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The best restaurants in Brixton

Brixton is bursting with great food from almost every cuisine the world has to offer. Here’s our guide to the area's best restaurants

Leonie Cooper
Edited by
Leonie Cooper
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Brixton is one of London's most perfect culinary hotspots: it's buzzing with hyped restaurants, as well as much-loved local eateries. Brixton Village is where you'll find a hefty selection of local food culture, with cuisine from across the globe all under one roof. But venture beyond the market's walls and you'll discover plenty of other restaurants you need to experience, from special sushi takeovers to buzzing little bistros in nearby Herne Hill. 

RECOMMENDED: These are the best restaurants in London

Leonie Cooper is Time Out London’s Food and Drink Editor. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines.

The best restaurants in Brixton

  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • Restaurants
  • Contemporary European
  • Herne Hill
  • price 2 of 4
  • Recommended

A brilliant neighbourhood joint in Herne Hill offering up classic contemporary European dishes done beautifully. Think caponata strewn with crunchy sourdough crumbs and strained ricotta, Hereford beef shin ragú with smotheringly rich polenta, and rabbit niçoise. Basically, there is nothing to fault. The service was impeccable. Prices are reasonable. SE24, you don’t know how lucky you are.

  • Restaurants
  • Caribbean
  • Brixton
  • price 2 of 4

If you live in or around Brixton, you’ll have heard of this local stalwart, where larger-than-life Trinidadian owner Brian Danclair dishes up all the flavours of the Caribbean. On top of having one of the dreamiest sites in Brixton Village market – a corner spot, with half the ‘outside’ tables under cover and the rest on the patch by Coldharbour Lane – it’s also known for effervescent service and blaring reggae tunes. Try Brian's other spot, Danclair's Kitchen at nearby Granville Arcade.

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  • Restaurants
  • Barbecue
  • Brixton

After a series of successful pop-ups around the city, young talent Ruben Dawnay has being giving a pop-up stint in Brixton’s Market Row. With its exposed brickwork and mismatched crockery, it’s a cosy, friendly little spot and the menu comprises five different sarnies (four salt beef varieties and a veggie option) plus a selection of barbecued small plates and sides. Meat is the star of the show and the main event is a reuben sandwich piled high with thick slabs of blushing pink salt beef, tangy sauerkraut, Swiss cheese and lashings of oozy, piquant Russian dressing.

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Rosie Hewitson
Newsletter and Events Editor, Time Out London
  • Restaurants
  • Delis
  • Herne Hill
  • price 2 of 4

A teeny-tiny wine bar and deli next door to Llewelyn's is a light-filled bolthole with standing-height tables and stools that spill out into the charming square outside Herne Hill station. It’s enormously cute. That’d mean zip but for the food and booze; but both, mercifully, are excellent. There are fab house gildas, tortillas of burnished majesty, and slivers of cured monkfish mosaicked with grilled peppers and preserved lemon. Come for pitch-perfect plates, affable staff and a breezily cosmopolitan setting.

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  • Restaurants
  • Thai
  • Brixton

KaoSarn has always been one of the crowd-pullers in Brixton Village Market and quite rightly so; their take on Thai food is cheap and the flavours are authentic. The menu is pared down to a handful of classic curries, noodle dishes and stir-fries, but everything is cooked to a decent standard. Soft drinks include fragrant homemade lemongrass or ginger tea, and you can also BYOB. 

  • Restaurants
  • Japanese
  • Brixton

Delivering cheap Japanese eats on Brixton Village Market, this fun little canteen specialises in that Osaka street-food staple, okonomiyaki (savoury pancakes with assorted toppings and sesame-spiked Japanese mayo). You could put pretty much anything into your batter mix, but pork, squid and kimchi are top choices. Otherwise, the menu is small but perfectly rounded – think edamame, fried aubergine with miso dressing, tofu miso soup and yaki onigiri (fried rice cakes). A noodle-themed offshoot, Okan East, is on nearby Coldharbour Lane.

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Ichiban Sushi
  • Restaurants
  • Brixton

Keep your eyes open for Chris Restrepo's Kurisu Omakase insanely good pop-up at his family's sushi joint. You might have heard about it on the Off Menu podcast or you might just be one of London's extremely in-the-know foodies. Either way, you'll need to check Instagram to find out when the next kitchen takeover is and then you'll need to book immediately. Expect experimental fish dishes, with likes of CBD caviar served atop mackerel nigiri.

Kricket
  • Restaurants
  • Indian
  • Brixton
  • price 2 of 4

It started as a Brixton pop-up before going permanent in Soho, but now Kricket is back in SW9 with a snazzy new site under the railway arches. The food is everything you would expect, and more – a succession of killer Anglo-Indian small plates ranging from the astounding house bhel-puri to samphire pakoras, dinky Goan sausage croquettes, Keralan fried chicken with pickled mooli and gutsy pulled pig’s head with a blast of vindaloo chilli heat. Affable staff and punchy cocktails seal the deal.

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  • Restaurants
  • Bistros
  • Brixton

Swap the mopeds for Lime bikes whizzing past on the pavement, and eating on The Laundry’s terrace is a dead ringer for brunching on a Florentine piazza. A former Edwardian laundry is now an all-day restaurant and wine shop. When it comes to brunch, try The Dirty Laundry stack – made up of hash browns served with a roulette of sauces. There's also sautéed mushrooms with poached eggs, served on sourdough and slathered in creamed cheese. In the drinks department, the Picante Margarita hit the spot. 

  • Restaurants
  • Contemporary European
  • Brixton
  • price 2 of 4

Lyon-born Margaux oversees the natural and organic tipples at this loveable Brixton wine bar, while husband Joe serves up a brief blackboard menu of pure-bred French dishes and eclectic small plates. Expect anything from boudin noir with cured egg yolk, tarragon and crackling or John Dory with courgettes and sauce vierge to BBQ pork belly with Korean spices. Be aware that the venue is off Brixton’s main drag, heading towards Herne Hill.

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  • Restaurants
  • Seafood
  • Brixton

Spawned from an ‘empty shops’ project in 2011, Etta’s is a welcoming spot with cheery staff and a menu that has no truck with red meat. Instead, fish is the main event, with Caribbean influences showing up in the seafood curry, ackee with saltfish, plantain chips and rice ‘n’ peas. You can also come here for garlicky peppered prawns, scallop salad and good old cod and chips. Etta’s doesn’t sell booze, but their homemade drinks are ace.

  • Restaurants
  • Chinese
  • Brixton

This engaging Chinese café evolved from a north London supperclub, then crossed the river to become part of the second wave of entrepreneurs who conquered the now buzzing Brixton Village Market. A family affair inspired by the Beijing stall run by owner Ning Ma’s grandparents, it serves hearty northern-Chinese street-food – in particular, dumplings, rice bowls, noodle soup and salad, and bao. 

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  • Restaurants
  • Burgers
  • Brixton
  • price 1 of 4

London's burger scene is hotly competitive, but Black Bear stands out for its killer patties. Make for this stripped-back eatery for perfectly charred burgers, and sides that threaten to outshine the main event, including fiendishly succulent chicken nuggets.

  • Restaurants
  • Italian
  • Brixton
  • price 2 of 4

Tucked away down a Brixton sidestreet, Maremma is a cute neighbourhood restaurant with a menu that draws inspiration from the coastal area of Maremma in sunny Tuscany. The homemade pasta is a highlight, including chilli tagliatelle with prawns and cherry tomatoes as well as ribsticking fresh pappardelle with wild boar ragù. Go to carb-load in winningly cosy surroundings.

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  • Restaurants
  • Eritrean
  • Brixton
  • price 1 of 4

This low-key, long-established Brixton café serves up delicious platters of Eritrean food, alongside plenty of spongy injera bread): it's wholesome, hearty food that's perfect for sharing. Set menus include a coffee ceremony, which serves up brews of perfect richness and tinged carefully with cardamom and cloves.

Fish Lounge
  • Restaurants
  • British
  • Brixton

Keenly upholding a singular British tradition, this breathtakingly spotless Brixton chippy gets everything right: fish is delicately battered, chips are pleasingly thick and fluffy, tartare sauce is extra zingy, and delightful staff treat everyone like lifelong friends. Eat in or takeaway from a menu packed with the usual suspects – from cod, rock, skate and plaice to pies (including Jamaican patties), battered sausages, burgers and chicken.  

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