Gareth's reviews
Review of Horniman Museum and Gardens
22 Jul 08, 13:20
Fantastic museum for kids and parents 
In summary, this museum was built with the money from a Victorian tea-trader, Mr Horniman to you and me. Some of the original collections are here, and it is fascinating to see these at a time when most museums seem to have fallen over themselves to clear out the old and make everything a multimedia experience. the main gallery is a cornucopia of animals, insects, birds of a feather - all stuffed and mounted for your persual. The centrepiece is an enormous stuffed Walrus - reason enough to visit. Other reasons to come - cafe - normally full of squaking kids, but get here early or when the schools aren't on holiday and you can sit down with a very decent coffee. Music Room - There's a little music room for the kids hidden downstairs where they can let some energy off by banging drums, xylophones etc Gardens - the museum is set in very lovely landscaped gardens, chock full of plants and trees to give you a bit of year round interest to your walk. Goats/chickens/geese - there's a little animals section in the park - walk up the hill past the museum and there you go, by the bandstand, some squawking things to go and stare at. Aquarium - pretty big aquarium for such a small museum - kids love it, especially the coastal section with the whooshing waves. Anyway, it's free, kids love, and there's plenty here for everyone, whether it's an angry goose or a paleontological ramble round the home counties.
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Review of The Box Bar
18 Jul 08, 10:03
Great gay salads! 
Used to pop in here fairly often when I worked nearby. I'm sure in the evenings it's very lively, but it's generally pretty quiet at lunchtime - you can egenrally get a pretty big group in here without any problems - the salads are great.
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Review of Octopus
18 Jul 08, 09:53
Little shop of b*llocks 
One of those places that sells gifts of a non-determinate nature. Chintzy, initially funny. If you need to buy someone something a bit funky, perhaps something bright and colourful for a friend who's moved into a new house, and you think what they're missing from their otherwise complete lives is a set of brightly coloured salad servers with realistic looking fisheads on the top, then you'll strike gold coming in here!
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Review of G R & I M White
14 Jul 08, 16:46
fantastic traditional bakers
The bread is fantastic enough to be 'a meal in itself' - but whilst staying nearby I found myself dropping in here everyday, the cakes are fantastic - apple pies, egg custard tarts, sweet baby moses, I doubled in weight in a week thanks to this place
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Review of London Recumbents
14 Jul 08, 10:43
Makes a trip to the park very special
This is the secret weapon in the arsenal of child entertainment in Dulwich Park. Cafe? Check. Playground? Check. Lots of space to play frisbee and football? Check. Wild areas to go gruffalo hunting? Check. But you don't ususlaly get the opportunity to hire a trike with a huge bin on the front and pedal the kids round for an hour. There's a whole load of options here, from your standard bike with a kiddy seat on the back - so you can check if it's worth you splahsing the cash on buying your own one, through to bikes with enough spaces to carry the Waltons, through to ground-hugging recumbent kids bikes for the older ones. You can even stick the grandparents on a tandem. Prices are good, and even in the dark days of winter it gets everyone out the house for a while.
1 out of 1 person found this review helpful.
Review of Yo! Sushi
14 Jul 08, 10:30
Ideal for kids if you're on the South Bank
I've been to this branch a couple of times on weekend trips to the London Aquarium. Assuming you want to give the kids something reasonable to eat, amidst all the places selling rubbish aimed at families, this is a great alternative. It's close to the action on the South Bank, it's generally not that busy on a weekend so you can get the family round a table - making sure the adults sit closest to the moving belt of food - as it proves hard for the little ones to resist grabbing everything that passes. Food is your standard generic western sushi, but it's filling and reasonably healthy so a winner as far as i'm concerned. The kids like the unusualness of the restaurant too, and there are enough free chopsticks for the whole family to do naff vampire impressions throughout the meal.
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Review of Kulu Kulu Sushi
14 Jul 08, 10:19
Unpretentious but good
The nkind of place you'd expect Harrison Ford in Blade Runner to pop into. a bit like eating in a cupboard, it's very small, but for a quick lunch with a friend (probably best to keep the numbers low as you can't really form a crowd here) it's perfect. Food is fresh and tasty, tea is good, prices very reasonable by London standards. Love it.
1 out of 1 person found this review helpful.
Review of Wong Kei
10 Jul 08, 11:16
That joke isn't funny anymore 
This was a regular haunt when I was a student - back in the 'not-quite pre-decimal days'. It was cheap, and funny to come here. The service is notoriously awful, angry waiters who don't want you to sit with your friends, the wrong food turning up, being charged on the bill for stuff you didn't order (ho! ho! hilarious!). The trouble is, the joke wears thin, well, for me it wore thin about 15 years ago. They could get away with this IF the food was any good - but it's not. it's the worst kind of generic, horrible 'Chinese' food. There are some decent Chinese restaurants nearby - these guys are giving everyone else a bad name.
1 out of 1 person found this review helpful.
Review of East Dulwich Station
09 Jul 08, 11:41
My Favourite train station! (In East dulwich) 
My issue with this station is the appalling amount of rubbish around it. Peek over the fence - there's tonnes of it! Maybe I should accuse the fair citizens of East Dulwich of not throwing their litter in the bin - it's not too much to ask surely?!? There's no excuse for it, and it's a sign of very bad manners, mjind you, I wouldn't ask anyone to pick their litter up these days, not really in your best interests to get knifed over a crisp packet. Anyway, surely they could clear the litter up once or year? Get some of these young offenders everyone is so keen on these days to get in there and clean it up? Those of us who's gardens back onto the railway line suffer a year-round 'rubbish storm' blowing down the railway line, and I hold Southern Railways responsible! (But in these privatised times, surely they'll blame Network Rail or whoever it is owns the bits of track that aren't in the station or whatever!)
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Review of Psubliminal
09 Jul 08, 11:17
Good indie bike shop
Not much to add to Alan's review, I can't say I was made to feel particularly wlecome here, but then i'm not down with the kids/riding a fixie/or sporting unusual hair/mohican
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