Claire's reviews
Review of Banana Leaf Canteen
29 Sep 07, 16:22
Thai me up 
If you've been to the likes of The Pepper Tree in Clapham Common, you'll recognise the set up here. It's Wagamama without the corporate aspect.
Communal canteen style seating in unprepossessing surroundings but swift service delivering tasty, predominantly Thai-style food. Prices are very competitive and for under £9 you can get a main course with rice, a salad, fishcakes and prawn crackers.
Big noodle soups are great, cheap and filling winter warmers and there are enough noodle, rice, spice, meat and veg combos to keep everyone happy.
1 out of 1 person found this review helpful.
Review of The Lavender
29 Sep 07, 16:17
Not quite in a purple patch 
A good place for a pre-show snack or drink if you're heading across the road to the Battersea Arts Centre.
The Lavender is one of those bar meets pub meets restaurant type places. Great olives, either as accompaniment to drinks or a pre-dinner snack.
Food was good - sort of a modern European menu with things like calves liver, risotto, baked camembert etc.
Service let the place down when we were there most recently. Despite the fact that it was early evening and not too busy, it seemed slow to the point of laziness.
1 out of 1 person found this review helpful.
Review of The Goat
29 Sep 07, 16:13
This goat's no donkey
An infinite improvement on its previous incarnation, and one of those places that's really benefited from the smoking ban.
It's a modern pub serving a good range of booze to young Claphamites in sleekish surroundings. Food is served throughout, but if you want to eat away from the seething masses, the dining room upstairs is mezzanine style so you get a table to yourself but can still soak up the pub atmosphere.
Grub is gastropub style and a cut above your usual. Cote de Boeuf for two weighs in at around £30 including a generous portion of mash and veggies, and it would easily have served three; there's roast pork belly, haddock risotto, slow cooked lamb - you get the picture.
It's strange there aren't more places like this in the area, but maybe that's why it gets so busy at weekends - get down early or expect to battle for space.
1 out of 1 person found this review helpful.
Review of Caffe Moka
29 Sep 07, 16:06
Cool for caffs
This little caff just north of Tooting Bec tube is exactly what you want in a local neighbourhood caff. It's not a greasy spoon, more like an Italian caff doing a whole load of eat in/take out food options plus decent coffees and a huge selection of bottled and canned soft drinks.
Staffed by smiley people - which makes a nice change - who serve you decent grub, there's not a lot to complain about, especially when the food is this good. Whether you want a sandwich, a panini, a full English or a jacket potato, portions are healthy, ingredients are fresh and it's all made up to order. Prices are sensible and you can get a decent meal for under a fiver. Good stuff.
1 out of 1 person found this review helpful.
Review of Mango
24 Sep 07, 00:12
Spanish style and sh**ty service
A good range of women's clothes - can be a bit hit and miss but turnover of stock is high enough that if you pop in regularly you'll probably find something funky or fresh to brighten up your wardrobe.
Tall girls will love the place - all their trousers are ridiculously long - short girls will have to find a good alterations place.
Prices are competitive, but service is abysmal. To the point of rudeness. If you're really unlucky you'll get one of the Spanish girls who will look at you like you're a complete idiot for a) not speaking Spanish and b) expecting them to have even the slightest bit of knowledge about their stock or the shop. The English ones aren't much better.
0 out of 0 people found this review helpful.
Review of Dimples Beauty
23 Sep 07, 23:53
Beauty of a salon
I've only ever used their threading services but I was super impressed with just how friendly they were, how efficient and how cheap as bloomin' chips it was. £3 to have your eyebrows done - it costs five times that if you go to Blink at Selfridges or similar.
A friend of mine also claims they do a fabulous Brazilian bikini wax for just £15 - can't vouch for that - but well worth checking them out...
0 out of 0 people found this review helpful.
Review of Soho Gyms
23 Sep 07, 23:35
So No Gym 
Six months ago, I would have given this place four stars, now, it gets a paltry two.
Soho Gym used to be a slightly off beat alternative to the huge corporates that dominate the Clapham gym world. (Alright so there are three or four branches across London, but it's hardly Virgin Active or Fitness First).
It attracts a predominantly gay male clientele, but is straight-friendly and as long as you don't object to the macho posturing, is a great place to work out.
Upstairs is all the cardio equipment - a decent number of treadmills, cycles and cross trainers, plus a couple of rowing machines.
Downstairs it's free weights and plenty of machines, plus a studio for classes.
The biggest drawback is the lack of mat space - there's really only enough space for 3 or 4 people to exercise on the mats and that's just not enough, even when it's slightly busy.
Then there's the fact that there are barely any Swiss balls and the ones there are flat as pancakes.
There used to be a really big range of classes but they've now cut them back - and unfortunately in the process cut two of the ones I used to go to regularly.
All of these would be really minor niggles were it not for the fact that in the last two years, the monthly subscription has rocketed from around £45 to nearly £60. And when, unlike other gyms, they don't allow you to suspend your membership if you have to travel with work, that makes it at least £120 a year that I pay for precisely nothing.
This wasn't meant to be just a rant, it's just disappointing that what was a nice alternative to the money-grabbing Holmes Places and LA Fitnesses of this world seems to have prioritised cash over existing customers.
0 out of 0 people found this review helpful.
Review of The White House
23 Sep 07, 22:26
Pretentious people's playground
I'm really not a fan of this place - it's got the sort of attitude and prices that suggest it's Jewel or Chinawhite, but it's The White House, and it's Clapham.
It would like to think that it's the Manchester United of Clapham clubs, lording it over the Rushden & Diamonds that is Infernos. Sadly they're both really languishing in the relegation zone of the Second Division.
Football analogies are quite appropriate - this place seems to attract footballer wannabes and the sort of women who like them.
Expensive entry, expensive drinks and a lot of posers - but hey, some people like that sort of thing.
0 out of 0 people found this review helpful.
Review of Evo
23 Sep 07, 22:13
China in your hand
You'd be surprised how few eat-in Chinese restaurants there are in Clapham - if anyone knows of any more, do feel free to share.
Anyway, stumbled upon this place and thought I'd give it a go. First up, it has what is possibly some of the worst background music I have ever heard - sort of plinky plonky Oriental-esque stuff and soft rock ballads in a foreign language. But, that's pretty much my only complaint.
Decor is what you'd expect - a bit of red and the odd dragon, nothing too special but nothing too offensive either. The menu is extensive - all your favourites are there, plus a few Thai-style noodle dishes (and, if you insist, curry and chips too).
It seems popular with the Abbeville Village crowd - even on a Sunday evening there were a fair few tables full, and a constant stream of visitors picking up a takeaway.
Staff were lovely, and prices were pretty good - a quarter crispy duck, seaweed, lemon chicken, stir fried veg in oyster sauce, beef with ginger and spring onions and four beers came to around £40 without service.
Hakkasan, it ain't, but, in a surprisingly Chinese restaurat-free area, it's a reliable local Chinese - no surprises, but nothing to disappoint either. If you're craving crispy duck, or something sweet 'n' sour on your doorstep, it does the job.
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Review of Robert Gastro
11 Aug 07, 10:48
Mais oui!
This is the sort of place that Francophiles would wax lyrical about if they found it in a tiny backstreet near Montmartre, but because it's round the corner from Clapham Common tube station, people get a bit sniffy about it.
But I think it's great - typical French food in the sort of shabby chic surroundings that seem genuine rather than contrived. Whether you're passing in the morning and need a restorative croque monsieur and a cafe au lait, or fancy a very good steak-frites later that night.
Staff are also French which adds to the atmosphere (although occasionally you may get the downside of French staff, in the form of a slightly brusque manner), on the whole though, as long as you don't have a hatred for all things Gallic, you can't really fail to like this place.
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