The Knowhere Guide

Eating and Drinking in Lewisham, Greater London*

Lewisham, Greater London Pubs, Cafes, Coffee Shops and Restaurants

Food

• For Indian food - Raj Bojhan and Monsoon in New Cross or The Chillies, Hither Green Lane for the only healthy cholesterol free curry around, For Thai - Thailand in New Cross or Thai place in Greenwich. Good fish and chip shops in Brockley, Crofton Park and the Fillipino place in New Cross. For fantastic Vietnamese try The Long Time Cafe in Brockley near the train station. For Chinese try Uncle Wrinkle in New Cross.
• Excellent, authentic Tamil food at 'Suvai Aruvi' cafe in Lee High Road.
• the thailand in new cross best thai in the world at least
• 'Mixers' in Lewisham High Street is a kind of cafe trying to be a restaurant/wine bar. The service can be absolute crap. Don't go there if you want a quick bite, but if you have a whole afternoon to wait to be served the foods pretty good. Only seems to be one pie and mash shop these days since the best one turned into the 'Quaggy Duck' pub and has been two other pubs since then. 'Something Fishy' is great for the traditional londoners grub though it gets very busy.
• Hunkarim just off Lee High road is a great Turkish restaurant with excellent service and food. also with music and belly dancing at the weekends.
• The Green Cabin is now The Madras, and seems to have lost some of its distinctive Sri Lankan dishes, and is now offers more mainstream generic sub-continent cuisine.
• Sapporo is the japanese restaurant in C`atford. Heathers is closed so delete MacMillanSt address.
• Heather's closed down sadly about two years ago, I heard the owners couldn't sell the business on before going to Ireland to run a farm.
• The 'South Indian' on Lewisham High Street is actually Sri Lankan and called the Green Cabin. There's another, cheaper, Sri Lankan called The Everest on Loampit Vale. The Japanese at Catford Broadway is called Sapporo Ichiban and it is indeed very good. The Popadom on Brownhill Road, Catford is a decent 'standard curry house'. H's Café on Hither Green Lane (open early until 3pm) is the standard 'caff'of choice for lorry drivers and local workers and often serves up a tasty exotic special.
• There's a really good Japanese cafe in Catford, which does real Japanese food (ramen, sushi) @ reasonable prices. Wish I could remember the name.
• Nice South Indian restaurant (forget name) near Stonewalls (see pubs). Serves coconut based dishes miles away from trad Balti and Tandoori stuff.
• The Spice of Life on Lee High Road, out towards the Lee crossroads does just brilliant food. Great value. Pretty cool indie taste in background music too.
• There's a fantastically cheap and quality Curry House on Lee High Rd between Lewisham and Lee - The Darjeeling. Does a half price menu every day. Where else in London can you get curry, rice , nan bread and popadams for under a fiver !
• Heather's Restaurant 74 McMillan St Deptford SE8 3HA The Best Vegetarian Restaurant in London (Guardian)
• Fadil's bakery is fantastic for speciality bread.
• There's always somewhere to get jellied eels in Lewisham - liquor and all.
• In Lewisham there untold place

Pubs

• The Queen's Arm, near where Couthill Road becomes Hither Green Lane, is gay again. Small old fashioned boozer. Seems to attract a more middle aged crowd. Good quiz on Wednesdays.
• The Angel on Loampit Vale is now a pile of rubble (demolished earlier this year)while the Rising Sun is a bit of a depressing dive, but has been known to stretch the concept of closing time a little. God, i wish I didn't have to get a bus to Blackeath or Greenwich to find a good pub. Anyone know of any hidden gems?
• If you are fed up with chain pubs check out The Woodmam on Lee High Road. It is has excellent Guiness and traditional Irish music every Sunday night. Also the landlord, an Irish guy, is usually fairly relaxed about drinking after hours.
• The Watch Tower on Lewisham High Street is actually called the Watch House (Wetherspoons) and takes its name from Watch House Green which was once nearby. The Catford Ram at Catford is a good Young's pub (councillors or not) and the Rutland Arms on Perry Hill, Catford, is good for real ale and jazz. The 'Hobgoblin'on Lewisham High Street was actually a Hogshead but has now changed its name to Jordans, a fine free house with a wide selection of cask-conditioned beers ciders and country wines. The Dacre Arms in Kingswood Place (off Lee High Road) is a good local boozer with well-kept beers.
• Gay pubs in Lewisham. Stonewalls, near the Leisure Centre, is OK in an 80s imitation sort of way, if a bit impersonal. The Roebuck, near Lewisham Shopping Centre, is dire, but has to be seen to be believed. It attracts a strange mix of 'fresh' and 'experienced' faces.
• Lewisham drinking is now dominated by boring chain pubs on the High Street - uniformed staff, snotty bouncers, and at weekends packed with, er, young local people, some of whom give a convincing impression of not being able to take that fifth pint of overpriced lager. The Quaggy Duck is smaller than Yates's & has better beer. The Watchtower (Wetherspoon's) has good beer but is really, really boring (& the only one of them that doesn't usually need a bouncer) The Firkin pub at the end of the street goes up and down. There is a new one opened up but I've not been there. "Brockley Barge" near Brockley Station is a better-than-average chain pub (Wetherspoons) and worth a visit if you are passing but too out of the way for a special trip. The Brockley Jack is big & out of the way. Last time I went there some remarkably good-looking women. Maybe it was a coincidence. Hobgoblin at the Hospital end of the High Street is friendly, tiny, and has great real beer. Hobgoblin on New Cross Road is much larger and wall-to-wall students some nights. Which is fun if you like students. Most genuine local pubs losing money and dead quiet except on Fridays when often too noisy. The Rising Sun on Loampit Vale is the nearest you get to a normal local's local. Quiet, but not totally empty, especially early in the evening when people coming home from work bump into those having a pint before a night out. Mostly Irish and Jamaican. Later on you get the hard-core sad middle-aged blokes on bar stools & a few spectacular drunks. Decent beer. Duke of Edinburgh just on the Lewisham side of Lee Green is also a friendly local. Folk music on Mondays. Which will put off anyone who might be happier in Yates's. Mason's Arms on the high street great for a quick pint & a newspaper when shopping is too boring. Catford Ram in the boring Catford Shopping Centre is where you see the boring borough councillors get boringly rat-arsed after committee meetings. But it is worth it for the experience of seeing the Catford Cat whilst pissed. The Angel on Loampit Vale used to be a wonder of a pub. Best Irish boozer in South London. It had a reputation for never closing. But the landlord moved on, and it changed hands 3 or 4 times, and no-one has gone there for years. Even closed down a few times. Maybe worth a try to see if the Guiness is still as good. Most Lewisham people who really like pubs go to Deptford or Greenwich... Rising Sun on
• Wetherspoons in Brockley
• The best real ale in Lewisham is at the Watchtower opposite the library - a Wetherspoons pub with 5 or 6 different real ales on tap - Does decent cheap food too
• The Fox and Firkin and the Hobgoblin (opposite Ladywell Baths) on Lewisham High Street are worth a visit. The Catford Ram is the place to eavesdrop on hot local political gossip as it is next to the Town Hall.
• The Copperfield by Catford Bridge station has seen better days, but is good for a quiet friendly drink. The Quaggy Duck in Lewisham is worth a visit just cos of the name.

Cafes and Coffee Shops

• Toads Mouth Too Brockley Moonbow Jakes Catford
• maggies. still the best, watch out for their "irish sauce"
• Caio cafe on LEE high road is unfortunatly no longer there. it is now a Favourite fried chicken.
• Cafe Creme in New Cross
• Moonbow Jakes Coffee Bars; 275 New Cross Road, SE14 and 325 Brockley Road, SE4
• Best cafes are on Lee High Road & the little road connecting that to the High Street. They come and go, it is always a different selection. Just wander around.
• cafe ciao on Lee high Rd does really good coffee and cakes and is run by a dead nice Italian family
• MAGGIES CAFE,320 Lewisham Road. .... best in town, huge portions, tea and coffee top up free after 1st cup, friendly staff.
• Chelsea Coffee Shop in Catford and Littlewoods Restaurant in Lewisham

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Last updated: 2008-07-08