Review: Majestic Restaurant

Curried goat, plantain and beans

Guest food blogger Lucy Ferguson, who blogs at ‘tv dinners‘, reviews the Majestic Restaurant

With the ever increasing publicity and praise currently being heaped on Brixton Village, here at Brixton Blog we’ve been dining out in one of the lesser known eateries in SW9 – Majestic Restaurant on Coldharbour Lane.

Majestic is a Nigerian restaurant, there’s not much to see from the outside and you may well have walked past without really noticing. Once inside, it’s a trove of traditional Nigerian food and drink. Unperturbed by the stated half-hour preparation time for our first course, we started the meal with moimoi, a savoury steamed bean cake cooked with onions and seasonings. It was so tasty, I could eat it every day. This high protein, low fat food serves as a slimming aid – not that a slimming aid could be any use considering the sheer size of the next course!  The moimoi was served with a wickedly hot suya, spiced beef kebab meat which made us happy to have ordered the large bottles of palm wine to accompany the meal.

Moimoi

For main courses we tried three mains. The first was tilapia, a huge fish cooked in a rich sauce that barely fit the plate, served with richly flavoured jollof rice. The second main course was assorted meats, a courageous choice, which included cow’s foot – which managed to pull off the surprising combination of being both gelatinous and grisly – and tripe. The tripe looked pretty frightening but took on the spices of the sauce and melted in the mouth. Third main (see above) was a plate piled high with curried goat and plantain with rice and beans. It was outstanding, and a struggle to get even half way through, but the type of meal you wanted to carry on eating well after you were too stuffed to eat any more.

Assorted Meats

Tilapia

The staff were super friendly and enthusiastic, explaining the dishes well. As we were leaving a PA system and drums were being brought in, suggesting Friday nights in Majestic can turn into quite a party – just as long as you’re not too full to get down.

Two courses plus palm wine around £15 per person<

Majestic Restaurant<
330A Coldharbour Lane, London SW9 8QH
020 7274 6676

New Year’s Day fun

Lost for how to fill the first day of the year? Here are some Brixton-based ideas:

– The Ritzy is screening ‘The Hangover’ at 2pm especially for New Year’s Day . This is actually a good film.

– FOOD. If the Market’s open, get to Nour Cash and Carry and buy the goods to cook up a feast. Or just grab some plantain, jerk chicken and curry from Take Two.

– A walk in Brockwell Park. Or a swim at the Brixton Rec, in preparation for Brockwell Lido’s outdoor swim (brrr) on 8 January.

– For those who saved themselves for partying on New Years’ Day (gah), Plan B is hosting the afterparty for the Together 10th anniversary, with two rooms of electro-bass, breaks and house including the Stanton Warriors and Jurassik. And Brixton Jamm is hosting an all-day event – the Kerfuffle New Years Day/Wiggle After Party.

Brixton OxJam – tonight

It’s Brixton OxJam tonight. See here for the full line-up. Highlights are: The Illlersapiens at the DogStar at 10pm, folk and blues at the Ritzy Upstairs, and Plantain DJ set at the Rest is Noise followed by Yaaba Funk at 11pm.

OxJam Line-Up October 23

OxJam Brixton announced the first names in their line-up for the Brixton Takeover on 23 October this week. They are:

Jerk Cook-Off

Jerk Goat

Brockwell Park hosted the annual Jerk Chicken Cook Off competition today, moved from its usual venue at The Horniman. Caribbean Chefs competed against each other for the best jerk chicken, goat [see above] and fish. And there was plenty corn-on-the-cob, plantain, callaloo and coconut water too. YUM.

Last year's winners, Tasty Jerk from South Norwood, attracted massive queues for their barbecued jerk fish, chicken and more

Jerk Chicken, Rice 'n' Peas and Plantain