Italian

Bellantoni’s

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address: Unit 81, Brixton Village Market, SW9

telephone: 078 7294 5675

For information see http://www.bellantonis.co.uk/Welcome.html

After a Christmas break the chef proprietor Dario Bellantoni has returned.  Easy to detect how the name of this Italian restaurant came about. But it is difficult to understand where some of the additional comments below their name come from but more in a minute. It is spread across two sides of an alleyway in Brixton Village with one side an open kitchen and a few tables and on the other a small dining room – in between the windswept alleyway with tables which is where we ended up – only daring to remove our gloves to eat.

Choosing is easy – the menu is blessedly short with seasonal dishes – antipasta, homemade vegetarian pasta dishes (I mean everything including the pasta) and some more substantial fish dishes and stews. We ordered antipasta between the three of us and as it is meant for two sharing we raced for our favourites but luckily there was enough for everyone to try all the separate pieces …. dried tomato, rocket, chorizo, olives which look the colour of pecans and mozarella and burrata. Burrata is made from mozarella and cream and is a smooth texture and was served at the right temperature so it was creamy or, as Dario told u,s buttery from the Italian “burrata” . It goes well with the bread and oil that comes with the whole antipasta dish.

For mains we chose the lasagne with ricotta and spinach, spicy tomato and chorizo stew and monkfish in a saffron sauce. The lasagne was definitely enough but for a balanced meal I should have chosen a salad as well. The chorizo stew was stupendous – soft and slightly spicy with the tomatoes not too acidic. The only weak point was the monkfish, with a remarkably small portion of fish for what was described on the menu as a main course, hardly any vegetables and very little sauce that simply didn’t have enough flavour anyway.

The choice of desserts is even more limited and we ended the meal with two tarts (one apple and cinnamon, one banana) although they were in fact pieces of pie rather than a tart. Both came accompanied by a dollop of mascarpone. The banana was our  favourite.

We drank a bottle of the red Sardinian wine that was on the specials list. It was fruity and not to heavy and kept us warm until the main courses arrived. There were cheaper bottles and glasses on the menu – all as we remember Italian.

The price for the whole of our meal was about £25.00 per person but we did have more wine and the expensive main dishes. As a sideline this restaurant offers cooking classes for anyone who has now run out of ideas fop birthday surprises. Our own piece of advice (apart from do try this restaurant) is to book early and get a seat inside during the winter months.

Agile Rabbit

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Address: Unit 24, Brixton Village Market, Coldharbour Lane SW9 8PR

telephone: 020 3940 2700

email: info.theagilerabbit@gmail.com

The Lapin Agile is a famous cabaret in Monmartre, Paris and was a favourite spot for poor but up and coming artists like Picasso and Modigliani. Now it has set up home as the Agile Rabbit in Brixton Village, together with its own nightly cabaret for the poor artists of Brixton. It is a small pizza house in Brixton Village sited near a couple of good fishmongers, so the smell pervades but only while you are waiting with a beer. As soon as the food arrives or the music starts you are in Naples (except for the cold). That is something they have thought about at Agile Rabbit. There is a heater and blankets for those who, on a Saturday night and indoors, can’t bear to remove their scarf let alone their jacket to eat their meal. It is small with tables and benches inside and as with all the Brixton Village eateries one’s spilling out into the alleyway outside.

Menus are limited to what they do best – pizza and calzone. Pizzas come large, very thin and crispy and with a choice of toppings including the usual – pepperoni, anchovies, olives and capers. The extras are very cheap (40 or 60 p each) so that you are tempted to add more and more. Calzone are more varied with several items in one lovely italian cornish pasty. The main difference between the pizza and calzone is not just the price and the fact you can’t see the toppings – the main difference is that the calzone comes with a plate and a knife and fork whereas the  pizza is pre-cut and on a piece of grease proof paper. We got the a mixed vegetable one which was good but they need to learn that the temperature inside a calzone is not as hot as for a pizza so the vegetables need to be cut up smaller – the couple of halved button mushrooms I found were edible but only after I had worked out what they were. We also had a pizza which was delightful. For dessert we had a piece of their famous tart between the two of us. This tart has won prizes and we could see why. It was a sort of buttery, nutty frangipan with pecans – but neither of us can remember what it was called… However there’s a big sign advertising it so we don’t think you’ll forget to order it.

Drinks are soft (fresh juice or the usual fizzy drinks), warm (good coffee) or alcoholic (beer, wine and cider as well as rum). It was a very cold Saturday night so we had beer which was equally cold but we thought after a while we wouldn’t care. Service is swift, friendly and accommodating and the music – yes live music – was not so loud we couldn’t speak and wasn’t too much like the jazz I dislike. It appears that music is on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

The turnover is relatively high with people moving on and food served quickly so it is relatively easy to get a seat even on a Saturday night. This is also not an expensive meal about £12.00 per person including a drink. The calzone were a definite bargain at only £4.00-5.00 each. We can’t vouch for the wine but plenty of people were drinking it.  That together with good food and a congenial atmosphere means we will return.

Franco Manca

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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).

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Laboratorio Artigianale del Buon Gelato – Lab G

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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

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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.