101 Acre Lane, SW2 5TU

Phone 0207 737 7063 / 0207 924 0421

Opening times MON – SAT: 9-11, SUN: 11-9

Website: http://true-flavours.co.uk/

True Flavours has been around for quite a while and was recommended by a Jamaican friend. They offer a wide variety of dishes – see the pictures in the front windows – although all are subject to availability. It is a small place that usually has people queuing and in these Covid-19 pandemic times, the line is a little longer and mostly physically distanced. Their website warns “In busy periods you may have to wait up until half an hour to be served and and hour for your order”, but our experience wasn’t that bad.

You order inside (only two people allowed) and if the queue builds up, then someone helpfully comes outside and takes orders. Then comes the interesting part. You stand waiting to hear your name being called. Not so easy with all the traffic noise. This does allow some socialising, as we need to lock eyes as a name is called – is it me, you, he’s up the road buying drinks type of thing. We struck up a conversation about Westerns with a taxi driver. You never know who you will meet out there.

There is a long breakfast menu, but we were past that time of day and so we ordered from the long list of mains – you can have a large or a small meal. We don’t know how they differ as we ordered large ones. We chose brown stew chicken and escabeche, both with rice n’ peas. There’s also a choice of a side; vegetables or pasta and we ordered veg. But they had run out and when we opened our meal boxes we discovered pasta.

Our review is in two parts. We loved the brown stew chicken – it was spicy but not hot and had a great gravy. Part two was the fish, which was overcooked and the pickled vegetables, the heart of escabeche, were limited and a bit lost in all the rice and pasta. The rice was well cooked and, surprisingly, we liked the pasta, which was covered in a kind of jerk sauce.

We will be going again, as it was a bargain as well as an event. No online ordering, but an in person face to face conversation … just like the old days. We’re not sure exactly what the bill came to, as we’ve lost the receipt. But it was something like £15 and certainly great value.