Namaste London RIP

[pip]

It appears that the above has gone into liquidation. Such a shame as I will miss their chicken Dhansak a couple of nights each week. Spose I will have to revert to plan B and get a delivery from the Greedy chef in dartmouth road.

[monkeyarms]

My dad was raving about his delivery from the Himalayan Kitchen (just past the bridge to Penge by the Alexandra Pub/Alexandra nurseries) the other night. Not tried them myself, but my dad is a man who knows his curry...

[Nigel]

Monkeyarms - i agree with your dad - Himalayan Kitchen is excellent .
The food is done by the Neel Family who have done a lot of catering for events aroundabouts - secondly all the meat is from Billings ( go Amo and his great staff ! ) and all the veg is from the delightful Meena and Ikie at Fresh and Fruity . I have had several take-aways from Himalayan , each one really good indeed . Sorry to hear about Namaste .
A very good evening
Nigel

[Sydenham Syd]

It appears that the above has gone into liquidation. Such a shame as I will miss their chicken Dhansak a couple of nights each week. Spose I will have to revert to plan B and get a delivery from the Greedy chef in dartmouth road.

I would definitely recommend the Dhansak from the Barakah as a replacement
I have had both versions, and would say the Namaste is 7/10 and Barakah is 9/10

[alywin]

I don't eat curries myself, but the Himalayan does have a recent sticker for being highly commended or something among SE20 restaurants. And given that they were unfortunate enough to have those !"£$!£%"!£^ gas leak works right outside for 6 months last year, I'm sure new custom would be welcome.

[chrisj1948]

A bit of a nudge for an old thread, but my wife and I have just had a takeaway from Himalayan Kitchen. Good portion size, excellent flavours, and good value for money. We placed the order using their App. After 50 years working with computers I had reservations about whether it would work, but it did!

Regards
Chris

[leenewham]

I wasn't a fan of Namaste, although it looked great, which is why we tried it before any other locally. We gave it a couple of goes but found others to be much better.

Our favourite is the Himalayan Kitchen. Second is Barakah and the Lemon tree. But we rarely get take aways these days, we'd rather cook our own food. It's far cheaper.

[Bovine Juice]

Himalayan won the Penge Tourist Board's Best Takeaway award for 2016 - voted by residents of SE20 and surrounding area. It is a really great place and lovely family. Their nine veg dish is a personal favourite.

[Nigel]

Definitely recommend Himalayan Kitchen - lovely people , excellent food , ingredients sourced from Fresh and Fruity and Billings .
Glad to see them getting recognition - it's well deserved
A very good evening
Nigel

[monkeyarms]

The one thing that really puzzles me about Sydenham is how the owners of commercial properties along the high street can simply afford to let them stay empty.

I can understand why one shop might close and be replaced by something many of us on this forum would find non-ideal (e.g. another chicken shop, another budget chainstore, another estate agent). But what I can't understand is the long-term vacancy whoever owns Namaste and the boarded-up 'Whatever Leisure' place next to it and, towards Lower Sydenham, the old paint shop, the old upholsterers, the place with a couple of motorbikes in it, the former nursery that claims to have 'been acquired by Pedder'... You could add the various empty places in Kirkdale to the list.

It's not like they are 'to let' and not receiving any takers; they just aren't 'to let' in the first place

Is commercial property in Sydenham really so insanely dirt cheap that its owners can simply afford to let it remain empty, keeping their fingers crossed that one day it will have escalated in value sufficiently to sell it on? You'd have thought that, even if that was their game-plan, they'd at least want to top-up their investment by letting it to a business?!

[Nigel]

Monkeyarms
I was thinking the same - there seems to be no pressure to get shops moving into new business and surely that is not great for existing business .
I know there are some well informed people out there and would love to understand what the hell is going on .

A very good morning
Nigel

[chrisj1948]

.. the place with a couple of motorbikes in it,

That is open, occasionally, and by appointment.

Regards
Chris

[leenewham]

The upholsterers is being used and someone lives in it. It was on the market a few times. With a bit of TLC it could be really nice. I think the shop front should be listed locally.

Whatever Leisure is in the process of being developed. Its had a few proposals put into planning.

Sometimes owners don't want to let a property, or they don't want to change its use (the old flooring place in Kirkdale could have been a wood fired pizza restaurant, but the owner didn't ant to change its use), or they are thinking of developing it, or it's been lost in the books of a large company that simply buys lots of freeholds until it can figure what to do with them or make them pay. I'd also guess that it's a good/safe way to 'bank' money in property, or 'clean' it, but this last point is pure conjecture on my part! The other points are things I've experienced working with high streets.

There was a shop in Crystal palace on Church Road that was empty for ages. It was owned by a large corporation in the city. Locals tracked down the owners and lobbied them until eventually they did it up.

Until that happened, they didn't care.

It's like that in most high streets.