The Montpelier
The burger that won the National Burger Awards Champion of Champions in 2024 was built here on aged beef and smoked bone marrow, and it cost 11 pounds.
Why go
The Montpelier is a Peckham pub that rents its kitchen out and keeps getting it right. Sam and Alicja Bryant ran Whole Beast in it, cooking nose to tail over live fire, and in September 2024 Sam beat 26 previous winners at the National Burger Awards tenth-anniversary all-stars round. They have since taken the concept to their own Brixton restaurant. Mike Bagnall's ELM has the kitchen now, cooking European food the pub describes as running on "sharp acidity, slow smoke and a confident use of spice," with a rotisserie chicken menu on Sundays. The bar itself is five handpumps with two changing cask beers, and there is a 30 seat cinema in the back room.
Order this / avoid
- Order: the Sunday rotisserie chicken from ELM, and whatever the two casks are that week.
- Avoid: the burger pilgrimage. Whole Beast is in Brixton now, and the Aged Cheeseburger went with it.
What locals & experts say
- Time Out London (9 Oct 2024): the Aged Cheeseburger, then cooked at this pub, took Champion of Champions at the National Burger Awards 2024, built on aged beef, smoked bone marrow, American cheese, bread and butter pickles and a milk bun, at 11 pounds.2
- South London Press (Caitlin Odell, 5 Apr 2024):
The Montpelier pub does the invaluable thing (that few can do well) of intersecting multiple genres of night out,
with hash browns and whipped cod's roe ratedtop tier.
3 - CAMRA (WhatPub): the pub runs
standard gastro food, a back-room cinema, weekly pub quiz and small selection of real ales,
five handpumps, two changing beers.1
Good to know
- Timing: open noon to 11pm most nights, midnight Thursday, 1am Friday and Saturday. Food stops around 9pm to 10pm depending on the day, so a late arrival is a drinking one.
- Booking: walk-in. DJ nights on Thursday, Friday and Saturday fill it, and Sunday runs roasts with live jazz.
- Dietary: neither the pub nor ELM publishes an allergen, vegan or gluten-free statement. Ask at the bar.
- Getting there: 43 Choumert Road SE15 4AR, 250 metres from Peckham Rye station.
Craft signals (a residency programme with a National Burger Awards record)
Two signals, both about who is cooking rather than what the bar pours. The kitchen is run as a residency and it has been won on that basis: Whole Beast Kitchen's Aged Cheeseburger took the Champion of Champions title at the National Burger Awards while the team held this room, and the current Elm residency is run by Mike Bagnall, who cooked in Abruzzo and has since opened Auguste in London. That is a room that keeps handing its kitchen to people worth watching, which is a programme. The cask side is small and supports it.
Jeff's take (his words)
- Note: "Whole beat bbq." REAL. Whole Beast was the residency here; it now has its own Brixton restaurant.
Verdict
could-visit — A Choumert Road pub that has been a launchpad twice over. Sam and Alicja Bryant cooked nose-to-tail over live fire here and took the National Burger Awards Champion of Champions title in 2024 with a smoked-bone-marrow cheeseburger, then left for their own Brixton restaurant. Mike Bagnall's ELM has the stove now. Five handpumps, two changing casks, a back-room cinema and a 1am licence on weekends make it a good Peckham night whoever is cooking, and the burger is a separate trip.