Arch Rivals Forest Gate

This wonderful restaurant housed in a railway arch in Forest Gate is nowhere near where we live. It is a mission to get there from Croydon so once on the journey we felt we couldn’t turn back. At this point we discovered Max was basically teething his face off and was inconsolable. And I didn’t bring the baby nurofen. Cool.

We managed to acquire some en route but turned up to Arch Rivals with a less than happy child. And it was raining a bit so we couldn’t make use of the outdoor seating to help drown up his grizzle. Despite all this the staff were incredibly chill. Like so nice. The short blackboard menu full of pack a decent lunch of spice flavours was exactly what we needed and the cocktails also helped. You pay at the counter here so if needed you can make a swift exit but we would have been happy to stay a lot longer if not for Max being so miserable.

Almost every other table also had little people roughly Max’s age at them. They’ve only got two highchairs though and it seems like a popular haunt for young families so get there early.

What’s good? The cocktails. The food menu regularly changes but we loved the kimchi fried rice, the baos and the chocolate and salted caramel panna cotta. (We have Max some because he’d been refusing all food and he was instantly happier.) Also the music, everything they played from Beck to Blues was very much up my street.

Kid friendly? Absolutely. What a relief to travel all that way to find such an oasis.

✓baby change facilities

✓highchairs available

✓cool with breastfeeding

✓loads of other parents

✓space for buggies

✗children’s menu

✗toys/play area

Rating ????

 

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