Can anyone recommend...

I don't know about you, but I quite value how people post up recommendations for local things on this website, everything from restaurants and pubs, to estate agents, plumbers, and even the best Tanning shop to get eye-candy. The trouble is that the postings tend to be on individual things, and I just thought it might be interesting if people posted up their top recommendations on whatever, all in the same place. So here goes mine (with no apologies for it being completely biased according to my interests), but I'm more interested in hearing what yours are really-

Best Chinese Take-away- Golden Chopsticks, Tooley st. Excellent food, friendly service, prompt deliveries.

Best Indian restaurant- the one under the railway bridge at the top of borough high street, just before it leads onto london bridge

Best Fish and Chip shop- the one half way down Waterloo Road, past the old Vic, as you are going towards St George's Circus although the battered sausage and chips from the one half way down New Kent Road (near the pub) are pretty good- mind you, I've only ever eaten there when I have been truly caned.

Allround Favourite restaurant- the Vietnamese one opposite Lower Marsh on Westminster Bridge Road.

Best place to get fruit, veg, etc. Borough Market obviously, although you get better conversation out of the fruit and veg at Tesco's on Old Kent Road, some of whom can even remember what it was like in the Blitz

Best candidate for London Mayor: Ken Livingstone for having the balls to do conjestion charging, for freezing bus fares at £1 for ages, for introducing bendy buses

Best place to buy olives- the "Butchers" shop on Tower Bridge Road

Best doctor's surgery- the one at the junction of St George's Road and Elephant and Castle: the pleasantest waiting room I've been in for a loooong time, and the doctors are pretty damn good too! Of course they are, its the NHS, but the other real novelty about this surgery is that the receptionists are cheery, helpful and friendly, which isn't always the way with GP surgeries in my opinion

Best Place to buy cheap booze- the off-license at the junction of Tower Bridge Road and the Bricklayers Arms roundabout. Really good selection at cheap prices

Best museum- the WW2 museum on Tooley Street. Deeply moving.

Best barber's shop- the lime green one on Tower Bridge Rd. Friendly staff doing a good job at sensible prices

Best view of the river- from the top of the GLA building- the balcony outside is a real treat

Best estate agents- My mate tells me that Williams Lynch are professional and efficient, if a bit more expensive than the others.

Best current exhibition- "My favourite dress" on Bermondsey St is really interesting even if you are not into fashion

Best open space- not SE1's strong point, but The Rose gardens on the edge of the Tyers' estate are well kept and a tranquil escape on a summer's evening

Anyway, I am sure you are sick of my self-indulgent list, so what is your best "can anyone recommend"s? There must be some good plumbers, electricians, etc.

The best Chinese restaurant on the whole of the southeast side of the river from the City to Greenwich is Hong Kong City in the Old Kent Road between Toys R Us and New Cross. It's full of Chinese families who normally frequent Chinatown.

The best Indian restaurant in SE1 is the Tower Tandoori on Tower Bridge Road next to Tower Bridge...

The best Peruvian restaurant in SE1 is in Tooley Street.

Can't recommend a good plumber but can recommend one not to use in any circumstances !



Post edited (29 Jun 03 15:15)

Best Restaurants are:

Champor Champor, Weston Street (nominated by Natalie) for something that little bit different
Bermondsey Kitchen (nominated by Rory) for being such good value.

Worst Barber - South side of Tower Bridge Road nearest to Grange Road (I should have noticed that he was wearing a wool cap over his own hair... and feared for my scalp).

Worst Tescos: Elephant

Cheapest flowers: the stall in the Elephant

Another biased list


Restaurants:

Best Italian - La Lanterna, Mill Street

Best modern European - Laughing Gravy, Blackfriars Rd

Best good value modern European - The Bankside

Best Spanish - Mar I Tella, Gambia St

Best Turkish - Tas

Best food with views and future as it was going to be in the past ambience - People's Palace in RFH

Best canteen type eating palce - NFT cafe


Other things:

Best pub that seems hard to find - Lord Clyde somewhere near Marshalsea Road

Best champagne cocktails - Baltic, Blackfrairs Rd

Best fish and chips -Olleys on Great Suffolk St

Best bookshop - Tlon books in the E&C centre

Best dentist - Mr Chater on Borough High St

Best bike shop - London Bicycle repair shop, Hatfields

Best cakes - Konditor and cook

Best station - Southwark Tube

Best building - The National Theatre

Best bridge - Southwark bridge

Best Tourist attraction - London Aquarium

Best Arch - the one under London Bridge with the flashing lights in the pavement

"Best Arch - the one under London Bridge with the flashing lights in the pavement"
which leads us to...
Best Fetish Club, anyone?

I'm still trying to find the post about the best Tanning Shop for eye-candy.

I think it's entitled "The girl in the tanning shop"...

best indian (there is only one) - Thames Tandoori, Waterloo Road. they kick ass.

best bakery - konditor and cook, cornwall road.

Sorry, the best arches are the ones under the long viaduct near the old Spa Road railway station (Spa road, and roads adjacent). I've never been able to imagine why such effort was put into some railway arches - although I suppose that it was the location of the London & Greenwich railway, which was the first railway in London, I believe.

On second thoughts, they're probably in SE16, just, but I hope that the Editor will let them under his stick.

You're right, it was the first railway in London, and the terminus was originally just by Spa Road - the line was later extended and a new station built at London Bridge. Some of them (the arches) are in SE1; I reckon the vaults in London Bridge station are better though, but do they count? Or should I nominate those as Best Vaults?

Damn it - beaten in the race to make the architectural distinction between arches and vaults! There are rumoured to be some unspoiled - i.e. not tinkered about with for the Jubilee line - vaults still under the station somewhere behind the escalators.

But surely the most atmospheric arches were those that now form Vinopolis. To add to the confusion they were known as Clink Street vaults. I've not been inside since the conversion job - what does it look like now?

Does anyone else remember the astonishing art installation HG by the American "theatre visionary" Robert Wilson that was in there for a few weeks in 1995 - on themes from HG Wells?

I think London Bubble also did an event there in the freezing cold which I missed, but everyone who participated raved about.

[I've just run a web search and discovered that you can still buy a video of Artangel's HG project:
http://www.artangel.org.uk/pages/publishing/v_wilson.htm]

Other than this, David Anderton's biased list gets my vote.

[Edited to make clear that link is not to live video stream]



Post edited (01 Jul 03 09:44)