I’d arranged to meet Sara for lunch and given I’d like to create a pop up stall for MYO, I thought Brixton would be a good place to explore. For someone as indecisive as me, Brixton’s plethora of cute cafes, restaurants and eateries really do appeal to everyone, making deciding where to eat all the more confusing. Circling the village, we were amazed by how busy every single place seemed to be, with Honest Burger and Franco Manca definitely having the biggest followings. In the end, we settled on Mexican so our first stop was Casa Morita .
We decided to sit outside as the atmosphere within the restaurant was a little non-existent, and sitting outside allowed us to people watch – always a fun activity! Casa puts out blankets for those customers who get cold, which I thought was a brilliant extra touch. We ordered huevos rancheros, as this is known for being an authentic Mexican dish and we’d never had it before. It came ten minutes later, complete with a bottle of tap water. On looks alone, it looked very bizarre, with different ingredients dotted all over the plate. Tasting it, it was very messy due to the combination of tomato sauce, egg yolk, minced chorizo and refried beans. Also, tearing into the tortilla base proved trickier than expected. Saying that, I do love messy eating and it did taste alright. Alright meaning it’d only get a 5/10. Ah well, it was just as well our tummies weren’t satisfied as we had a lot of other places to choose from!
Our second pop up of choice was Wishbone as Sara had been there before and said it’d been good. I really liked the inside of Wishbone so we sat inside this time. It was fairly dimly lit but the choice of colours in their interior design were so colourful, that it contrasted nicely. The colourful paper menus hung off string cords throughout the restaurant, a little like Damson & Co. There wasn’t a great deal to choose from on the menu, only chicken and sides, but I quite liked that as it implies that the food will be fresh, and made to order.
We shared (again) deep fried Asian mayo & lime chicken thighs and ‘hot mess’ (hash browns, jalapenos, cheese sauce and tomato). Within ten minutes, our food was served, looking very American with it being presented in a plastic wicker basket and a white tub for the hot mess. Both meals were very average, the hot mess was pretty much just a load of stodge which I can imagine being perfect for a hangover but no, there’s only a certain number of hash browns I can handle in one sitting! Sara agreed that we hadn’t done so well on the food stakes today.
Despite not eating the best of food, I loved our visit to Brixton Village and next time I get the choice of where to go next, I’m going to say Brixton Village as I’m 100% confident I will uncover some hidden gem serving perfect deliciousness. Also, I’m now even more sure that MYO would suit the pop-up phenomenon.
Recommendation (2.5 / 5)
I’d give both places half marks as I think they’re hit and miss, and we may have just ordered the wrong things so I wouldn’t want to say ‘don’t go’ as the service at both was good, as was the value for money.