Month: November 2020

Kaosarn – takeaway

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Address: Brixton Village, Coldharbour Lane Brixton, London

Website: https://www.kaosarnlondon.co.uk/brixton-restaurant

Telephone: 020 7095 8922

This Thai restaurant is named after the bustling street in Bangkok and has attracted a lot of interest over the years, including a review by us back in 2011 (see here). How time flies.

Choose during lock-down from Deliveroo or UberEats and, although the menu is short, most of the dishes are not your usual standard Thai – although there is a green curry. There are not many vegetarian meals – fish, chicken or lamb seem to be in most dishes. The romantic names of each dish are explained, thankfully, in detail so you don’t need to guess. The meal was delivered promptly from the Brixton premises – watching the progress of the meal on the app is fun in itself.

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Kricket – the Lockdown 2.0 takeaway

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Website: https://kricket.co.uk/brixton/

Phone: 020 3826 4090

Email; hello@kricket.co.uk

Deliveroo: https://deliveroo.co.uk/brands/kricket

We reviewed Kricket when it was in Pop Brixton and when it moved to larger premises (reviews here and here). We liked both incarnations and decided that we should have a delivery to celebrate Diwali in our household bubble. As this is a celebration we pushed the boat out. Note that the delivery is via Deliveroo and comes from a kitchen in Clapham, rather than the Brixton restaurant in Atlantic Road.

The menu on Deliveroo is not as extensive as it was in the restaurant, but we know kulfi probably doesn’t travel. There are four starters and we ordered the Keralan chicken (2 portions – what were we thinking) and the Bhel Puri. For mains we ordered one for each member of the party – Welsh Lamb Korma, Hyderbadi Aubergine and Butternut Squash. We also added aubergine bharta, tarka dal, steamed rice, a couple of malabar parathas (we should have ordered more), and some condiments (sweet raita, mooli pickles, and tamarind and date). We supplemented the condiments with some of our own bought from Tooting when we went to buy sweets.

Clearly even at this point we knew we had over-ordered. But we know we can put the rest in the fridge for lunch the next day.

The Bhel Puri (crispy bits, raw mango, tamarind, yoghurt), was a favourite for all three of us. The crispy Keralan chicken is best eaten quickly as it dries out, but two portions was one and a half too many. Think KFC with more than a touch of salt and you have it. It was lovely which is good, because it is for Monday night’s tea.kricket13

The mains were fantastic in terms of the flavours. Often Indian takeaways seem to be one sauce with bits added but these were all distinct. The Butternut Squash comes with a makhani sauce, paneer, hazelnut, puffed wild rice. We would have liked a bit more butternut squash but the sauce was fragrant and silky smooth as it should be. The Hyderabadi Aubergine coconut, curry leaf, peanuts masala is soft and nutty. The warmth of this dish just increases with each mouthful, but never overwhelms. The Welsh Lamb Korma is so well cooked and so unlike many dry, chewy dishes we have eaten from other restaurants. We can recommend all three.kricket14

The sides we very important -we should have ordered more especially the parathas as they were just right for scooping up the sauces. The aubergine bharta was also a favourite – it comes with real heat but not the type of heat to make you sweat. All the condiments were interesting and we have some of the tamarind and date to go with tonight’s Keralan chicken.kricket12

img_38883We will definitely order again but perhaps not so much of the Keralan Chicken. This is an expensive meal if you are not planning to use it up for lunches – at £82.00 plus a tip. This was for three of us without the beer – Cobra and Kingfisher – bought from a local shop. We completed the blow-out with the Indian sweets from Tooting, as there is always space for a small dessert.

Indian Food for Diwali

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Tonight is Diwali, the festival of light for Hindus, Sikhs and Jains, but we can all join in. So here’s a short round-up of the local south Asian restaurants that we’ve reviewed, where you can order food for delivery. Then just light some candles.

Bombay Kitchen – see review here.

Website: https://www.bombay-kitchen.co.uk/

En Root – see review here.

Website: https://www.enrootldn.co.uk/

Beb’s Kitchen – see review here.

Website: https://goo.gl/maps/oPTGNrnJayj

Khan’s of Brixton – see review here.

Website: http://www.khansbrixton.co.uk/

Kricket – see review here.

Website: https://kricket.co.uk/brixton/

Booma – see review here.

Website: http://booma-brixton.co.uk/

Salon – the Lockdown takeaway

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Address: 18 Market Row, Brixton, London SW9 8LDWebsite: http://salonbrixton.co.uk/

Phone: 020 7501 9152

Salon now offers a timed delivery service. We have reviewed this restaurant, which offers a tasting menu several times ( here and here and here) It is a past winner of our @eatinbrixton public vote for Brixton’s favourite, so we were really enthusiastic to try their takeaway service on the first Saturday in Lockdown 2.0.

There are a meat and vegetarian three course meals on offer, both for two to share. We chose the meat one. The starter and dessert need little preparation, but the main course needs cooking. But, very helpfully, everything was labelled and there was a handy set of instructions to guide you through the meal – it made sure that we could eat the starter without worrying about the oven.

First came a pork terrine, luxuriously covered in salty ham/bacon with an accompaniment of mustard mayonnaise and bitter leaves. The other starter was a beetroot salad, caraway crackers with goats curd. Both were great and we just shared. All come with warm bread, whipped butter and cheese custard. Yum…. and honestly this would have been enough food for the evening.salon22

Next course was hispi cabbage and braised venison pie with potato topping. There was plenty for two (in fact I had seconds the next day). The meat was soft and succulent and we served it with a hefty red wine to make it a real celebration.salon23

salon24Finally – and we did then move to a comfy sofa and the TV – we had the dessert and each one is enough for two. It was a coffee panna cotta (although actually more of a fluffy mouse) with a chocolate ganache top and some crumbs to sprinkle over it. This was also when the top trouser button was undone – fantastically delicious end to the meal.

This is a delivery that requires a table, candles and good wine – as good as a dinner out. It cost £59.00 for two and we thought it was excellent value. We have got into the habit of watching the 7.00 pm news during the week with our meal (lunchtime it is Bargain Hunt), but this as enjoyable as dining out and broke the spell. Great offering and we would certainly do it again.

Chishuru

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Now moved to the West End and a Michelin Star – see https://www.chishuru.com/

Address: 9 Market Row, Coldharbour Lane, Brixton, London, SW9 8LB

This is a new restaurant in Market Row serving West African food from Adejoké ‘Joké’ Bakare and the restaurant was opened following her victory in the amateur category at last year’s Brixton Kitchen competition. Even across Nigeria there are many different styles and traditional cuisines – add to that the whole of West Africa and you get lots of different types of seasoning and cooking methods. You can eat in the market corridor or inside with the doors are thrown open so wear a coat wherever you sit. Inside you can watch the preparation, outside it is people watching in the busy thoroughfare.

There is a blessedly short list on the menu with starters, main courses, sides and desserts – just a few in each category. We shared Ekuru as a starter – it’s native to the Yoruba. It is (I think) made of peeled black eyed beans and wild water melon seeds and the paste is then fried. It comes with pumpkin seed pesto and scotch bonnet sauce. This was a soft and crisp start to the meal with delicious pesto, so I hope you haven’t thrown out those pumpkin seeds.

Then came the main courses where we chose one meat, goat ayamase, which came with spiced green sauce and condiments, and one veggie dish – chargrilled cauliflower with peanut sauce and puffed wild rice (although they forgot this little extra when it was served to us). We were advised to order a side of attasi rice, green salad and plantain.

The goat was really soft and didn’t have too many bones to discover. It had a spiciness that crept up on you so that a softee like me only had a runny nose three quarters of the way through.

The cauliflower was well cooked and the spiced green sauce is what it said on the menu – spicy – and the peanut sauce added to the thrill. We didn’t need the puffed rice.

We were delighted with the side dishes. The Atassi rice and beans was really good for soaking up the sauce on both dishes and the plantain with peanut sauce was a perfect foil for the spice in both dishes.

We finished the meal with a dessert to share – peanut butter ice cream with baobab crisps. We immediately dived in so no photo. The salty creaminess of the ice cream went really well with the surprisingly citrus flavoured honeycomb crisps.

We washed it all down with two bottles of Lucky Saint beer and water. The bill for two was £63.00, but this included a tip and money for a food support scheme. They only opened in August and will be hard hit by the current lockdown. Let’s hope they will run a click and collect or delivery service.