Londonist asks that most pressing of daily concerns: where to go on your lunch break.
Café on the Hill
91 Brixton Hill SW2 1AA
Expect to Pay: Under £5
Rating: 8 out of 10
Finally Londonist made it south of the river for lunch, and considering how delish and culturally unique our meal was, we’re sure glad we did!
Café on the Hill looks like your bog standard London caff, which of course it is … and yet oh so much more! Taking a closer look at the pastel menu cards adorning the worn windows and walls, you’ll notice an ever changing assortment of homemade Thai curries. According to one reliably well travelled East Asian foodie, the Thai dishes at Café on the Hill are as close as one can get to proper Thai street food in this town. Certainly, the sumptuous plate of Beef Penang we devoured on our visit had a delectable and ever so slightly pungent air of authenticity.
Authentic Thai or bacon butty, Café on the Hill serves yummy food. But don’t just take our word for it. Maya, who loves to “eat a massive plate of Thai vegetable curry for lunch” at Café on the Hill (and has been doing so for more than a decade), writes on mybrixton.com that the café is a “real gem for an inexpensive fry-up or great Thai lunch.” webslinger-uk chimes in about the café’s more traditionally English fare, which “only costs £3 for bacon, eggs, sausage, baked beans and chips.” According to webslinger-uk, although such a meal might be too “unhealthy, fatty or too greasy for many … when you leave the house in a hurry on an empty stomach, it's heaven!” S@ngarang at Throne of Blood, suggests that more than the food, which “costs virtually nothing,” the clientele make this eatery worth a visit:
… it's the only place in the world where you can enjoy your enormous plate of fried stuff sitting next to a clown in full make-up eating tom yum soup, a Guardian-reading eco-couple with hemp-clad baby enjoying a few pieces of black pudding, and prostitutes from the corner of Josephine Avenue discussing last night's johns over a plate of chips and some tea.
Londonist didn’t notice any diners fitting the above descriptions on our visit, just happy folks chowing down on some phenomenal nosh for a very few quid.
Photography by Tiki Chris © 2007.
