Brixton Bites: London’s latest foodie heaven revealed!
updated the 7 October 2015 à 00:03
If you are looking for a break from the perfectly-coiffed and immaculately-styled set at London Fashion Week, kick off those heels and head south of the city for a chilled out evening of ethnic eateries and edgy entertainment at Brixton Village.
The Caribbean and West African hub of London, Brixton may not be the city’s most glamorous dining stretch, but as any true follower of fashion knows, art takes heart. And there’s plenty of it to be found at the indie restaurants lining the halls of Brixton Village – formerly Granville Arcade.
The restaurants here are small – think five to six tables, with closely-packed mezzanine floors in the bigger establishments and tables spilling out into the covered arcade in the smaller ones. These are more the “I’m-almost-sitting-on-my-neighbour’s-lap” and less the “we-value-our-patrons’-personal space” kind of places, but the set-up lends a cozy sense of community to the dining experience.
Most restaurants don’t offer a reservation policy and you will have to swap plastic for paper when it comes to paying the bill, but for the trouble of queuing up and a cash-only policy you will have plenty of tasty prizes in store.
You can’t really head to Brixton and not grab a piece of jerk chicken, and Fish, Wings & Tings does a feisty tamarind version that goes down smoothly with a glass of ginger-laced rum. The quirky corner restaurant also does a good line of tasty ‘Small Tings’ such as crunchy Red Stripe Tempura Prawns and Cod Fish Fritters, and is the perfect first stop on a resto-crawl around Brixton Village.
And if you’ve been sticking to juice diets and rice cakes in the run up to Fashion Week to make sure you fit into your stylish togs, it might be time to top up on the carbs and cheese. The Mexican haunt Jalisco does big fat bowls of sinful sweet potato fries and a whole line up of tasty tacos, burritos, quesadillas and other staples from south of the border, all washed down with some frosty margaritas and beer. Jalisco serves up its dishes to order on a hotness scale of ‘Dead’ to ‘F*** Off Hot!!!’ so everyone should be happy.
Wander further into the labyrinth and there’s so much more in store – tangy Thai, Pakistani pakoras, juicy burgers, focaccia and Florentine gelato – the dishes are made for quick service and quicker eating, allowing you to nibble on anything and everything that takes your fancy.
There’s often live music tinkling down the halls and on a recent visit one wintry weekend, an art exhibition at Studio 73 was teeming with hungry hipsters.
So when you tire of the Strand, slip on some loafers and hop on the metro south – there’s plenty of great eats on the menu to fuel you up for the next round of front row fashion.
Radhina Almeida Coutinho
Radhina Almeida Coutinho lives in Dubai, writing about hospitality, retail, advertising, travel and food in between trying to fulfill a personal quest to eat her way around the globe – a journey that has taken her to close to 40 countries so far. Follow her culinary adventures on her food/travel blog Platetrotter.
