Caribbean

Danclair’s Kitchen

~ eatinbrixton ~ Leave a comment

Address: Brixton Village, SW9 8PR

Phone: 020 7737 4888

Web: Danclairs Kitchen

This is a very new addition to Brixton Village and a very welcome one. They serve a variety of tapas-style Caribbean food which means you can try a few to share. They also have a good drinks menu involving Jamaican-style concoctions like Pink Ting and White Duppy Share as well as wine and beer – not just Red Stripe but some from Trinidad along with the Brixton variety.

We chose barbecue wings with Guava glaze, Marinated King Prawns with tamarind sauce, Fish, Wings and Tings famous cod fish fritters with garlic and lime aioli and sides of potato fries (we decided against the cassava ones) and, for our health, a salad.

Nothing was too hot but the chili or the pepper added a lovely warmth. The wings were just right, meat falling off the bone and the guava adding a foil for the barbecue sauce. We were delighted to find that we didn’t have to pick our way over the prawns as someone had thoughtfully removed the middle part of the shell. The tamarind sauce was spicy so only a little was needed to prevent the prawn being overwhelming but it was good to dip the chips into.

Cod balls straight from the fryer are a delight with the garlicky sauce. I am not sure what the difference is between aoli and may is so i looked it up. The difference is that aioli is made from garlic and olive oil while mayo is made with egg yolks and oil. The chips were good and not soggy to the last one and we could use all the sauces as well as the ketchup I ordered. The salad was ok but we only ordered it so that we had some vegetables on the table.

We didn’t go thirsty and as it wasn’t a school night we ordered a Pink Tingaling (pink ting which has grapefruit in it and duppy Share rum) and a Mojito – both were refreshing and not too sweet.

The bill came to £60.50 without the tip but including £20.50 of drink so not cheap but a good evening as the service was at just the right pace. Reducing the bill means switching to water. We will definitely go again as we saw the tempura prawns and the fried pepper calamari on another table and they looked really appetizing.

Casa Mofongo

~ eatinbrixton ~ Leave a comment

Address – 152 Loughborough Road, London SW9 7LL

Telephone – 020 3742 7040

Open most days from 12.00 noon

This is a colourful Dominican restaurant near Loughborough Junction. Sit inside or outside for the more hardy among you or just order from Ubereats or Deliveroo. We sat inside on a Saturday lunchtime and while waiting admired the eclectic decor of flags from the Dominican Republic and parts of the UK, the wall art and the sets of pink plastic wisteria. Everywhere you look there is something that doesn’t fit but is a feast for the eyes.

The menu is long and we learnt that you definitely need to share. In fact my advice is to take along a teenage boy to hoover up the food otherwise you will be taking home boxes of leftovers. There are starters, mains and sides, too many to describe here. You will also need to ask what many of them are as there isn’t a lot of explanation. But this will also require some knowledge of Spanish as our waiter didn’t know too many English words – but that added to the surprise. To our choices:

We ordered a Mofongo as the classic dish. It comes with a variety of meat or fish and salad. I chose the crispy pork (only for those who do not fear a dentist). A “Mofongo” is mashed plantain that has been previously cooked and then it is made into a tennis ball and fried (I think). The texture is tight. It comes with a hat of grated cheese and is served with a garlic sauce (definitely needed as it is quite dry). Only one third was eaten even with the addition of the sauce as it is very filling. The pork is indeed crispy and the salad fresh and chunky. Overall I think this is something you may try once but I suggest you try with some soup rather than meat as that will certainly change the texture. It was an adventure!

We also orders fried Tilapia and – a whole one arrived on the plate with a delicious coconut sauce and some more plantain, but this time fried on a skewer. This was accompanied by a small salad and boiled rice. This was lovely. The fish just cooked and relatively easy to take off the bone. Again a very large portion but the plate was empty at the end of the meal.

We drank home made lemonade (not too sweet and very refreshing) and one made with tamarind – also not too sweet. They do have alcohol on the menu.

We often passed this restaurant and were lucky to be hungry so popped in. We were there for quite a while and really enjoyed the trip. It was an adventure and the bill was quite large for a Saturday lunchtime but we have learnt our lesson and next time will order to share. A family arrived after us and just ordered the meat menu to share among the five of them and they demolished the lot. So this is a great place for friends and family to enjoy breaking bread – or at least a few chicken wings. The menu at the restaurant is much wider than the one online so we do suggest that the whole experience requires attending in person. Our bill came to £47.00 and it would have been half of that had we realized the portion sizes. We didn’t eat for the rest of the day.

A short bus ride – Rock Steady Rum Lounge

~ eatinbrixton ~ Leave a comment

Address: 128 Gipsy Hill, London, SE19 1PL

Telephone: 020 8670 4030

Open For Dine in: Wednesday – Saturday 5pm – 10pm

Deliveries: Tuesday – Saturday 5pm – 10pm, Sunday: 4pm – 9pm

​website: https://www.rocksteadyrumlounge.com/

This is a restaurant next to Bull and Finch where you can get a pre-prandial beer or cocktail – even a good supply of no/low alcohol beer. But the small restaurant on Gypsy Hill is definitely good for a visit. With friendly staff and reasonable food. They have a thriving delivery service, but not many people in the dining room (in fact only the four of us and a couple who came in later). We will tell you now that we didn’t have any rum and, as we live in Brixton, we know how filling festivals are (sweet fried dumplings), so in the interest of trying several dishes we steered clear. We did share a starter but we now cannot remember what it was – the menu online was no help.

So what did we try – Brown Down chicken stew, Jerk Chicken and the fish Escovitch…….with sides of plantain and rice and peas. Totally too much so our advice is to ditch the extras unless you are only having the mains.

We liked the jerk chicken with its crispy skin (warning – it is fiery), and the Escovitch was delightful. We were a little disappointed in the Brown Down Stew as the chicken was a little dry, but the sauce was lovely. Despite not needing the plantain, it was very soft, slightly spiced and was definitely good next to the spicy sauces. The rice and peas was also really tasty.

We also ordered desserts but shared them – lemon tart and a chocolately thing. You don’t need them and they are not inspiring so we suggest going to town on the mains.

We drank beer and homemade lemonade for the designated driver (although you can catch the No. 3 or the 322).

Fish, Wings n Tings

~ eatinbrixton ~ Leave a comment

address: Brixton Village, 3 Granville Arcade, Coldharbour Lane, SW9 8PR

Tel number: 020 7737 4888

Opening Times: 12pm-10pm Sun, Tue-Thurs; 12pm-11pm Friday-Sat

Website: https://www.fishwingsandtings.com/

Restaurants are now beginning to open, so we decided to get out of our comfort zone and celebrate where there’s enough outside space for us to feel relatively safe. So Fish, Wings ‘n’ Tings was a great stop in the sunshine at the Coldharbour Lane end of Brixton Village. They don’t take reservations, so it is pot luck whether there will be space. On a warm Saturday and you are with a lot of people, then go very early. We caught a break as there were only two of us and we arrived just after 6.00 pm and got a table relatively quickly. The staff were helpful and squeezed up a small group to one end of the table, so we were socially distanced. Continue reading →

Negril – the takeaway

~ eatinbrixton ~ Leave a comment

 

 

 

Address: 132 Brixton Hill, Brixton, London, SW2 1RS

Website: https://negrilrestaurant.co.uk/

Online orders: https://negrilonline.co.uk/contactus.php#nav

Phone: 020 8674 8798

Today is #BlackPound day – we will be visiting another black owned business tonight but thought we should let you know of a long-standing favourite – Negril provides authentic Jamaican food in a friendly atmosphere. See our last review here Link. It’s some time since we last visited. It’s always busy and up Brixton Hill so we always book. In lockdown we decided to put it to the takeaway test. Continue reading →

Eat-in after lockdown or Take-away now #BlackLivesMatter

~ eatinbrixton ~ Leave a comment

BLM01This weekend has been a series of protests and we wanted to follow-up by reminding our readers of what they can do to support restaurants run by black entrepreneurs in Brixton. Our list contains all the places that we have reviewed. Let us know if there are any more we should visit, or just write a review after your own visit and email it to us at eatinbrixton@gmail.com. You too can contribute to Black Lives Matter. Just search out a takeaway from May Foods; order a veg box from En Root; or queue up outside ReFill for some of the best jerk chicken in Brixton.

Here’s our list and our review links:

En Root – See link; or link
Eat of Eden – See link
Three Little Birds – See link
May Foods – See link
ReFill – See link
Asmara – See link
Etta’s Seafood Kitchen – See link
Kumasi Market – See link
Fish Wings n Tings – See link
Negril – See link

In addition check out these other businesses to support:

Fish Bowl Brixton – open Thursday – Sunday, 1pm – 7pm for delivery of seafood boil, either for collection from their restaurant or from Deliveroo

Refill Caribbean Cuisine

~ eatinbrixton ~ Leave a comment

Address: 500A Brixton Road, SW9 7AW
(It’s actually round the corner in Brighton Terrace)

Phone: 020 7274 5559

Website: http://refillfood.co.uk/

Open: 24 hours, 7 days a week

We reviewed Refill some time ago, when we carried out our survey of Jerk Chicken takeaways (see here) – our panel rated it the highest. So having decided we were too hungry to wait 30 minutes at one of Brixton’s new eateries, we decided on our way home to get a takeaway from this long-standing source of genuine Caribbean food. This is a 24 hour takeaway and it seems always full. On a Tuesday evening at 8.45pm it was full. That allowed us to spend a little time working out the long menu with help from other customers. Continue reading →

Best restaurant in Brixton 2016 – Top 5 Shortlist

~ eatinbrixton ~ Leave a comment

Britain’s Favourite Restaurant 2016 – Top 5 Shortlist

So after around a week and a half of voting we have our shortlist. Click on the below to see what we thought of them.

Again we will be giving around seven days for you to pick your next favourite before the big unveiling next Wednesday. Share and get voting!

Etta’s Seafood Kitchen

~ eatinbrixton ~ Leave a comment

etta01

Address: Unit 46 Brixton, Village, Coldharbour Lane, London SW9

Phone: 020 7737 1673

Email: info@ettaskitchen.com

Website: http://www.ettasseafoodkitchen.com/

Opening Hours:

12:00pm – 6:00pm (Tues, Weds, Sun)

12:00pm – 11:00pm (Thurs – Sat)

This is an update as we have visited Etta’s a couple of times and our views have gone up and down. See here for our review in 2013 and here for our review in 2011. This is our first time since there was a change of décor and a change of menu.

It’s still in the same double unit in Sixth Avenue in Brixton Village and still painted outside in pastel blue. So what has changed inside. Gone is the kitsch mural of the seaside and now it is all black and white – although the chairs are still multi-coloured. We have the very small napkins but now they are presented in a little black paper sleeve, together with a knife and fork. The menu has also changed with items that imply more finesse and we were assured that it also changes regularly.

Service has not changed. It is cheery, helpful and as laid back as before.

The menu is still focussed on fish but now includes a wider variety of starters including ackee soup (ackee is the Jamaican national fruit although it is eaten as a vegetable in ackee and saltfish) and the menu describes this soup as coming with salt fish flakes, sweet peppers and crispy croutons. Then there is crispy calamari, garlic peppered prawns and marinated tuna. The ackee soup can be ordered without saltfish for the sole veggie option.  There are four salad options and then the mains have spaghetti, risotto, fish soup and confit cod. The veggie option is sweet potato and pumpkin curry. We did miss the superb battered fish in Etta’s tasty batter.

They now serve alcohol – red, white and fizzy wine by the glass or bottle – as well as a few rum based drinks.

We chose the ackee soup, the confit cod and the fish curry. We are sorry to report that we were disappointed with every dish. The soup is an interesting idea but it tasted as if the saltfish had not been adequately soaked and so was too salty. The rice and peas that came with the fish curry was also over-salted and the potato and leek cream under the confit cod was bland and cold. We guess there were lots of interesting flavours in all the dishes we chose but they were simply swamped. We came out desperate for more water, even though we had drunk a whole carafe plus a glass of lemonade. and the salty taste in our mouths lasted for several hours.

etta03etta02etta06

We have to admit to being cowards. The staff are so attentive but we couldn’t tell them our verdict, except to mention rather feebly that the soup was a bit salty. Clearly the chef’s taste buds are not like our own but you can add salt to taste but you can’t take it out. We hope that this was an unfortunate one-off and that others will have more luck, but I am afraid we are unlikely to visit again any time soon.

The bill was modest at less than£30.00 (sorry, we’ve lost the bill) for three dishes and a glass of lemonade (it is dry January!).

Ultimate Caribbean Buffet

~ eatinbrixton ~ Leave a comment

ultimate01

 16 Acre Lane, Brixton, London SW2 5SG

020 3302 6390

Usually we do not review chains but this is so small – only a couple of outlets – that we decided to make an exception. We also wanted to cover different types and prices of meals. This is a green, white and black Jamaican restaurant which looks like a café with melamine tables and chairs. There is a bar on the left, with a limited selection of drinks, and a line of hot and cold dishes to the left. The line of dishes is important as this is a buffet. All you can eat within 90 minutes.

There is choice but it is hard to discern what each dish is as there is rarely a label and often dishes look alike. So this is a real voyage of discovery. We think there was jerk chicken (several varieties), fried chicken, curry goat, potentially lamb in a sauce, rice and peas, salads, plantain and callaloo (or could have been spinach). There are also some desserts – fruit and a pudding (we weren’t sure what it was).

ultimate03ultimate02

We had a bit of several of the dishes and the chicken was hot and spicy – the kind that has your lips tingling for several hours. The rice and peas were my favourite. The plantain my least as it looked really delicious but had only been caramelized and was hard at the centre. We went back a few times and all the food was hot (temperature) and they did keep refilling the containers when it looked too low so there was always enough to choose from.

For a Caribbean cheap fast meal for the very hungry this is a good outlet. We wouldn’t choose it for a night out. It costs £7.50 per person and you can choose a soft drink, water or alcohol and they allow BYO.