It’s small but nicely-decorated inside, with a ‘lounge’ upstairs that you can use for larger groups. The menu is pretty short, but shakes and puddings are on their way, as is an alcohol licence in a couple of weeks.

We had 2 RoxClassic burgers and a Veggie Burger. All were very good. You have a choice of chicken or beef for the meat burgers – we had beef – and we were asked how we wanted them cooked, opting for medium-rare. The bun was a thick, soft, sweet brioche one and the filling was topped off with creamy avocado. The burgers were served in baskets wrapped in plain greaseproof paper for easy eating, with cutlery, ketchup & mustard on the tables – not that I needed either. The burger was not quite as awesome as a Dead Hippy from MeatMarket, but darn close. And RoxBurger has the advantage of being on our doorstep.

Drinks were served in matching tall jars (shades of MeatLiquor), Cokes from bottles with ice & lime. Unlike MeatLiquor, being in a shop with large windows I didn’t need to use my phone’s torch to read the menu. The regular fries were quite skinny and skin-on, and tasty. The ‘Rox Fries’ (seasoned with dried oregano and parmesan cheese) were a bit too heavy on the oregano for my taste – I’ll stick with the regular ones next time.

£11 a head wasn’t the cheapest burger & fries I’ve ever had, but it was delicious, filling food – more than we could eat. We won’t be needing supper. And we’ll be back.

the Goods Shed lunchtime menu on 14th Feb 2012

I had lunch in Paris recently, in a fantastic restaurant, Terminus Nord, just across the road from the Gare du Nord. It occured to me that you would not find such a great eaterie so close to any major railway terminus in London. Well that may or may not be true, but there is an equally wonderful, but very different, restaurant right next to Canterbury West railway station.

The Goods Shed is a kind of fixed, indoor farmers’ market with a restaurant. There’s a huge variety of amazing produce on sale: meat, fish, cheese, vegetables, an extraordinary selection of bottled and kegged beer and cider, cakes as well as a cafe and ready-made food to take away and eat at home.

The restaurant sits around the outside of the shed on a raised platform. The atmosphere is informal and the food is amazing.

Eldest son had slow-roasted pork with marmalade sauce (£14.50). This photo really doesn’t do it justice – it was a BIG piece of meat. The pork just melted in the mouth and the crackling was perfect: crispy on top, without a hint of being burnt, and utterly melty underneath. The mashed potatoes and curly kale were perfect with it.

I had duck breast with roasted pears, hibiscus sauce… and some kind of mash and curly kale. At £16 this was the most expensive dish we had, and I was a bit disappointed with it. If you got each ingredient on your fork at the same time, it was lovely, but the duck on its own didn’t taste of anything very special to me.

My daughter had chicken – it was a leg, and being a leg they were unable to split it for a child portion. But what chicken! This was easily the best chicken I have ever had. It was cooked utterly perfectly – the source produce, seasoning and cooking process were all top-notch. And, like the pork, there was a lot of meat on the plate here. Superb.

There was also a very tasty, generously-portioned vegetarian platter on offer. I’m sure the puddings are amazing, but we were vanquished by the genorosity of the portions… and we thought we probably ought to visit the Cathedral, which was (ostensibly) the main purpose of our visit to Canterbury in the first place.

A very filling one course lunch for 2 adults and 3 children (two of whom had adult portions) came to £77.40 including one local ale and five soft drinks.

Thoroughly recommended – we’ll be back. And thank you to @ginandting for suggesting it.

Web site: http://thegoodsshed.co.uk/restaurant/
Closed Mondays!

I rounded off the day by watching one of my favourite films: Powell and Pressburger’s 1944 masterpiece A Canterbury Tale.

I’m very late discovering Panda Panda… but what a great café!

I was in Deptford, London SE8 and tweeted for suggestions of places to eat. @Sarahluv81 suggested Panda Panda, and she’s spot-on.

It’s a small café on the busy main road of Deptford Broadway – the main A2 out of London to Kent, close to Deptford Bridge DLR station. They’re famous for their Vietnamese baguettes, but we both had noodles. My pork noodles were delicious and hugely filling – £4.95 a bowl. My companion had Mushroom and Tofu noodles which were almost as nice. We were the only customers when we arrived for an early lunch but it soon started filling up, and our food arrived almost before we’d ordered it. You can have optional nuts and chillis on your noodles – we had both. Chillis were pretty hot, but on a cold day that’s no bad thing.

The thing that really has me hooked is the bubble tea, though – amazingly-textured concoctions served with a big fat straw through which you suck velvety balls made of tapioca. I love South Korean Aloe Vera drink, so this was very much up my street, but they have plenty of other healthy fresh juices without tapioca if you don’t fancy silky balls slipping down your throat…

A very filling lunch for 2 including fresh drinks came to £15.10.

Rather frustratingly it’s only open from 10.30 am to 6pm, so the free local delivery isn’t that useful, and it’s closed Sunday. I hear they visit Brockley Market in Lewisham too.

I don’t really do ratings, but I’d give it 9/10. They probably deserve an extra point for restraint – I almost certainly would have called the place ‘Panda! Panda!’ and would have been much more in-your-face with the panda motif all round.

I will be back – with my Oriental-food-crazy kids.

Website: http://panda-panda.co.uk/

The Guildford Arms is a gastropub in Greenwich, SE London. It currently looks a wee bit blank and uninviting from the outside – indeed I had walked past it ages ago and found its starkness a bit intimidating. It might not exactly be a cozy boozer, but it turns out to be a great place to eat as well as drink, with local Meantime beer on tap as well as Madonna’s favourite pint, Timothy Taylor’s Landlord.

For my starter I had cauliflower soup with truffle oil – this was creamy, perfectly seasoned and the cauliflower flavour was spot-on, not too over-powering. My companion had Roquefort, Roasted Walnut, Beetroot & Chicory salad which was nice.

M’companion had beer-battered fish and chips – fish was excellent. I tried the chips – not quite crispy enough on the outside for my liking; possibly they’d not been cooked twice (or thrice) on a high-enough heat at the end. My main course was sublime though: slow-cooked ox-cheeks with anise, smoked garlic mash, sprout leaves and carrots. The meat was delicious and melted in the mouth. The smoked garlic was hardly detectable in the mash, but it was perfectly smooth and warm and filling, and perfect for a sunny winter’s day. The greens hiding underneath were perfect.

For pudding my companion had warm chocolate and hazlenut brownie with ice cream, and I had pecan tart with whisky ice cream. The former was very nice, the latter was perfect. The pecan tart was sweet and moist and the ice cream had a big hit of whisky flavour. One for the road!

The Guildford Arms has a formal dining room on the first floor and a second floor function room, plus a decent-sized garden and decked area. It’s run by Guy Awford, who also runs the nearby Inside restaurant which we had a lovely after-movie dinner in recently.

Three course lunch for two, including a pint of tasty Meantime pale ale and a half of cider came to £33.85. We’ll be back.

http://www.theguildfordarms.co.uk/