Italian

Franco Manca

~ eatinbrixton ~ Leave a comment

Address:

Unit 4 Market Row,

Brixton Market,

Brixton, SW9 8LD

telephone: 020 7738 3021

website:   http://francomanca.co.uk/

Franco Manca is in a spot where there has always (as far as I remember) been a pizza restaurant. Previously run by an Italian family, their pizzas were delicious and there was always a good crowd at lunchtime. This is similar but definitely not the same. The restaurant has now expanded, so it is has an extension across from the cosy place with the ovens and it has opened out into the main market thoroughfare. This is not where the difference stops.

This is not just a pizza restaurant – it is a sourdough pizza restaurant and that is not where the differences between these pizzas and ones served in most pizza restarants stop. The toppings are culturally eclectic too with Gloucester Old Spot ham and Spanish chorizo to choose from. There is an organis label to many of the ingredients and I also heard our waitress advising on the addition of other toppings to the number 1 to 6 list of pizzas. She was definitely against adding tomato to one of them and said it really spoiled the taste of the mushrooms (and she was probably right).

Continue reading →

Laboratorio Artigianale del Buon Gelato – Lab G

~ eatinbrixton ~ Leave a comment

Lab GAddress: 6 Granville Arcade, Coldharbour Lane, Brixton Village, London SW9 8PR

I know you are not meant to eat ice cream for a whole meal but this place is really tempting so for a finale to any meal in Brixton go to Lab G. Here is a tiny temple to gelato, a tempting centre for high calory ice cream with plenty of cream like the salted caramel, or one of your five a day with mango sorbet or even something a little different. On one occasion we tried their liquorice and although in small quantities was delightful, in a hefty cone is a little hard to get through. The flavours are various – chocolate sorbet, real vanilla with flecks of vanilla pod, hazelnut, cherry and the usual flavours of Italian gelato like stracciatella. Flavours change all the time, so don’t depend on trying that odd flavour on your next visit.

It is not cheap at 1.50-2.50 a cone but with the large amount of ice cream it is well worth the cost.  We have seen mums hovering at the door and then, after seeing the prices, scurrying away with disappointed children so it would be useful for them to offer a small size just for kids which wouldn’t break the bank.

This place is not open mostly on Monday or Tuesday but that is by demand and I suspect that they will open later and later as the winter months encroach.

Casa Sibilla

~ eatinbrixton ~ 1 Comment

Address 67 – 68 Granville Arcade, Coldharbour Lane (Brixton Village) London, SW9 8PS

Telephone number –

http://www.casa-sibilla.com/

Closed Monday, open Tuesday, Wed until 5.00pm, Thursday-Satruday until 10.00 and Sunday until 5.00pm

Casa Sibilla is an Italian restaurant in the buzzy new heart of Brixton in the Granville Arcade. We used to know this enclave of Brixton as a covered market that was full of sharks and fish of varying colours and vegetables that had to be boiled for days and then still seemed uncooked. However now it is a dazzling array of restaurants. The market is open on most nights (except Monday) to people browsing for food in the many different restaurants.

Casa Sibilla is determinedly Italian – short menu, speciality cocktail (ours was pink, raspberries and prosecco I think). It is in the heart of the Village and we highly recommend choosing an outside table in the wide  and lofty passageway lit by bizarre lights (do look as it seems they are different kinds of lampshades all put together to provide a souk-like atmosphere.  I expect they are “vintage” because they look like ones my grandmother had)

I admit I chose badly – everyone knows that gnocchi can never be that great – but my companions chose well with a plate of mixed meats, plenty of bread and the best mixed olives that I have for quite a while. The octopus and mussel stew looked pretty meaty and was demolished. Partly this was because we did wait rather a long time for the food so we were ravenous and a little drunk as seconds of cocktails were called for. But we were warned about the likely slowness – due they said to a lack of staff. This was very surprising as there didn’t seem to be enough room for any more staff in the main restaurant which has an open kitchen smaller than the one in my own house. There was a clear system of movement so that Paola Sibilla (the chef) could manage the large saucepans and sizzling gnocchi so they didn’t collide with soup bowls. On price it was fair but definitely more than the usual Brixton fare but you do get what you pay for and I would recommend this place as long as the short menu changes enough to hold our interest.

P.S there is a deli that sells good olive oil and I hope the olives and you can also buy their ravioli and other sweeter goodies.