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The Blues Kitchen Brixton

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Address: 40 Acre Ln, London SW2 5SP
Tel: 020 7274 0591

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This is a late post as we visited the Blues Kitchen a while ago. When we made our visit it had only been open for a few weeks and it was then been packed so clearly it is already a success. It’s a chain of three (Camden and Shoreditch) but given the interest is likely to expand. There is a bar at the front and a restaurant (booking essential) at the back but you can have bar food – if you fight for a bar table.

This is a huge space all on one floor with a dark interior not helped by the tiffany style lamps. Too dark for photos. It is cosy but without warmth. The pub-like design feels more like a Disneyland version. Green tiles cover the pillars and large mirrors cover the back walls – sort of Ye Olde England”. The US style  is repeated in the drinks menu with a massive list of bourbon to fit every pocket.

But onto the food – a brief list of sharing plates on the bar menu and a starters and mains (and possibly dessert but we didn’t see them) in the restaurant. Again Southern US-style with appetisers of chicken wings, shrimp, dips, padron peppers, goat tacos and crab donouts (wish we had tried these last two but maybe next time). Main courses include barbecue everything with a choice of one two or three different kinds of meat, fish jambalaya, chilli, salads, the inevitable list of burgers and lobster.

We were refugees in the bar as we failed to book early enough and chose only one course so we weren’t perched at the high tables for long. We chose the chilli and the jambalaya. The Beef Brisket Chilli is “a hearty bowl of chilli made with brisket beef” which was covered in some pickled chilli. We mention that because the lighting meant you can’t see it and we don’t want you to be surprised. It was not as hot (in temperature) as we expected and we thought it needed a bit of extra heat other than chilli. The Catfish Jambalaya which comes in one bowl of fish & prawns served with rice & peas & a Cajun spiced crayfish sauce. Again not hot in temperature so you can eat it quickly (perhaps that’s why?). It was alright but not a great plate of food especially at that price (£13.90).

So were we disappointed? – a bit. This may be because we were not in the restaurant and we might have had a more relaxing time and been able to see the food a little better. We intend to return for brunch and try their American pancakes and pig and biscuits.

It is a buzzy place with lots of people arriving in suits straight from work during the working week. The staff are helpful and did their best to fit us in so think ahead if you want to eat. They have music over the weekend (free entry for students on Sunday) and free wings 5-7pm on Friday. The bill for only two mains came to nearly £28.00.

Pedler – a 5 minute bus ride away

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Address:: 58 Peckham Rye, Peckham, London SE15 4JR

Telephone:  020 30305015

website: http://www.pedlerpeckhamrye.com/

We thought we would travel further afield and go to the nearest hipster area – upcoming Peckham. This restaurant styles itself as “Your vibrant neighbourhood eatery, set up by a team that live in and love Peckham.” How could we resist, especially for a special treat on a weekday to entertain a guest. The smallish restaurant has a bar and mostly 4 person tables so they have two sittings between 7.45 and 9.00 and allow two hours. We hit the 7.30 one. Our four person team were shown to a table in the space near the toilets (worth a visit for a look at the décor) but really close to the kitchen where all the action is.

Dinner comes as a series of plates one at a time so you share, making it all very communal with lots of time for conversation. The plates are different in size but you can only tell that by the price. Dishes and influences come from all over the world, although the ingredients are sourced relatively locally.

We chose a series of smaller and larger dishes including: chilli & bean arancini, patatas bravas, tuna, mac and cheese, veal belly, fried chicken, beef suet pudding with a side order of beef dripping chips.

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The service is slow, but deliberately so, and it does allow you to savour each dish, But with four of us it might have been easier if we had two dishes at any one time. The starving fell on each dish as it arrived and it was a bit of a scrum at the beginning (you can tell by the pictures which were often taken as an afterthought). We really loved the beef suet pudding and the mac and cheese (we ordered two!). The chicken was very spicy so might have had a bit of a warning, but despite that the plate was wiped clean. Sometimes there was a detail or two we would have changed (e.g. crispier fat on the veal) but we thought everything was high quality and interesting. We failed to take a picture of that day’s menu but you can see by the pictures that all looks pretty.

We also ordered puddings – some to share including chocolate mousse and  treacle sponge. We enjoyed them but occasionally there was a slightly bum note as one of our company lost a tooth in the very sticky caramel but we don’t blame that on the restaurant.

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We washed the food down with cocktails and some wine. The bill (including £33.50 of alcohol) came to £113 for four people which we thought a bargain. When we have another set of guests in the neighbourhood we will definitely go again. An exciting place that is pushing boundaries and definitely somewhere to celebrate. Our loyalty to Brixton is undiminished but, if pressed, it does seem that currently the food scene in Peckham is a bit more interesting.

 

 

 

CLOSED – Ekcovision

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address: 15 Atlantic Rd, Brixton, SW9 8HX

telephone: 020 7274 7182

website: http://ekcovision.com/

OPENING HOURS

Monday               5.30 pm       Midnight

Tuesday               5.30 pm       Midnight

Wednesday        5.30 pm       Midnight

Thursday             11 am       3 am

Friday                   11 am       3 am

Saturday              11 am        3 am

Sunday                 11 am       Midnight

Last entrance: 2 am on Friday, Saturday and Sunday

This is one of the newer bar/cafés to open in Brixton and is probably the bravest, as it is in one of the arches planned for closure and rehabilitation by Network Rail. It describes itself as having “an intimate 1920’s speakeasy setting” and is aimed mainly at the evening crowd. But we went to have brunch late one Sunday morning, when is more in the café mode. Although not mentioned on its website, this runs from Thursday to Sunday from about 11.30am to 5.00pm. You can eat anywhere in Ekcovision – there a tables and chairs; booths with bench seats; and, for those who want a quiet time, the upstairs “Den” is really out of the way.

We sat downstairs, next to the door onto Brixton Station Road. Unfortunately the doors never closed properly and were after left ajar. But, given that it was a cold morning, this helped in a way as it created a community with other brunchers, as we all took turns to close them.

ecko04They have a short menu of pastries (croissants and the like), a full meat or veggie breakfast, soup of the day and various styles for poached eggs (Benedict, Florentine, etc.). We chose a veggie breakfast and an eggs Florentine, washed down with an Americano and pot of English Breakfast tea. It was all very relaxing and we didn’t have to wait long until all the dishes and drinks arrived, although then my dish had to be returned as it was the Benedict not the Florentine. The veggie breakfast was straight-forward, with the potatoes bought-in, most-likely frozen. But the eggs were fresh and it was tasty and filling.

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I assumed that they would just re-plate the poached eggs for my mistaken dish but they actually cooked a new batch. This took a little longer but we were in no hurry and when they arrived they were still piping hot but not overcooked. You can’t say much about an English muffin, so I won’t, but the Hollandaise sauce was great. I suspect that it probably wasn’t really “Homemade”, as described on the menu, but it did have lots of lemon and, when served, the dish had been seasoned with black pepper. So there is attention to detail.

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The whole bill was £18.50 for the two of us. We couldn’t fault it and we would probably return.

Three Little Birds

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3LB03address: 412 Coldharbour Lane, Brixton, London SW9 8LF

Telephone: 020 7274 6655

email: hello@threelittlebirdsja.com

http://www.threelittlebirdsja.com/

Three Little Birds is another new restaurant opening in Coldharbour Lane, just down the road from the Masterchef Champion’s Japanese inspired restaurant, Nanban, and Shhh!, the newish Jamaican inspired burger bar. So it has competition. It’s worth looking at the website where we are told that this a bar inspired by Brixton’s cultural heritage and is the brainchild of ‘foodie entrepreneur’ and former Miss Jamaica Universe, April Jackson. She is a graduate of Columbia University and creator of ‘The Yummy Truth’ food blog and, until recently, an Apprentice contender. The restaurant is described as a café bar providing Jamaican fusion food. Continue reading →

Mamma Dough

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address: The Angel, 354 Coldharbour Lane, SW9 8QH
telephone: 020 7095 1491
email: info@mammadough.co.uk
 website: http://www.mammadough.co.uk/

Open: Wednesday to Sunday – 12:00 to 10:00 pm

Mamma Dough have recently opened their second branch on Coldharbour Lane. We thought that the refurbishment work wasn’t quite complete and that the interior does feel somewhat unfinished. But after looking at the website we realise this was the design and that their place in Honor Oak also has the almost finished look. Stripped wooden floors, tables and chairs are scattered in the former pub on Coldharbour Lane past Brixton Village towards Camberwell. There is a bar and well sited pizza oven so you can see all that is going on. Its light and airy with large windows.

md03Mamma Dough’s bread and butter is their pizza. They offer a decent range of thin-crust sour-dough pizzas with several regularly changing specials. They also provide a gluten-free version, with the toppings served on a bed of cannellini beans. We ordered a pizza each and had some very tasty mixed olives while we waited for our mains to arrive.

We went for a ‘Winter Goat’ with goat’s cheese, caramalised onions, olives, and walnuts; a ‘Lorena’ with squash, feta, pine nuts, and rosemary; and a ‘Jon Bon Chovy’ with anchovy, chilli, capers, olives, and parsley. They didn’t take long to arrive. The pizzas were great, both tasty and very filling. When they arrived piping hot and altogether and we thought we would never be able to finish them – we did but that left us with no room for dessert.

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Mamma Dough also offer a selection of wines and local bottled beers and make up their own ginger ale.

Although this restaurant had just opened the staff were well organised and checked several times whether we were ok. The meal was well-priced with the bill coming to £10.00 per head including a couple of beers. We debated how they compare with our long-term favourites Franco Manca. They are certainly in the same class, while being more comfortable as a place and, at least at present, there’s no waiting around.

 

Shortlist – Favourite Restaurant in Brixton 2015

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Shortlist – Favourite Restaurant in Brixton 2015

So it is still neck and neck for four of our choices, Donostia Social Club, Yum-D, Cornecopia and Shrub and Shutter. We have therefore opened up a new poll to determine who will be the ultimate winner! This poll is open until next Monday – when the winner will be announced.

Continue reading →

A short bus ride away 5. – Camberwell Arms

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65 Camberwell Church Street, Camberwell, London SE5 8TR telephone 020 7358 4364 enquiries@thecamberwellarms.co.uk

This is a pub with gastronomy, scrubbed wooden floors and tables and chairs to match its dark interior. The restaurant is at the back and if you can book before 8.00pm then you are guaranteed the table for a number of hours. They do not take bookings on Friday, Saturday or Sunday, when it is first come first served and it does get packed as it did on the Wednesday evening of our visit.

The menu consists of “snacks”, starters, main courses with extra veg and dessert and there are enough options to merit a visit by a large party if you want to try, or at least see, most dishes. We couldn’t resist ordering a couple of the pork fat with scotch bonnet on toast. This was at least 4 largish pieces to be shared amongst the four guests. It wasn’t as greasy or as hot as I had feared and would have been great as a snack with a beer. We then decided to be sensation seekers and chose the fried lamb’s tongue and hummus with some chickpeas and pepper too (yes it is not the lettuce it was fried lamb’s tongue) and this turned out to be delicious. The meat was succulent and I would order it again.ca03

We then chose mostly meat – Slow cooked Featherblade served on sautéed Chard, rainbow chard stems, roasted tomatoes and parmesan (although one of us refused the parmesan). The other two ordered Quail with Turkish style beans and tzatsiki and Masala monkfish, chickpeas, courgettes, almonds and yoghurt. All were hearty sizes and a couple of us failed to finish. The two Italian guests agreed that parmesan definitely wasn’t needed on the Featherblade. The monkfish was really delicious and was spicy but not overwhelmingly hot. The quail was also up to the same standard.

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Finally we had enough room for two of us to have watermelon sorbets and the other two to have coffee. The sorbets were  pink, not too sweet but strongly flavoured and left a fresh feeling after our very  meaty meal. One Italian guest particularly wanted to mention the espresso was good and he certainly doesn’t say that often. With the addition of guest beers, a glass of wine and the service , the bill came to £106.36 which for the quality (and quantity) of the food we thought was really good value.

Favourite Restaurant Poll 2015

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So our 4th birthday was a couple of days ago but in keeping with tradition we decided to do another poll to see what the best restaurant in Brixton is. Just to be clear we are only including those that we have reviewed – there are so many popping up every week it’s hard to keep up now so apologies if we haven’t made it to your fave yet. Comment below with any suggestions for places that we should visit!

Poll will end Friday 4th September so get your votes in soon!

Continue reading →

That’s It Restaurant

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126 Acre Lane

London SW2 5RJ

Open for breakfast, lunch and dinner

In addition to those restaurants in the centre of Brixton there are those that ought to be described as “off the well beaten track. This is one of them.

We’ve been walking up and down Acre Lane for more than thirty years and never spotted this place before. Maybe it’s new but it lurks behind the bus shelter and, at first glance, might be taken as just another greasy spoon. But it has bigger ambitions, offering “original grilled food” and claiming “The Genuine Portuguese Taste”. Our interest was sparked when we spotted the tables set with wineglasses and napkins. Even more when we saw it had handwritten menus offering a wide range of Portuguese specialties. Continue reading →

Blue Jay at Cornercopia

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65 Brixton Village Market, Coldharbour lane,London, SW9 8PS

Twitter  @bluejaybrixton

Instagram  bluejaybrixton

email bluejaybrixton@gmail.com

http://brixtoncornercopia.co.uk/

Open:

Thursday to Sunday evenings – 6.00pm to 10.00 pm

Saturday & Sunday brunch – 11.00 am to 3.00 pm

Cornercopia hosts various pop-up restaurateurs. Currently it is Blue Jay and they have not yet decided when this particular arrangement will end. Cornercopia is described in a number of previous posts (see here, here, here and here), so this time we will concentrate on the food.

This is an easy restaurant menu – three starters, three mains, one dessert and a cheese option. When we visited in July (and they plan to change them monthly) the starters were chicken BLT, mackerel with pickled gooseberries and samphire) and a veggie option. We chose the mackerel between us and it was really interesting and (as we were not starving) plenty for the two of us. Saying it was interesting might suggest that we couldn’t decide whether we liked it or not but we definitely did and would have happily had a larger portion for a main.bj04

The same themes are also in the list of main – fish (sea bass, barley couscous tabouleh and braised fennel),  meat (chilli rubbed braised pork shoulder, runner beans, shallot and hazelnut) and a veggie option (salt baked jersey royals, grilled courgette and sheep’s cheese). We chose the fish and the pork.

The fish came whole on a plate not really big enough for dissection. They use the same enamel bowls they sell in their shop. I was given a separate dish to put the bones in but it still meant being very careful, warily chewing every bit slowly – probably good for the digestion but not for the enjoyment of the dish. The tabouleh/couscous was very good and a shame it wasn’t part of the veggie dish. The fennel was soft enough but gave a bit of texture too.bj06

The roast pork was not too much to frighten off diners worrying about their waistline and while the sauce was tasty and the hazelnuts provided some texture, the flavours were muted and the runner beans were undercooked.

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The only offer of dessert was a peach with some “crumb” type thing so we stopped there and visited the Lab-G gelateria for pudding.

We drank two glasses of rosé and a beer. The meal was tasty and interesting, but it came to a staggering £55.00 with service. Each of the mains was £12.00 and the starters began at £7.50. We are not averse to spending hard cash (they only take cash) for good quality food but we thought this was overpriced.