Canteen Weekender

Posted on December 7, 2012 by benscanteen

St John’s Hill is looking very Christamassy with all the trees lit along the street and the festivities are starting to kick in. At the Canteen, we’ve already hosted a bunch of Crimbo parties, and we have plenty more coming up – if you want to have yours here, then click here for details of our menus. Or keep it casual and simply pop in for a mince pie, from the Bad Boys Bakery in Brixton Prison, and a Gluhwein (pimp it with a shot of Amaretto to feel extra festive).

If you’re looking for a different sort of Christmas then you must come to our Tropical Christmas dinner on the 19th – we’ve teamed up with Yummy Choo who runs Mauritian Supper Clubs, it’s going to be quite an event, especially with 2 cocktails included in the ticket price!

In other hot news – Sunday Roasts are back! Join us from 12 on Sunday for roast beef and roast chicken (our normal brunch menu is also be available).

Below is a little list of what else is going down over the weekend and coming up…

Friday: we’re very much open for brunch but we are closed in the evening for a private party, sorry about that but do come and join us for the rest of the weekend.
Our kitchen is now open all day, come and chill on the hill and join us for brunch, dinner and drinks from 9am. Note, dinner now starts at 5pm.
If you do join us for an early dinner then you can get a little extra value with our 2 courses for £20 and a free glass of wine (available from 5-7pm).
And for those of you who don’t do early, our kitchen is also open later now on Fridays & Saturdays, you can get some munch bunch until 11pm.
Sunday Roasts are back in the Canteen – join us on for roast beef or chicken from 12pm (note we run the normal brunch menu alongside it).
You should also try out some of our new cocktails, our Bacon Bourbon Old Fashioned has just been featured in GQ Magazine, we’re also big fans of our Sipsmith Sloe Gin Negroni and the Damson in Distress (with Damson Vodka).
We’ve started a movement to make your weekend last a little bit longer; the Sunday Night Saver - get any of our burgers or sandwiches for a tenner.
Still looking to organise a Christmas party? Check out our menus, starting from £15 per person. We do still have some availability, especially for lunch.
We’re now serving Allpress Coffee, absolutely top notch stuff, and for tea fans we now serve We Are Tea, like our coffee, it’s top drawer and helps to make our brunch the best in SW London – join us from 9am each day.
Speaking of brunch, have you picked up your midweek loyalty card yet?
In need of a present? Check out the Colporter pop-up and Flights of Nancy bags too – leave the Canteen with a full tum and some awesome pieces for your home.
Something to bust the January blues; Ryan Stafford will be Mixing It Up at Ben’s Canteen on the 23rd Jan. Ryan is a former Masterchef: The Professionals finalist and super talented – check out his menu and booking details here.

Ben’s Canteen – The Weekend

Posted on May 25, 2012 by benscanteen

This week we’ve been loving the sunshine and reflecting that if you want breakfast, lunch, brunch, dinner or just drinks around Clapham Junction, Wandsworth, Battersea or Clapham then St John’s Hill is a belter of a street for it.

Anyways, here’s what’s going down at the Canteen…

We’re now keeping our kitchen open all day on Saturday, normally we close it between 4 and 6pm but no longer.
We’re getting massively into Sipsmith’s Summer Cup, this genuine rival to Pimms is going to make your weekend an awesome one.
We run a super popular brunch but we wanted to spice it up some more. So, we’ve created a Bloody Mary menu - come and try it out this weekend.
On the subject of booze, we’ve never been so excited about a shelf, behold our Gin Shelf.
Ditch those Sunday blues with our Sunday Roast. We serve it from 2pm every Sunday. Enjoy Roast Orkney Beef, Pork Belly or Roasted Chicken with roasties, cauliflower cheese and broccoli, greens, root veg mash and yorkies.
With an eye on next week, you should come and try out our new lunch menu – we’ve added a bunch of news salads, fish cakes and more.
Time and Leisure just nominated us as one of London’s best local restaurants, if you like us then would you be so terribly kind as to vote for us here?!
Also, Ben recently got interviewed by our friends at Le Cool, click here to read the interview.
To add to our British food, done well ethos and British beers we’ve added a selection of English wines (British wines means something else), including a cracking sparkling by Chapel Down. Come and run the rule over them this weekend and let us know what you think.

Eating and Drinking in Clapham Junction, Battersea

Posted on May 21, 2012 by benscanteen

Last week was the St John’s Hill Fabulous Feast, a week long celebration of food and drink. It reminded us that St John’s Hill is a seriously good spot for food and drink.

You’ve got The Plough, Powder Keg Diplomacy, The Birdhouse, The Fish Club, Adulis and more… all of which surely makes it a wee bit more interesting than Northcote Road and probably the most exciting street for bars and restaurants in Battersea, especially as it’s a stone’s throw from Clapham Junction?!

So, what do we here at Ben’s Canteen bring to the street?

Well we see ourselves as an all rounder, we aim to serve you a top notch coffee with brekkie or brunch, something tasty for lunch, a treat for tea and a cracking dinner with drinks being served via our bar all day and night.

Chiefly, we see ourselves as an alternative to the pub. Don’t get us wrong, we love a boozer but we got a bit bored of tap after tap of beer (most of them generic continental lagers) and numerous big screens with Sky Sports News on loop but where do you go to escape that? Whilst keeping everything equally relaxed? That’s what we strive to be.

We want to be that place where you can drop in on your own or grab some friends and catch up over drinks and simple but super tasty food. We love the fact that Clapham Junction is just a short stroll from the Canteen as it means you should be able to persuade your friends who live that little bit further away to drop in and hang out with you.

To help become this place we serve breakfast, brunch, lunch and dinner every day. We serve British food, done well. We’re infamous for our All Day Breakfast Scotch Egg and the BC Burger has been named as one of the Top 10 in London.

Obviously to become your alternative to the pub we need plenty of booze, we’ve tried to make it interesting and a little different. So, we work with small independent brewers, such as local boys Sambrook’s. We’ve put together an interesting wine list that features some English wine, not least a sparkling one in the form of Primrose Hill by Chapel Down. We’ve put in a special Gin shelf which features gins from small London distillers such as Sipsmith, SW4 and Portobello Road.

Remember, that unlike a lot of new trendy hangouts, you can actually book a table at Ben’s Canteen - click here to reserve yours now.

Some things for the weekend

Posted on April 27, 2012 by benscanteen

Whatever the weather this weekend we are here to make sure you are fed and watered with top notch British food, lovely wines (including English ones) and some cracking craft beers from small brewers such as The Kernel and local lads Sambrook’s.

Here’s what’s going down at the Canteen…

Massive news; top chef Ben Spalding will be doing a 4 course dinner on the 14th May at the Canteen to launch the St John’s Hill Fabulous Feast. Click here for more info and to book.
To celebrate our burger being named as one of the Top 10 in London we made a film of it being made - click here to watch. We serve it all day on Saturday and Sunday so you’ve got plenty of time to come and take it on.
Time and Leisure just nominated us as one of London’s best local restaurants, if you like us then would you be so terribly kind as to vote for us here?!
Also, Ben recently got interviewed by our friends at Le Cool, click here to read the interview.
Our Sunday Roast is super tasty. We serve it from 2pm every Sunday. Enjoy Roast Orkney Beef, Pork Belly or Roasted Chicken with roasties, cauliflower cheese and broccoli, greens, root veg mash and yorkies.
To add to our British food, done well ethos and British beers we’ve added a selection of English wines (British wines means something else), including a cracking sparkling by Chapel Down. Come and run the rule over them this weekend and let us know what you think.
We recently introduced a Retro Lunch menu, served from 12pm to 4pm Mon-Fri. Our current favourite from the menu is the chicken in a basket – you can actually eat the basket! Don’t forget we also serve brunch every day, not just at the weekends.
If you haven’t experienced our All Day Breakfast Scotch Egg then you need to change that this weekend. Like the burger it’s served all day. It got 5 stars from the leading light on Scotch Eggs - it’s a serious orb.
In our opinion brunch should be accompanied by Bloody Mary’s, have you tried ours yet? We use Sipsmith Vodka, they’re based in Hammersmith and it’s lovely stuff. Oh and we’ve also added Sipsmith Summer Cup to our bar, amazing.
On the subject of local booze, we make our cheesecake using Powerhouse Porter from local brewers Sambrook’s. It might sound a bit odd, making a cheesecake from beer, but blimey it tastes good.

Retro Express Lunch

Posted on March 27, 2012 by benscanteen

The susnshine really does seem to be here to stay (hopefully that hasn’t jinxed it) so we’ve decided to breathe new light onto our midweek daytime food so that you can have even more good times at the Canteen.

The new menu is intended to be served quickly. So you can ditch that desk, lap up some sunshine, eat incredibly well and then get back to the emails and to-do lists. On that note, we were always sarnies at the desk types but honestly your quality of life will improve if you actually walk away from the desk a bit and you’ll make better decisions.

With the new lunch menu we wanted to introduce some retro dishes (but made so they’re actually super tasty) so we’ve got chicken in a basket, omelette Arnold Bennett, Coronation Chicken Salad and a Beef and Onion Pie.

Also, we’ve got free wifi, so you can actually keep working whilst you enjoy some sunshine and top notch lunchtime grub.

Weekday Breakfast – Served until 12pm

Big Breakfast

The Big Ben – 9.5

Sausage, back bacon, mushroom, homemade boston beans, black pudding, sourdough toast and 2 eggs ‘your way’

The Veggie Ben – 8.5

Tomato, spinach, mushrooms, beans, sourdough toast and 2 eggs ‘your way’

Add extras for £1

Smaller Bits

Ben’s Baps (choose 2 fillings) – 5.5

Sausage/Bacon/Egg/Black Pudding/Beans/Mushrooms/Tomato/Spinach

Fish Finger Bap – 4

Brunch – Served All Day

Eggs Benedict – 8

Eggs Royale – 8.5

Eggs Florentine – 7

Scrambled Eggs – 6.5

Add Salmon – 1.5

All Day Breakfast Scotch Egg – 6.5

Homemade Pastries – made fresh every morning.

Lunch – served from 12pm-4pm

Small Plates

Soup of the Day with Crusty Bread – 5

All Day Breakfast Scotch Egg – 6.5

Smoked Eel Pate with Toasted Sourdough – 5.5

Potted Ham, Homemade Piccalilli & Toast – 6.5

Nut Roast Fritters with Two Dipping Sauces – 6

Hot Sandwiches

Ham & Cheese Toastie, Topped with Rarebit – 5

Orkney Beef Steak Sandwich with Caerphilly Cheese – 7

Spicy Grilled Chicken Sandwich with Paprika Mayo – 6.5

Add Handful of Chips – 1

Mains

Stew of the Day – 10

Chicken in a Basket – 12.5

Omelette Arnold Bennett – 12

Mince Beef & Onion Pie – 10

Coronation Chicken Salad – 12

BC Burger and Chips – 12.5

(Homemade Black Angus Mince Patty. Topped with homemade Corned Beef & Smoked Cheddar with Ben’s Burger Sauce. Served with Handcut Chips)

Desserts

Poached Pear with Hazelnut Crust – 5.5

Rhubarb & Ginger – 6.5

White Chocolate Tart, Raspberry Salt & Chocolate Ganache – 7

British Cheeseboard – 14

Sides

Rosemary & Chilli Butternut Squash – 3.5

Root Vegetable Mash – 3.5

Market Greens – 3.5

Hand Cut Chips – 3.5

Canteens are for friends

Posted on March 1, 2012 by benscanteen

When we set up the Canteen we always had a few core principles in mind,

It should be super tasty
We’ll use produce that you may otherwise have to journey into ‘town’ to have
It should be relaxed
It will be open all day
We’ll serve seasonal British food

And then there was one thing that we really wanted to capture – making it a great place to catch up with friends, whether it be just a couple of you or a big group to share good times with. Staying in contact via Facebook, text messages and Twitter is great but nowhere near as good as meeting up in person – our job is simply to try and make that more fun.

We love the Canteen’s big windows at the front, so we’ve put in large tables which can be shared with other ‘Canteeners’ or taken over by groups of friends whilst (hopefully) basking in the sunshine. In the ‘dining room’ (in essence we’re never that formal, you’re more than welcome just to have a drink there) at the back we’ve created a more intimate area which at night is softly lit.

When it comes to the breakfast, lunch, brunch and dinner menus we hope we’ve put together a list of choices that helps to get you guys talking, whether it be our infamous All Day Breakfast Scotch Egg, our #doublebeef burger, our new desserts (e.g. a Rolo tart – who would you give your last one to?!) or our top notch Full English that comes with homemade beans – we’re always evolving and we like to do things a little differently, please do feel free to give us feedback on our creations.

Anyways, take this as a call to arms, stop reading this post and get in touch with that friend or group of mates you haven’t seen for a while and head on down to the Canteen to hangout and catch up. If you want to book a table then click here.

This weekend at Ben’s Canteen

Posted on January 27, 2012 by benscanteen

Oh yes, it’s the weekend!! We’re gonna make it as tasty as we possibly can for you.

Here’s our Weekend To-Do List.

Try our tribute to British Beef – the British Beef Board.
Tuck into what is rapidly becoming the most famous Scotch Egg in London. A rather nice chap, who may have been made in chelsea, tried it and seems to be a fan.
Come and sample our Sunday Roast and get a free bottle of wine.
Book your tickets for our Sophie Michell Celebrity Chef Pop Up event on Valentine’s.
Come and join us for SW London’s busiest and best brunch – we recently added Kedgeree and Porridge with Chilli & Fig compote and we’ve started serving Sipsmith Bloody Mary’s which are ace.
Take a pic whilst you eat, post and we’ll give you a free drink, click here for details.
Pick a date to skive off work and come in for our 2 courses for £10 midweek lunches.
Book a table and settle in for a damned good time whilst you enjoy British food, done well.

This weekend at the Canteen

Posted on January 6, 2012 by benscanteen

Well it’s a been a weird and windy week but now it’s the weekend! We’re here to make it a winning one, come and join us and…

Claim a free beer as part of our Beer Matching and British Winter Dinner Menu.
Come and check out the Kedgeree we’re adding to SW London’s busiest and best brunch.
Book a ticket for dinner with Masterchef winner Mat Follas.
Come and try our All Day Breakfast Scotch Egg – it’s a winner.
Join us for a Sunday Roast, we start serving from 2pm.
Just pop in for a lovely coffee or a cuppa of tea (we’ve got a big selection) and perhaps a slice of Carrot Cake.
Make a date to join us for lunch and try our new 2 courses for £10 lunch menu.
Book a table.

Lunch – 2 Courses for £10

Posted on January 4, 2012 by benscanteen

With the arrival of the new year we thought it a rather good time to unveil our 2 courses for £10 lunches. You can choose from…

Lunch from 12pm – 2 Courses for £10

Starters

Smoked Eel Pate with Toasted Sourdough – £5.5

Soup of the Day with Crusty Bread – £4.5

Mains

Sausage and Mash Pie – £8.5

Rabbit and Pearl Barley Stew – £8

Mushy Pea Fish Cake with Poached Egg and Mustard Sauce – £8.5

Super Food Salad – £8.5 (add Chicken – £1.5)

Orkney Beef Steak Sandwich – £6.95

Spicy Grilled Chicken Sandwich – £6.50

Desserts

Apple Tart with Custard or Cream – £4.5

Bread and Butter Pudding with Custard or Cream – £5

Lunch is served every day from 12pm – 3pm. As well as the 2 courses for £10 we’ll also be offering some other seriously tasty lunch options,

All Day Breakfast Scotch Egg – £5

BC Burger and Chips – £12.5

(Homemade Black Angus Mince Patty. Topped with homemade Corned Beef & Smoked Cheddar with Ben’s Burger Sauce. Served with Handcut Chips)

Ham and Cheese Toastie topped with Rarebit – £4

Kids Fish Finger Bap – £3.5

Bowl of Chips – £3

And of course, don’t forget that we’re open from 10am every day – we do an amazing breakfast, just ask the hordes who join us every weekend for SW London’s busiest and best brunch.

Served Until 12pm

The Big Ben – £8.95

Sausage, back bacon, mushroom, homemade boston beans, black pudding, sourdough toast and 2 eggs ‘your way’

The Veggie Ben – £7.95

Tomato, spinach, mushrooms, beans, sourdough toast and 2 eggs ‘your way’

Add extras for £1

Ben’s Baps (choose 2 fillings) – £5

Sausage/Bacon/Egg/Black Pudding/Beans/Mushrooms/Tomato/Spinach

Add extras for £1

Served All Day

All Day Breakfast Scotch Egg – £5

Eggs Benedict – £7.5

Eggs Royale – £8

Eggs Florentine – £6.5

Scrambled Eggs – £6

Add Salmon – £1.50

Homemade Pastries – made fresh every morning.

Midweek Days at the Canteen

Posted on December 13, 2011 by benscanteen

One of the objectives when setting up the Canteen was to create a midweek daytime space where people (young mums, those working from home, those lucky enough to have a day off, those having a duvet day and so on) could feel comfortable using it as they wished. Whether it be for a quick cup of tea and a read or to tuck into some tasty food, to either eat in or takeaway.

On the food front, we’ve really bulked up our offering of late – we’ve brought in a lot of our wildly popular weekend brunch menu. So all day you can get a Big Ben (sausages, homemade boston baked beans, bacon, 2 eggs done your way, black pudding, mushrooms and toast) and Eggs Benedict/Royale/Florentine as well as baps and granola. This all goes wonderfully with our amazing Square Mile Coffee and Teapigs Tea.

We’re also doing superb comforting British lunches, you can get bangers and mash with red cabbage and gravy, our unique mushy pea fish cake with a poached egg, the awesome BC burger and a super food salad as well sandwiches and a soup of the day. This we feel makes us one of the best relaxed and good value lunch spots around and a very welcome alternative to sitting in the pub.

To help make the Canteen a nice spot to hang out, aside from the lovely corner position and natural light that pours in, we’ve got lots of interesting mags such as Monocle, Fantastic Man and Gentlewoman and there is never a shortage of fashion and gossip material. We’ve also got chakboard tables to keep the kids entertained and a free book exchange.

We’ve also got baby changing facilities, including free nappies, plenty of space for prams and we’re dog friendly (we’ve got free treats and water bowls).

And finally, we have lovely treats, such as carrot cake and brownies, from The Dessert Deli… so come and hang out, we’re open from 8am every day.

Serving Brunch, Dinner & Drinks, 7 Days A Week

Tag Archives: Lunch

Canteen Weekender

Ben’s Canteen – The Weekend

Eating and Drinking in Clapham Junction, Battersea

Some things for the weekend

Retro Express Lunch

Canteens are for friends

This weekend at Ben’s Canteen

This weekend at the Canteen

Lunch – 2 Courses for £10

Midweek Days at the Canteen