Chef Patron Trish Hilferty and Charlie Bousfield opened The Canton Arms in 2010 after working together previously at the group mothership pub the Anchor and Hope in Waterloo. The pub immediately gained attention in the National press and was quickly voted into the Top 50 GastroPub Awards where it has remained ever since. As recently as 2021 we won Hardens BEST London Pub award and 14 years later we are still going strong and are well established in the London dining scene.
We are part of a small independent group of other award-winning pubs. These include The Anchor and Hope in Waterloo, The Clarence Tavern in Stoke Newington and The Magdalen Arms in Oxford.
Each pub has its own characteristics due to the different working partners in each. However, the ethos in all remains the same which is to provide the tastiest seasonal food and bar snacks alongside well-kept ales and a brilliant constantly evolving wine list of delicious natural wines.
Our wine list includes many carefully sourced, organic and low-intervention wines and changes with the seasons like our menu. We buy from many suppliers and have close relationships with them all. We taste regularly to ensure we have the tastiest wines on our list and in the cellar.
As well as a great selection of lagers, craft beer and ciders we also have a fine selection of real ale. In our beer cellar, our casks are organised, laid and vented diligently to ensure you receive the perfect pint.
Our cocktail list is made of the classics and ranges from a well-made martini to the simple whisky mac. Seasonal cocktails are made throughout the year depending on what suitable produce is available.
We have a long-standing love affair creating our own drinks in the pub. The drinks are seasonal and take up our shelf space around the dining room. We make damson and sloe gin, cherry/plum brandy, bay leaf and fennel digestivo, blood orange ‘cello’ and rhum arrangeé plus many more.
We are perhaps most famous for our ‘Vin D’orange’ or homemade orange wine. We make orange wine throughout the year due to the demand from our regulars, but our favourite orange wine is made throughout the winter months when the blood oranges and bitter Seville oranges are in season.
We cook a daily-changing menu using some of the best produce we can get our hands on. Tamworth & Middlewhite pork from Swaledale Foods in Yorkshire, wild line-caught Mersea Island sea bass from Ben’s Fish and Salt Marsh lamb for our seven-hour braised lamb shoulders from The Rare Breed Meat Company based in Essex. We also make our own sausages and house charcuterie and bake fresh bread in-house every day.
Seasonality and provenance are essential to what we do. Throughout the year, you can find an abundance of the finest fruits and vegetables from our friends at Primeur and Giaci. Sun-ripened tomatoes for our Greek salad, stunning striped aubergines for caponata and Romana courgettes to be braised with garlic and chilli in lots of generous extra virgin olive oil.
Canton food is all about sharing. Big steaming pots of beef shin bourguignon, oxtail goulash and, of course, our seven-hour Salt Marsh lamb shoulder.
Our feasting menus prove very popular for parties over 10 people, whether it’s a birthday, anniversary or a long overdue catch-up with friends.
We also provide bespoke menus for weddings; just drop us an email at [email protected] if you’d like to host your special day at the Canton.
