Romance and Brixton have never been two words that have particularly had any relation prior to the restaurant boom in Brixton. There is now however plenty of romantic bars and restaurants and with Valentine’s Day right around the corner it’s about time to start planning, so here’s our run down of the best places to visit (and book beforehand!) this Valentines.
With a week off work, a love of coffee and the need to just get out of the house I embarked on a coffee tour of Brixton at the beginning of December. I was to visit four different coffee shops over four days, reviewing the places on the quality of the coffee, the atmosphere, price and service. I chose Rosie’s, Federation (obvs), Kaff and Lounge. The reason for choosing these places is down to just wanting somewhere that I could settle down, read my book and drink my coffee in peace. Before we begin I like my coffee strong and black with no sugar please.
http://www.sorry-no-vacancies.com/
378 Brixton Road, SW9 7AW
Set up amongst a stretch of road in central Brixton that mainly consist of questionable money lending shops and fried chicken take-aways, this is a surprisingly impressive pop-up cocktail bar. With a very uninviting front, the only thing that gives away its existence is the bouncers outside and a tiny luminescent sign welcoming you to “Sorry, No Vacancies”. Not gonna lie, I hate the name, but I think I can forgive them for that.
We started this blog to stop arguments about where we had been and what we had thought about the few restaurants there were in Brixton. Now choosing favourites is very difficult in the extensive gourmet landscape which is now Brixton. Our only rule was not to visit chain restaurants like KFC or Macdonald’s but then there was an explosion of pop-ups which encouraged other more permanent eateries to set up.
Nearly two years ago to the day http://www.eatinbrixton.com was born. Two years later, 77 posts, over 45,000 views and 1,300 Twitter followers later we are happy (and a little bit proud) that this tiny little idea born from discussions around the dinner table has grown to be something much more than we ever expected…so thanks for that!
To celebrate we are compiling a list of our favourite places that we have reviewed over the last few years. As there are three people who write this blog, we’ve each chosen three places each with the 10th picked by the public. This is mainly out of our interest (who knows if this will even work!) as we know we aren’t the only ones with a great love for the brilliant variety of places to dine in this area.
address: 89 Effra Rd, London, Greater London SW2 1DF
telephone: 020 7737 6800
After making a visit to their tasting night a few weeks ago we went again incognito to see what the place was really like.
Effra Social used to be the home of the local Conservative Club and was recently taken over and re-furbished (?) to provide a rambling retro-style building with an outside set of tables for drinkers, an internal “snug bar”, a large room with a stage and finally a restaurant at the back of the building. I met my companion at the restaurant and I saw every room while searching for him. The most daunting part was crossing the large room as there was a comedy night and there seemed to be a risk that anyone crossing to the restaurant would become part of the show.
89 Effra Rd, London, Greater London SW2 1DF
Effra Social is one of my favourite new haunts in Brixton. In an old working man’s social club just next to Hootanannys on Effra road this is another of Antics many bars in Brixton (Dogstar, Gremio de Brixton in St Matthews Church, and the new, unnamed bar behind TK Maxx). Very kindly a few weeks ago EatinBrixton was invited down for a tasting session, a chance to try everything on the menu and to give feedback on what you thought on the food, atmosphere and price. A baking hot day it was a shame we had to hide ourselves in the back room that serves as a restaurant, this is definitely a place to spend your Autumn/Winter evenings rather than in the summer.
Curry Paradise has been discussed on local blogs for a while but, up to now, it’s one of the handful of restaurants without our review. It describes itself as a premium Indian takeaway but it also has an attached restaurant. The place is small and classy – linen tablecloths but paper napkins. The class is also in the choice of white plates which are indented so the inner square is slightly off centre – fine when sober but I imagine not so much after a couple of beers. But in good taste even the salt and pepper came in white slanting towers. The vase of flowers was a single green spray of chrysanthemums to finish the stylish decor. So how did we know it was an Indian restaurant? The entrance was shaped like a dome, there was a picture of Buddha on the wall together with a wall hanging and a sitar. No flock wallpaper, no dim interior – it was light and airy with interesting lamps hanging over each table.
13 Electric Avenue
SW9 8JY
Tel: 020 7738 5898
This is the second in our reviews where we have set ourselves the task of buying all the ingredients (or at least the majority) for a meal from one local shop. We lay out the prices, what they have and hopefully promote buying from local shops in Brixton. This time the dish is Pad Thai and the place to go for all the ingredients is the Wing Tai supermarket in Electric Avenue. Pad Thai is one of those dishes where everyone has their favourite recipe – I’ve used the one on the BBC food website http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/padthai_67953 I’m not an expert but the end result is reasonably similar to the sort of thing I got at cheap local restaurants years ago when in Thailand.
This is not a usual post on this site as it is not about a new restaurant. It isn’t that there are no new ones opening it’s is just that we are waiting for them to settle down (e.g. Cannon and Cannon in Brixton Market). But we have recently come across a problem so thought we might address it here.
The issue is where to eat on a Monday evening. This is never a popular day to eat. Perhaps it’s because we have gorged ourselves on the Sunday roast or that the chef needs at least one day off a week. But all over London most restaurants are closed on Mondays. In Brixton the list is endless – including of course all those in the market (although you can still squeeze into Seven if you don’t mind eating very early). It’s a little more promising along Atlantic Road with Kaff open seven days a week, with food served daily until 10.00 pm. That’s because the kitchen is off site so they only reheat it. However you can have an all day breakfast at Lounge, which then closes at 5.00 pm. Irritatingly some restaurant websites do not have their opening times (e.g. Khan’s) so it needs lots of phone calls to assess whether they will be open.
Along Acre Lane, Veranda, Brixton’s gourmet Caribbean restaurant, is tantalisingly open but only for a themed evening in the bar with table football and cocktails. Further along at 6.30pm, Upstairs is closed and so is Khamsa. Eventually you get to Boqueria, the tapas bar and it is an oasis. The bar is open for ice cold sherry and the restaurant is open for its full menu including the large chalk board of specials.
When we arrived at Boqueria at 6.45 pm it was sparsely populated, but we were not the only ones who had eventually found sustenance. So this is the place to go when the thought of the reheated Friday night Indian food or a plate of cold risotto is unappealing. It is also much quieter on a Monday, so you can actually have a conversation, sometimes tough in most popular restaurants. This one has bare walls and lots of glass so the sound just keeps bouncing around.
We left early (well it was a Monday) but after our fill of padron peppers, chorizo, fried aubergine and other delicacies (not an adjective we often give to a tapas). We washed it down with Rioja and manzanilla. We also had good service. This is not always the case in Boqueria as on other visits they have been caught out by a “rush” without enough staff. On one occasion we even found it difficult to pay the bill as no-one seemed to be paying any attention to turning over the tables quickly. But on a Monday there is a lot of attention with the food arriving at a steady pace (also lacking on the previous occasions).
So we welcome comments on other restaurants in Brixton which are open on a Monday (apart from the pubs) to add to our current very short list.
More recommendations for where to eat in Brixton on a Monday from our lovely Twitter followers
EATINBRIXTON 