Please note, Kricket at Pop Brixton has now closed. Time Out Food editors, January 2019.
Newly opened Kricket is a pint-sized set-up, located with other fledgling food and drink businesses in the pile-up of converted shipping containers that is Pop Brixton. It serves up British-Indian small plates – stylish and seasonal spins on street food from the hand of Will Bowlby, a former chef at big-hitting modern Indian The Cinnamon Club in Westminster, who now runs the kitchen at this tiny eatery with only two communal tables.
Pakoras are given a fashionable makeover with briny samphire cloaked in crisp gram-flour batter, and finished with a drizzle of date and tamarind sauce – a marvellous marriage of British produce and Indian sensibility. Another lively number partnered chilli-steeped and buttermilk-fried chicken with pickled mooli and curried mayo – a playful riff on mum’s coronation chicken dressing.
We weren’t so hot on the vindaloo bavette, though. Having hoped for a Goan spice riot cut through with vinegary punches, what we got was a beautifully cooked steak, let down by the briefest of flirtations with toasted peppercorns, cloves and coriander. This was one modernist expression that needed a rethink.
Thankfully, a pair of thick turmeric-hued lamb chops with a marinade of gingery lime juice and smoky dried lichen (not as weird as it sounds) got us back on track. Juicy, meaty and citrussy, they worked a treat with the cooling notes of cucumber and pomegranate raita.
Service is spot-on, and splendid spice-infused cocktails deliver more of a kick than masala chai could ever do. There’s more happening on the plates at this down-to-earth venue than in a Bollywood potboiler.