Peckham

A short bus ride away – Kudu

~ eatinbrixton ~ Leave a comment

address: 119 Queens Road, Peckham, London ​SE15 2EZ
Tel: 020 3950 0226
https://www.kudu-restaurant.com/

Peckham seems to be blooming at the moment, with new restaurants that spring up in unprepossessing line of shops. Kudu is no exception, amid cheap grocery stores and worldwide pay stores sits this little gem. South African inspired food but no South African inspired decor. Rather they have gone for small tables, stools at the bar and lots of wood. It’s open for lunch, brunch and dinner except for Mondays and Tuesdays. For our Wednesday business dinner we booked (OpenTable), and went straight from work. Later it gets very busy so booking is essential.

The main theme is barbecue and there is lots of flame from the open kitchen often looking like a game of chicken by the chefs – highest flame without singeing your eyebrows. The menu consists of snacks, small plates and medium plates and dessert (we never made it that far).

From the snack menu we chose Kudu bread with seafood butter (lots of tasty shrimps swimming in salty butter). The bread is light, slightly sweet and more like brioche. Fried artichokes with miso mayonnaise, which were not a favourite. As the artichokes cool down they become more difficult to eat as their crispiness disappears – be warned eat it all in one go.

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From the small plates we ordered onion and beer tarte tatin with goat’s curd, Pigs head tortellini, mushroom & hay broth, crispy onions and the Mussel potjie pot with seaweed gnocchi. A potjie means “small pot food” usually cooked outside on a braai (barbecue of some sort) and in our case was a small cast iron pot – it was definitely our favourite and I was glad we had saved some bread. But the tart also got a thumbs up, really sweet from the caramelised onions set off by the curd … oh no … I sound like Greg Wallace. The tortellini were tasty and the broth delicious – unfortunately I had run out of bread by this time.kudo06kudo05kudo04

Finally we ordered the Braai lamb neck, smoked yogurt, lettuce, sprouting broccoli from the medium plates menu. It was also lovely but I am channelling my inner Jay Rayner and will just say the plate was bare at the end of the meal.

There were six plates in all and they came at just the right speed, so we didn’t feel rushed and could draw breath and extra wine in between. The bill was £136.58 including two bottles of wine and service. It might seem a lot but the quality of the food was great and you could make it cheaper by drinking water! Wine, however, allowed a full and frank discussion of work issues.

A short bus ride away – Peckham Refreshment Rooms

~ eatinbrixton ~ Leave a comment

address: 12–16 Blenheim Grove, London, SE15 4QL

Telephone: 020 8022 2852

http://peckhamrefreshment.com/

Booking via OpenTable

We had been thinking of going to this restaurant for some time, as it has been highly rated by friends. They are open all day for breakfast, brunch, lunch and dinner, so we dragged ourselves out of our comfort zone and visited with friends on a Saturday evening. They only do a couple of sittings, so we agreed on a 9.00 pm booking. We were on time but the table wasn’t clear, so we had free, and creative cocktails from the bar. Mine was a sort of Kir Royale but with Cherry liqueur but the others were also colourful and refreshing, even the non-alcoholic salted grapefruit.I have been a bit tardy about writing this up and we have lost the bill, so I’m sorry to say that some details are sketchy. There is a short menu and you cannot always depend on what it says, as they run out and substitute ingredients too. With no photos to jog my memory I can’t remember what we had as first courses. But I do recall that we were delighted and all plates were empty.

For the main course we had sea bass, with samphire and clams, which was made even more delicious with roasted lemon (I am a great fan). We also ordered aubergine parmigiana, which was not a great success, as it was more like ratatouille – perfectly tasty but not what was expected.
Finally, there was a bavette steak with hassleback potatoes. The steak was pink but the potatoes weren’t finely cut enough and so were not as crisp as we hoped for. We ordered a side of broccoli with garlic and chilli oil  (substitute for the Kale, which I would never have ordered).

Finally we ordered one, and only one, orange marmalade posset which was smooth and just the right balance of sweet and bitterness of Seville oranges.

We washed it all down with wine – a lot of it and all white.

The bill was large but not as large when you remove the wine. The mains are under £20, starters £6 or 7 and desserts about a fiver. The staff were very helpful and we encourage you to turn up early and have a cocktail.

Ganapati – a short bus ride away

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Ganapati01address: 38 Holly Grove, London, SE15 5DF

telephone: 020 7277 2928

closed on Monday

http://www.ganapatirestaurant.com

It was an outing from work and this restaurant was chosen to fit with all the different dietary commitments. It serves a South Indian menu and many reviews discuss how good the food is and how uncomfortable the chairs are. On our visit we were very involved in the conversation and didn’t notice the comfort. Within the five people we had a couple of keen “foodies” and a couple of pretty accomplished chefs, so this was a definite test of the food. But you will need to wait for our final judgement. Continue reading →

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.