Londonist asks that most pressing of daily concerns: where to go on your lunch break.
PETITOU
63, Choumert Road, Peckham LONDON SE15 4AR
Nearest Station: Peckham Rye
PHONE NUMBER: 020 7639 2613
9am – 5.30pm, Tues – Sat; 10am - 5.30pm Sun.
Expect to Pay: £5 - £6 for a ‘main course’
Rating: 9 out of 10
Time for South London to get itself on the lunch menu. Petitou is an absolute treasure nestled away in the (safe, regenerated) back streets of Peckham. Although it is just off Bellenden Road with its designer lamp posts and bollards, and but a yam’s throw from the bustle of all the food shops in Rye Lane, this café actually feels both other worldly (actually Totnes springs to mind) and other timely (let's try hippyish enthusiasm combined with a scrubbed, pleasantly dated 1950s feel).Petitou is terrifically welcoming, with its mismatched tables and chairs, and art and leaflets in equal measures covering the walls: the only BUT about the place is that it can get overbearingly crammed with ‘yummy mummies’ (+ their sprogs) on weekdays. The staff are well-informed, invariably cheerful and endlessly accommodating.
And the food? Well, it is mostly home-made and organic, and the portions are huge. Londonist enjoyed doorstep wedges of home-baked buttered toast heaped with perfectly seasoned scrambled egg, draped with smoked salmon and dotted with avocado (Londonist doesn’t believe in cholesterol). The cakes are to drool for. (If you really have to watch your figure there are salads and fresh juices a plenty.) And there is an impressive range of bevvies – from herbal teas to organic wine (taking in decent coffee along the way).
As Rye Station is but 12 minutes out of Victoria, and this popular paragon of prandial delight is but five minutes from the station, it is certainly worth the trip from ‘up north’; southerners have been enjoying it for ages.
With thanks to Ana for the photo.
