Food & Drink

THE CASTLE - SE5

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16 March 2007

The Castle
65 Camberwell Church Street
SE5 8TR
Tel: 020 7277 2601
www.the-castle.co.uk


Musseling in on our Camberwell

SUNDAYS SHOULD be about eating, drinking and capitalising on the merriment before Monday morning's rush hour crushes the weekend vibe. Fortunately, there are some peaceful pockets in the borough's most unlikely places.

Passers by might not consider Camberwell the place to head for a lazy Sunday escape, but as the saying goes, you shouldn't judge a book by its tatty dog-eared cover. The area is slowly, perhaps reluctantly, being gentrified. The symptoms are clear; first come the new estate agents, then comes the culinary awakening.

Late last year local boozer, The Castle on Camberwell Church Street, was given a new lease of life by business partners, Michael Knight and Winston Levene. After a year of research from the Midlands to Greater London, the pair lay their hats in SE5. 'Crazy,' outsiders may say; but insiders know Camberwell could very well be the new Hoxton or Shoreditch. Well, let's wait and see.

The Sunday afternoon I spent at The Castle started out with a few scattered couples absorbing the weekend papers and ended up with a full house of folk nursing a pint or two and the odd roast dinner.

The Castle still has plenty about it that says 'old local' even though the owners are new. To their credit, the pair didn't come in and start ripping out old booths and pasting up fancy wallpaper in an attempt to create an antiquated 'look'. The open plan dining room has all the standard pub features from a groovy old solid bar to a sport-friendly wide screen and even a snug games corner with an open fire.

After a couple of decades in kitchens across the continent, Knight has picked up a few tricks of the trade. The way into the hearts of return customers is through their stomachs and apparently the popular vote is for the steamed mussels. Knight's 'moules frites' can either be ordered dressed up with tomato, herbs, celery, basil and white wine or a spicier version of Thai curry and coconut cream.

I set my taste buds on the dressed down option, when a traditional dish is done well, why rock the boat? The bog standard mussels with garlic, shallots and white wine were fortunately neither 'bog' nor 'standard', and were
perhaps as good as it gets this far from the coast.

Let's face it, nothing can really compare with digging in to a steaming pot of fresh mussels straight out of the big blue while simultaneously sucking in the salty seaside air. However, when you're trapped in the smog of south London, you have to look on the bright side.

FOOD (1-5)  4
AMBIEMCE (1-5)  3
PRICE VALU (1-5) 4
DISABLED ACCESS YES
DISABLED TOILET  NO
PRE-BOOKING NO

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