address: 67 Streatham Hill, London SW2 4TX

Tel: 0.0 36013320

website: hoodrestaurants.com

email: info@hoodrestaurants.com

This is a the second post in our new venture of writing about where to go for that special celebration, a birthday, anniversary or even wedding breakfast. But we still want to make it local and most are only a 20 minute walk from the middle of Brixton, or only a short bus ride if you have already done your 10,000 steps that day.

Hood is a family run restaurant that was crowd funded by family and friends. It serves modern British food from seasonal British ingredients. There is a provenance map on the wall of the restaurant so you can see where the food and drink comes from and it concentrates on very local. The clean and simple interior has matching tables and primary coloured chairs and we can attest to the comfort as we spent a good three hours sitting in them.

The short menu has 4 starters, 6 mains and three desserts and as we were a foursome we could try lots of them. Two of us chose kidneys and cauliflower with raisin and caper sauce which we decided were the best kidneys we had eaten ever. The others chose beetroot and horseradish cured salmon, buttermilk and rye and Crispy pork rillettes with apple, shallots and sage cream – both being delicious and, as you can see just by the description, really interesting with every bite and a pretty picture.

For the main course we had pan fired sea bream with asparagus, roast rump of lamb with pea and wild garlic croquette and broad bean and feta relish and finally slow roast pork belly with bubble and squeak. We had an extra portion of new potatoes but they were not really needed. All were really good and every plate except mine was wiped clean. I liked every bite of the pork belly but the portion was just too much for my appetite.

For dessert there was cheese but that seemed too hefty for any of us so we had the lemon posset with shortbread, a dark chocolate tart and strawberry snap, cackle and pop. The lemon possets were small delicate cream pots with a thin layer of strongly flavoured lemon jelly on top – just enough. The dark chocolate tart was slim and shiny and strong and slightly bitter – just as it should be. The strawberries were sandwiched between layers of Rice Krispies which were on top of marshmallow so very sweet and gooey.

We started the meal with beer and wine. The list of beers is long with bottles from the Brixton Brewery, Partizan, Gypsy Hill Brewery and others. They come with their strength advertised which is important as some are 7.1%. We had a porter which tasted  – just like its description – of caramel, and a Pale Ale which was a good foil – a light and slightly bitter long drink. We interspersed our drinking with tap water  which was freely offered. We also had a French Malbec which was described as  having “a warming & smooth richness and well balanced” which it definitely was. With dessert there was a decaf Americano and a  glass of dessert wine.

We really enjoyed this meal. There was of course the good company but we could talk without having to shout and the waiting staff were helpful and didn’t push us out too quickly. The bill was celebration size (£180) but it was for four people with three courses, wine and sundries. We thought it was better than anything currently in Brixton and we would most certainly return for another celebration meal.