Author: eatinbrixton

Zoe’s Ghana Kitchen – Supper Club

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Unit S36, Pop Brixton

49 Brixton Station Road

SW9 8PQ

We were invited a few weeks ago to try the supper club of one of our favourite spots in Pop Brixton, Zoe’s Ghana Kitchen. Going back to her roots with this new venture, Zoe started out as a supper club before she opened up in Brixton a year and half ago, and we’ve always loved going here (the fried chicken is the best!) so jumped at the chance.

Zoe’s place is tiny, so this was a very intimate supper club (they advise to not bring any bulky bags or coats) with only eight of us. Zoe herself was there to greet us and introduce us to each dish, explaining its roots and how she has devised these dishes from traditional Ghanian food, but with her own stamp.  She is charming and makes you feel welcome and very much part of an experience, not just dinner. This is also a sharing menu so make sure to bring a mate.

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Fox Bar and Chicken Shop/Dirty Burger

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Piano House, 9 Brighton Terrace, Brixton, London SW9 8DJ

Website: http://www.chickenshop.com/en/brixton

Phone: 020 3859 1130

Opening times:

Mon – Thurs – 12 noon to 11pm
Friday – 12 noon to 12 midnight
Saturday – 10am to 12 midnight
Sunday – 10am to 10.30pm

We can’t lie; when we heard the news that Soho House, a private members’ club that has grown into a mighty international brand, was to open a location in Brixton it seemed that it really was the end. The Soho House company is synonymous with member’s only exclusive locations, so it seemed that the social divide many had feared, had made its check mate move. However, when we actually went on a Friday night, we were pleasantly surprised. Continue reading →

Express Cafe/Lobstar pop-up

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15-17 Market Row, Brixton, London SW9 8LB
Telephone:
– Express Cafe 020 7978 8515
– Lobstar Pop-up 079 5843 8441
Opening times:
Express Cafe:
Monday – Saturday 7am–5pm (Wednesday early closing 3pm)
Sunday – Closed
Lobstar pop-up – only until the end of November:
Thursday – Saturday 7pm-11.30pm
Lobstar is a short run pop-up at the premises of the Express Cafe in Market Row. The Express Cafe is a greasy spoon, one of the few left in Brixton, that only opens during the day. So it occasionally rents itself out to pop-ups in the evening. We’ve been a couple of times, for vegan food – see here and for hotdogs – see here , and now, for three days a week in November, there’s a limited menu of lobsters and seafood.

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Hot Diggity Dog! at Market House

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Address 443 Coldharbour Lane, SW9 8LN

Telephone: 020 7095 9443

http://www.market-house.co.uk

Market House is a pub with attitude and a pop-up history. This is where in 2014 Tim Anderson, the Masterchef champion, started with a ‘pop-up’ before opening Nanban and in 2015 Mama’s Jerk, now of Pop Brixton, had a try-out. The current offering is hot dogs  from an outfit with the slightly cringe-worthy name. For previous reviews from Market House see here and here

We chose one of the really busy nights – Saturday – but even then we did get a table for the two of us around 7:30. The pub was packed with a mixed stag/hen group and when they left there was relative peace. But if you want to have a romantic conversation then try another night or another place. You order at the bar and in all the confusion we ended up with three meals instead of two – and two was enough. So make sure the barman reviews your order before you finally pay.

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Fancy Funkin Chicken

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ffc01441 Coldharbour Ln, Brixton, SW9 8LN, UK

020 7733 0108

Instagram @fancyfunkinchicken

http://www.fancyfunkinchicken.com/

This new place, only opening in September, describes itself as a late-night chicken shop, serving a southern American spin on fried chicken, along with a dedicated cocktail menu. It will also host a range of DJs every weekend but this probably means in the evening. On Sunday lunchtime we just enjoyed listening to the background music, which was mostly classic soul.

For old Brixton hands this is, of course, the premises occupied by the much-missed Phoenix Café, a classic ‘greasy spoon’ of long-standing, before it moved further down the street and then vanished. It was always rather poky and, even following a total reconstruction from the foundations up, it’s still on the small side. There are some cosy four seater booths on one side, opposite the bar, but most of the seating is on stools at high bar tables. It’s also a little on the dark side, which I suppose gives it some atmosphere.

I’m not sure what constitutes south American fried chicken and the food on offer is pretty Brixton generic – i.e. much like stuff you can now get at many other places in Brixton. There are the inevitable chicken burgers; crispy fried chicken wings of course, with a choice of sauce varying only in how spicy hot they are; and, somewhat randomly, waffles. If this place is going to succeed it needs to stand out by the quality of the food, rather the uniqueness of what’s on offer. One plus is that the meat comes from ‘free range happy chickens’, although quite how they know the chickens were happy is unclear.

There were three of us and the dedicated vegetarian had the Jackson burger – described on the menu as a ‘veggie patty, roast beetroot, sweet potato, black bean and wild rice with a blend of herbs and spices’ served in a sesame seed bun with cheese, lettuce, onion and mayo. This received a definite thumbs up, marking an improvement on the usual tasteless beanburger. The bun also maintained the structural integrity of the dish

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I had the chicken wings with the middle-ranking sauce, described as “having a little kick”, which was quite hot enough. The wings were oddly small but properly crispy, despite being served smothered in the sauce. I chose the smaller serving size, supposedly six, although there were more.

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The third choice was boneless chicken pieces (chicken nuggets in other words), served deep fried in breadcrumbs with a “secret spice mix” and BBQ sauce. The sauce was given a positive review, with a deep savoury smoky taste, although the chicken itself wasn’t really as interesting as it should have been.

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ffc05For sides we had a portion of fries, a dish of coleslaw and waffles. The fries were fine, if not outstanding; the coleslaw was as we like it; and the waffles were a bit odd, mainly because we were expecting savoury potato waffles, but were served ones made with flour and served with a sweet sauce. The portion size of the sides cannot be described as generous but, in the event, we had plenty to eat.

The service was attentive and appropriate action was taken when there was a delay due to a problem with the waffle machine, i.e. we were given our drinks (passionfruit juice, ginger beer and a coke) for free. We passed on a pudding (a limited choice), as well as cocktails, (a good choice). Altogether, without the drinks, the bill came to £30.50 before adding a tip.There’s been a suggestion that Brixton is becoming a giant food court and this places fits into that model. It’s going to have to work hard to develop its own identity as a food destination, or else it’s going to end up as just another place to have a drink and socialise.

Kricket

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address: Pop Brixton, 49 Brixton Station Road, SW9 8PQ

hello@kricket.co.uk

Home

This is on the second floor of Pop Brixton – the arrangement of storage containers near the Recreation Centre. It is a narrow corridor of a restaurant with just one line of tables with bench seating inside for about 20 covers but there is a bit more space outside in clement weather. When we arrived there was a 40-50 minute wait unless you were prepared to sit outside – we were hungry enough to put up with the bracing evening air.

We have been here before and not much has changed so look here for a full account. You’ll also have to look there for some photographs – on this visit it was too dark to get any thing worth including. We chose four options from the short menu. We chose our favourite Bhel Puri which has raw mango; Samphire Pakoras; Torched mackerel. The Bhel Puri was fantastic and we polished this off really quickly. The idea of Samphire Pakoras is great but we had forgotten that in practice they tend to be a bit woody and, hence, they were not our favourite. Unfortunately, we had ordered two portions and we failed to work work our way through them both. On the other hand the torched mackerel was really tasty and we would definitely try it again.

We washed it all down with a fresh lime soda and a bottle of Curious Brew Lager. The total bill came to £31.35. We didn’t linger and will certainly look up our review next time we come, so we can avoid things that weren’t great. It’s a shame you can’t book but, nevertheless, we will return so that we make our way through the rest of the interesting menu of what is still some of the best food in Brixton.

Trinity Arms – Burger Shack

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address: The Trinity Arms, 45 Trinity Gardens, Brixton, London, SW9 8DR

telephone: 020 7274 4544

email: trinityarms@youngs.co.uk

website: http://www.trinityarms.co.uk/

The refurbished Trinity Arms reopened in mid-August providing much more space in the bar, a little loss of character and something new upstairs , a Burger Shack. You might well question the need for another burger bar, particularly in Brixton where burger lovers are spoilt for choice, but it seems that this is something Young’s, the Brewery, are rolling out across their chain of pubs. You can still get other food in the bar, but upstairs it’s just the burgers. It seems a bit odd and it will be interesting to see how it works out. The key difference here is perhaps it has more of a restaurant like ambience, rather than the “fast food, eat your burger and get out”, feeling you get at the other places in Brixton.

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A short bus ride away No 2 – Hood (Streatham)

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address: 67 Streatham Hill, London SW2 4TX

Tel: 0.0 36013320

website: hoodrestaurants.com

email: info@hoodrestaurants.com

Trying to find somewhere for a leisurely meal in Brixton is more difficult now so we set off with guests for a second visit to Hood – a crowdsourced restaurant in Streatham that we really enjoyed the first time (see here). We were not disappointed – it was as friendly as the first time. We won’t spend time describing the décor as it hasn’t changed. But we were glad to see that even on a Wednesday night they were full, so definitely book ahead. Continue reading →

Booma

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address: 244 Brixton Road, SW9 6AH

telephone:

website: http://booma-brixton.co.uk/

This describes itself as a new concept in “the coming together of delicious Indian food and great craft beer”. It serves northern Indian food using a tandoor oven but then pairs them with different craft beers. This is quite an art, as most Indian food is spicy and would mask the overall flavour of the beer. They solve this by not making the Indian food that spicy – delicate would be the best way of describing it, so don’t go here to get a huge flavour boost. Continue reading →

RESULT: Favourite Restaurant in Brixton 2016

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It’s finally time to reveal the results!

After a few weeks of voting, narrowing down of the list, and the big push in the last week for our shortlist we can happily say that Nanban has been voted the favourite restaurant in Brixton 2016 by our readers.

Only opening last year, the Japanese Soul Food restaurant, is the first for Masterchef winner Tim Anderson. What we think makes it stand out from the rest is that it is like no other in Brixton. It doesn’t shy away from giving nods to the Carribean roots of its hometown (curried goat ramen) and makes the effort to involve the local community and market in its dishes.

Check out our review of the place here and congratulations!