Coal Lotta Love | Coal Rooms, Peckham Rye, London

Don’t you just love it when an impromptu little lunch turns out to be one of your month’s foodie highlights? That’s exactly what happened to us when we stumbled across (actually more like tripped into) the Coal Rooms right next to Peckham Rye train station.

The day started out like most days. A quick visit to the gym (don’t laugh) and on then off to get some social content for one of our clients. This time it was to video the wonderfully enthusiastic butchers at Flock and Herd – suppliers to The Table Café on Southwark Street. En route we passed The Begging Bowl and an excited Saff earmarked this as our late lunch destination.

Unfortunately The Begging Bowl was closed and after a slight sulk, Saff flicked on the Code App to see if there were any lunch deals. That’s when Coal Rooms made an appearance and to be honest first off I wasn’t too bothered. There are so many ‘coally’ restaurants around – Coal Shed, Coal Office, Coal Drop Yard, Coal this and Coal that I assumed that they were simply jumping on the band wagon (or should that be coal wagon).

But I was wrong, Saff convinced me that she’d read great things about this restaurant plus it’s named Coal Rooms because it’s situated in the former Peckham Rye train station ticket office, station master’s office, waiting room and site of the old coal bunkers.

Chuck another log on the fire…

As mentioned earlier, I made quite an entrance. My bag snagged on one of the café style metal chairs that was just outside the door. Momentum carried me forward until the chair anchored itself on the step and brought me to a clattering stop. Not a great first impression, I wasn’t sure if team behind the counter were scared or simply bewildered.

After a quick untangling we decided to have a couple of coffees and sit with our laptops for a 15 minute email purge before going through for lunch – the front of Coal Rooms is a chilled cafe serving up decent cups of coffee and a small selection of snacks and pastries.

The old station master’s office.

Emails replied and questions answered it was time to wander past the somewhat industrial (medieval even), kitchen with their monster bespoke charcoal grill and oven – counter seating on one side and a wall of logs on the other. Once through this dark middle room you emerge into a beautiful airy and bright dining room. High ceilings, cream walls, period fireplace, clean modern yet elegant tables and chairs and a sprinkling of greenery just to take the edge off the sterility.

The lunch menu is fairly short but full of interesting dishes. The evening menu (and, to a slightly lesser degree, the Sunday roast and breakfast menu) is packed with meaty excitement too. Think dry aged duck breasts, mangalitsa cowboy steaks, roasted cod heads, and 40 day-aged dexter sirloin and rib. You shouldn’t ignore Coal Rooms’ imaginative list of house sauces either – such as rib gravy, crab apple jelly, jerk caramel plus greengage and mead ketchup.

But let’s not get carried away, we were here for a quick lunch. I just had to order the IPA buck rarebit (£7) with a cheeky Pink grapefruit G&T (£5.50). If I’d known it was this good I would have ordered two and passed on my other order of ‘Peckham Fatboy’ hash brown (£6). As tasty as this was, it simply didn’t compare with the rarebit – imagine the softest, fluffiest cheese on toast topping. OK, remove the toast, replace it with a lightly toasted crumpet, pop a confit egg and chopped pickled walnuts on top then surround with a nest of shoestring potatoes. Wow!

Saff was a little more restrained, partly as she doesn’t like cheese but most importantly because she was on a strict soft food diet (trying to give the pain caused by her EDS, a little respite). She ordered the soft Corn tacos, green chorizo and pink pickled radishes (£7). Tangy yet not too spicy, she obviously enjoyed them as I wasn’t offered a taster – or maybe she thought I was making too big a fuss over my rarebit.

More fat boy – different course!

We just about had enough time to squeeze in dessert and we were so glad we did! Coal Rooms classic pudding, the Millionaire’s Shortbread (£6), is another must. Stout caramel, chocolate, rapeseed shortbread and waste barista milk – they had us at stout caramel.

Old school (or should that be old station) toilets.

The restaurant was fairly quiet and it was nearing 3pm as we left, with just two other couples, so as you would expect service was quick and attentive. That said our server got bonus points for knowing the menu inside out and for giving us a little tour of their brand new private dining room – a dark and intimate dining space for up to 12 people, situated train station’s old ladies lavatories. (Oh, be sure you visit the loos, they’re like stepping back in time – just cleaner.)

Coal Rooms is a perfect addition to Peckham’s thriving food and bar scene and it really couldn’t be any closer to the train station for our journey into central London – talk about convenient!

Find out more here
11a Station Way, Peckham Rye Station, London, SE15 4RX
(located directly next door to the entrance of Peckham Rye train station)

Telephone: 0207 6356699
Email: hello@coalrooms.com

Book a table online

Opening times
Monday – Friday: 6.30am – 11.00pm
Saturday : 8.00am – 11.00pm
Sunday: 8.00am – 6.00pm

Find them on Facebook
Follow them on Twitter
Follow them on Instagram

Nearest station: Peckham Rye (0 mins walk)