Evening Standard
David Ellis reckons “success is around the corner” for a “rotisserie restaurant that almost everyone can afford” operating out of a small and plain room in Brixton Market.
Chicken, pork belly and potatoes are cooked in a rotisserie oven called Esmerelda, and served alongside excellent coleslaw and gem salads. Drinks include £7 trumblers of negroni poured from a pre-mixed magnum at the bar and wine at £4.50 a glass.
It’s straightforward, as David tells it, but impeccably thought-out and done. “Chicken is marinated for 24 hours on the Norfolk farm that supplies the place in a propriety blend of Greek yoghurt and lime juice, and handfuls of salt and pepper. To cook it takes an hour, until the skin is the colour of fallen leaves… Pork belly is perhaps more obviously arresting: lemon, lime, fennel seeds and garlic have been kneaded into the meat”, while “the potatoes — tasted every 10 minutes, allegedly for quality control — arrived with crackled skins, cooked in the fat of the chicken and pork and with all the spices from both.”
David Ellis - 2025-05-04
