Spanish

Brindisa Food Rooms

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Brindisa03

address: 41 – 43 Atlantic Road, Brixton London

tel no: 0207 733 0634

http://www.brindisa.com/our-shops/brindisa-food-rooms

Currently open Wednesday to Sunday

Returning from our too brief visit to Spain we decided to compare our restaurant experiences in Andalucia with the Brindisa Food Rooms in Brixton. Located next to their shop on Atlantic Road, the design takes in the railway arches and has used brick and steel in a (I hate this word) minimalist interior. Metal chairs and tables for two are pushed into different formations depending on the size of the party – with three we had plenty of space on two tables but four would be a bit squashed if they didn’t time the dishes well.

The menu is ….”inspired by the Catalan Llesqueries” (from the website) but toast and salad to you and me. We wrote about their cheese sandwiches in a previous blog. We thought they were so delicious we ordered another one on this occasion. The waiter comes to the table to explain everything but you have to order at the counter and either pay straight away or leave a card. Presumably this keeps out all those who may try to make a quick getaway while no-one is looking.

The menu has tiny starters of olives, salted almonds and small dips (tapenade etc)  to accompany a glass of wine and larger plates like salads, different llesquerias and inevitably charcuterie – serrano, salchichon and iberico ham. They also have a few daily specials. We chose the cheese on toast, the iberico selection, tapenade, gazpacho (a daily special) and for dessert a slice of almond cake with saffron yoghurt to share.  We say no more about the cheese on toast ……. it was still delicious.

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The meat selection came with four different meats and was definitely enough for three carnivores. The variety also added to the interest with wafer thin slices of pork loin, chorizo, salami but thicker pieces of iberico. The tapenade was served with thin fingers of hard baked bread which were actually difficult to break apart. We expected the tapenade to be salty but you really do need to like salt to eat this. The Gazpacho was very light and had more red pepper than usual – it doesn’t deserve a superlative but it was definitely good. We wanted more of the saffron yoghurt sauce for the almond slice.

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We also ordered two glasses of red wine – go for the more expensive one for a better richer flavour. The service was excellent – plenty of explanations. We did find a price discrepancy between the menu and the till receipt but they willingly paid back the difference as clearly they had not updated the menu. The whole thing came to an eye-popping £46.60 but we knew it wasn’t going to be cheap and half was the meat selection. We had had a good meal with well chosen ingredients in a pleasant ambiance where we could hold a steady conversation without getting a sore throat …. how old foggie is that…… If you want a cheap tapas then go to Seven – here is a bit more sophisticated and you can linger.

A tale of two cheese sandwiches

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I have my lunch in Brixton two or more times a week and have done for more than 20 years. So I welcome the increasing number of good places to eat. But this change is not universally popular and I was sorry to see, via Urban 75, that someone using the hashtag #BrixtonMum on Twitter, was attacking one of the most recent openings, Brindisa – see post #596 here, down towards the bottom of the page.

The complaint, essentially, is that £5 is too much to pay for cheese on toast and so Brindisa, as a hated symbol of gentrification, should go back to Soho. Someone else then tweeted to point out that you can get a cheese and pickle toastie for £1.50 at Papa’s Café. My view is that there’s probably room for both but, on behalf of our loyal followers, I felt duty bound to check them out.

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Gremio de Brixton

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gremio04 address: underneath St Matthews Church, Brixton Hill SW2 1JF

telephone: 020 7924 0660

http://gremiodebrixton.com/

We have no idea why we have waited so long to make a visit to Gremio de Brixton. It is underneath St Matthews Church – a place we know well as one of us went to playgroup there. But now the whole of the crypt has been turned into a restaurant and bar with tables outside overlooking the Peace Garden. But there was no room outside on such a warm evening so we headed into the dark cool depths to the cellar like rooms. It is a like a cut down version of the Mezquita in Cordoba. Lots of pillars obscuring the view of the other diners (although there were none when we visited). All the small tables were lit with a single candle but with overhead lights making it relatively easy to read the menu. The ceiling is low, the music loudish and we thought when full the noise would echo off the plain brick walls and pillars. But nonetheless we thought it was a fantastic venue.

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The Provincial (formerly Tapas Pa’Ti)

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Address: 21 Market Row, Brixton SW9

Another of the new restaurants popping up in Market Row is Tapas Pa’ti (translated to Tapas For You) a place advertised as serving home cooked Spanish tapas. With an open front and tables both inside and out, Spanish music playing in the background and the red brick décor and dark wood the place has a real feels of a traditional Spanish bar.

Before I begin on the food I must point out that the eatinbrixton gang are frequent visitors of Spain, meaning we are huge fans of tapas. One thing I love about tapas is the environment that you eat it in. With baking heat, Salsa music playing in the background, a leg of ham hanging from the bar and usually a couple of regulars who seem to always be hanging around, all create the mood of a Spanish bar. Luckily this place creates that for us (although don’t rely on the weather!).

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Seven

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address: 7 Market Row, SW9 8LB

telephone: 020 7998 3309

email: market@sevenatbrixton.com

http://sevenatbrixton.wordpress.com/

We have now visited Seven four times and feel it is time for a review as we have seen it busy, empty and when you can get a table but still feel it’s buzz. Seven is a Spanish style cocktail bar in the now, less fashionable, Market Row near to Franco Manca. It also serves food to soak up the alcohol. But they also have coffee and it is a welcome quiet haven on a Sunday when Brixton Village is heaving and you realise that you should have booked a seat.

Cheap cocktails include dirty martinis, non-orthodox cocktails (bramble comes in a teacup with a cupcake on the saucer) and old fashioneds (spirits, bitters and no sugary fruit additives) as well as Spanish beer. The bartender (who never seems to get a night off) spoke to us each time we visited and is helpful, as well as charming. He explained about all the types of drinks and had time to chat about the food – well on one occasion we were the only customers – but on others, even when we had to squeeze past other diners, we still got a little chat.

Decor is quirky. Downstairs we tried out a bench surrounded by heaters, another time we were relegated to a table made out of an old trunk – which if it hadn’t been quaint we would probably have tried to swap as it is hard balancing coffee on such a vaguely curved table with ridges. We also ventured upstairs which is a warren of small rooms each with its own ambience – wall paper with writing on it, low tables, dark romantic looking corners and high bar stools with an accompanying table – take your pick. It is definitely surreal, especially the large anglepoise. But tall people beware there will be a lot of ducking. It is also warmer upstairs when there is a February chill in the air.

Quirky is also a word to describe the luggage tag menus which are blessedly short. The suitcase references are a nod to the shop’s past. Food is tapas and the larger sized pinxtos (sounds like pinchos). These you pay for by the stick – £2 each and at the end they add up the sticks – exactly like you would in the some Catalan and Basque parts of Spain. They include anchovy, chilli and tomato, or chorizo and manchego as well as figs and other less usual combinations. There are some hot dishes too but we chose the meat plate to share with padron peppers on the side and a bottle of Rioja (after a cocktail). The Rioja was very good and there was certainly enough food to stop us feeling hungry for the rest of the night.

You can spend time here playing games and reading books which are arranged by colour not size or subject. They also have wifi. However, staying too long in the current cold months really requires a few layers of clothes as the whole bar is open to the market. Blankets and heaters help but on one occasion I kept my coat and scarf on.

Opening times are variable even though it seems to be open every day. We went on a Monday night when it was completely empty apart from two wifi addicts and left at 8.00 pm when the security man came and asked everyone to leave. We had to make a “Mission Impossible” run at the barrier which was half closed and shimmy underneath. I like this bar – it is one of the friendly ones and they do seem to have got their act together. Try it on a sunday when you might have a warming cocktail – usually only a fiver. The shared plate is aobut £7.00

Boqueria

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address: 192 Acre Lane, Brixton, London, SW2 5UL

telephone: 020  7733 4408

info@boqeriatapas.com

A new restaurant on Acre Lane this is the last in a trio of eating places just past Lidl that we would definitely recommend. The restaurant consists of a bar which can be seen from the street and a restaurant area at the back which spans two shopfronts. The decor is minimalist and we really mean minimalist. This is not like the pop-ups in Brixton Village with their borrowed furniture. This restaurant has modern wooden tables for two people, pale wooden floors and few pictures.

Boqeria opened just before Christmas so we went for a family outing for six and this was only a couple of days past the opening. We usually give restaurants a little time to settle down first but in their case the food was good and we thought we should alert people to the opportunity as it is easy to miss among the empty shops in that stretch of the road.

As this was part of our Christmas celebrations we started with cocktails – not our best decision. The martini was mostly vermouth, the special mojito had too much sugar in it and the other drinks were even less like what we expected. However, the beer and the wine are fine – we had a reasonably priced Rioja.

As we cook a lot of Spanish food and visit Spain regularly – particularly Andalusia which is the home of the tapas, we feel we know a lot about the cuisine. The food at this restaurant compared well. You choose from a menu of tapas, specials (on the board), rice dishes, like paella and arroz negro, and salads. As there were six of us we chose two dishes each and a few extras so had lots to try. The croquetas were a hit although we preferred the ones with ham rather than cheese, but the patatas bravas needed a little extra spice. The Fabada (beans and bacon), tortilla and calamare were also very delicious. We were delighted to see the inclusion of Iberico ham, a family favourite and hard to come by in South London. Unusually for any tapas restaurant we were not provided with bread as part of the meal, particularly with the ham. Pudding was complimentary with traditional Spanish sweets such as turron, a most enjoyable touch.  Overall we would rate this restaurant highly for the food but here is the but ……

Tapas can be a slow meal – its really a discussion interspersed with food and that’s what makes it enjoyable. If there are only two of you in the party then having the food come two dishes at a time is fine. If there are six of you then the two dishes are emptied almost immediately and everyone is still famished and getting drunker. So our advice for the restaurant is to consider the size of the party and provide the dishes a few more at a time so. If this had happened then we would have probably ordered a few more but no-one was in the mood given the time each one took to appear and we did wait some time for an interesting pork belly dish that came alone about 20 minutes after all the other food had disappeared. An explanation of each dish would also have been helpful so we didn’t have to guess.

Meal came to about £25 a head, but we were over indulging in the lead up to Christmas so that may have upped the price.

The service was not as attentive as it should have been, however the staff were extremely friendly when they appeared. But we know they will improve and we still think it is well worth the effort of walking a little further from Brixton to  experience this Spanish home cooking and I am looking forward to our next visit with my fingers crossed that they would have ironed out the kinks by then. Another culinary delight added to Brixton

Brixton Space – NOW CLOSED

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Brixton Spaceaddress: 30 Brixton Water Lane, Brixton, London SW2 1PE

telephone 020 7501 8606

email: brixtonspace@gmail.com

www.brixtonspace.co.uk

The menu describes this neighbourhood restaurant/bar as a late 60s post Mad Men designed interior with lots of red lights and wallpaper. The lighting is really interesting as they have 20 long tentacle-like flexes ending in lightbulbs across the ceiling. This is really a feature rather providing light as even with the candle on the table I realised that I should have brought the stronger reading glasses. Tables are small and for two with a bench on one side and a stool on the other but from the bench side were really comfortable but the stools perhaps not so much for longer lounging. It is a small restaurant and there is probably only room for about 20 people in a small but cosy atmosphere. There are lots of suggestions of how to book and I guess that is important over the weekend.

The menu says it is tapas fusion and that is certainly true. The small plates are a bit bigger than most tapas and some are definitely not the sort you would find in Spain. There are the usuals  – patatas bravas, serano and manchego as well as bread, olives etc. but then it stretches into goats cheese and fig tart and finally to the more creative with polenta and mozzarella (Italy) followed by the ultimate in creativity quesadilla and humous (Mexican and Greek??).

It was a Thursday and we were feeling boring so we plumped for three tapas – patatas bravas, lentils, chorizo and roast vegetables and goats cheese with marinated olives to start and it was a good start. The various types of olives really complemented each other – some salty, some juicy and others just … well just lovely. A freezing glass of manzanilla would have been a good accompaniment but it was a bit on the rough side although very cheap (£4.00). The goats cheese and fig tart with salad was a great success and so was the lentils with spicy chorizo. We weren’t as happy with the patatas bravas as we were expecting something a little more firey but it had just a little salsa on top which was cold and so cooled the rest of the potatoes.

We noticed that others in the restaurant were picking up takeaways and others were just having coffee and a croissant so it is really a local place for meeting people and chilling out with the bar menu of cocktails including One Love made of Gin, Blackberry Jam & Lemon, topped with soda and Josephine Avenue which is a blend of Scotch Whiskey, Lemon, Framboise & Rose. Sounds like the sort of thing to drink early and retire for the evening.

We were full  after sharing only three tapas and the bill came to just £22.00 which we thought was reasonable value.