The Brixton pop-up finishes at the end of April 2024. Ruben's Rubens will be at Peckham Arches from May 2 for the summer season.
If, like me, you spend a genuinely concerning amount of time watching Instagram videos of moustachioed chef bros making elegant bar snacks in suspiciously well-appointed Hackney kitchens, then there’s a good chance the algorithm has already treated you to some positively pornographic images of Ruben Dawnay’s glistening meats.
Inspired by his Polish-Jewish heritage and equipped with a second-hand smoker, the precocious young chef was just 19 years old when his eponymous sarnie-slinging concept won Brixton Kitchen, an incubator competition that had previously helped the likes of Apoy’s Budgie Montoya and Chishuru’s Joké Bakare to launch restaurants via residencies in Brixton’s iconic food market.
Having been offered the chance to open his own pop-up, Dawnay was hard at work preparing for the launch in early 2020 when the pandemic struck. With plans put on indefinite hold, the Brixton-born chef instead launched Ruben’s Reubens as an instantly popular lockdown delivery service based out of his mum’s back garden.
Burnished, glistening and unctious hot honey burnt ends managed to be both melt-in-the-mouth tender and pleasingly crunchy
Three-and-a-bit years later, after a series of successful pop-ups around the city and an ever-growing list of endorsements, the now-22-year-old Dawnay has finally moved onto Brixton’s Market Row for a three-month stint in his first standalone restaurant. And it’s definitely been worth the wait.
With its exposed brickwork and mismatched crockery, it’s a cosy, friendly little spot, where the eager young owner frequently steps out from the diminutive kitchen to greet his diners, carry plates out and explain the menu, which comprises of five different sarnies (four salt beef varieties and a veggie option) plus a selection of barbecued small plates and sides ranging from £5 to £10 a pop.
It’s no surprise that meat is the star of the show. Burnished, glistening and unctious hot honey burnt ends managed to be both melt-in-the-mouth tender and pleasingly crunchy. Chubby slices of outrageously juicy smoked lamb sausage had an immensely satisfying snap, and came with a little pile of burnt onions and a blob of zingy, vinegary wholegrain mustard to cut through all that herby meatiness. It all slipped down a treat, along with a potent but well-balanced daiquiri made with Market Row’s own scotch bonnet-infused rum.
It would be tempting to go full carnivore and order every meaty dish on the menu, but for some semblance of balance, we opted for a few veggie sides. Topped with salty, sticky glazed peanuts, the blackened ‘kung pao-strami’ cauliflower had a pleasant bite to it, as did a crunchy pile of roasted potatoes dusted with blitzed-up ‘everything bagel’ seasoning. A chilli cheese hispi cabbage special came doused in a gently warming curried cheese sauce and sprinkled with candied chillis. All very pleasant, as was the single dessert choice, a scoop of dense malted milk ice cream.
But they’re all worth passing over in favour of the main event: a reuben sandwich piled high with thick slabs of blushing pink salt beef, tangy sauerkraut, Swiss cheese and lashings of oozy, piquant Russian dressing. Suffice it to say that I haven’t had better, and I recently spent a month living almost entirely off Big Sandwiches in the Jewish deli Mecca that is New York City.
Yeah, you heard me. Meg Ryan can fake orgasms in the middle of Katz’s Deli til the cows come home; I’ll stick to what I’m having.
The vibe A homely little spot on Brixton’s colourful and historic Market Row.
The food Hefty salt beef sarnies and melt-in-the-mouth smoked meats.
The drink A rum-heavy list of classic cocktails, plus beers from the neighbouring Brixton Brewery.
Time Out tip Split a sarnie between two so you’ve got room to try even more meat.