L’Express

Express01Address: 15-17 Market Row,  London SW9 8LB

Telephone number: 07448831937 text for bookings

email: johanna.anselmo@gmail.com

for up-to-date menu –  https://en-gb.facebook.com/lExpresscafe

You have passed by the Express Cafe in Market Row during the day and you may even have popped in for a bacon sandwich, a mug of Nescafe or one of the cheapest espressos in Brixton. But each evening from Thursday to  Saturday and Sunday (9.00 – 4.00pm) this basic cafe metamorphoses into a French Vegetarian restaurant “L’Express”. The interior is from another era with 1950s cream decor and a bit of half timbering. The tables and chairs from the formica 1960s and, rather startlingly, there is a ceiling fan reminiscent of a Magritte painting as it is stuck up against a wall so cannot turn – presumably a leftover from an early renovation. Lighting is muted with table and standard lamps, flowers adorn each formica top and the pictures are eclectic. An old gramophone and a fruit machine provide further colour although we were not sure either worked. The music when we visited was rock and roll but it depends, we thought, on who brought the CDs or whether their live musician turns up.

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Bombay Kitchen

Bombay_Kitchenaddress: 384 Coldharbour Lane SW9, SW9 8LF

telephone: 020 3417 7309 & 020 7733 2727

http://www.bombay-kitchen.co.uk/

We cannot now remember what this shop was before it was a restaurant. It is next door to the popular Asmara but is completely the opposite. Asmara is dark and Bombay Kitchen has all lights blazing with a glass frontage. This is not the traditional Indian in terms of décor  There is no flock wallpaper for one thing. It describes itself as contemporary and has a clean design with a small open bar and chairs and table that match – unlike many places in the heart of Brixton. There is piped music and it is Indian again unlike the musak that most of the flock wallpaper brigade provide for its clientèle.

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