Kricket Brixton | Anglo-Indian Small Plates in A Railway Arch
What do good restaurants and bad jokes have in common?
Krickets.
To be specific, Kricket Soho, Kricket White City and, yes, Kricket Brixton. And Brixton is quite an appropriate location because it’s where the Anglo-Indian sharing plate specialists – messrs Rik Campbell and chef Will Bowlby, that is – held their first pop up. The subsequent, rocket-ship success is testament to how good Kricket really is.
And that rocketship is still rising – the Brixton flagship has now knocked through the wall and added another railway arch, making the whole place a lot roomier & extending the kitchen. They’ve given the whole space a nice little refurb to boot, with a fresh lick of paint, new shutters, and a giant graffiti mural stretching across all three arches outside.
The menu – which needed no refurbishment – follows the interesting Kricket spin cooked up by Will Bowlby after a couple of years cheffing in Mumbai, where he learned the tricks of the trade. Here, everything is Indian-influenced but rustled up with seasonal British ingredients. Take the samphire pakoras, made with tamarind, chilli, and vibrant British sea vegetables. No seriously, take them, they’re delicious. Then there’s the Malai tandoori paneer, baby onions, London honey; or the Keralan fried chicken with a curry leaf mayo. None of which you’d expect to find in an Indian restaurant, but which work perfectly here.
Pandhi pork neck curry with fried ginger & peanuts.
Kricket Brixton also serves cocktails, of course – in fact the refurb had the fortunate outcome of giving an entire railway arch over to the bar. Here you can score a couple of small plates alongside signature concoctions including the mustard seed, vodka & lemon-laden Mustard Life, and the rum & mango-laced Dark Matter. But the real star of the drinks menu is the house beer, which was specifically brewed by the London Beer Factory to match the food. In fact, the chefs like it so much, they’ve added the option to ‘buy the chefs a round of beer’ to the menu. Just don’t buy too many…
…it’ll knock ’em for six.
NOTE: Kricket Brixton is open Monday to Saturday. You can find out more, and make a booking, at their website right HERE.
Kricket Brixton | 41-43 Atlantic Road, SW9 8JL
Hot for Indian food? Take a look at our guide to London’s best Indian restaurants