving ourselves just 14 days to refurb, not to be recommended!) and we thought now would be a good time to reflect on things.

Ben's Canteen logo

It’s with great pride that we know we’ve had plenty of happy customers, equally we also know that we’ve annoyed some too! What has been great though is that people have never been shy in giving us feedback (good and bad) as they want us to be a great little local which of course is our aim. We genuinely do listen to the feedback and hopefully you will see that as we evolve, there is an awful lot to come and whilst we all wish things could happen quicker we hope that you see some small improvement on each visit. Oh and we’ve also learnt that keeping a Time Out reviewer waiting for his food is a very bad idea.

Each and every day is an event and this makes life hugely entertaining, especially if you throw some riots (they weren’t in the business plan) into the mix! Sometimes it feels like an episode of 24 is less eventful than a day at Ben’s Canteen. This is what makes it fun, it also makes it feel like we’ve been open longer than we have and perhaps it’s better to try and remember that we are very new but at the same time we do want to keep striving to make improvements quickly.

At this juncture it’s worth a quick reflection on how we see our concept; our interpretation of a Canteen is a relaxed space where you can enjoy great food and drinks. We favour working with smaller producers and suppliers and are constantly on the look out for tasty new things. We’re a cafe/deli during the day and a bar and restaurant in the evenings.

As part of this there are some key messages that we’d like to get across,

  1. We want to deliver better food than in the past and we love to use small, quality producers/suppliers,
  2. We’re open during the day Monday to Friday (come and use our chalk board tables).
  3. We’re a bar as well as a restaurant and we’ve got a cracking selection of drinks (especially for SW London).
  4. We’re open on Saturday and Sunday nights, there is life after brunch!
  5. We do brilliant coffee, so few places do in SW London so it’s nice to be joining the likes of Federation Coffee, Brew and Grind in doing so.
  6. Improving the toilets is firmly on the to do list!
Supplier wise we’re delighted to be working with some great people, this makes for a happy chef.
Pulled PorkOur list of heroes continues to grow but here are a selection,
  • The Dessert Deli (a great supporter of ours, thank you Laura!) for yummy carrot cake, millionaire shortbread, flapjacks and brownies.
  • The Flour Station for amazing bread, burger baps, muffins and the delicious Chelsea Buns.
  • Meantime Brewing for providing the brilliant London Lager.
  • Brewdog for the increasingly popular (and awesome) Punk IPA.
  • Beaumont’s Alcoholic Ginger Beer – our find of the summer (imagine how popular it would have been if it hadn’t been the worse summer ever!) and so much nicer than Crabbies.
  • Square Mile for brilliant coffee.
  • Teapigs for a lovely cuppa.
  • Bibendum for helping put together the short, simple but quality wine list that we wanted.
  • Sambrooks for their Junction Ale.
  • Hogs Back Brewery for their TEA.
  • Luscombe for their wonderfully popular lemonades and our favourite cider.
  • Mrs King’s Pork Pies, sensational, especially the pork and stilton!
In other developments, we’re rather proud of our free book exchange and our 10% discount for those using pedal power. We’re also delighted to see lots of people using our free WiFi, we always wanted the Canteen to be a place where people can feel comfortable enough to use it as their office or to catch up on life and, we’ve noticed with a tinge of jealousy, plan and book holidays. In the future we’re looking at starting a free running club and cycling club – good ideas?
A couple of big changes in the pipeline are that we’ve just been granted permission to open earlier, so we’ll probably start opening from 8am Mon-Fri and from 9am on the weekends but we need to figure out logistics before we start doing that. The other change is that we’ll be cooking from the contact grills in the bar on a regular basis to help create lots of great smells and a selection of small plates that can be shared tapas style either as a bar snack or a starter or indeed as a main course.
Anyway, we need to get back to trying to drive through our positive changes (rather than just blogging about them), we also want to keep improving the service and getting the basics right, thanks to everybody who has been down and tried us out and to everyone who is about to give us a whirl!
Oh and one final thing, just so you know, we are working on getting a few more ‘girl’ friendly dishes on our menu.

Today at Ben’s Canteen

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Agh it’s so not August, we’ve actually got our folding doors firmly folded today to keep the Canteen nice and warm. With the chill in mind we recommend you pop in and take down an All Day Breakfast Burrito or a lovely Ham and Cheese Toastie maybe followed by a brownie from The Dessert Deli. You should also run the rule over the new chairs and Aunty Pat’s suitcase that we’ve turned into a coffee table. Oh and don’t forget, if you cycle here before 5pm Monday to Friday then we’ll knock 10% off your bill, once you get here you can check out our free book exchange at the back of the Canteen.

Tonight, we’re going to be doing some cocktails – our good friend and demon barman is doing a guest night and will be making up some cracking drinkies to make this Wednesday night a lot of fun.

Daytime  Menu

All day breakfast burrito. £5.50

Granola with yoghurt, honey and berries. £4

Drop scones of the day. £3.50

Sourdough toast with Kirrin’s lemon curd, marmite and jam. £2.50

Ham and cheese toastie. £4

Chilli corn fritters with crème fraiche. £4

Mrs King’s Pork Pie with mustard and chutney. £5

Brownies. £1.80

Flapjacks. £2

Millionaire caramel shortbread. £2

Carrot cake. £3

Chelsea buns. £3

Muffins. £3

Sandwiches

Sandwiches of the day. £4

Add salad. £1

All of our bread and treats come via The Flour Station and The Dessert Deli.

Salads

Daily, fresh salads £5.50

Add cornfed chicken: Free

Kids (big and small)

Fish finger bap. £4

Jude’s ice cream: Choose from raspberry ripple, double chocolate, vanilla or salted caramel. £1.50

 

New furniture and new menu additions

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We’ve had a fun day picking up a few new pieces for the Canteen and we’ve created a coffee/drinks/snacking table from some crates and a very well travelled piece of luggage from Aunty Pat.

We also found time to pop into Dove, the butcher on Northcote Road, and he has helped source some new additions for tonight’s menu. We’re going a bit old school with gammon, egg and handcut chips with pineapple in addition to lamb racks with minted pea puree and mash.

Sadly we’re out of scotch eggs tonight but we’ve got plenty of Mrs King’s Pork Pies and they are great!

Bar Snacks/Starters

Pork Pie: £5

Traditional or pork and stilton with chutney and mustard – pies are from the award winning Mrs King.

Cheeseboard: £7.25

A selection of cheeses from Northcote Road food hero, Hamish Johnston.

Charcuterie Board: £5.95

Selection of cold meats with chutney, pickles and toasted ciabatta.

Tartiflette: £5.95

Bacon, roast potatoes and grilled cheese on sourdough toast.

Quails Egg Salad: £5.25

Salad of rocket, parmesan and quails eggs.

Mains

Cod: £12.25

Oven roasted cod with chickpeas, chorizo and tomatoes.

Lamb Rack: £15.95

Rack of lamb (via Dove the butcher on Northcote Rd) on mash with minted pea puree and confit tomato.

Gammon, Egg & Chips: £14.25

Gammon steak (via Dove the butcher) with hand cut chips, egg and caramelised pineapple.

Sirloin Steak: £15.50

Sirloin steak with dauphinoise and roasted tomato.

Beef Burger: £9.00 (add emmental cheese £1, add Montgomery cheddar/Dorset Blue Vinny, £1.50, add bacon £1)

British beef burger served with date chutney and chips.

Pork Belly: £14.25

Confit pork belly on colcannon with roasting juices.

Linguine: £7.95

Linguine with fire roasted peppers, vine tomatoes and basil.

Watermelon & Haloumi Salad: £6.50

Watermelon with haloumi and cucumber.

Sides

All sides are £3

Chips

Mash

Spinach with lemon and garlic butter

Green Beans

Broccoli

Side Salad

Desserts

Jude’s Ice Cream. Choose 3 Scoops: Raspberry Ripple, Salted Caramel, Vanilla or Double Chocolate. £4.95

Classic Cheese Cake. £4.95

Warm Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Ice Cream & Berry Couli. £4.95

Eton Mess. £4.95

White Chocolate and Cointreau Crème Brulee. £4.95

Oh and as much as we personally hate to share we really don’t mind if you want to share your desserts, we’ve got plenty of spoons.

Cheeseboard

£7.25

Our cheeses come from Hamish Johnston, a local food hero on Northcote Road.

On the board we currently have,

Lincolnshire Poacher

Stinking Bishop (much nicer than the name may suggest)

Shropshire Blue

Woolsery Goat’s Cheese

 


Bank Holiday Dinner

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Earlier, we hosted a lovely relaxed brunch session, despite the mental weather, and now we’re starting to gear up for dinner – the kitchen will open at 6pm and the bar is already open. It’s hard to know what sort of night it feels like drinkswise but we’re thinking London Lager or Sambrooks’ Junction Ale with a sneaky Mrs King’s Pork Pie on the side. Then it’s probably time to look towards a couple of more pints and a burger with extra Montgomery Cheddar (from Hamish Johnston) or to graze with a bottle of red and a cheese and charcuterie board combo.

Tomorrow, we’ll be doing brunch from 10am and then tapas/small sharing plates from 6pm. Our bar, which is stocked with drinks made by small producers, lovely affordable wines and a cracking selection of spirits, will be open all day with last orders coming at 10.30pm. So come and relax with us, it’ll be fun.

Bar Snacks/Starters

Pork Pie: £5

Traditional or pork and stilton with chutney and mustard – pies are from the award winning Mrs King.

Scotch Egg: £2.50

Egg encased in meat and breadcrumbs.

Cheeseboard: £7.25

A selection of cheeses from Northcote Road food hero, Hamish Johnston.

Charcuterie Board: £5.95

Selection of cold meats with chutney, pickles and toasted ciabatta.

Tartiflette: £5.95

Bacon, roast potatoes and grilled cheese on sourdough toast.

Quails Egg Salad: £5.25

Salad of rocket, parmesan and quails eggs.

Mains

Cod: £12.25

Oven roasted cod with chickpeas, chorizo and tomatoes.

Sirloin Steak: £15.50

Sirloin steak with a peppercorn rub, dauphinoise and roasted tomato.

Beef Burger: £9.00 (add emmental cheese £1, add Montgomery cheddar/Dorset Blue Vinny, £1.50, add bacon £1)

British beef burger served with date chutney and chips.

Pork Belly: £14.25

Confit pork belly on colcannon with roasting juices.

Linguine: £7.95

Linguine with fire roasted peppers, vine tomatoes and basil.

Watermelon & Haloumi Salad: £6.50

Watermelon with haloumi and cucumber.

Sides

All sides are £3

Chips

Mash

Spinach with lemon and garlic butter

Green Beans

Broccoli

Side Salad

Desserts

Jude’s Ice Cream. Choose 3 Scoops: Raspberry Ripple, Salted Caramel, Vanilla or Double Chocolate. £3.50

Classic Cheese Cake. £4.95

Warm Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Ice Cream & Berry Couli. £4.95

Eton Mess. £4.95

White Chocolate and Cointreau Crème Brulee. £4.95

Oh and as much as we personally hate to share we really don’t mind if you want to share your desserts, we’ve got plenty of spoons.

Cheeseboard

£7.25

Our cheeses come from Hamish Johnston, a local food hero on Northcote Road.

On the board we currently have,

Lincolnshire Poacher

Stinking Bishop (much nicer than the name may suggest)

Shropshire Blue

Woolsery Goat’s Cheese

Meet Brewed Boy at Ben’s Canteen

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The mission for Ben’s Canteen is to become a cracking neighbourhood all day restaurant and bar. This then splits into different areas, cafe/deli during the day, brunch at weekends, lovely food with a modern British bias in the evening and great drinks at all times. We’re inspired by smaller producers and want to shine a light on the fruits of their labour through our food and drink menu – this is work in progress but hopefully each week we’ll source another great product for you to try.

Anyway, to help us develop the Mon-Fri daytime cafe/deli we’ve joined up with @brewedboy who has loads of good ideas and is a superbly talented barista. Below is a little piece from his blog, this will give you some insight into what he’s doing to develop the best cafe in South West London…

So Brewed Boy is no longer on Rupert St which is a damn shame because I made a lot of friends and, for the first time in a long time, truly felt part of a community. It’s like Devon but with really ugly prostitutes and no cows.

But onto ventures new! I am taking residency at benscanteen.com (not a website but the actual canteen the website represents). It’s in Battersea don’t you know. Ben is a great guy who is all about local suppliers and quality ingredients so it goes without saying I brought Square Mile along to the party. There will be a new machine on the way but in the meantime we will be using this little baby…

It’s a beauty. An iconic e61 machine with bags of retro charm. Unfortunately, all was not well with the little chromed wonder. The previous owners need to be brought up in front of The Hague for crimes against coffee. First up the gaskets were so old they had fossilised (water was literally gushing out the sides instead of brewing the coffee!) and the screens were blackened with scorched coffee oils. I literally had to crobar the stubborn buggers out. The boys at coffeehit.co.uk did a great job getting us the replacement parts.

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Next on the list of shame was the dispersion block. It’s like a shower head that soaks the coffee evenly except water was only coming out of one hole! Arghhhhh!

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I had to soak the block in acid to release it from all the junk and then take a wire brush to free up those holes.

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Finally I replaced the steam wand tip with a highly engineered beauty and chucked the one that used a rusty nail inside it to control the steam power – that is just wrong.

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We now have a great machine that is producing the best coffee in this part of London. All for about 30 quid. I hope you come down to have a cup soon and get involved with what Ben is doing here. Top guy. Plus I’m on the contact grill in the morning making Drop Scones.