Restaurant Review: Brixton Village and Take 2wo's Caribbean Restaurant in #BrixVill (Granville Arcade)

There is a particular form of guilt that comes from being a liberally educated white middle class male who has had all the advantages that life can throw at him, erm, thrown at him. For instance, when people start talking about getting one of Brixton's historic markets (Granville Arcade), renaming it Brixton Village, giving it a twitter hashcode and attempting to gentrify the hell out of it I get nervous.

Also having grown up near Brixton (well Dulwich) I have a nostalgic affection for the shitness of Brixton and its markets. They are different, they are shabby, they smell but they are local and are defiantly not Dulwich or Clapham. Also great produce.

Restaurant Review: Saltoun Supper Club in Brixton

I think one word sums up Saltoun Supper Club (SSC), fascinating. From the food to the decor, it is all fascinating.

Now this is not meant to a slight on the food at all (for the simple reason that the food is rather good) but there is an element of theatrics to the whole experience which makes SSC special.  The whole supper club/ underground restaurant "scene" has stimulated many emotions in me but the general one has been a slight feeling of "is that it?".  There have been notable exceptions (L&F, Nuno Mendes and Christmas at Number 42) but in general it has been a slightly underwhelming experience eating in people's living rooms over the past year.  I don't go to supper clubs to simply have an emulation of a meal in a restaurant (and sometimes a bad one), I think there has to be something unique about it. Be it experimental food, bonhomie or just curiosity. SSC takes this and runs with it.here) has a far fuller and beautiful glimpse of the unique surroundings.

Arno and his assistant staged the whole process brilliantly. You walk up a flight of stairs and the flat unfolds around you. Interesting, quirky and unique are dotted everywhere.  The living room is like the top floor of the Welcome Collection in Euston and full of little curiosities. Between each course you are offered the chance to relax upstairs in a study similarly decorated and evocative.

Restaurant Review: Franco Manca in Brixton

Can someone please explain what I am missing? To put it mildly I was excited to go here. Every review, every person who has been here, the freaking zeitgeist; they all say it is something special. Unfortunately it isn't. It is just cheap local food.

Have a look at the picture I took of the simpliest of Italian pizzas but still the touchstone of whether a pizzeria is any good - mozzarella, tomato and basil. As the pictures shows, it is a bit of a mess. The crust is/ was good. Unfortunately the tomato sauce wasn't thickened properly and never got beyond a liquidy soup which meant that it ran and separated on the top of the pizza and made the base a soggy puddle. The mozzarella was flecked on, with strange chunks of it plonked randomly over the pizza; not enough of it; not well enough laid out. The basil, well where was it? A couple of charred pieces simply don't give the pizza the opportunity to sing with the taste of the basil.

We also tried some of the other pizzas, with all the toppings and whatnot. They suffered from the same basic flaws and also a thuggish approach to scatterbombing the pizza with ingredients. It isn't too much fun to eat a solidified square inch of anchovy rather than having had it disbursed over your pizza.

The upside is its cheap. The atmosphere is also exciting. The rest; propaganda.

Now some may say I am missing the point, this is oven fired goodness. Regional Italian brilliance. It's not. I spent weeks going round New York trying out proper versions of this. Summer driving trips around Italy further reinforce that this is a pale imitation.

Did I just have a bad visit or something?

Price - £10 and under