Ten dog-friendly restaurants in Clapham

Today is National Dog Day, and while you undoubtedly celebrate Fido as if every day of the year is National Dog Day, there's no time like the present to share where in Clapham your four-legged bundle of ball-chasing love is welcome to join you. Below, ten places to dine with your dog in Clapham.

1. The Rookery

Bare brick walls, chunky tables and a thoroughly reasonable wine list make The Rookery a local favourite. Located opposite Clapham Common, follow up a long dog walk with The Rookery's Sunday Roast.

The Rookery, 69 Clapham Common Southside

2. Berberè Pizzeria

Did you take up baking in lockdown? Do you know what a starter is? Do you have a sourdough one in your freezer, and tend to it like a plant? Answer yes to all those questions and you'll appreciate Berberè Pizzeria. Making its artisanal pizza from living sourdough (it really cares about its living sourdough, really really), Berberè serves pizza you can finish with every jeans button still buttoned.

That's true for the gluten-free crowd too, who get to enjoy what sounds like an impending water shortage, 'starch hydrolysis', but is actually an ancient leavening technique. Adding a sparkle of whimsy to Venn Street with its outdoor fairy lights, sit with your dog there or indoors, all of these restaurants give you both option.

Berberè Pizzeria, 67 Venn Street

3. Bamia

You love Middle Eastern but you've made every recipe in Simple. Hummus is life, but if you roast another aubergine you'll scream. Meet Bamia. New to Northcote Road, Bamia is the closest Clapham comes to Ottolenghi. Inside, the décor is what you travel out of Clapham to eat in. Concrete, minimal and yes, also boasting exposed bricks. To eat, small plates: okra fries, tahini yoghurt; pan fried halloumi, honey & thyme; black orzo, braised cuttlefish, rosemary & hazelnuts; and whole blackened aubergine, rainbow chard & chickpeas.

Bamia, 47 Northcote Road

4. Megan's

Megan's, The Pavement and The Terrace by Megan's: take your pick, because in Clapham it's two Megan's for the price of one. Actually founded by a fellow called Vincent, Megan's has come a long way since the first little King's Road café opened in 2004, if not geographically. Now a likeable chain of dog friendly, duck-egg blue restaurants dotted around south west London, you know what you're going to get with Megan's.

Megan's, 10 Rookery Road and Megan's, 55-57 The Pavement

5. The Bolingbroke

There are pubs and then there are pubs. Though this list has focused on dog friendly restaurants, the odd exception has been made for pubs which call Clapham home; those hybrids it would be darn wrong to leave off. Named after the Battersea-bred politician and rake, Henry St. John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke, the dining room section is off limits to dogs but the menu – a high quality, seasonal British, considered thing – remains the same throughout.

The Bolingbroke, 174 Northcote Road

6. Minnow

Overlooking Clapham Common, Minnow is the laid-back local that suits every occasion. Its appeal is not dissimilar to Megan's, but the menu is infinitely more interesting. To start: Gazpacho, chargrilled sourdough; Beef carpaccio, crispy kale, caper dressing; Pan fried squid, broad beans, pea purée. For mains: Cod, cauliflower velouté, rainbow chard; Pork loin, tropea onion, beetroot purée; Chimichurri lamb rump, heritage carrots, and for days you're feeling basic Quinoa superfood salad, spinach, avocado, broccoli, mango, cucumber (add grilled chicken +4)

Minnow, 21 The Pavement

7. 33 Abbeville Road

Clapham South is not without its fair share of fur-friendly, good food restaurants. The fourth endeavour by south London chef and restauranteur Ian Lawless, No. 33 Abbeville Road is the homey and welcoming place round the corner that serves rave-worthy food. Good for when you want to up the ante with bae but stay close to home.

33 Abbeville Road, 33 Abbeville Road

8. Metro Garden

Unless otherwise stated, this is a list of Clapham restaurants which allow dogs anywhere. We wanted to clarify that indoors/outdoors choice is yours to make, for reasons the sensibly named Metro Garden save us from explaining (just because you can eat inside doesn't mean you'll want to). If we'd had a balmy summer in south west London, Metro's Garden is where you'd have wanted to spent its evenings sipping rosé under twinkling fairy lights. We didn't, but the pretty magical setting deserves a mention. From Wednesday to Saturday, choose from the set menu, two courses for £25 or three courses for £32.

Metro Garden, 9 Clapham Common Southside

9. The Abbeville

Back to Abbeville Road for another pub that's a pub, and a Top 20 Gastropub in London pub, too. Rustic, full of nooks and crannies to cosy into, you'd think The Abbeville a winter pub and you wouldn't be wrong. But as residents of Abbeville Village well know, stroll past this beautiful neighbourhood pub on any given Tuesday in May. Its wood-framed windows thrown open, with rickety chairs stood wonkily on cracked pavement, this is not the south of France. Let's be clear: The Abbeville is not Provence. But second only to the cobbles of Battersea Square, The Abbeville has to be the best taste south west London gets of southern France when physically forbidden.

Absolutely nothing we've said applies to the menu, which with salt & pepper calamari; mezze; scotch egg with coronation mayo; grilled jerk chicken, beer battered hake; and hoisin confit duck croquettes, is the culinary world tour Concorde retired at too young an age to give. Go on the right night and you won't mind. Neither will Fido.

The Abbeville, 67-69 Abbeville Road

10. Pear Tree Café

Spoiler: Pear Tree Café is not a restaurant. You know that. We know that. What fake rule for why it's included will we come up with? The fact its two founding chefs earned their first burns cooking in Skye Gyngell's kitchen first at Petersham Nurseries and later at Spring does, we think, legitimise Pear Tree's entry. That it's dog friendly is a given. Open any café on Clapham Common – let alone the only café on Clapham Common – and make 'spurning dogs' a rule and there is our real, local Hunger Games life right there. But as you'd expect from protégés of Skye Gyngell, the 'Summer Evening' menu makes it a really human-friendly café. Go on a Wednesday it isn't raining, order sourdough pizzas, drink nice rosé from plastic glasses and listen to Billy Keane play live music.

Pear Tree Café, Clapham Common

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