Brazili-average BBQ
Brixton - September 2015
Recently a new Latin American chain restaurant opened
in Brixton, albeit without quite the same amount of wailing and gnashing of
teeth that accompanied Wahaca's arrival last year. One thing that might have
helped there is not opening on the site of a once-legendary local nightspot.
The Bon Marche building has its own interesting history, but
tucked away behind TK Maxx in a terrible location for any random passing trade,
it doesn't scream “great place to open a large restaurant” to me. But then I'm
not the multi-millionaire owner of a “family” business with branches in the O2
& Westfield centres, so what do I know? I'm just here to eat the food and
give my opinion on if it’s any good.
Which it occasionally is. Kind of.
The restaurant itself is bright and buzzy – the music is
samba-tastic, the colours are bright, the furniture is beach-bar shabby chic.
The overall effect comes off like a kind of Wahaca de Janerio. The service was
friendly, if a touch slapdash (food delivered to wrong tables, requested extras
taking an age to arrive). It was the soft launch, and the staff seemed a bit
green (and yellow, natch) – I’ll assume they've dramatically improved since the
opening proper…
Previously, to me, the terms ‘Brazilian’ and ‘barbeque’ have
meant all-you-can-eat meat carved off skewers to the point of near bursting. Here
the menu is a single, average-sized serving of meat, delivered to your table on
a skewer. The marinated lamb is tender and packs a real punch. Our neighbouring
table were delivered a solid lump of steak that looked immense – all dark and
glistening on the outside, red and bloody on the inside. Not quite the medium
they had ordered, but I thought it looked boss.
On the starter menu, the pulled pork sliders are highly
recommended – the meat maybe a bit on the mushy side, but rammed with spicy
goodness. The chicken croquettes fall apart a little easily, but the chilli
mayo dip is banging.
We also ordered a full rack of ribs: a massive slab that falls off the bone easily, but appears to have been nowhere near a proper grill – there’s no crunchy caramelisation, or nary a hint of a smoke ring. And they’re a bit fatty. But the bbq sauce marinade is thick, sticky, sweet and piquant, so it’s an overall positive experience. However, you can get better ribs in at least three other Brixton restaurants. As the menu proudly states, these ribs featured at Ribstock 2012. They didn't win. Go figure.
While the meats are good, the sides are weak: bland, boring
and under-seasoned.
Finally, our dessert of Nutella donuts was an unappetising,
overly hot, greasy waste of calories. If Mrs Eatings is leaving Nutella,
then something is seriously up.
To sum up, there’s some decent stuff going on at Cabana (mainly
grilled meat), but it’s really not an unqualified success. Less ‘Tudo Bem’, more
‘às vezes bom’.
