London Brixton Restaurant Guide

2021 Review: Chef Pietro Franz has now left Pop Brixton for this simple, stripped-down, forever home where he serves Sicilian small plates and pasta. Little survey feedback so far – more reports please.

This “impressive” three-year-old in Brixton is set in a handsome converted Victorian laundry. The first venture of Melanie Brown (a former chef and founder of the New Zealand and Australian Cellar wine businesses), it wins consistent ratings across the board for its “good food, great service and buzzy atmosphere”.

2021 Review: The “lovely Thai food” at these reliable cafés is “impressively authentic given that they are a chain” – “excellent value” and “fast”, if occasionally let down by “iffy service”. Founded in 2008 by Saiphin and Alex Moore, who inherited the name of their first East End site, the group has 18 branches in London and expanded to Liverpool, Manchester, Reading (delivery only) and Leeds following the sale of a majority stake to US investors. The couple also have two spin-offs, Lao Café in Covent Garden and the new Chinese noodle bar Hoh Sek in St Katharine Docks.

“Delicious Thai food” wins plaudits for this family-owned and run trio in Brixton, Battersea and Tooting, while the BYO policy keeps a lid on the bill.

“Wow! Wasn’t sure what to expect of the African food, but it was mind-blowing” – Adejoke Bakara’s “bold and beautiful” dishes win many converts to her “simple, warm and inviting” two-year-old in Brixton, where she channels her Nigerian heritage into contemporary West African cooking washed down with cocktails and funky wines. But does it risk over-exposure? A couple of diners this year judged it “overpriced for food that’s good but not exceptional”.

“The burgers are so juicy and tasty” – “just the right combination of taste and juiciness” – at this small group, which has continued to expand from its Shoreditch’s Boxpark origins via a proper restaurant in Brixton Market Row to new branches in Market Halls Cargo at Canary Wharf and also the largest opening to date: a 45-seater in Exmouth Market (formerly a Dirty Burger). The brand only uses grass-fed, dry-aged British beef.

2022 Review: “Sink your teeth in and savour!” the “bold flavours” of former MasterChef winner Tim Anderson’s take on Japanese cooking using foreign or ‘barbarian’ (Nanban) ingredients, showcased in his “fast and furious” 10-year-old pop-up-gone-permanent on the edge of Brixton Market. “Their noodle dishes became a lockdown delivery staple, packed with flavour, a wonderful smoky depth to the tea eggs, heart-warming broths”. A new Covent Garden offshoot opened in September 2021 at Kerb’s Seven Dials Market, focused on ramen dishes.

“Tasty thin-crust dough – cooked well in the middle, so no soggy bottoms” – is the secret to the appeal of this seven-strong South London sourdough pizzeria group, where the emphasis is on local ingredients (including Shipton Mill flour and British-made buffalo mozzarella) washed down with locally brewed craft beers and juices from Kent.

2021 Review: “Everything here is great, but I totally loved the paneer burger” – an alternative to the best-selling bhangra burger on the menu of these popular pop-ups, in POP Brixton and now also Vinegar Yard, SE1. After over ten years in the game, the business shifted up a gear in May 2019 with the opening (flush with £300k of investment having won BBC2’s ‘My Million Pound Menu’) of the new forever-home listed here: a 50-seater in Camden Town’s Stables Market.

2022 Review: The Nguyen family run this duo of no-nonsense Vietnamese cafés in Peckham Rye and Brixton – well-rated all-round for their tasty scoff: soups, salads, rolls and other simple dishes.

2022 Review: Fried chicken junkies beat a path to this first permanent site – in Brixton’s Atlantic Road arches – of a team who also have street food stalls in Leicester Square, Pop Brixton and elsewhere around town.

2019 Review: “Amazing to see perfectly cooked Peking ducks and crispy pork belly coming out of a tiny shipping container!” – this “modern Chinese canteen” occupies one of the units at Pop Brixton, and the results are “super tasty!”

Local reporters are full of praise for this Brixton newbie from Aidan Bryan and Tom Blackshaw, which has a perch in the swanky conversion of the old Bon Marché department store (now the HQ of Squire & Partners architectural practice). It doesn’t generate huge amounts of feedback, but fans say “the menu’s varied and the sushi’s as good as it gets”.

2022 Review: Ex-Bonnie Gull chef James Mathieson heads up this post-lockdown 2021 newcomer, located on the ground floor of Brixton’s Design Store, and owned by Squire & Partners – a family-run architectural practice. It incorporates a cobblestone courtyard for alfresco dining – on the menu, Mediterranean dishes ‘from the Aegean and Balearics to the Levantine basin’.

This “brilliant local in Brixton” scores well for its “delicious, light food”, taking inspiration from the Maremma, a region of coastal marshes in the south of Tuscany. “A lovely candlelit ambience” makes it “perfect for a fun date night”.

Joe Sharratt and Margaux Aubry’s informal French-inspired Brixton venue is a true leader of South London gastronomy, serving small sharing plates of “the best grub” and “most exciting wines” south of the river. “Margaux is a treasure – a Lyon-hearted wonder” who provides guests with expert guidance through the menu and excellent wine list. Foodie composer/impresario Andrew Lloyd Webber was such a fan that he invited the team to launch a spin-off at his ‘The Other Place Theatre’ in Victoria.

A colourful, small new space in Brixton’s Granville Arcade (Brixton Village as it’s called nowadays) created in mid 2021 by Brian Danclair who also runs nearby ‘Fish Wings & Tings’ (now over a decade old). It’s still off-radar in our survey, but both The Sunday Times’s Marina O’Loughlin (“a restaurant on the verge of a party” with a “bass-heavy soundtrack and hectic colour scheme probably detectable from space”) and The Evening Standard’s Jimi Famurewa (“None of what is on offer… seeks to reinvent the wheel… yet, there is something quietly radical about its forceful sincerity”) have raved in recent times.

“Intriguing twists on the kebab theme” (plus “good beer brewed on site” at the Kraft Dalston branch) continue to win consistently good ratings for this expanding chain, which in September 2022 adds a 20-seater in Brixton to its roster of locations. See also Kebab Queen.

“Excellent Cantonese roast meats on rice” (“the Hainan chicken rice fills your heart with the warmth of a hug and a blanket from childhood!”) at prices that represent “very good value for money” inspire the highest praise for these Cantonese operations, near Liverpool Street and “tucked away” in Camden Town’s Hawley Wharf. The brainchild of Hong-Kong-raised pals, Pui Sing, Cheong Yew and Mo Kwok, they opened a new branch in March 2022 in Brixton Market (praised by The Evening Standard’s Jimi Famurewa for its “cooking of immense focus, skill and real endorphin-spiking intensity”).

From Robin and Sarah Gill, this July 2022 newcomer in Brixton’s Market Row is a little (28 covers) all-day venture, which invokes Parisian café culture as its inspiration. As the name hints, it’s as much about drinking as it is about eating, with an imaginative small menu served alongside a list of ever-changing funky wines and cocktails.