Tulse Hill

Maremanno

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19 Tulse Hill, Brixton, SW2 2TH

https://www.ilmaremmano.com/

Only open Wednesday to Saturday 5-11.00pm

This is styled as a Apericena Bar – a cross between an aperitif and dinner. It is a close relation of the restaurant Maremma round the corner in Brixton Water Lane. We’ve been there a number of times, with the most recent review here. They both serve regional specialties from the Maremma in southern Tuscany and the offer is similar. Maremanno is aimed more at what’s known as casual dining. You can sit inside or in a small courtyard at the back. It is a squeeze, so you definitely need to book, especially if the weather is fine.

They have Stuzzicini (bread, nuts, parmesan biscuits etc), Crostini (chicken liver and truffle, green anchovy, or peppers and courgette), Taglieri (a meat or cheese board) and Pizzette (small or very small pizza with tuna etc or mushrooms). Of course this all comes with cocktails, wine or beer.

We were three people so indulged ourselves at least one dish from each category. So we had Nduja arancini, green anchovy arancini, the cheese board, a vegetable bagna cauda, and a four cheese pizzette.

We finished with a gelato scoop

We washed it down with a Spritz classic, a glass of frizzante wine and crodino spritz, and then had further wine and beer.

The bill came to £100.30 without service. We were full but we might have lingered and chosen a little better.

Full Fat

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This cafe is on Tulse Hill at the Brixton End, opposite Sainsbury’s. There’s a small enclave of expensive and cheap restaurants that come and go, often without us actually being able to review them. Let’s hope this small, mostly takeaway service, place continues. It fills a gap in the market for fast food, great for breakfast and lunch on the way to Brixton Tube. You can also sit inside enjoying the wifi and the small tables for two or four in the clean atmosphere, away from the busy road.

We visited for lunch and the menu is not long on ingredients – it is chapatti central. They offer a variety of ingredients – bacon, egg, aubergine, Brazilian sausage, lettuce, tomato and vegan and vegetarian options. They come with offerings of sauce, a list that is very long, but we spotted beetroot as well as the usual ketchup.

We ordered a BELT (bacon, egg, lettuce and tomato with tomato ketchup) and a “Dog” which has Brazilian sausage and lettuce, and we chose to marry it with a sriracha sauce. To drink we had a black coffee (which was a bit short on the jolt factor) and a very cold can of San Pellegrino lemonade. The glass was warm (a bit of a bugbear), but it did come with some ice.

The chapattis come wrapped and presented on a silver tray. I can definitely say that I am not a lover of wraps of any kind – it’s like eating a felt sandwich, but these are little rolls of joy. The chapattis are warmish and soft – not at all like the tough options in most sandwich shops as they are freshly made. The warm bacon and egg also keep the whole thing moist right to the end, helped by the tomato ketchup.

The whole thing came to £13.95 for two, so we definitely recommend this as warm hearty fare that you will enjoy, especially as you will not break the bank.

Max and Taff’s at Brockwell Blend

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Address: Brixton Blend, 19 Tulse Hill, Brixton, London SW2 2TH

Reservations: maxandtaffs@gmail.com

On Thursday and Friday (6.30 to 10.30 pm) but only until the end of July there’s this pop-up at Brixton blend. It describes itself as South London’s premier Vegan, Asian Fusian, Pasta Makers. Really hard to live up to but THEY DO. Interesting food, not expensive and great wine. Oops not much to write about now … but I’ll try. .

The menu is short, organised and requires little regret, as everyone can choose something. There are two starters – crunchy red cabbage slaw (with sesame and other seeds) and smacked cucumber (with chilli and other bits) – we chose both. They were definitely crunchy and the smacked cucumber is spicy but not blowing your head off hot. They woke up our sleepy tastebuds.

Then there are two two types of pasta as mains. The first is Cavatelli (small pasta shells from eggless semolina dough) with two toppings: sweet tomato, Chinese cabbage and sichuan pepper or squash, miso and pumpkin seeds. The second pasta is hand pulled noodles with either kale, spring onion and chilli oil or, the less daring, aubergine, cherry tomato and basil.

Max, the chef, makes everything fresh, so the dishes come one by one. So you get to share. The first to arrive was the pulled noodle with aubergine followed by the cavatelli with tomato, cabbage and pepper. In this restaurant pasta is definitely al dente. But the aubergine was comforting and the cavatelli with pepper gave a punch, but not as big a one as the chilli oil on the table.

We finished it all off with a chocolate truffle each –  orange and chilli (there is a theme). Both were the size of rocks.

The wine list has two whites and one red – we had the red, Pinot Nero – the most expensive at £32.50 a bottle. The bill came to 52.50 including the wine and without a tip so you can see the teetotaller would get a bargain. Go now before they close down for the summer.

Vegbar

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vegbar01

Address: 45 Tulse Hill, Brixton, London,  SW2 2TJ

Telephone: 020 8678 0697

email: info@vegbar.co.uk

http://www.vegbar.co.uk

So who knew that Vegan January was a thing. For those hoping to cleanse their system after a hearty meat eating festive season, a January of vegetarian food might be a good idea. But it seems rather unfair to dump vegan food on the unsuspecting, so we have gone out of our way to investigate potential restaurants. Vegbar serves only Vegan food, so the choice was easy. We reviewed this restaurant before so look for our positive review here. It is out of the way on the road to Tulse Hill but if you know where Brixton Social is ,then just keep on walking. The unprepossessing exterior is not at all inviting and the decor is also aiming for minimal going on Spartan. Gone are the small but inviting dashes of colour. Wrap up warm if you are going early as the temperature inside early in the evening is definitely cool even though we sat next to the radiator. Continue reading →