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!

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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 →

address: 409 Clapham Park Road, Clapham SW9 9BT

telephone: 020 7737 0722

email: bookings@jimmyspopup.com

http://www.jimmyspopup.com/

LAST CHANCE TO BOOK THIS MONTH This is another incarnation of Jimmy Garcia’s pop-ups and it is only around until 31st August and it is very popular so you do need to book ahead (if more than 9 people you need to phone). There is a small wooden door across the road from Clapham North tube station which leads up amongst a great mix of artificial and real plants to an indoors and outdoors space which absolutely suits the name of “The Secret Garden”. Botanical cocktails abound and it is open on Sundays for a slow waking up or relaxing run down of the weekend.

As I said it is busy and on the night we visited there was a party of 12 in the private dining room which explained much … but read on. The menu is short and we chose salmon tortellini, lamb neck and peas and love for starters, and roast belly pork and chorizo and guinea fowl for the main course. Everything took a long time to arrive apart from the alcohol (a couple of bottles of Crianza). There was a large party upstairs that took a lot of attention and several of the main course choices were now off the menu. But when they arrived they were all interesting although the chorizo and guinea fowl were not up to the same standard as the other dishes.

When I say we waited an age it was a very long time, so dinner stretched out. But as some compensation we were given a mixture of desserts to choose from to complete the meal. There were doughnuts (or perhaps churros) and chocolate, small pots of creamy pudding and some cheesecake type thing. We are writing this trying to remember exactly what they were and have no record of them.

Address: 15 The Pavement, London, Clapham SW4 0HY
Telephone: 020 7622 4165

http://the-dairy.co.uk/

We had heard so much about this restaurant that we really wanted to try it but you need to be determined as booking is tough. We decided to celebrate and event – a friend leaving his job for pastures new and so this was booked a long time in advance. This is a small restaurant spilling out onto the pavement (in two ways). There is a narrow bar that opens to a small set of tables and an open kitchen. The waiters are helpful when you catch their eye but it is loud so for a conversation you need to lean into the table. It’s also a bit dark, so apologies for the photographs.

To reduce the decision making we went for the tasting menu. There are four main courses (snacks, sea, land and dessert) and an optional cheese course. It is all too long to explain in any detail. Snacks come in the form of olives, eel and crispy anchovy but of special note is the smoked bone marrow butter and soughdough which comes hot in a little hessian bag.

The sea was skate in a dashi sauce with lemon and smoked eel with black garlic and onions. The descriptions are much better than this! We were really impressed by this course both were really different and even though we are not great fans of skate we finished every bit.

The land course was blackface lamb rump, smoked aubergine, pressed shoulder and miso. In this case whether it had a black face or not didn’t seem relevant and we were glad that they didn’t give it a name as well. But it was delicious.

At the dessert course we had choices – we chose apricot kernel panna cotta with green almonds and salted caramel with malted barley ice cream. The salted caramel was lovely.

We did enjoy the meal and the company. If it is an intimate dinner for two then go somewhere else. To impress a first date then this is definitely the place to go. Lots going on and lots to discuss. The bill was large – the tasting menu is £45.00. For four people the whole bill came to £313.30 including a couple of bottles of more expensive wine, an extra cheese course for three of us and 12.5% service charge …. so this is definitely somewhere special for a celebration.

Coldharbour Lane, (corner of Somerleyton Road)

Brixton, London, SW9 8Q

Open: every Saturday & Sunday

This market lies just opposite Brixton Village and the erstwhile laundry. It is hard to miss as it is in the open space in Coldharbour Lane with the famous anti-nuclear missile mural. It seems to be run by the same people as the night market and so isn’t so much a market as a set of food stalls, extending the offering of Brixton at the weekend.

We visited on both a Saturday lunchtime and Sunday afternoon. There were about 6 food stall and two selling local beers and a lot of tables and chairs – a much better option than outside the Ritzy where there was nowhere to perch except some steps. It was of course sunny on our visit and all these open air venues look different under a grey sky but it was pleasant and well used. But we can’t say what food stall you will get as they changed between each visit.

I ate an Aloo Roti (the veggie option of potatoes with a minty yoghourt dressing and one chili and coriander which was very hot). This came from the No 53 stall which has a bus on its logo. While I was waiting I learned a lot about skill development as one of the customers was receiving good advice from the chef about local options of courses. My partner chose lots of meat and some vegetables from another stall.

There was another roti stall and on one visit tried the pulled pork roti – which was slightly sweet (as most of the food was). Beware the sauce gathers at the bottom and squirts as you get down to the last mouthfuls. Paella, a staple for Sunday lunch in Andalucía, was available, and on the same stall pasta and sauces. This one looked good but it we were too full to try.

Definitely the best food came from the caravan selling burgers and other meat dishes. I chose belly pork with rocket and onion marmalade in an olive ciabatta. Not only was this enough for two but was a cut above everything else on offer. All meals are cooked to order and your Monterey jack on the burger is flamed to make it melt. They offer bacon and chili sauce as well as tomato. We will definitely revisit and, as the burger truck was around on both our visits, our readers should try it too.

The beers on offer are mostly local with alcohol from 4% to 8% so buyer beware. We are sure that given the popularity of Brixton as a go to venue this place is going to be a godsend to those groups who can’t decide which restaurant to go to. This way all your mates can still sit together but try different cuisines. The cost is about £5.00 to £7.00 for a meal and a little less for alcohol depending on what type and which stall.

address: 119 Consort Road, London, SE15 3RU

telephone: 0207 732 2525

reservations@peckhambazaar.com and on opentable

http://peckhambazaar.com/

This is a new venture for us … writing about where to go for that special celebration, a birthday, anniversary or even wedding breakfast. But we still want to make it local and most are only a 20 minute walk from the middle of Brixton, or only a short bus ride if you have already done your 10,000 steps that day.

Peckham Bazaar  it a only a tiny restaurant, so is perhaps the more intimate evening than a celebration. In fact they don’t take reservations for more than 6 people but we think it is definitely putting on the shortlist for a special occasion. As with many restaurants the interior is eclectic – mismatched and sometimes wobbly tables fill the tiny space so you could, if you wanted,  join in many of the other diners’ conversations. The menu changes frequently but is generally described as a Balkan barbecue and although meat and fish are the main ingredients there are a few vegetarian options too.

Choosing from octopus, squid and scallops for starters was really tough and we ended up sharing octopus with white tarama and pickled vegetables which was so delicious we forgot to take any pictures. For the next course we chose the marinated quail and baba ganoush and slow roast lamb. All this produced a floor show at the grill with everyone moving around in dance sequences interspersed with a whoosh from the grill and a slow rising of blue smoke. Some of the spices and beans I had never heard of, let alone eaten, and they were wonderful – popping flavour into the mouth, a different one for each mouthful. The portions are also larger than most and filling with the addition of beans.

Pudding was of course baklava which came with rosewater ice cream – shared as we were both full on this weekday evening. The baklava was light and different again from the usual shop bought variety.

I have never had such interesting food that didn’t make me flinch or worry about what I was eating. It had a large sprinkling of pomegranate throughout and everything looked “normal” it is just the taste that wasn’t.

We washed it down with a glass of wine and the bill came to about £60.00 (we lost the bill…). They also provide a “feast menu” at about £32.00 per head without the wine. You will definitely need to book as this is a restaurant with a local reputation and is full most nights. They are open on Sunday evenings which makes a change and are only closed on Monday. In the summer there are a few tables out at the front to help with the overflow but while it is still chilly choose inside.

address: 28 Brixton water lane, SW2 1PE

telephone: 020 7274 7796

email: http://www.naughtypiglets.co.uk/

This is a new addition to the Hootananny corner near the large Sainsbury’s on Tulse Hill. The small restaurant has an open kitchen, high chairs and tables at the front and then a few places in the back. The walls are lined with lathes which we thought would deaden the sound but they didn’t. We arrived early and had a quiet meal but some of the louder clients came in while we were eating dessert and made talking difficult.

This is an up-market addition to the Brixton restaurant scene that has already been reviewed by Fay Maschler and as we ate the Evening Standard were taking pictures. It is more expensive but still in its early days. A short menu with guesses about which are the starters (the cheaper dishes), a long wine list which included “orange” wines and all have the name and the grape. However, there isn’t much for vegetarians.

For the pair of us it was a game of two halves – I chose badly. My partner chose dashi with clams, pork belly and lemon posset which were all delicious. The clams were soft and the dashi was subtle with the Japanese spices creeping up slowly. The pork was soft and the Korean spices hot with a dressed little gem lettuce providing a bit of a crunch. The lemon posset was nearly on the butter side of creamy but probably as it was very cold and the pepper in the tuile crept up slowly.

My choices were not so good. White asparagus with an egg yolk and parmesan was good but I only had one large spear and two would have been better (especially at £8.00). Next came the most expensive dish on the menu – the bavette. The chestnut mushrooms were a delight and so was the béarnaise sauce but what should have been the star was black and bitter from the carbon. My dessert was described as chocolate milk and almonds and turned out to be chocolate ice cream. All was very sweet and not to my taste but the almond and caramel addition was wonderful – slightly salty and the nuts were the star.

We had four glasses of alcohol – their signature cocktail (vermouth, bay leaf and soda) and a glass of sparkling Vouvray to start and then a glass of the Cahors and a Cabernet Franc. We liked all of them. The bill came to £87.00 but we did have three courses. This is a potential replacement for a favourite restaurant, Upstairs, which closed recently. We hope this one does stay, although I will complain more loudly when I don’t like my meal next time.

Because of the limited space they do need to turn the tables over at least once per night and they were clear when we had to leave and it was plenty of time to go through the menu. The lack of space means you do need to book – try on their website.