Kricket
Kricket is a tiny restaurant serving Anglo-Indian inspired food – well, restaurant might be a bit of an exaggeration. It is actually a converted shipping container in the Lambeth Council commissioned start-up space, Pop Brixton – started by Will Bowlby and Rik Campbell (not exactly names you’d expect to be running an Indian place). It opened about a year ago to rave reviews but it’s taken us some time to get to gentrifying Brixton to try the food there. We had to overcome small things like a fear of grievous bodily harm and larceny. This little restaurant stuck with the tried and true recipe for success. Sharing plates so the kitchen wouldn’t have to worry about the timing and no reservations to the waiters didn’t have to worry about no shows.
So, is it still worth the hype a year down the line?
I think the answer is still yes. Pretty much everything thing we tried was ranged from at least likeable to the more extraodinary.
Samphire pakoras were light and crunchy, making a nice snack. Samphire works surprisingly well as a pakora – although arguably anything deep fried tends to taste good. The crab meen moiliee was another dish with mixed influences which worked – it was a cold crab salad (using crab cooked in coconut curry) that complimented the slightly bitter taste of the castel franco.
The meat and fish dishes we tried were good as well – with interesting twists – pickled mouli with the Keralan fried chicken and monk’s beard in a hake curry, worked as an excellent combination. The only one slight weak dish was grilled sweet potato – this one felt a bit too heavily spiced, but otherwise served adequately as a source of carbs.
In summary, Kricket is still going strong at the moment – if you haven’t managed to get there yet, it’s still worth making the visit.
A quiet eating 8/10.
GBP 15-20 per person, excluding drinks and service.
Kricket
Pop Brixton
49 Brixton Station Road
London SW9 8PQ