Tag Archives: Meantime

Now that is a tasty burger…

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Whilst the daytimes at Ben’s Canteen are all about treating yourself to an indulgent brunch (if you’re working from home or are lucky enough to have a day off then we certainly suggests some eggs, Allpress coffee and just maybe a cheeky Bloody Mary), night times are all about dirty burgers.

All of our burgers are handmade on site, using a house mix to make a serious beef patty, homemade burger sauce and a glazed ‘American’ bun.

BC Burger

In the case of the original BC Burger, we brine topside of beef for 24 hrs before slow cooking it for 8 hrs. This is then sliced to order, topped with smoked cheddar and placed on top of the beef patty – it’s epic and has seen MSN Food name us as one of the Top 21 Burger Places in the UK, Scout Magazine rate it as one of the top 10 in London and ShortList view it as one of the UK’s best.

We also have the Big Benny Melt, which is a burger topped with Mac & Cheese and the Sloppy Ben, a burger topped with Chilli Con Carne and a slice of rather retro American cheese.

If these burgers aren’t doing it for you then you can always tuck into the Sea Dog which is basically a jumbo posh fish finger roll, the BC Chicken Burger, a Pulled Pork Bap with Deep Fried Pickles or a veggie friendly Mushroom & Peach Burger.

To go with a dirty burger we suggest you get stuck into a cocktail (we’re thinking an Old Fashioned) or take down a Boilermaker (a shot of Maker’s Mark followed by a more leisurely pint of Meantime Pale Ale). We’ve also got the brilliant Meantime London Lager on tap as well as beers from the local brewery, Sambrook’s. Or a fun wine list that offers plenty of value and some very drinkable reds to wash down all that beefy goodness.

Now, go round up some mates, and come hang out with us on St John’s Hill.

Weekend Booze & Bites

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The key to a good weekend, we believe is all about kicking back, having some drinkies and indulging on the food front… obviously we’d like to think that a rather good spot to do this is at the Canteeno.

For your weekend day times we do a knock out brunch, tuck into a Big Ben (a serious Full English), Eggs Benedict, Huevos Rancheros (spicy eggs – one of Ben’s favourites, especially when pimped up with added chorizo) or one of our new brunch dishes such as Mushrooms on Toast with Truffle Oil and a Fried Egg or the big new hit Smashed Avocado on Toast with a Poached Egg – this is our second biggest brunch seller after the Big Ben.

smashed avocado

Smashed Avocado with a Poached Egg & Spicy Chorizo

Brunch isn’t just about food, we love having a coffee (we get our beans from the brilliant All Press) and for you tea drinkers we have awesome teas from Joe’s Tea Company. And then to booze, we’ve teamed up with Sipsmith to bring you a classic Bloody Mary which is awesome (click here to watch a quick vid of it being made). We’ve also got a bunch of other brunch time tipples which, if you haven’t already, you need to try; the Marmalade Martini is one of Ben’s favourites and if you wanna try and look a bit Italian glam then order up an Aperol Spritz.

In  the evenings, it’s all about, cocktails, Meantime London Lager and Pale on tap, wines and then dirty burgers and other bites. This one minute video our friend made probably captures best what we’re on about.

Ben’s Canteen – The Place on the Hill from Ben’s Canteen on Vimeo.

Looking beyond the weekend,

Ben's Canteen, Best Local Restaurant 2012

Midweek Nights at the Canteen

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One of the reasons we started Ben’s Canteen was to create a space where you can hang out without feeling too formal. In essence an alternative to the pub. We wanted to create an atmosphere where you could just roll in and be yourself, that’s why we stripped back the interior and at night we dim the lights and light the candles to create a cosy space. We don’t have TVs as we want you to dictate the night rather than tuning out to the tube.

Midweek Nights at Ben's CanteenWe know that often you don’t want go crazy on the spending front during the week and most of you don’t want to blow the doors off on a school night so we created a little extra value offer in the form of 2 courses for £20 and a free glass of wine if you join us for an early dinner (before 7pm), meaning you can have a good feed and still get a good night’s sleep. However, we also like to encourage you to go a bit bigger during the week, that’s why we do 2-4-1 Cocktails on Tuesday Nights and we run regular pop-up supper club style events such as our Halloween Hell Night.

In terms of food, we believe in comfort, especially as it’s now getting colder. Our meatballs with a cheesy cauliflower & squash mash are a midweek dinner winner.

On the drinks front, we favour working with smaller producers, so we’ve got beers from Meantime and Curious Brew (from the English winemaker Chapel Down) amongst others, and some cracking spirits including Sipsmith and Little Bird Gin. The idea is simple really, we want to introduce you to some different, quality, products and hopefully as part of that make your midweek life just a smidge better and more interesting if possible.

Add to the above that we’re a shortish stroll from Clapham Junction and Wandsworth Town train stations and buses will ferry you around Battersea back to Clapham Common, Brixton, Putney, Fulham, Chelsea and beyond, then we’d like to think we offer you a nice little, simple, midweek night out – and we believe it’s part of the reason we got voted Best Local Restaurant in the Time & Leisure 2012 Food and Drinks Awards.

If you’d like to reserve a table and join us for a midweek dinner on St John’s Hill then please click here.

Happy Hour at Ben’s Canteen

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An early drink, straight after work, so often the catalyst for good times… and that’s exactly what we like to encourage at the Canteen.

So, we’ve decided to launch Happy Hour, well technically hours as it runs from 5pm to 7pm, Monday to Sunday.

  • Meantime London Lager: £3 a pint
  • Meantime Pale Ale: £3 a pint
  • Saint Lager: £2.5 a bottle
  • 175ml glass of Cote a Cote (white wine): £3.5
  • 175ml glass of Il Banchetto Rosso (red wine): £3.5

Don’t forget that we also run 2-4-1 Tuesday Cocktails and Fizzy Fridays.

Happy Hour at Ben's Canteen

We want this to be the most fun Happy Hour in South West London, so grab your mates and bring them to St John’s Hill in Battersea. It’s only a few minutes walk from Clapham Junction, so it’s super simple to get to and from the Canteen. See you soon for good times.

Treat your Dad to a great big Father’s Day feed

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Show your appreciation to the Old Man by taking him to the Canteen for a lovely brunch (a big fat Full English with your Dad sounds like good bonding to us) or, and this is likely to be right up his street, our indoor Sunday BBQ. Share with him some grilled meat and some British beers (we’ve got some awesome 750ml Meantime Porter and Pale Ale bottles that you can share). Let’s face facts, your Dad probably want to try one of London’s Top 10 burgers, so why deny him on his special day?!

For the disorganised, Father’s Day is the 17th June. We serve brunch from 9am until 1.30pm. We then run our indoor BBQ from 2pm until 8pm. Click here to book.

Father's Day

English Wines at the Canteen

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At the Canteen we serve British food, done well. We also want to extend the British nature of the Canteen to our drinks, this is why we stock beers from Sambrook’s, Meantime and The Kernel amongst other British brewers. And now we’ve got some English wines on our menu too (we would call them British wines but apparently that means something else and is rather negative)!

Primrose Hill by Chapel Down

Primrose Hill by Chapel Down

  • This sparkling wine is very popular amongst the staff at the Canteen. Made in Tenterden, Kent, it is rich yet refreshing with both breadth and finesse, the fresh lemon characters and delicate, soft bubbles we believe will appeal to all.
  • Did you know that Chapel Down is the first ever English producer to win a gold medal for sparkling wine at the prestigious International Wine Challenge.

a’Beckett’s

  • Located not far from Stonehenge, a’Beckett’s is a boutique winery that produces quality wines from native English grape varieties.
  • We stock two of their wines,
    • Pinot Auxerrois: a light, off dry wine with citrus and elderflower notes. Great on its own or with light salads and chicken dishes.
    • Estate Rose: a deep pink, off dry rose with flavours of crushed cherries and strawberries. Deliciously gluggable and the perfect accompaniment to an English summer’s day.

Furleigh Estate Bacchus Fume

  • A former dairy, Furleigh Estate now boasts a sleek, modern winery and state-of-the-art equipment, situated in one of our favourite counties, Dorset.
  • A rich, crisp white wine with aromas of elderflower, lychee, citrus and vanilla. These flavours are complimented on the palate by a refreshing citrus note and long finish, characteristic of Bacchus grapes.

Post a pic and get a free drink

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Here at the Canteen we’re loving how good the food is looking at the moment…. and that’s inspired us to run a little free drink promo.

If you tweet or post a picture of the food you’ve had at the Canteen to Facebook then we’ll give you a free glass of wine or a free pint the next time you come in.

British Beef Board

Small Print

  • The picture must be posted to the Ben’s Canteen Facebook page or if tweeted it must include @benscanteen
  • On your next visit you can have a free pint of Meantime London Lager or a small glass of Sangiovese or Chardonnay Terre Forti.
  • Only one free drink per visit.

Free Beer at Ben’s Canteen

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We recently launched a beer matching menu to go with our British Winter Dinner Menu and we’re so keen for you to come and try it out that we’re giving away free beer until the 25th Jan.

Our selection of beers,

  • Meantime London Lager
  • Kernel IPA
  • Kernel Pale Ale
  • Sambrook’s Wandle
  • Sambrook’s Junction Ale
  • Dark Star Imperial Stout
  • Samuel Smith Organic Lager
  • Red MacGregor
are matched to a dish on our winter menu and you can have a free one when you come in for dinner.

How to claim

  1. Print off this page.
  2. Hand it to a member of staff when you sit down for dinner.
  3. Choose a main course and get the matching beer free.
Terms & Conditions
  • One free beer per main dish ordered from our dinner menu.
  • The free beer must be the one matched to the dish.
  • This voucher cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer.
  • Must be used before the 26th January.

So start thinking about whether you’re going to have the rib-eye steak with Darkstar Imperial Stout or say Venison Pie with a bottle of Kernel Pale Ale and then click here to book a table.

Beer matching at Ben's Canteen

Beer matching at Ben's Canteen

Beer Matching at Ben’s Canteen

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At the Canteen we’re always looking for tasty new products and then we got to thinking about how cool it would be to match beers to our new winter menu… thus giving us a great excuse to bring in a whole range of great new beers!

New Beers at Ben's Canteen

Here’s our beer matching list – we’d love to get your feedback and have your suggestions on other beers we could be using (we’ll be changing our list from time to time so we’ll deffo consider your recommendations).

Small Plates

British Meat Plate – Junction Ale

Deep Fried Pigs Cheeks with Homemade Salad Cream – Meantime London Lager

Beef Brisket Slider with Bone Marrow Mayo – Red MacGregor

Cod Cheeks with Parsley Pesto – Sam Smith Organic Lager

Potted Ham with Homemade Piccalilli & Toast – Sambrook’s Wandle

Mains

Gloucester Old Spot Pork Chop – Kernel Pale Ale

Rib-eye Steak – Darkstar Imperial Stout

Mussels – Meantime London Lager

Beef and Junction Ale Stew – Red MacGregor

Pan Fried and Poached Chicken with Rarebit Mash – Sambrook’s Wandle

Oxtail and Horseradish Pearl Barley Risotto – Kernel IPA

BC Burger – Sambrook’s Junction Ale

Beetroot and Butternut Squash Pearl Barley Risotto – Darkstar Imperial Stout

Sea Bream – Sam Smith Organic Lager

Desserts

Trifle – Red MacGregor

Poached Pear – Kernel Pale Ale

Plum Tart – Darkstar Imperial Stout


Book for good times

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As we are now taking bookings via Top Table we thought it would be a good time to reflect on our offering.

Ben's CanteenDuring 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.

Sexy Buns

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.

Cocktails

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.

Beef and Junction Ale Stew

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.

Hero Suppliers

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.