Tea and Cake at Rosie's Deli Cafe, Brixton Market

Brixton Market is one of my favourite places to go to in South London. It is vibrant, full of delicious smelling cafe's, restaurants and food stalls as well as many other stalls and shops, selling everything from fruit, veg and fish to clothes and bags.

The Foxes and Cherries sculpture, Electric Avenue

 I've eaten dumplings, noodles and Jamaican patties at Brixton Market in the past but there are so many places to eat that I haven't tried yet. I was planning to meet a friend in Brixton today and so prior to meeting her I researched the best places to eat in Brixton Market, and Rosie's Deli Cafe came up a couple of times in blogs and reviews.

Rosie's Deli Cafe is a small, comfy looking cafe at the corner of Market Row in Brixton Market.

 
We got to Rosie's Deli Cafe at around 11.30 this morning and aside from two other customers we were the only ones there. This was a good thing though as we got to pick where we wanted to sit. The cafe itself isn't very big inside, the seating area probably extends to 4 or 5 tables, but there are more tables directly outside and to the opposite side of the cafe. We chose a table on the opposite side and within a couple of minutes Rosie came out to take our order.

We started off by ordering a pot of tea with milk to share between the two of us.

Pot of tea - £3

Cup of tea before I added milk

Tea with milk

  I like my tea milky and when the milk wasn't brought out with the pot of tea I waited a couple of minutes then went back into the cafe to ask for it again.

After our tea arrived, my friend ordered scrambled eggs with toast and chilli jam, which looked so delicious that next time I go I might order it!

I went into the cafe to have a look at the cakes and what a selection! There was lemon drizzle cake, carrot cake, fig cake, as well as many others that I would have paid more attention to had I not been distracted by the cakes I just mentioned. The carrot cake in particular looked tasty with a generous layer of cream frosting at the top and it took me a couple of minutes to decide what to get. In the end I decided to go with the fig cake. 

Toasted Fig Cake with Yogurt

  What can I say about this cake? I am still thinking about it, 4 hours after I ate it. I initially ordered just the fig cake but Rosie came out and recommended I eat it toasted with yogurt so I agreed, waiting in anticipation for her to bring out the cake. Rosie knew what she was talking about when she suggested eating it toasted with yogurt because it was delicious!! The slice in the picture may look small but it was extremely filling, in the end I couldn't finish it. The cake was moist even after being toasted and the fresh yogurt added a tanginess to the sweetness of the cake. I would definitely get this again! 

Atmosphere  9/10

Service           8/10

Food               9/10

Chocolatesushi Rating 9/10

Nabs 15/08/13
 

Italian and Apple Pie

After working up an appetite from a morning of uni and work, we walked around Leicester Square looking at various menus along the way and finally settled on having a bit of Italian at Leicester Square Bella Italia. It turns out there were 3 Bella Italia's to choose from! All less than a minute's walk away from each other!! It was calling for us to eat there! haha.

 When we walked through the door we were greeted straight away and shown to our table. We chose one right at the back around the corner, very cosy!! 

There was a lot to choose from on the menu, the prices being fairly average at around £9-10 a dish! There was also a lunch menu available, but we chose to try something from the main menu. 

 This is the shared starter we ordered: 

Calamari £5.95

Lightly breaded and deep fried tender squid with lemon and caper mayonnaise

It took roughly 13mins for it to be brought out, so all in good time for a nice chat!

The dish was very nice! The batter was light and not too oily, however the squid pieces could have been more 'squidier' xD We would have liked to have bitten into a bigger piece of squid meat!!

For Samantha's main dish she ordered: 

Polle e Spinaci £9.45

Wholewheat riatoni with sliced chicken breast, field mushrooms and baby spinach in a creamy gorgonzola sauce

Samii: The dish was ok..... not as nice as it looked however! There was nothing wrong with it don't get me wrong! Guess it lacked a flavor I could say.. But I would not be ordering this dish again in the future. 

For Nabila's main dish she ordered: 

Gamberoni £9.95 

Eight succulent king prawns sauteed with garlic and chilli in a spicy pomodoro sauce, with spaghetti

Nabila: Now I'd like to start by telling you that I am a huge fan of prawns so this dish was a no brainer for me, especially since it said in the description 'succulent king prawns'! I mean what could be better?! Still it took me a while to select this dish as my final choice as there were just so many dishes on the menu to choose from! When the dish arrived I did oo and aah at the plate as it was nicely presented apart from the splattered chilli sauce on the side! 

The dish as a whole was very tasty, I especially liked the prawns as they were nice and juicy! And big too, which is very important as sometimes on the menu they say king prawns and when they arrive they are definitely not king sized! Also, there was a very generous helping of spaghetti but the dish did not fill me up. I am a person who usually gets full quite quickly but after cleaning my plate I was still hungry! So perhaps it wasn't value for price and the dish looked bigger than it actually was!

For both of our main course dishes we were given the option to have the dishes sprinkled with grated mozzarella cheese and pepper! Lovely!

Overall, our waiter was pleasant, the service was timed nicely and the waiter got the balance right between checking if we were ok and leaving us to enjoy our meal, which is always nice!