English

Bistro Union

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40 Abbeville Road

London SW4 9NG

020 70426400

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We have visited Bistro Union a couple of times before our Sunday visit and always decided that the cost was above a general trip out on a weekday so haven’t reviewed it here. But now they do a Sunday Supper menu at £28.00 per person – an absolute bargain for the food you get. Visit soon – booking is definitely required.

This is a sister restaurant to Trinity in Clapham Old Town which is seriously good and seriously expensive – but you are in for a treat whenever you visit. Back to Bistro Union. During the week they serve a choice of snacks, small and large plates as well as some to share. On Sunday for lunch it is similar but with a roast. Sunday supper is a fixed menu – blessed relief not to have to choose – and when we visited there were three courses and an optional one. Snacks were cheese goujons – light an fluffy. An optional course – a tomato salad with fragrant dressing that we chose and shared. The main course was a deconstructed Caesar salad – the salad plus four pieces of chicken and the desert a berry pavlova that was more like an Eton mess when it arrived but no problem – we wolfed it down.

We were a party of three with a mother who is hard to please. So we took no photos, just in case. But we hit the jackpot with her thumbs up. The chicken skin was seasoned really well and the salad just crispy enough. We had a piece of chicken left over which was immediately wrapped for us to take away for a further supper the next day.

Wine comes in carafes as well as bottles and is a bit more expensive than your local – but that’s because it is really good. Not drinking too much before the hurly burly of Monday was also a blessing – as we were not tempted to dive into more than a glass and a half.

We will definitely go back for another go as the menus change.

Salon – lockdown takeaway again

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Address: 18 Market Row, Brixton, London SW9 8LD

Website: http://salonbrixton.co.uk/

Phone: 020 7501 9152

We have reviewed Salon several times before (here and here and here, and most recently, here for an earlier home delivery). So another delivery for another celebration apropos of nothing – just to cheer us up. They have started to offer special ‘big night’ menus where the only choice, essentially, is between veg and non-veg. The menu changes with the seasons too, so by now the offer is likely to have moved on from the one described here. Most dishes come in recycled cartons, but also reusable plastic and foil containers. Don’t throw everything away. Labeling is also good, as we have sometimes had to make guesses on other place’s deliveries.

It looks a lot and it was, with four courses. But it was well balanced and it all got eaten that night. Some assembly was required but nothing more than identifying what was what and putting stuff in the oven for the requisite time. Everything that needed heating was in appropriate packaging. To make it more of a treat we made a proper meal of it with candles, table cloth and the posh cutlery.

The first course was actually our favourite – the peperronata mixed roast vegetables with a goat’s curd cheese. It came with plenty of sourdough bread.

Then there was a salad of warm roast calçots, the Catalan green onion, served on the garlic emulsion with radicchio. There was more bread. This time focaccia.

The main was a bean stew, tastier than it looks, with flatbread, not as burnt as it looks, and broccholi tops in a chilli dressing.

Final course was a millefeuille with roasted rhubarb and cream – great way to finish the meal, but beware the crumbs.

The bill came to £63.50, which was a lot, but it was a special ‘let’s have a treat’ occasion. We know that during lockdown we tend to blog about expensive meals, but usually, with smaller appetites and generous portions, they feed us for a couple of days. But this night the food was good and tasty, and we were particularly hungry.

Clink@Home – delivery from Brixton Prison

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clink21The Clink Restaurant at HMP Brixton

https://athome.theclinkcharity.org/

This seems a fitting end to English week. This is a very late post as just after we ate this meal – Clink delivery closed their kitchens because of an outbreak of COVID-19 in the prison. We are posting it now as they have opened up again from 3rd March! So if you live within 10 miles of Brixton Prison you can now get an order – we suggest you do that quickly to support a worthwhile charity.

We’ve visited once – see here – and ordered once before – see here. This order was placed just before Christmas just after moving into Tier 4. We were keen to try it all again as a treat at home and we weren’t disappointed. So, don’t wait to the end of this review – just order as it is wonderful and incredible value. And if you eat it at home. you can also choose the wine accompaniment, which is not available on site.

All dishes come with lids that explains what each one is and how to heat or serve it. This is really helpful, as we have tried other meals and had to guess how they were all put together – sometimes with interesting and unpredictable results. The food has a shelf life of three days so you can put some in the fridge for another day.clink22

There are three in our bubble so for starters – Arancini (sun-dried tomato & parmesan arancini with rocket pesto) for two and a portion of Fougasse with rosemary and garlic garlic butter. There were plenty of really tasty and crispy Arancini – even some left over – but we wolfed down all the bread (beware of the very garlicky butter). The Arancini were as good as the last time we ordered them. Well done guys.

For the mains we ordered three – potato. leek and Cornish yarg pie; slow cooked beef brisket with colcannon potatoes; and barbeque pork ribs with spicy rice and coleslaw.  We also ordered (again eyes bigger than stomachs) potato wedges and roast root vegetables. We saved the pie and the colcannon potatoes for another day, as we were overwhelmed by the meat dishes. We have been mostly vegetarian and this was a bit of a treat with the soft and spicy ribs and the really soft salty and “umami” brisket. We ate them with the wedges, vegetables, rice and coleslaw. There were enough ribs to satisfy the three of us and, although we ate the vegetables, there was still some rice left over, as we were absolutely full.clink23

Well not quite totally, as it doesn’t matter how stuffed you are there is always room for the spiced autumn fruit crumble with creme anglaise. Lots of apple and red fruit with a particularly good crumble topping. not the usual crumbs but more shortbread and crunchy. We all loved it – even the person who “doesn’t usually eat dessert”. We still had some for the next day’s breakfast.

We ordered £54.35 worth of food and paid £4.95 for the delivery. This served three people with a really high quality meal that cheered us all up. We had some left over for lunch another day. The intervention of Christmas meant that we ate it beyond the three days that were promised, but we’re still here, so it must have been OK. All in all, brilliant value for money. So order now and if you are in a bubble, this is definitely an easy cheat for a dinner party box.

English Week During Lockdown

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This week started with Olleys Fish and Chips and we always over-order so included “three-fried chips” in this homemade fry-up with a Brixton twist of fried (and caramelized plantain). Fried bread from leftovers, and of course HP sauce. Totally delicious even despite the cholesterol high.

I really like mackerel and we bought some in the market but argued about which stall. We served it with mange tout and smashed new potatoes with “chopped shallots” or spring onions to most of us – also from stalls in the market. It was all topped with homemade horseradish sauce … horseradish from the Chinese supermarket on Electric avenue. Probably too much fish for one plate so next time we will try to find a more taxing recipe than …. grill it.

Peas, brown sauce and Quorn Shepherds pie – onions and some tomatos – Quorn from Brixton Wholefoods

Cauliflower cheese – Tesco’s Cheddar cheese and the green things are the outer leaves of the Cauliflower – as advocated by Jamie. They were cabbagey and did taste of cauliflower – we recommend this no waste tip. Veg from Brixton market or En Root

Salon – the Lockdown takeaway

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salon21

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.

Donnelly’s at The Shrub and Shutter

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Address: 336 Coldharbour Lane, Brixton, SW9 8QH.
Phone: 020 7326 0643
Websites:
Location: http://www.theshrubandshutter.com/
Food: https://donnellysrestaurant.co.uk/

Monday – closed
Tuesday 5pm – midnight
Wednesday 5pm – midnight
Thursday 5pm – midnight
Friday 5pm – 2am
Saturday 5pm – 2am
Sunday – closed

We have reviewed the Shrub and Shutter cocktails before; see here, here and here. But we had heard that a new residency providing the food, so in order to keep our readers up to date we visited on a freezing Friday night. It is an easy menu to work through with five sections containing just two plates. Choose a couple for each guest and then take stock for the puddings. Continue reading →

The Laundry

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laundry01

374 Coldharbour Lane, London SW9 8PL

https://thelaundrybrixton.com/

020 8103 9384 (Note. No reservations)

Mon – Wed 7am – 11pm, Thu & Fri 7am – 12am, Sat & Sun 8am till late

Newly opened at the Walton Lodge Steam Laundry, this eating establishment clearly needs to exist on turnover. With the rain tippling down on their outside tables, when we visted, this is going to be a bit of a task. But this is a bar as well as an eatery and, as we ate very early one evening, it was filled with many young women having cocktails. The place itself is smaller than you would expect from outside and oddly proportioned, with a down staircase taking up a lot of space in the middle. Continue reading →

Salon

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salon20

Address: 18 Market Row, Brixton, London SW9 8LD

Website: http://salonbrixton.co.uk/

Phone: 020 7501 9152

Opening hours:
Tuesday – Friday 12:00 – 15:00 & 18:00 – 23:30
Saturday 10:00 – 15:00 & 18:00 – 23:30
Sunday 10:00 – 15:00

Salon is now a long-standing presence in Market Row and is one of the places in Brixton that takes food seriously. We have reviewed Salon before in its present incarnation here and here. But we like to catch-up, especially when this restaurant is a past winner of our @eatinbrixton public vote for Brixton’s favourite. It hasn’t changed much except that there are a few more seats and the tables don’t wobble.We had booked but the place wasn’t full for most of the time we were there. Continue reading →

Sam’s Cafe

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Sams01Address: 85 Acre Lane, Brixton, London SW2 5TN

Telephone: 020 7274 4215

Opening times:
Monday to Friday – 6.00am to 4:30 pm
Saturday – 7:00am to 3:30pm
Sunday – Closed

Some of us might remember and miss the Goya, here in Acre Lane. But now it’s one of closest things Brixton now has to what’s called a greasy spoon, with formica tables and plastic chairs. Definitely for early risers and those wanting a hearty lunch, as it opens around 6.00 am most days and closes at 4.30 pm. The menu is on the wall and is a mixture of breakfast and lunch dishes, with a focus on carbs and fat. Just right for a wicked interlude in an otherwise blameless dietary intake. There is a daily special but we missed it and instead ordered liver and bacon with chips and peas, and sausage, mash and peas.

The portions are huge and the sausage was fatty and salty as you would expect. But the liver was a bit of a let down – a bit too much like cardboard. The bacon was great, however. The mashed potato and gravy were also a hit and better than some in high end restaurants. We both left most of the peas – all we can say is that they looked like peas.

sams03sams02It was all very great value, as the bill came to only £17, including a cup of tea and a Coca Cola. Next time we go we will order a bacon sandwich – see our review here.

Llewelyn’s Restaurant

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llew01

Address: 293–295 Railton Road, Herne Hill, London SE24 0JP

Website: http://llewelyns-restaurant.co.uk/

Phone:  0207 733 6676

Email: bookings@llewelyns-restaurant.co.uk

Opening times (for food):
Tuesday – Friday 12 Noon – 2.30 pm and from 6.00 pm
Saturday 12 Noon – 3.00 pm and from 6.00 pm
Sunday 12 Noon to 3.30 pm

Despite the Railton Road address, Llewelyn’s is definitely in Herne Hill, just to left of the Station. If it hadn’t been so hot we might well have walked through Brockwell Park but, in the event, we went by bus, calling in en route at the First Aid Box (review here) for some excellent cocktails.

Llewelyn’s inherits a site with a history. Many have mourned the loss of “Pullen’s”, and before that the brasserie “La Provencal” but the site now offers a modern minimalist style. The blank canvas is potentially noisy, especially on a hot Friday evening. But we had the added bonus of one diner on a nearby table having a laugh that was on the threshold of pain. Nevertheless, the three of us enjoyed the food and will doubtless return.

Continue reading →