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Oaka at The Mansion House, Kennington Park Road. Online ...
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Oaka at the Mansion House is a TimeOut favourite in Kennington – a gastronomic take on the classic ‘pub with Thai food’ concept.
It’s also the flagship pub of Oakham Ales, with bottles of their delightful specialty beers available to order.
Plan Your Visit - Escape Plan
We are located on the corner of Crampton Street above the Electric Elephant Cafe.
The entrance to Escape Plan is located in Iliffe Yard; we’re the first red door on the left.
There is limited parking on the adjacent streets for £2.80 per hour from Monday to Friday (maximum stay 4 hours).
Oaka at The Mansion House, Kensington
staff drinks food cleanliness desserts
Unfortunate for pan-Asian restaurant, Oaka at The Mansion House, then that I rocked up to try its, er, beer selection and food marinated in, er, beer.
Essentially it’s one of those pubs with a Thai restaurant attached that seems to grace every UK town, only with one difference: this is no traditional old pub complete with beery fart smell, this is a venue that’s half sleek modern bar (friendly enough to have regulars) and half Thai restaurant with lots of shiny dark wood and red tealight holders.
There are a few quirky touches too: five big silver taps run water above (hard to describe, but, basically, a cool water feature); and a plasma screen shows live coverage of the action in the kitchen (I counted six pans on the hob at one point, manned by just one chef, plus plenty of ladling, stirring and wiping down counters).
Although many of the dishes had been cooked using beer, I couldn’t taste it, so presumably it enhanced the food and was a good pairing to the Asian spices and meaty dishes (such as the ribs).
So please, if you find yourself in Kennington, make a beeline for Oaka restaurant for its friendly service, cool venue and downright delicious savoury food, but do not order dessert, and do not go in thinking you may be converted to the ways of beer because you won’t.
Oaka at the Mansion House | Restaurants in Kennington, London
food
The menu also has high intentions, with luxurious offerings from across the Orient (yellowtail sashimi, miso black cod) in among the mostly Thai dishes.
But the basics are decent – our tom yam soup, laced with lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves and red chilli, cleared out the cobwebs ahead of a refreshing som tam (a salad of shredded under-ripe papaya that balances sweet, salt, sour and spice).
There were a few duff notes, though: a ‘signature’ dish of stir-fried prawns in a sweet chilli reduction proved one-dimensional, and came not with the fine beans advertised, but with sugar-snap peas.
For afters, we tried a tempura-clad scoop of ice-cream: a nice idea, but too sweet and insipid to impress.
This may not be the place to relive memories of hawker stalls – the staff are an international bunch and the music is more ‘spa’ than Siam – but for an attractive spot to enjoy spice and beer, it hits the spot.