One of the many things I love about where I live is the numerous options when it comes to food and drink just a short walk from our flat.

We didn’t go on our usual Sunday adventure today. After being away with work in the week, roaming the streets of Croydon yesterday and adding to the tiredness by dealing with IT issues over the past couple of days, I needed some downtime. We spent the day getting the flat in order and doing a bit of spring cleaning before wandering down the road this evening as a reward for our hard work.

We arrived at The Bear, one of our nearest pubs that was closed for years until it opened in May last year, just as the weekly pub quiz was coming to an end. It’s no longer the former gin palace that it once was, but I like what they’ve done with the place and it was the perfect place for a pre-dinner drink.

Our plan was to head home for a takeaway, but then we started thinking about all the places we could go to instead. Stormbird for some interesting beers and Theo’s for one of the best pizzas in London was top of the list. Sadly we weren’t the only ones after a pizza, and when we were informed it would be 1.5 hours wait for a table we realised we’d have to to somewhere else.

Noko for Asian skewers and dumplings?

Nandine for Kurdish kebabs?

The recently moved (from next door) Silk Road*, one of London’s renowned cheap eats, for Chinese?

You really can eat all around the world as you walk down Camberwell Church Street.

We opted for one of Camberwell’s best kept secrets – the onion dip at FM Mangal, with a side of Turkish kebab.

Full of food, we somehow managed to resist the numerous pubs we like frequenting and headed home to relax in front of the TV. Weekends do seem to fly by but this weekend certainly ended on a high.

*Despite living here for over 15 years, I’ve never been much to the surprise of many friends, and am torn about going since our comfort food favourite Caravaggio was kicked out and they have subsequently moved in.