Mikos brings classic Souvlaki to town
Nowadays, the path from food truck entrepreneur to restaurant owner is less off-piste entry level, more a required rite of passage. Hugo Yoshida of Mikos fits the “trucker” bill.
Former Edinburgh food truck host – “It was a drunken dare while at university, but it took off”, decamps to Melbourne, and becomes an evangelist for souvlaki. “I didn’t want to go into finance, I wanted to try something a bit more difficult, something more worthwhile.”
In a world of street food inventions, Souvlaki is one that doesn’t need inventing. It’s proper street food, from the street. For those, like me, who meandered (on a budget) around Paros, Naxos, Ios and Santorini in the “interail years”, you were only a street corner away from your next souvlaki. Apparently the first evidence of skewered meats, excavated in Santorini, dates back to before that Jesus guy.
Marinated charcoal grilled meat (usually pork), wrapped in hot fresh pitta with tzatziki, onion and paprika. On every street corner. The only surprise is how long it has taken for a souvlaki bar to hit Brixton and how generally, Greek cuisine is so under-repped in London.
With seats (funky orange retro French café stools) for about 15, in a stylish rendition of the retro formica café culture, Mikos is as much about pit-stop refuels, takeaway grabs and deliveries. Take the roof off and it could be a street corner stall and tables. As we speak, the team is prepping the meats – dry rub, olive oil, lemon, oregano and fresh parsley and taking delivery from their Greek baker.
The Mikos menu is so simple, so minimalist it makes a sea container pop-up menu seem like the entire works of Dostoyevsky. For now, choose from pork belly, BBQ chicken, halloumi and Portobello mushroom, oregano salted fries and Greek salad. That’s it. “The menu is super basic. We wanted to make sure we can get things absolutely right before branching out, but we’ll be rolling out lamb, beef, seafood and even swordfish.”
The key is the charcoal grill for that authentic streety charred smokiness. With Hugo himself at the grill, we tried the pork belly and the chicken. £6 a pop. Super tender marinated meats, hint of char, fluffy hot pitta (not the lifeless supermarket ones), zingy yoghurt dressing, herbs, onion and a few oregano fries. The pork took us right back to Cycladian street corners while the chicken was arguably even better. One would be the perfect lunch size.
“I think it’s a real social food,” says Hugo “and that’s the kind of place I’d like it this to be. I like the idea I can chat to people while cooking.” If you don’t literally pass Mikos on your daily Brixton, pop along Acre Lane for the world’s oldest street food, and Brixton’s latest.
128 Acre Lane, SW2 5RJ | mikossouvlaki.co.uk | 020 7733 0697 | @mikossouvlaki
