United Kingdom

London

Vietnamese 

Food

Made up of chefs George Brown and Faddy Velmi, Cutie Pies are a well-loved duo catering to London's sprawling culinary scene.

The capital city is known for its multiculturalism, and this shows across its food scene. Brown and Velmi are two chefs who – if you follow them on Instagram, you'd know – have an in-depth knowledge of where you should order Italian food or where you can find hearty meals in the city. They're known for their food concepts, pop-ups and residencies, for which they're able to display their range and dexterity in cooking. This has seen them cook Russian-themed banquets, take over pubs and create bespoke, one-off collaborations.

So we tapped the pair for their expertise. In this travel guide, the duo have mapped out their top picks for food in the south London neighbourhood Camberwell. There's a range of food choices that include bakeries, caffs and pubs, complete with some insider knowledge that you wouldn't find elsewhere.

Silk Road has been a mainstay on the London Chinese restaurant scene and certainly remains the best option south of the river. Its Xinjiang-style Sichuan dishes have been consistently numbing mouths and burning tongues for well over a decade now. Although the mountains of long dried chillies have been somewhat curtailed for the less capable spice palate of the clientele, even these more accessible iterations of classic, home-style dishes are delicious in their lashings of black vinegar and hot oil. Our order has been remarkably unchanged for a long time. Order lamb skewers, pork and black fungus fried beef dumplings, cucumber salad, home-style aubergine, home-style cabbage with rice and luxury noodles.

Nestled in a corner of a Brutalist estate courtyard, Zeret always offers a convivial welcome and setting. Tafe Beleynah, the matriarch of this unassuming Ethiopian restaurant, will encourage you to order from the sharing platter, with a view to reordering your favourite options. Portions are ample however, so maybe take note of firm favourites and plan your return with new familiarity of the menu. The platters are arranged on injera – a fermented flatbread designed to grip and dip at the various lashings of vegan and meat stews. Cutlery is not provided as standard (although probably available; not that we’ve ever felt the need). Eat with your hands, get tactile; feed yourself and each other. Order the meat selection or vegan selection with an Ethiopian beer.

Grove Lane Deli, as we know it, feels like something from a Richard Curtis Movie. Any Camberwell coffee devotee has made GLD part of their daily routine, and if Jackie Chan was right and "coffee is a language in itself", then Danielle – the owner and baker – speaks with great fluency. The coffee, pastries, well-curated selection of posh, dry goods and natural wines make for fun shopping when you fancy a treat. Order the chicken focaccia sandwich (if it hasn’t sold out), burnt milk cookie and coffee. We write this in memorandum of GLD's former self. As of July 2024, it is going through a mysterious transformation – so watch this space.

We first happened upon Betty's just after they had opened. The owner, Andres, thrust plates of his flamed grilled chorizo and potatoes smothered with salsa verde into our hands, before cordially ushering us through the door past the haze from his daring curbside barbecue. We sat and heeded advice to opt for the sopa del dia – a broth rich in beef collagen and punctuated with bright vegetables, paired with the recommended plump long grain rice and avocado that somehow tasted of something beyond the water usually wasted in its cultivation. Not soon after we’d perched, the fire brigade showed up with something to say about Andres’ barbecuing practices. Some light-hearted bribery with grilled meats and good hospitality reassured them, but now you can find Betty's barbecue on less flammable ground at the Camberwell Farmers Market every Saturday from 11am. Order sopa del dia, avocado and rice, empanadas and the BBQ on Camberwell Farmers Market every Saturday.

A fairly new addition to Camberwell, Delly's has a cracker of a lunchtime deal. Lunchtime main and two sides and a drink for six [pounds], but if I could tempt you away from the efficiency of the meal deal, then go for their beef patty. An incredibly short and flaky pastry with an invitingly umber hue instead of the standard brilliant yellow. Encases a filling that I’m convinced is a repurposing of their stewed oxtail. Whatever it is, it’s delicious and blows Greggs’ steak bake out of the water at a savvy £1.50.

South London’s supreme ocakbasi spot, FM Mangal is a shining example of fire and flame cookery. Although recently renovated and stylised to something akin to a provincial Essex Instagram fever dream – complete with a faux flower statement wall – the grill still burns with great genetic skill and prowess. Work your way through the chef specials, grab yourself an Adana kebab; the bafflingly good sumac grilled onions and the bread is moistened to perfection with meaty juice run-off to mop it all up. Order the FM Mangal chef's special:  lamb beyti aubergine.

Lockdown sandwich maestros are slinging their playfully named sub-roll bangers from bustling pub destinations: the Grove House Tavern and The White Horse in Peckham. Their lunchtime executive solutions, once the saviour of working from home isolation, are still out for delivery daily. We worked alongside these fellas for a good while and gladly scoffed their sandwiches on the regs – and without fatigue. Don’t miss their evening menu either, perfectly calibrated alongside fun and pint sinking. Order literally any sandwich.

An unassumingly credible Dominican food spot. Despite its name, we would recommend to flip the menu and ignore the breakfast. As far as South American food goes, expect lots of fried meats piled high on a plate. This is a real great alternative to the fry-up if you’ve had a few too many beverages the night before. Order the empanadas, parrillada and the pollo a la canasta.

The obvious caff in Camberwell to nurse a hangover would be Rock Steady Eddies, but we prefer to drag ourselves a bit further up Coldharbour Lane to Johnnies. A sensory overload at every turn, this diner is the perfect spot for people watching. At peak times there’s a queue out the door but wait it out if you can. [You'll be] well fed for around a tenner. Order the full English.

Theo’s pizza is one of the closest replicants of Neopolitan-style pizza we’ve come across in London. We spent the best part of a week in the Italian centre of pizza, consuming 17 pizzas in five days, so we got a decent grasp of what was good and how it should be. Although that pizza pilgrimage is still definitely unrivalled, Theo’s does pretty damn well and, if anything, their pizza fritta comes the closest to the Italian original. Aside from strictly pizza authenticity, Theo’s works well as a restaurant with scope outside of their main commodity. Their sharing plates of mortadella, guindilla peppers and puffed fried dough nuggets are a great way to limber up before the main event. And there’s that tiramisu that’s just about perfectly formed and available for takeaway if the gluten overload has rendered dessert a bridge too far. Order the sharing platter, calzone and tiramisu.

Many of us have a very precise configuration of what to order at the British-Chinese takeaway. Regularly passed down a generation, these precisely recited orders become admitted into a kind of British oral history. Van Hing can cater to cravings for the classics, like salt and pepper dishes and Singapore noodles, while also hosting Vietnamese-style offerings as well. Van Hing does what it does and it does it well. You shouldn’t expect modern ‘elevated’ Pan-Asian fusion cooking or the like here; it’s a good, solid choice for cheap and quick eats. Order the sea-spiced aubergine.

The steady decline of the independent boozer is a sad marker of hard times. As pub chains and monopolies swoop in across south London, the essential soul of a good pub is being lost to the sterile formula of the modern gastropub nightmare. This is why we revere places like The Hermits Cave. It may not be the most comfortable or the best equipped, but it does have character. There’s no food offering here, but you’re invited to take your pick from the bounties of Camberwell New Road and eat it in the pub, with local hotspots like Silk Road, FM Mangal or Theo’s to accompany your pint.

Toad Bakery, formerly Frog Bakery, has dominated a market saturated with laminated baked goods. Toad’s creativity in the field is refreshing and despite the cost of butter soaring to almost crisis levels, they never skimp. In a conversation with the lovely owners, Rebecca and Oliver, they admitted that butter was their chief expenditure after staffing costs and it shows. Their Hawaiian spin on a Danish with ham hock and pineapple has been a firm favourite. Their innovative and daring combinations will have you pushing the boundaries of your tastebuds on your morning commute. Regular queues out the door are a sure sign of something good. RIP Frog, long live Toad.

Huong Vi Viet had big boots to fill, stepping into the premises of its now neighbour Silk Road. [This is] a family-run and orientated restaurant with multi-generational staff bringing warm hosting and authentic feeling dishes. The offering spans from the rice noodle to salads of the same extraction, soups and pho (we all know and love), but [the menu] eclipses the usual Anglified plod with some real home-style flourishes. Come hungry as the aunties in the kitchen are here to feed with great maternal instinct. The attentive staff will recommend the best dishes to your taste – we love the bún chả nem Hanoi.

Huong Vi Viet

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