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.
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.
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
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I’ve been in here several times. Under previous ownership in the 1990s it was called “Labalaba” (The Butterfly). I remember sugesting the venue to a couple of Lib Dem councillors out of devilment in 1997, thinking they would find it “grossed them out”. In fact they took it all in good part, though I myself was surprised by the snails which I had with egusi. Those large African snails (which you used to see writhing around in pails in the old Granville Arcade) were tough rather than slimy – somewhat like Ox liver to eat.
Charles, the Labalaba’s owner, was a man of sentiment. Paid me £50 for a couple of obscure Fela Kuti video tapes when the great man died.
The only time I visited the Majestic, I invited a friend from Wimbledon. When we arrived in the restaurant we started with the (somewhat expensive) Gulder Nigerian lager – after which a load of guys materialised to set up disco boom-boxes right in the restaurant seating area. Once the sounds got going we were forced to retreat to the “Asmara” Eritrean down the road, since we wanted food rather than ear splitting high-life vibes,.
Erm yum… Sounds like I’ll be sticking to Brixton Village!