The Dulwich Wood House (Bar)

Top 10 things you need to know about the Wood House pub:

1) Londoners like to describe certain areas like Dulwich as leafy and a visit to the Wood House feels more like a trip to the jungle, with an abundance of timber from the surrounding Sydenham Woods.

2) Unless you can find directions from the sun, precision planning with a satnav or citymapper app is essential to find your way through the remote woodlands. Or enjoy the pleasure of being lost.

3) Options are limited in the wild, but thankfully this last outpost of humanity is a gleaming palace of modernity. 

4) There is an elegant conservatory extension where the restaurant is located. The kind of conservatory your best friend can always afford, where the glass is always glistening, the sofas are always soothing, and the sun is always shining.

5) The beer garden is so vast, you could probably have your own hunting expedition in it, or you could just be a slouch and wait for the burgers to be ready from their dedicated outdoor burger shack.

6) If you’re the type who awards zero points for originality because dishes like beetroot-cured salmon are almost universal in every London gastropub, you definitely need to award ten points for quality here because the salmon is sashimi-grade fresh, like it was just caught from a nearby tributary.

7) The freshness extends to their sirloin of beef roast. Along with a mountain of roast potatoes, mixed greens, carrots, beetroot and Yorkshire pudding, this is a portion size for the hardworking countryside labourer and not the 35-hour week computer screen gazer.

8) They have an extensive wine list, but if you have acquired tastes, they will happily go foraging for ingredients and come up with a bespoke cocktail for you.

9) Knowing that they might be the last frontier of civilisation before the wilderness, they have come up with cycle club Tuesdays: if you take a bike ride to their bar, they will offer you a complimentary bar snack along with your tipple to reward you for your calorie burning efforts.

10) If you are a city slicker bored of seeing suits and ties in your local, maybe you should take a walk on the wild side and trek to the Wood House....read more