The Joint

Address: 4th Avenue, Brixton Village Market SW9 8PS

telephone: 07717 642812

https:thejointldn.com

We don’t buy much meat but on occasion we just want to tuck in. This was that occasion on a trip round Brixton Village on a Friday with few places to spare – even though early. We have reviewed this restaurant before and on this occasion went inside out of the clamour of the hallways. As always we ordered a lot, but not as much as our neighbours, who were definitely flagging. They say on the website that this is not fine dining and they are right, it is meat and a sauce so be prepared to get your hands sticky.

The offer is wings, pulled pork, burgers and ribs and for the faint-hearted a halloumi burger or tacos without the meat. Luckily only three sauces to choose from – BBQ, Spicy, Korean. There are also sides, the usual fries or the sweet potato or cheesy variety. Neither of us went for the deep fried mac and cheese bites and we disowned any salad – we wanted to concentrate.

First up there was a large order of BBQ wings – large means large and I was probably ok with the children’s version. They were as they suggest, luscious, sticky and eaten with fingers although they do provide a dainty fork.

Then there was the large portion of ribs – Korean sauce accompanying it just to get a sweat on. Again these are hard to handle and need some delicate cutting to get it finger sized. But it was as promised hot and meaty and very, very large.

Of course we couldn’t eat without fries, but we were conservative and chose the chips that come with salt and are just the right crunch.

The bill for Joint came to £33.75 inclusive of one beer and service. The large sized meat orders are £10.00 each and we suggest sharing.

We did think that we were full but wandered past Kaspas Desserts in Rushcroft Road and had two of their cornets – there must be a second stomach for desserts. We cannot remember what they cost, but it was very little, and we cannot remember what flavour we chose, but they were both delicious.

Ice creams from Kaspas – https://kaspas.co.uk/ Unit 3, 11 Rushcroft Road, SW2 1JH

Forza Win – a short bus ride away

29-33 Camberwell Church Street

https://forzawin.com/

This is a relatively new Italian restaurant in Camberwell with a great offer for lunch – 3 courses for £20.00 – which we couldn’t resist. It is on a corner and has taken over the premises of a previous tapas restaurant. Camberwell has certainly added to the culinary fare recently with many new offerings. We chose a Thursday lunchtime and that may be a busy time as it was buzzing (as were many of the other restaurants and cafes).

For starters we chose sourdough foccacia with garlic (lots of garlic) that we forgot to photograph but take it from us the portion was huge. The other two chose the same dish – mushroom fritti with fennel and chili mayonnaise. This was spicy so the fennel rather passed us by, but again the portion was huge – this photo just shows one of them.

Next on to the pasta – again two of us chose the same dish – linguine with crab, datterini and capers – the other member of our group, daring to be different, chose spaghetti, roasted tomatoes and parmesan, lots of parmesan. It turns out that datterini are actually tomatoes which you can see in the photo. The literal translation is “little dates” as they are small, elongated and very sweet. All plates were licked clean – not because we were that hungry after the huge starters, but because it was delicious.

Finally, we had two different puddings – a chocolate pot with caramel that was hidden at the bottom and a “custardo” (quotes are theirs) which essentially is an affogato with the ice-cream element served hot so it is sweet and thick and for sipping. All were delighted with the choices even if we needed to wake up mid-afternoon to do a bit more work.

The bill was £66 with service. If you have wine then it is about £35.00 a bottle.