Address: 4 Brixton Station Road, SW9 8PD

Opening times: Monday to Thursday: 8:00 am to 8:30 pm

Friday & Saturday: 8:00 am to 9:30 pm

Sunday: 8:00 to 7:00 pm

This is a long-standing pre-foodie Brixton favourite that serves up great value North African food. You can read a little about the proprietors – Tareq & Driss – here. We’ve been here before – see here – but that was long ago, before they were hit by the renovation of the railway arches and forced into exile. But they sort of held on, with the associated food truck – see here–  and the Moroccan Fish stall that we enjoyed, but never got round to review. 

So, unlike many of the evicted Arches businesses, they’ve actually returned and a good thing too. The inside is smaller than before but currently, of course, you sit at the tables and chairs in the street. It’s always been a lunchtime stalwart and once again they delivered. I had a North African salad plus a grilled merguez sausage. The sausage wasn’t really necessary as, although I’m not normally a fan of halloumi, this was great. I particularly liked all the salty black olives.

My companion had her long-standing favourite – a bowl of the lentil soup with some bread on the side. She said it was as good as ever and, despite a small price increase since before the period of exile, at £4.50 this must be one of the best value meals in Brixton.

I had a glass of their hot mint tea. It was plenty minty enough but, although it’s the Moroccan style, I might ask them to go a bit easier on the sugar next time.

So good tasty food at bargain prices. It all came to £12.00 for the two of us.