Open since September 2015, Cabana Brixton is located at the historic Bon Marché site, and offers guests a unique taste of Brazilian barbecue and street food. Caipirinhas on arrival got us going, and ready for the steady flow of bottomless tortillas and guacamole.
While the menu offers eaters a mouthwatering choice of options, we opted for cheesy baked dough balls (oh wow) to start, along with some crispy lula squid, chargrilled halloumi with guava dip, spicy malagueta chicken lettuce wraps and spicy malagueta chicken doughnuts. The cheesy dough balls, one of Brazil’s most infamous snacks, were soft and bready and most importantly really cheesy!
Halloumi is always a winner and the guava dip was a lovely tangy partner to the cheese. The chicken lettuce wraps and squid were summer on a plate, so fresh and light. The chicken doughnuts with the same cheese dough as the plain dough balls were topped with icing sugar which although sounds odd, really worked and balanced the rich chicken filling.
Next up was a flame grilled BBQ feast! We had a pork and papaya sausage wheel, chilli and cumin cabana steak, spicy malagueta chicken and chicken breast wrapped in bacon served with pineapple. The meat and chicken was cooked beautifully and delivered to the table on the skewer.
Side dishes included tomato and palm heart salad, quinoa, avocado and squash salad with mango dressing and sweet potato fries and tamarind ketchup. Pudding was chocolate rain drop dough balls-bolinho de chuva filled with Nutella.
The Michaelis Boyd design of the restaurant and bar with the open BBQ kitchen is bright, colourful, vibrant and really goes far in trying to make you believe you are sat on the hot streets of Rio. During our visit, the staff were really friendly, knowledgable and sure know how to make a caipirinha. Next time you’re in the Brixton area we recommend you pay this little gem a visit.
When?
Sun-Wed 12–10pm
Thurs – Sat 12–11pm
Where?
Cabana
201 – 207 Ferndale Road
Brixton
London
SW9 8BE
How much?
See menu here