This is a newish restaurant at the Coldharbour Lane end of Brixton Village. It has only been open for a week, so it is on its soft launch. It is part of a small south London chain and serves Asian food and is definitely a place to try with cash in your pocket, as they don’t yet have any credit card services. But this is a blessing as you get a discount on the food you buy. Sit on small tables or at a counter watching passers by.
On Saturday the menu contained – snacks, noodles, dumplings, robato (skewers), “plates” including sake seabass and fried chicken any style. There are enough vegetarian options to produce an interesting meal. We chose Dan Dan noodles (as recommended) that includes a lot of garlic, peanuts, sesame and soy sauce, skewers of pork belly, skewers of broccoli and tahini as well as grilled aubergine. We were very hungry so we tucked in before taking pictures. There could have been prettier shots – blame our appetite.
The grilled aubergine was soft and delicious and relatively easy to eat with chopsticks. The pork belly was spicy and simple to eat with the fat giving a lovely flavour. The tahini and roasted broccoli florets was a revelation – just the right crispness and sweetness and a relief from all the chilli. Noodles were spicy too but also soft and our waitress cut them up and tossed them in the delicious sauce. We stopped there – we were full and thought we will visit again very soon especially with the 20% discount as an incentive.
We washed it down with water and a glass of a passionfruit drink. The bill came to £27.00 with the 20% discount and including service.
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.
It isn’t often that we wander round Brixton Village and find space in any of the food outlets but on this occasion we were lucky. Then we discovered that we were not really lucky as House of Momo is open 7 days a week – so no baked bean Mondays. The restaurant is inside and outside. We chose inside, one of the few tables available, as it was a bit cool in the Village corridor. Decor is limited – wooden benches and tables but little on the walls as most is window.
A Momo is a steamed and filled dumpling from Nepal or Tibet. It is usually served with a sauce called Achar. They offer steamed and steamed and fried momos filled with Chicken, Veg, Cheese & veg or Beef, but also there are Thalis, curry, fried rice and noodles or a combination (Combo) of rice or chow mein together with momos.
We chose two “combos” – fried rice and chicken steamed momos covered with sweet, hot and spicy sauce and steamed and fried momos filled with beef on top of chow mein with that same sauce.
We liked the steamed dumplings but the fried ones when cooler were a bit tough so we recommend sticking to the steamed ones – alternatively order the fried ones separately as a starter, so you can definitely eat them while they’re hot. We liked the noodles and the fried rice – both were very big portions and spicy, the rice a little more than the noodles. The veg additions gave them some texture and a bit of a bite.
They were very large portions, so we were too full for dessert.
There were soft drinks, juices, beers, wine, whiskey (Hibiki and Nikka!) and mixers like gin and tonic as well as a tea selection. We washed everything down with water, a mango lassi and a beer.
The bill was £36.00 and we were full. Service was fast and we could easily have made it to the Ritzy for a later show, but we returned to lolling on the sofa while we digested all this food. We will return when we are not on a calorie-controlled diet.
Llewelyn’s has been through many iterations but is still going strong as shown by the clientele on Friday lunchtime. This was a business/pleasure luncheon, so we were prepared to do some serious eating and drinking. We ate inside as the weather was inclement and to cheer ourselves up had a cocktail. Both of us chose a blackberry martini which was small and sweet with hidden depths (no idea what they were but it was definitely alcoholic).
Despite the reviews about the speed of the service (too fast) ours wasn’t slow but was not at the breakneck speed others have commented on. It was also not too loud, but there were no big groups celebrating on Friday lunchtime. We were able to have a civilized conversation and swap gossip! The lunchtime menu is not long, which is a blessing. It has vegetarian options, but we are omnivores. We chose a couple of the nibbles to share – boquerones (anchovies in oil and vinegar) and coppa (dry cured pork neck fillet, similar to prosciutto but that comes from the hind leg). Given the relatively small offering, the coppa was expensive but delicious.
Then we missed the starter section which has three vegetarian offers as well as chicken livers and sardines and all looked interesting. There were five mains on the menu with one veggie option, two fish and two meat. Again, we headed into the carnivore section with pork belly (with boudin noir (black pudding), celeriac and apple sauce) and the roast mallard (with quince, water cress and bread sauce). We had a side order of crispy potatoes and aoli. The pork belly looked very inviting, crispy skin and a delicious centre. This dish had an additional part not mentioned on the menu – roasted red cabbage. Some was left on the plate as it was a little hard to cut and chew on.
I loved the accompaniments to the duck – the bread sauce and quince. I was warned about “shot” appearing in the mallard and to be careful when chewing. In the end shot was absent. I would have liked the duck to have been rested as blood ran out and it was a bit tough, but I almost finished it, so it was clearly tasty.
The crispy potatoes were crispy and the aoili delicious – we didn’t finish them all – a sacrilege but I was leaving room for pudding.
There are three desserts to choose from and I had the Clementine Choux bun with sea buckthorn. I still don’t really know what the sea buckthorn tastes of – I guess it is tart, but the orange flavour either overwhelmed or complimented the cream and the choux. Anyway, we were so engaged in our conversation that I ate it (with help) before we realised that we hadn’t taken a photo. I would order again as it was delicious and not too sweet. My lunch companion had a sweet wine to finish – Szlachetny Zbior which he reported was good. We think it is Polish.
We were both full and not hassled about the table (despite the information on their website), so had a leisurely lunch with alcohol. As well as the cocktail and the sweet wine, we also had a bottle of Bergerac rouge and a single small glass of Cauzon Tinto – neither were the most but certainly not the least expensive on the menu. This is not a cheap restaurant but we did spend £83 on alcohol so you could make the bill much lower – ours came to £211.39 including 12.5% service. The food only came to £105.00. We may go again when we have made our New Year resolutions and will try to stick to them.
This new stall is an added new choice to the culinary variety and vibrance of Pop Brixton. This is a challenge not only for the appetite but is also a trial for thinking speed. Most people have heard of Korean fried chicken – delicious but this is far away from that. Think lollipop. First you need to know that a K-dog is a Korean specialty popular in the night markets of Seoul. But that explanation doesn’t prepare you for the “sausage” wrapped in dough and covered in whatever you like. Options are numerous and one is sugar – yes sugar.
They do try to make your choice as easy as possible by dividing it into three. 1. Choose your “dog” – turkey, corn, vegetarian or vegan. 2. choose the wrapping – the dough is impregnated with a wide variety of things you didn’t associate with a hot dog like Ramen. 3. choose your sauces – up to three some of which we had heard of like tomato ketchup and garlic mayonaise.
We chose the French Fries K-dog with a vegetarian sausage and tomato ketchup and sriracha (couldn’t be asked to choose three) and a classic (right) with a chicken/turkey sausage and garlic mayo and parmesan. We also had one carton of fries and ate the feast in front of a football match with a bottle of water.
So what did we think – well it was quite exciting. It is relatively fast food as it takes 8 minutes in the fryer and they do warn you. It is a messy meal but fun too. Although we finished the classic and the fries we only had two thirds of the French Fries K-Dog. It isn’t a meal to share and most of the sauce didn’t go down the front of us but that required concentrated effort – two sauces is definitely enough. It was £19.00 for the two K-dogs and something for the water and fires on top. So not a cheap fast meal though very filling. We will return when we are completely unconcerned about calories or need our stomach lined for a long night.
Open everyday from 12.30 pm to 11 pm: except Tuesday 6-11 pm
This is not the first time we have visited Franzina Trattoria; you can find our other reviews here when we ate in and here for when we had a home delivery. On this occasion, we went with two friends, so we could try more dishes. We went on a Tuesday after the bank holiday for the Queen’s funeral and it was relatively empty, as were all the restaurants down Coldharbour Lane. The decor has not changed, stripped back and with most tables not too rocky – a perennial problem across Brixton. There is a reasonable menu on one side of the table mat and on the other side is the drinks, making it possible to re-check what you were eating. There is also an extra menu of specials which is also on the blackboard. This Sicilian-style trattoria serves small plates (some not so small) and homemade pasta with various sauces.
We do hope that you will not end up in a local hospital as an inpatient, but if you or a relative do then this is a review for you. One of us ended up last year in St Thomas’s and recently one was admitted to King’s. Neither admission was for a life-threatening illness and the current one at King’s is a broken bone (tourist-related injury from a notorious fracture black spot in Sicily). My advice is to look at your feet and not the fantastic view when descending from the Juno Temple. But back to the menus.
My expectation of hospital food really relates to school dinners, soggy veg and prunes every other day so read this with a view to my very low expectations. But King’s has a fantastic menu. It extends to six A4 pages – see a couple of examples below. Lots of options, including surprising vegan ones like apple crumble and custard. The choice is pretty overwhelming at first until you get the hang of it. There are sections for starters, fish, pork, chicken, beef and vegetarian or vegan. In comparison, St Thomas’s has a much narrower choice with much less detail.
Back to King’s where the food is cook-chill (most hospitals have this system) run by key workers who provide an essential ingredient to NHS care. Cook-chill means it is cooked, off-site usually, and reheated on the ward. This method does have an effect on the make-up and taste of the dish. Fish and chips for instance are not battered fish, it is breaded. The chips are mostly flabby as you might expect as they get steamed like all those Deliveroo orders from fast food outlets (see here as an example). You always get a vegetable – peas with the fish and chips – and luckily you get a spoon to chase them around the plate.
My favourite dish so far is the fish mornay – steamed fish, root vegetable mash and mashed potato (a particular favourite of mine) with a cheesy custard over the fish. The fish is fine – occasionally overcooked, but the cheese adds seasoning. I would like a bowlful of the mashed veg – carrots, swede and other roots. The mashed potato is not stuffed with butter, but it is smooth and generally not like wallpaper paste. My fellow patients also recommended the tomato pasta and beef curry.
There are lots of desserts including fresh fruit. For a tried and tested and really delicious one try the apple crumble and custard. The apples are caramelised just right, but not too flabby, and the crumble has a bit of a bite – I suspect some fibre to keep you regular. Although the custard is a bit thin it makes the pudding much easier to eat.
For those who want lighter fare try the tomato soup. It is real tomato soup like you might make from scratch at home, and although I am partial to Heinz (my go-to when under the weather), this was tastier, not as sweet, and felt a lot healthier as it wasn’t as smooth.
Breakfast is a bit of a mystery as I was nil-by-mouth on several days until the clinicians worked out that they couldn’t fit me into the theatre, so I had limited opportunities for early morning eating. Porridge and black coffee were passable. The porridge a bit on the sloppy side and the coffee a step up from conference coffee, but a long way from Costa. But this is a minor quibble as on the whole everything was much better than I thought King’s would be. As meals break up the day, it was a pleasant surprise that they tasted good too.
The catering staff are really helpful in making a choice and will dig something out if you missed the ordering time. All this food was at no cost, although I still hope none of our readers get to sample it.
We visited this restaurant shortly after it opened as there was a buzz in Brixton Village. It is a simple, very understated venue with an open kitchen and tables and stool (you might be very lucky to get a chair). Seating is limited inside, so we sat in the alleyway. No blankets are provided, so in chilly weather wear a coat. The place was crowded with people waiting for tables or takeaway, but we managed to arrive at just the right time and slid onto a two-person table. Be prepared to wait, but waiting just means looking at what others have ordered, so it is a benefit and people didn’t have to wait long. This is part of a chain (3 locations) and Brixton does have a slightly different menu, but not much. It describes itself as providing traditional Cantonese roast meats, lo mein (tossed or stirred noodles) and dim sum. Meat runs throughout the menu with varied forms of duck, chicken or pork. These can be served alone or combined with noodle soup, preserved vegetables or variations of noodles. You can also choose wontons, dumplings, fishballs or bao. They have a few vegetables, and I mean a few, so vegetarians should probably shy away.
We chose what was described as a Brixton Special – the Three Treasures platter (Duck, Char Siu, and Crispy Pork) with jasmine rice and pak choi – washed down with Brixton lager
The meat (and we are not big meat eaters) was fantastic. The duck (in the middle) was crisp and unctuous (always wanted to use that word), the pork (on the left) was indeed crispy and the char siu (on the right) was slightly sweet and aromatic. Rice and pak choi were added to make it to the status of a meal and helped to soak up some of the juices on the platter. The pak choi was crispy but not too difficult to eat with chopsticks.
The bill came to £40 including a 10% service charge and included two beers (£9.00). It provided what it says on the menu and was really tasty. We definitely will visit again to try some of the other offerings with less of a meat content, now we know they are all tasty. We also might visit for a late lunch, which will allow more lingering without the guilt of seeing hungry people hanging around.
This is the place we all knew as “Three Little Birds” which has changed its name, some of the menu and a little of the decor. It isn’t so dark as it used to seem although the menus especially for drinks are written in a faint, and very small font. The waitress told us to use our phone torch as that is what most people did. Maybe the sensible thing is to just change the font as the solution is a little intrusive to your fellow diners. This is now a restaurant rather than a bar. Diners sit pretty close which has pros and cons. Are they looking Covid-peaky? Against which you can play off the benefit of seeing what they ordered and the size of the portions. Our neighbours were very helpful – and as this is a small plates menu – size definitely matters. But first the drinks as we have no photos. We ate in January, but even though one of us stuck to the no alcohol rule there was an voluntary amendment of Saturdays off. So we ordered a St Elizabeth Martini and a Dry 75 – we won’t describe them as they may have changed but they lasted throughout our meal. We abstained from Vegan January – one step too far on this occasion.
On to the menu – small plates with nibbles. Nibbles are what you have waiting for the main event so we skipped them and went for the dinner small plates followed by dessert. As you will see they are very pretty and some are really tasty, but do not go in hungry before your pay packet arrives. This is strictly for those who do not look at the cost of the dishes.
The menu has a Jamaican feel with ingredients and dishes you would recognise and some that are definitely new on the same plate. We started with slow -cooked goat croquettes with plantain ketchup which had a bit of a kick and some goat cheese croquettes that came with a beautiful beetroot flower. These were dishes that we thought you ought to try – crispy but with good flavour and the slight saltiness went well with our drinks.
We then ordered the seared duck with cavolo nero and, although there was a promise of plums we didn’t see any – it was more sweet potato, but we were not arguing with that – it was delicious. There was also a promise of Jerk, but it wasn’t a highlight and we didn’t miss it. Although this is a small plate there was easily enough for three – especially if one of the three likes Cavollo Nero (I don’t). Then we ordered a Brixton staple – described as salted cod but was definitely ackee and saltfish with breadfruit and tomato – and no chili – however we also liked that too.
We also ordered baby carrots – described as with jerk butter – again we didn’t notice the chilli. There was another dish but we now can’t remember what it was. We knew that we were already full, but for our readers we ventured on to the dessert menu – should really have shared. We ordered from the short list a cheesecake with limoncello curd and ginger together with banana bread. They were completely contrasted with the light cake against the heavy cheesecake – we had to roll home.
We did warn you about the costs – alcoholic drinks cost about £11.00 plus. The total bill came to £100 which is a lot for anything other than a celebratory night out. The food was good, no more than just good – it was excellent – and there was a Jamaican flair from some ingredients, but it has moved away from the hot depth of flavour that Caribbean food has to offer. But for those who want a slow intro this is definitely for them. We will go back but will take more people – a small plate is for three and then the bill will be cheaper.
Upstairs at the Department Store is a members club that offers a social space and opportunities to discover new friends. The joining list seems to be long as one of us waited a few months before finally being admitted. We are not clubbing people – any sort of clubbing people – but this place offered us the opportunity to book some social spaces for private hire and some spectacular views over Brixton (summer only). The bar is always packed and the restaurant offers a range of interesting food and is linked to the two on the ground floor – Canova Hall and Bellefields (both reviewed in this blog). We went with Brixton friends so we could try as many things as possible, but that wasn’t how it ended up.
Two of us chose gnocchi and the other two the beef tatare. The gnocchi comes with beurre noisette, a parmesan crisp, and wild mushrooms. Gnocchi are always a bit hit and miss – these were light and fluffy, and dare I say it this early into the menu, one of the best things we ate. The beef tartare came with a cointreau cured egg yolk, caponata and a sesame crisp with a sprinkling of pink leaves. The dish was fine but the main complaint was – where is the beef? It was more of a veggie tartare – nice but an affront to the trades description act.
Again our group went for just two dishes – the filet mignon and the duck. The beef came with spinach, brioche, porcini hash browns (delicious) and what was called a “truffle demi-glaze”. All these extra ingredients were good, but the beef could have been rested for longer as it was a bit tough despite having the right sharp knife. The duck was similar – needed more resting and a bit more of a crisp skin.
We liked the spinach and chips and those plates were empty at the end of this course.
We did order desserts but forgot to take a photo. Posh apple crumble, sticky toffee pudding, and an even posher creme brulee. We liked them all.
We washed everything down with sparkling water, a bottle of red wine, 2 glasses of white wine and a sherry. All of which were expensive (£77.50) but we did choose an expensive-ish red. The total bill came to £326.81 for four including a service charge. But this was a whole meal, lasting a few hours and very relaxed. If you choose alcohol wisely then the bill will be significantly reduced – about £62 per person. Members only can make a reservation so you may be treated as a guest. In that case do not turn it down.
EATINBRIXTON 