You know that smoke billowing out of the yard next to Railton Road’s adventure playground? It’s not just some random resident’s charcoal grill, it’s Maureen’s Kitchen, the edible yard sale of your dreams.
Go inside the small gate at the front or the bigger one round the side and you’ll find Maureen Tyne (above) presiding serenely over the biggest pots you’ve ever seen – loads of them, all simmering on coal-fired stoves out in the yard where she also keeps her prized jerk drum. There’s plenty more going on inside, under the deft supervision of a crack team of helpers and a manager. Place your order at the open kitchen door but don’t venture further than that or you’ll get under their feet.
Maureen’s is mostly a takeaway, although there are a couple of tables for anyone wanting to eat in when the weather’s good. The day’s menu is handwritten on cardboard, while the full range of dishes is listed on a large panel outside (below).
Orders are taken over the phone and in person all day, five days a week. Jerk and fried chicken are a constant, brown stew chicken, curry goat, rice and peas, pasta and numerous soups, including the butchly named mannish water. Mac and cheese is only £2 a portion, a neat square of everyone’s favourite nursery food. Yum. A medium oxtail is a generous helping, deeply flavoured and rich, and will set you back £12 without rice and peas, £15 with. The jerk pork (at weekends) comes in three different portion sizes, the smallest of which, a bargain at £6, goes a surprisingly long way. Sticky, spicy and just the right amount of charred, it’s some of the best pork belly we’ve ever eaten. And say yes to the sauce, it’s out of this world.
Maureen has recently garnered praise and coverage for feeding hungry children after school for free (see link below), which she continues to do even though numbers are getting out of hand. She’s appeared on BBC Radio 4’s The Food Programme describing how to make fried chicken; and back in 2017, Maureen’s Kitchen attracted the attention of the former Prince of Wales during a visit to the adventure playground, getting a royal handshake although he didn’t place an order. The future monarch clearly needed his bumps felt.
Maureen’s Kitchen, 52 Railton Road, SE24, Tel: 07940 382 501
Open Tue–Thur 11am–5pm; Fri–Sat 11am–9pm. Closed Sun and Mon
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