View Full Version : Restaurants/cafes
OK, forgive me if I'm just repeating an earlier thread, but I would like some recommendations for good eateries in Brixton - both for a formal sit-down meal and for quick munches before gigs at the Academy or films.
I have tried the following recently:
(1) The cafe above the Ritzy - good pizzas and salads if you can get a seat.
(2) The satay bar - fine but I'm rarely in the mood for that sort of grub.
(3) Brixton Bar & Grill - a bit overpriced and only does snack-type food.
(4) Living - OK but food is often unavailable for some reason.
(5) The pub with the black frontage next to KFC on the corner of Coldharbour Lane which I've forgotten the name of - OK but rather limited, particularly on the veggie front.
Given the views expressed on the other thread, I'm never going anywhere near Neon! Any other ideas.
(5) The pub with the black frontage next to KFC on the corner of Coldharbour Lane which I've forgotten the name of - OK but rather limited, particularly on the veggie front.
Given the views expressed on the other thread, I'm never going anywhere near Neon! Any other ideas.
It's called the Prince!
There's also al Panzon which is good mexican food at the Dogstar AND the Lounge on antlantic road which does good sandwiches, breakfasts n some nice veggie stuff.
trabuquera
18-05-2006, 16:13
My favourites:
1) Baan Thai, on coldharbour lane between the dogstar and the satay bar. Not the best Thai in the world (or even in London) by any means, but really friendly and reasonably priced. And they do proper sticky rice.
2) La Mazorca, on Brixton Road opposite the police station / registry office. Unpromising from the outside but a riot of fakey Andean decor, half of south London's latin americans and vast, groaning plates of starchy, filling and delicious Colombian food. Decently priced too.
3) (daytime only): Eco pizza in the covered market. Not so cheap for what it is and they tend to ladle on the garlic, but it's bloody good pizza.
and a half-in-half-out contender: Hive (few doors down from the rec) aspires to be a cool drinking and eating, bistro-ish place - but sometimes it's really good, and sometimes it's hopeless (occasional tangles with disorganised staff, the odd really rubbery burger, they run out of the menu offerings etc
Fujiyamas (off Atlantic Rd opposite Brixton wholefoods) for Wagamama-style noodles.
Ichiban sushi just round the corner for - err - sushi.
Khans on Brxton Water Lane for curry.
Asmara on Coldharbour Lane - Eritrean (can be slow).
Upstairs above Opus on Acre Lane for a posh nosh-up.
The one time I went to Babalou (under St. Matthew's church) I was really impressed - very atmospheric place (a dimly-lit crypt with lots of arches & candles & slightly Middle Eastern style decor) & good food.
OpalFruit
22-05-2006, 13:01
Lounge for burgers / salads
Ishiban Sushi and Fujiyama for spicy noodle soups and rice dishes
Rosies Deli in the market for a very fine pie and coffee (but only until the market closes)
Phoenix in Coldharbour Lane opposite the Albert not for evening eats but good 'kaff' for brekkie before work.
And between 6 and 7.30 PM Lounge does for a three-for-two on bar grub items, always good.
2) La Mazorca, on Brixton Road opposite the police station / registry office. Unpromising from the outside but a riot of fakey Andean decor, half of south London's latin americans and vast, groaning plates of starchy, filling and delicious Colombian food. Decently priced too.
Hey that's a new one on me thanks, I'll check it out; Colombian caff near Granville Arcade in Brixton Market is good if you can wait for the service, they seem to spend a lot of time chatting to their mates but it's like beng served food at your grannies, you can see it all from start to finish :-)
Bamboula on Acre Lane is great for curried goat and stuff - cheap, friendly and massive portions.
Is Moca still above the Dogstar? That was quite nice, modern Caribbean food.
tarannau
23-05-2006, 09:24
You see, I just find Bamboulla a bit average. Likeable and edible enough, but it's almost as though someone couldn't be bothered with their home cooking and resorted to some pre-packaged staples to accentuate things. . I always get the feeling that I could be eating better, more gutsy food from many of the local takeaways. Still, it's definitely a friendly open place.
Moca's gone, which is a real shame - the Trini guy they had in there could really cook.
I always end up mentioning the Gallery (on Brixton Hill) and the Cantinho (Stockwell Rd) on these thread. The Gallery's better if you want a full sized Portuguese blow-out at night (cataplanas and seafood rice there are great, as are the piri piri items), with the Cantinho more of an all rounder.
I'm glad you posted this question as having eaten at Fujiyama on Monday night it gives me the chance to write a quick review: First off, place doesn't look very clean. When my starter arrived after about 25 minutes, my edamame beans had a couple of noodles in them, that had fallen in some how. After 40 minutes my main course came, before that we had to ask for more drinks about 3 times the service is amazingly bad, the main dish was greasy, not that hot and pretty standard (I got 2 prawns in the dish, better to leave it off the menu if they are that cheap with ingredients), the bill was OK but overall I was VERY disappointed, everyone has reccomended it to me, I will not go back though. The food was very mediocre, the service crap and the decor not nice at all.
Baan Thai is great however, eaten there twice and really impressed.
The food was very mediocre, the service crap and the decor not nice at all.
I completely agree. I gave that place about four or five tries after various people kept saying i must have hit it on a bad night, (imo restaurants shouldn't have 'bad nights') and every single time it was awful. Crap, crap, crap.
gaijingirl
24-05-2006, 08:59
I completely agree. I gave that place about four or five tries after various people kept saying i must have hit it on a bad night, (imo restaurants shouldn't have 'bad nights') and every single time it was awful. Crap, crap, crap.
I've always said the same too.
I've always said the same too.
Plus we know they treat the staff like shit, which i guess gives us a clue to the crap service. Innit is still a big fan and everytime we talk about it she says i should try it again, ha ha no chance!:p
I'm liking Fujiyama less and less these days... I've been there twice recently n the service was crap and the food arrived late.
much better stick to ichiban suchi me thinks.
suzee blue cheese
24-05-2006, 19:16
There isn't a single reliable restaurant serving up good food in central Brixton. It's amazing how long this has been the case, but so it is. You can get cheap and cheerful or not very cheap and might be good but don't count on it..
There isn't a single reliable restaurant serving up good food in central Brixton. It's amazing how long this has been the case, but so it is. You can get cheap and cheerful or not very cheap and might be good but don't count on it..
I totally agree. I bob between Brixton and Palace (only two places I really go, sadly) and the difference is amazing especially considering Brixton is bigger.
There isn't a single reliable restaurant serving up good food in central Brixton.
The Satay bar serves a bunch of slop and charges you for it.
The Lounge (sonik hate campaign, sorry!) serves the wrong food to the wrong people not very quickly or friendly and charges you even more.
Brixton Bar & Gril Zebra killing rip off. Weird bar service thing going on.
The Phoenix cafe in Coldharbour BEST FOOD IN BRIXTON FACT! I love this place.
Come to think of it, if i had to choose somewhere to eat in the evening in Brixton i would have to say Nandos and i don't even eat chicken or like the place!
Brixton is a shocker to get a decent meal at the moment.
Rant over.
Not worng
When were you last in the India club?
Suzee intorduced me, aint been for a year or so, fancy a lunch up there?
Fuck Brickistan, diseased midget chicken and reconstituted spud, deep fried, aint my style like
OpalFruit
25-05-2006, 09:23
So much for gentrification, then :D
Come to think of it, if i had to choose somewhere to eat in the evening in Brixton i would have to say Nandos and i don't even eat chicken or like the place!
couple of times i thought it would be a good idea to meet some out-of-towners (that'll be norf Londoners) for a quick meal early doors before going to a gig at the Academy. not a chance of geting food even though it wasn't that busy (we're talking 7-ish). Rubbish service compared to Camberwell or Streatham Nando's.
cerv2005
25-05-2006, 10:03
Slightly ashamed that the following will be my first post... been lurking for ages.
But, as we're on the subject of getting a good meal in brixton. I would just like to say that the McDonald's in Brixton is one of the worst I've been to in terms of the food quality. Now, I know what a lot of you are going to say: "What do you expect? It's McShit blah blah". But it's significantly worse compared to others I've been to in London.
I know a mackers isn't exactly a slap up feed but dammnit sometimes I like a burger, even if it's from a big greedy corp such as the big McD. Sorry! But anyway, just pointing out this poor standard of food preparation seems to run right through the restaurant hierarchy in brixton.
As I remember the KFC isn't too bad but I'm always in a bit of state whenever I get food from there so not the best judge.
Droppin'
26-05-2006, 09:09
So much for gentrification, then :D
Not so sure about that. Seems gentrification is definitely happening in other ways. Had my flat valued yesterday as thinking of selling and moving on and two agents, independant of each other clearly, valued it at £70-85 grand more than I paid for it 2 years ago! Reasons: top end of Brixton nr the academy so can be classified as Clapham North and attract the Clapham buyers who are spilling over, so property values are rocketing here! Clapham North??
One of them had just sold a 1 bed garden flat on Saltoun Rd, so no way of being passed off as Clapham North, for £255,000!
I nearly fell over! Went out to celebrate with some nice nosh and trailed round Brixton trying to find anywhere good and couldn't, for the same reasons as posted on this thread already really. Gave up, bought a pizza from Tescos and went home to celebrate in front of the TV.
Also, as the sun came out yesterday afternoon for the first time in a year it seems like, tried to find a place to sit outside with a bit of nice food. Yes, all I do is eat. Nothing geared up like that in Brixton either. Also crossed into enemy territory and went to Clapham and still couldn't find anything that wasn't either a pub or a table on the pavement where you can enjoy your food in an ambience of petrol fumes and drunks trying to get change out of you. This area really needs some good outside eating.
Mr Retro
26-05-2006, 09:32
The Phoenix cafe in Coldharbour BEST FOOD IN BRIXTON FACT! I love this place.
I like the Phoenix but it is waaaay overrated. It's a goodish caff and no more than that. Never have I seen a place get so much positive reports for just having decent bread.
Mr Retro
26-05-2006, 09:49
New restaurant "Upstairs" on Acre Lane is supposed to be very good. It's above Opus which is a great little place and very well run. I'm going to check it out soon.
Time Out Review (for what it's worth):
http://www.timeout.com/london/restaurants/reviews/8846.html
tarannau
26-05-2006, 09:51
But few places can shout 'two teas for the shop puh-lease' with such old fashioned conviction and good grace.
:)
Still, as a devotee of the Thai-toting Cafe on The Hill, I'm inclined to agree with you to a certain extent Mr R. But the Phoenix does do a good fry up and some excellent home-made pies.
Mr Retro
26-05-2006, 09:58
It's a great example of a local caff but the food, is at best, average.
Bacon always comes underdone despite having graduated to asking for "very very crispy" in the hope they might cook it. Sausages are really poor quality, chips always soggy.
The pies are good but get left down by poor trimmings like shit roast spuds and frozen veg.
tarannau
26-05-2006, 12:08
To be honest though Mr R, I half expect and crave a crap sausage when I go for a fry up a local, unreformed caff. Unless clearly signposted, I don't think I'd want a proper sausage - it'd be like finding they'd improved the battered sausages down the chippie or made the saveloys with real meat. Wrong I tell you - proper brekkie sausages should be reserved for proper restaurants and upmarket B&Bs/hotels.
Can't say I've found the bacon too bad (but I don't like dry bacon), nor the chips anything other than pretty damn likeable though.
The York Cafe near my work does better bacon admittedly. Thicker cut, using the chip pan to push the meat down and brown on the griddle.
:)
Mr Retro
26-05-2006, 13:16
To be honest though Mr R, I half expect and crave a crap sausage when I go for a fry up a local, unreformed caff. Unless clearly signposted, I don't think I'd want a proper sausage
Honestly? You would rather be eating mechanically rendered shit meat and grizzle stuffed in a tube rather than real sausage?
I can't think of any situation where I would rather eat poor quality food rather than better quality.
veggie suasages are the best! an no not that shite Quorn stuff.
Bacon always comes underdone despite having graduated to asking for "very very crispy" in the hope they might cook it. Sausages are really poor quality, chips always soggy.
Get thee to the SEM caff just off Herne Hill Road, near Loughborough Junction station. I loathe undercooked bacon in a fry up, it actually makes me sad. However, if you ask for the bacon to be well cooked at the SEM it comes all lovely and golden - all the fat cooked to delicious crispness AND it's good quality thick cut bacon. Yummous!
tarannau
26-05-2006, 15:40
Honestly? You would rather be eating mechanically rendered shit meat and grizzle stuffed in a tube rather than real sausage?
I can't think of any situation where I would rather eat poor quality food rather than better quality.
Honestly, I don't expect any better from an old school British cafe. Just as I don't expect fresh leaf tea, carefully selected and graded, for my 40p cuppa, I don't expect to get proper sausages in a £4 full English from a greasy spoon. It's virtually tradition after all - I wouldn't cook them at home, but I've a certain love of reassuringly trashy food. It's a sinful treat.
I can cook the proper article better at home anyway - perfect sausages are all about the slow frying techique, not to quickly boshed out on demand. Eating a sausage brekkie out's almost bound to be a disappointment with that in mind.
Would I rather eat poor quality rather than good food? Perhaps not when you put it like that, but the reality is that I'm happy enough to eat the former once in a while.
:)
Mr Retro
26-05-2006, 20:55
Honestly, I don't expect any better from an old school British cafe. Just as I don't expect fresh leaf tea, carefully selected and graded, for my 40p cuppa, I don't expect to get proper sausages in a £4 full English from a greasy spoon. It's virtually tradition after all - I wouldn't cook them at home, but I've a certain love of reassuringly trashy food. It's a sinful treat.
I can cook the proper article better at home anyway - perfect sausages are all about the slow frying techique, not to quickly boshed out on demand. Eating a sausage brekkie out's almost bound to be a disappointment with that in mind.
Would I rather eat poor quality rather than good food? Perhaps not when you put it like that, but the reality is that I'm happy enough to eat the former once in a while.
:)
Fair enough. Enjoy!
Going to try SEM Cafe tomorrow, thanks for the tip pootle
Did you go to Mr R?
What did you think? I especially love the native american tat all over the place, when the owners are turkish!
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