telephone: 020 7733 2335

email:  info@veranda-london.com

http://veranda-london.com/

Veranda describes itself as a restaurant, cocktail bar and art gallery – and they are right. The entrance is a small hall (so people can be stopped if they are not invited) and the first part of the long room is  the bar with small tables and some (but not much) comfortable seating. Most people cluster at the bar. At the back are the same small tables but now covered with white linen table cloths with white linen napkins. These tables are overlooked by the disc jockey who peers through an opening surrounded by a picture frame. In fact it took a couple of minutes to realise that this was not part of the art gallery on the surrounding walls.  The gallery on our visit contained paintings – some predictable – red shimmering vistas and African images – but some very interesting photographs of people and landscapes.

We usually talk about the food first but this is not in the rules and the cocktails are prolific and between 5 and 8 some are cheaper than usual (£4.50 vs £7.50)pm and luckily we arrived at 7.30. The cocktail list is actually a book. We didn’t count but there must be more than ten a page and down the margin there is a very helpful guide of how long the drink is using glass shapes. This alleviates the difficult task of trying to guess from the ingredients. We chose a rose and fresh lychee martini and a beer (hard to find at the back of the “book”). The martini was like a martini because of the shape of the glass and smelt very strongly of rose and tasted of lychee. It was also very pretty with a cherry at the bottom of the glass giving the cloudy liquid a rosy glow. I suspect it was very alcoholic (it also contains gin) – it is very difficult to tell in this alcopop. It was lovely but I doubt that I could drink too many because of the sweetness but there are lots more to choose from.

For the food we would have had several of the things on the menu as there was gourmet oxtail, jerk chicken, 3 fish curry, curry goat, and more and more. We chose a plate to share starting with ackee and saltfish parcels. There were three of them (we were warned) – small packets of fried filo pastry. We liked them but the ackee was a bit lacking but the taste of saltfish came through and it was an easy way of eating them. Our plate was the Veranda Supreme which had curry goat and ital curry both in a crispy pastry basket and jerk chicken and Escovitch fish. This all came with rice and peas, coleslaw and fried golden plantain. The fish was hot and spicy – particularly the lavish chilli. The jerk chicken was soft and the sauce was hot but not too fierce. Altogether a good tasting choice but next time I will go for the goat curry. It was complexly flavoured and not too hot so all the flavours came through. Rice and peas — well what can go wrong. The plantain was sweet and had been made sweeter by a syrup. We did share but we didn’t manage to finish the plate.

There were few desserts available – only one – apple and mango crumble. This was not like any crumble we have ever had. It was a hot and sweet sauce and covered with a biscuit crumb topping which arrived with a small portion of delicious ginger ice cream. But on the whole we wouldn’t order this again. The mango was completely lost and perhaps they should just stick to apple.

The night we were there we were waiting for a famous visitor – Sir John Holt – who didn’t arrive while we were there but despite the preparation needed for this from the waiters they were still charming to us. We ate from the a la carte menu but if you book in advance you can eat a mid-week feast cheap (14.50 for two courses or 17.50 for three courses). Our meal was £25.00 per person including the drinks (a cocktail and three beers). We didn’t book but t was not that busy before about 8.15 – after that time you would need to book.

telephone: 020 7274 5373

email:  info@kaff-bar.co.uk

http://www.kaff-bar.co.uk

Open since September this little cafe/bar offers free wifi and is open across the day and at the weekend offers live music and djs until 2am. It has comfy sofas and small tables and during the day is laid back with laptop users and buggies. It gets fuller in the evenings and particularly the weekend. The service is friendly and helpful. The food is Caribbean but they have an arrangement with Ichi-ban Sushi which is jus down the road to extend their menu at the weekend. The Caribbean food is made by Julie – who cooks off site as there is no working kitchen as yet. This is still a work in progress.

During the week its coffee and cakes (mostly Jamaican) or beer, rum and Brixton brewed ginger beer (hot and cold) and Po-Boys (filled baguettes with salad) and a select Caribbean menu. They serve all the usuals – jamaica patties, jerk chicken, goat curry, rice and peas with cabbage or callaloo in cheap “mini meals”. But we chose a meat plate to share. This is probably something that would go down well with beer rather than our choice of an Americana and banana flavoured hot chocolate but it was after exercise and 4.00pm so not really alcohol time. The plate was easily enough to share and included three different small patties (meat, fish and veggie), barbecued wings, plantain and dumplings  - all served with chilli or sweet chili sauce. All, except the dumpling, were great. There was enough sauce on the wings and they slipped easily off the bone, the plantains was sweet and the patties interesting. But It takes a lot of sauce or liquid to make a dumpling to go down. I won’t be ordering a banana flavoured hot chocolate again either.

This is a cheap place for food – not overwhelming in size or cost. On Fridays they even have two pints for a fiver. It was about £6.50 per person for our meal and drinks. We liked the ambiance and will certainly return probably still for coffee and free wifi but also for the free cake club on Sunday – just take along your own cake to compete.

Brixton Village

We decided to produce this introductory entry in order to help people plan a visit – although it is a place you can just wander into as it has something for everyone. The restaurants are a mixture of brand new and well established – mainly the South American ones. The new kids on the block are an eclectic mix of Japanese, Thai, Chinese, Italian, French, Caribbean, Pakistan, Middle Eastern, American, and British and we have already reviewed the majority in this blog. They are not only eclectic in their origin but also within their menus with most stretching across the country barriers.  They also specialise – so Italian food comes as pizzas (Agile Rabbit), pasta (Belantonis, Casa Sibilla) and ice cream (Lab G). They are all sizes too with some squeezing into impossibly small places where virtually everyone is eating outside and others which are more established stretching across the alleyways to other rooms to provide more inside eating space.

The Village grew exponentially last year during the late summer and early autumn when it was pleasant to sit out in the middle of the arcade but even with the cold days and nights is still attracting hungry visitors. Some restaurants now offer the odd heater and a blanket or too for those hardy enough or hungry enough to sit outside but the savvy diners now know that they need to book to get a table inside.

Brixton Village is not just restaurants there are cafes (WAG – wheat and gluten free), coffee shops (Federation Coffee) and tea shops as well as places that sell sweets, secondhand clothes (OK Vintage…) as well as delicatessens. There are also the remains of the original food stalls selling fish and meat. There are interesting greengrocers with displays of Caribbean fresh foods and African dried fish which I have rarely dared to buy and when I have were total disasters. There are also one or two stalls selling those household goods that we used to buy in Woolworths when it was in the High Street. These really add the colour with their displays of plastic bowls and flowers.

Brixton Village is still evolving and by the warmer months is likely to be much busier and may then be self-sustaining. This will depend on the rents which are going up for those who remain open in the evening. Below we have tried to give some seasonal information to provide readers with an idea of what to expect now that the village is so popular. We welcome any comments that can help smooth people’s visit to this vibrant culinary destination.

Vital information

We have tried to make this blog informative but it is very difficult to keep up with two aspects of the restaurants in Brixton Village – opening times and licenses to sell alcohol.

Alcohol – About half the restaurants have a  license and those that don’t are happy to provide glasses. If you arrive without any alcohol then your two best bets are (i) go to Sainsbury’s local near the tube station for wine or (ii) go to one the off licenses on Coldharbour Lane for beer –  either should only take ten minutes. Alternatively they all sell interesting mixed juices and soft drinks – although some of the ginger beers are anything but soft.

Opening times – As a general rule most restaurants are open during the evening later in the week – Thursday onwards. Nearly all are open for lunch from Wednesday to Sunday and a few open during the day on Monday and Tuesday but rarely in the evening. The websites are not that informative as things are moving swiftly so if you are making a long journey just to come here rather than any of the other great restaurants in Brixton then telephone beforehand.

Getting a seat – if you want to take pot luck and haven’t booked then choosing when to go is essential unless you are prepared to wait. There is a rush between 7.00pm and 8.15pm. We assume this is for those heading to the Ritzy. If you time your arrival before or after these times you will usually be in luck and get a seat really quickly. Don’t be put off by long queues such as at Honest Burger as they do turnover pretty quickly and most of the waiters will give you a pretty good idea of how long you will need to wait and often provide some seating. But if you are keen to try those restaurants that always seem to have a queue then just go for lunch at the time they open. If you want to try the best burger in London – and everyone should – then visit Honest Burger shortly after it opens (12.20) on Monday and it will be empty for at least 20 minutes after that. As a last resort some fo the restaurants also do takeaways of sandwiches and substantial wraps that you can take while you wander round.

What to wear - this is not the beginning of a fashion guide as this place is laid back and casual. But we want to remind people that it is cold outside and Brixton Village is like the outside despite the fact that it is under cover. The wind sweeps up the long corridors and most people keep their coats on when outside and if you intend to eat more comfortably then layers are essential.

telephone number 020 7326 4888

We had thought we would not have to review Speedy Noodle as we thought it didn’t qualify under our no chains rule – but it isn’t one. This Chinese style restaurant has been in Brixton long before it was transformed into a foodie destination. But it is a restaurant and although we considered changing the rules to exclude it we tonight (Saturday) decided to make another visit. This is a restaurant which is easy to book (there isn’t any). If you want to go out to the Ritzy and then you don’t have to saunter in the cold or hang about in a queues  just go to Speedy Noodle and you can cut it very close and even see the trailers. It is also opens much later than most restaurants so you can have a starter and main before the film and dessert on the way home too.

It lives up to its name – we were in and out in 20 minutes. The longest time was spent in choosing from the long list of Chinese, Malaysian and Thai items. On another occasion we tried the Thai Green curry which is passable and cheap. This time it was Singapore Vermicelli and a Malaysian Chicken curry. The Singapore noodles looked good with appropriate ingredients but wasn’t as spicy as it could be – but it was a bargain. That was the best bit of our meal. The curry was ….well was.. It had few ingredients – chicken and onions  - but tasted less like  curry and more like chicken in gravy. Despite hunger half was left on the plate.

They have a license and sell beer and wine (by the glass and the bottle) but we washed all down with a pot of green tea. It was cheap – £10.20 for two.

There are nearly 100 items on the menu so we could go back and try more and I am tempted to discover what a fried ice ball is or test the spicy calamari . But I think those culinary delicacies can wait for another decade. If I want cheap and fast food we’ll go to Gyoza down Coldharbour Lane unless we are starving at midnight.

telephone

email:ellie@saladclub.co.uk or rosie@saladclub.co.uk

www.frenchandgrace.co.uk

French and Grace is a duo who used to run a supper club and now run a small restaurant in Brixton Village serving wraps. And when we say small we mean small – there are only three tables inside which have the maximum number of seats with many stools, so you feel a bit like a sardine. There are tables outside in the arcade but even during the day these are only for the hardy in the cold months. The smallness doesn’t make this restaurant cosy. When we visited  on a Friday lunchtime it was full inside and we sat in a corner table squeezing in beside the coats. Water arrived very quickly but after we had given our order it was very difficult to attract anyone’s attention – even to get a napkin – this is despite the cramped nature of the place where you can almost touch all walls at the same time.

The cuisine has a middle eastern feel to it. Mezze of hummus (their spelling) made of butter beans and rosemary, baba ghanoush (an aubergine pate)  salted labneh (a kind of cheese) and tabbouleh. There are also wraps including “uber wraps” of flatbread lamb merguez and chargrilled halloumi and these were clearly popular as several people came for takeaways in the short time we were there.  There were also “specials” and on the day we visited it was lamb meatballs in a spicy pumpkin soup. So we ordered the small mezze and the lamb meatballs.

The soupy meatballs was not really soupy at all – it was more like a thick slightly sweet sauce. It was also piping hot – so hot I decided to pour some of my water into it which made it much more pleaasant  in temperature and much more like a soup. It allowed me to taste the meatballs which were a good consistency but perhaps in the hot soup lost a little of their flavour. The mezze was pleasant but tabbouleh in the middle east is usually very green whereas this was beige so it really did need more parsley and mint. Neither the hummus or salted labneh were interesting enough but the baba ghanoush was as good as we have eaten in Damascus.

They do not have a licence yet so they charge £1 for corkage per person. But they do have soft drinks, tea and complimentary cold water. The service on a slow lunchtime was inattentive – in fact we were astonished how hard it was to attract attention. But we have watched the restaurant on a Saturday night and we have seen better attention than we received. Price per person is about £8 per person which is reasonable.

telephone:  020 7733 5299

http://www.loungebrixton.com/

Lounge is one of those places that isn’t clear what it is – is it a bar, a cafe or a restaurant. Well it is all three. Orange walls and art with small tables and asorted chairs so the decor is as confused as its mission. The art changes regularly and the pictures on the website are more attractive than those currently on display. Oil paintings of faces that look like they are made of carpet …… well we didn’t like it.  But back to its mission – even though it is confused this adds to the charm as you can drink a cocktail, eat scrambled egg (before 5.30pm) or a hamburger later in the evening.

We chose Lounge as a quick eat before the Ritzy. We ordered a beer and a lounge martini. This was nothing like a martini except in the shape of the glass. The recipe includes: grand marnier, bourbon and fresh lime – promising but much too sweet. We ordered a jerk chicken burger and slow cooked lamb – both passable and reasonably quick but we were a bit twitchy about missing the trailers.

Prices ….. cocktails about £6.50, main courses £6 to £9 so a meal with a drink can cost about £15 per person.

telephone: 078 7294 5675

For information see http://www.facebook.com/bellantonis

After a Christmas break the chef proprietor Dario Bellantoni has returned.  Easy to detect how the name of this Italian restaurant came about. But it is difficult to understand where some of the additional comments below their name come from but more in a minute. It is spread across two sides of an alleyway in Brixton Village with one side an open kitchen and a few tables and on the other a small dining room – in between the windswept alleyway with tables which is where we ended up – only daring to remove our gloves to eat.

Choosing is easy – the menu is blessedly short with seasonal dishes – antipasta, homemade vegetarian pasta dishes (I mean everything including the pasta) and some more substantial fish dishes and stews. We ordered antipasta between the three of us and as it is meant for two sharing we raced for our favourites but luckily there was enough for everyone to try all the separate pieces …. dried tomato, rocket, chorizo, olives which look the colour of pecans and mozarella and burrata. Burrata is made from mozarella and cream and is a smooth texture and was served at the right temperature so it was creamy or, as Dario told u,s buttery from the Italian “burrata” . It goes well with the bread and oil that comes with the whole antipasta dish.

For mains we chose the lasagne with ricotta and spinach, spicy tomato and chorizo stew and monkfish in a saffron sauce. The lasagne was definitely enough but for a balanced meal I should have chosen a salad as well. The chorizo stew was stupendous – soft and slightly spicy with the tomatoes not too acidic. The only weak point was the monkfish, with a remarkably small portion of fish for what was described on the menu as a main course, hardly any vegetables and very little sauce that simply didn’t have enough flavour anyway.

The choice of desserts is even more limited and we ended the meal with two tarts (one apple and cinnamon, one banana) although they were in fact pieces of pie rather than a tart. Both came accompanied by a dollop of mascarpone. The banana was our  favourite.

We drank a bottle of the red Sardinian wine that was on the specials list. It was fruity and not to heavy and kept us warm until the main courses arrived. There were cheaper bottles and glasses on the menu – all as we remember Italian.

The price for the whole of our meal was about £25.00 per person but we did have more wine and the expensive main dishes. As a sideline this restaurant offers cooking classes for anyone who has now run out of ideas fop birthday surprises. Our own piece of advice (apart from do try this restaurant) is to book early and get a seat inside during the winter months.

telephone: 020 7738 7646

email: info.theagilerabbit@gmail.com

The Lapin Agile is a famous cabaret in Monmartre, Paris and was a favourite spot for poor but up and coming artists like Picasso and Modigliani. Now it has set up home as the Agile Rabbit in Brixton Village, together with its own nightly cabaret for the poor artists of Brixton. It is a small pizza house in Brixton Village sited near a couple of good fishmongers, so the smell pervades but only while you are waiting with a beer. As soon as the food arrives or the music starts you are in Naples (except for the cold). That is something they have thought about at Agile Rabbit. There is a heater and blankets for those who, on a Saturday night and indoors, can’t bear to remove their scarf let alone their jacket to eat their meal. It is small with tables and benches inside and as with all the Brixton Village eateries one’s spilling out into the alleyway outside.

Menus are limited to what they do best – pizza and calzone. Pizzas come large, very thin and crispy and with a choice of toppings including the usual – pepperoni, anchovies, olives and capers. The extras are very cheap (40 or 60 p each) so that you are tempted to add more and more. Calzone are more varied with several items in one lovely italian cornish pasty. The main difference between the pizza and calzone is not just the price and the fact you can’t see the toppings – the main difference is that the calzone comes with a plate and a knife and fork whereas the  pizza is pre-cut and on a piece of grease proof paper. We got the a mixed vegetable one which was good but they need to learn that the temperature inside a calzone is not as hot as for a pizza so the vegetables need to be cut up smaller – the couple of halved button mushrooms I found were edible but only after I had worked out what they were. We also had a pizza which was delightful. For dessert we had a piece of their famous tart between the two of us. This tart has won prizes and we could see why. It was a sort of buttery, nutty frangipan with pecans – but neither of us can remember what it was called… However there’s a big sign advertising it so we don’t think you’ll forget to order it.

Drinks are soft (fresh juice or the usual fizzy drinks), warm (good coffee) or alcoholic (beer, wine and cider as well as rum). It was a very cold Saturday night so we had beer which was equally cold but we thought after a while we wouldn’t care. Service is swift, friendly and accommodating and the music – yes live music – was not so loud we couldn’t speak and wasn’t too much like the jazz I dislike. It appears that music is on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

The turnover is relatively high with people moving on and food served quickly so it is relatively easy to get a seat even on a Saturday night. This is also not an expensive meal about £12.00 per person including a drink. The calzone were a definite bargain at only £4.00-5.00 each. We can’t vouch for the wine but plenty of people were drinking it.  That together with good food and a congenial atmosphere means we will return.

Telephone number: (020) 7737 6633

http://www.bamboulas.net/

You would have thought that Brixton was full of Caribbean restaurants but it isn’t and they only really began appearing as real restaurants rather than jerk chicken take-aways about ten years ago and only relatively recently have they been well used and not on a knife-edge of bankruptcy. Bamboula is someone’s Caribbean dream with its green and yellow bamboo and grass hut decor. Unfortunately it was raining and not the warm shower but the relentless stuff that wets all the way through. However, the restaurant made up for that by being cheerful and with welcoming staff. It was a Friday evening and reasonably full – not difficult as it is small with about 8 tables and a bar. The clientel were couples and groups of young women with  high proportion of people from the Caribean which gave us the confidence that this was the real thing. The menu was short enough to be interesting but not overwhelming and it has an unusual list of soft and mixed, mostly rum based, drinks that the Friday nighters were quaffing.

There is the usual Caribean fare of jerk chicken and ackee and saltfish. We chose goat curry and chicken but there are vegetarian options too. The curry was tasty and was accompanied by callaloo rice (like spinach) but the chicken was a bit dry. The portions were large, so large we could only manage a main course. Not particularly expensive - about £12 for a main course and a soft drink (soursop juice). So if you are intending to go to the Ritzy stop in for a quick and filling meal. If you are around for lunch they offer an all you can eat  – I don’t know if that would not be much of a bargain as only a little goes a long way!

This is a quick addition to the review – we do not want to change any of our views on the food in this restaurant but on our last visit we saw a change in the service so thought it should be noted. We visited just before Christmas with a group of six people early in the evening before going to the theatre for the festive outing. We wanted something quick before hopping on the tube. The food was fine and we got to try more chicken and lamb options but the service was definitely not with a smile. Given the time of year we would have hoped for some facial expression and all we got was surly which was enough to put you off your meal. Restaurants are a service industry and they rely on   return custom. Good service doesn’t overcome bad food but if there are two restaurants which are equally good then service may make all the difference. We want you to thrive so please make sure that this improves.