Address: currently at Vozar’s Brixton Village

Stalk them on: http://www.asparagasm.com

email: tips@asparagasm.com

A brief saunter round Brixton Village met with this pop-up – described as fine dining for vegans. vegetarians and those who prefer gluten free. For ten days only this outfit has taken over Vozars, who usually provide gluten free dining. So it looks a lot like Vozars but with the addition of more outside tables, more table decoration and a bar serving cocktails. We are rushing this post as it was so good we want our readers to get a chance to try it soon before it moves to other locations. Check the website for more details.

On this occasion we left the cocktails alone and had everything on their menu – all their three starters, main courses and desserts accompanied by their house white wine from Spain which we pointed out was cheaper by the glass, although we ordered a bottle anyway. Water comes to the table and they have a list of soft drinks – Fentiman’s ginger beer as well as the virgin variety of cocktails.

We were presented with a little amuse bouche – salted potatoes and a sauce. We don’t know what the sauce was but it was delicious and this was a theme throughout the meal. The first starter was smoked gazpacho with callaloo fritters which were hot and went well with the smooth soup. The next was cold pickled celeriac lasagne, pea shoots and micro cress salad with pea and truffle veloute. I was a little dubious as I am not a lover of celery but this was really delicious with thin and not overpowering slices of cold celeriac and a very delicious veloute with a depth of flavour I haven’t had in a while. The final starter was avocado, black bean and corn ceviche with papaya jelly and plantain crisp. This was a bit disappointing as it didn’t have the depth of flavour or perhaps not enough of the jelly.

Any doubts were redeemed by the fantastic dishes we had for main courses- a spiced lentil parcel wrapped in a cabbage leaf; sweet potato and vegetable curry; and grilled English asparagus and chunky polenta chips. All came with different sauces which like the veloute of the first course were absolutely fantastic. In particular the smoked tomato that accompanied the asparagus.

This post is getting a little long so briefly the desserts consisted of ice cream with spiced pineapple and I am certainly going to try the put together the chilli pepper and coconut ice cream. The mango sorbet was equally good, although the bitter chocolate avocado and chilli mouse was a bit solid (shame as it just needed some egg white!) and the crushed chocolate tiffin was definitely a winner with the youngest member of our party. Every course was also presented beautifully a pretty picture of colour and textures.

We know they will not be around for long so we suggest rushing to try. It is definitely aspirational fine dining and the chef is to be commended on his sauces – we could have licked our plates clean ……if we had been allowed a bread roll.

Each course can be bought separately but the three courses costs £20.oo. The total bill for three course that certainly fill you up and wine with ginger beer and it came to £79.00