The Provincial

What initially caught my attention about this place was the cozy décor and the cute beauty seated at one of table eating and reading a book. Now why that wasn’t enough to hook me once I read the menu I was truly intrigued. And guess what… I’m so glad I followed my intuition about place, not only was the food delicious but the owner was extremely helpful and pleasant. He suggested a stewed chicken dish for my mother and fish for me after taking our preferences and promised both would be free of charge if we didn’t like. Now that’s confidence in ya cooking for you. Boy was he spot on, both were excellent!!! I also had 2 glasses of Sangria, which were delicious and deceivingly strong as I left with a nice buzz. To top the day off the when questioned the owner provided some very insightful facts about both Colombian and British life. I’ll be back again tonight to try another suggested dish. Defiantly my favorite restaurant in the Market thus far! Kudos to the owner!!!

I’ve been to the Provincial twice. The second, more recent, time, it was bustling all over Brixton market, but there were seats here. Not a good sign, I should have known. But we were hungry and it was bring your own booze, so we could save on drinks. My friend and I both had the fish and seafood platter. You get a big portion. And, in my case, I also got FOOD POISONING. I felt sick about an hour after and it didn’t stop until at least a day later. (Yes, food poisoning can have that sudden onset:
).
Admittedly, my friend did not feel sick, so maybe it was just one bad king prawn (it did taste a bit funny)… But safe to say, I won’t be returning here.
I also saw that dishes were brought out at awkward times on other tables — the four people next to us all had a main, two had had their mains for about 20 mins when the other mains were finally brought to the table. Quite chaotic.
On my first visit, my friend and I had browsed the menu for a while, made up our minds, only to then be told they didn’t have about half of the menu! So we had to change our order, which wasn’t great.

This place was good.
Food. The staff knew what didn’t have onion and garlic. Makes a nice change. I ended up going with the steak and chips because of the selection of ingredients I couldn’t remember I’m not allowed. Would have been a complicated ask. But the lentil sides looked nice. And I had a sneaky taste if a. cold fish meal. Was nice, heavy and rich though.
Staff, the staff were friendly. We brought our own alcohol which was an added bonus!
Atmosphere.if you have ever been to Brixton market it’s pretty much like anywhere else. Small unit. We sat outside on some racketety tables. I was also quite content to people watch.
Was a quirky placr with reasonable prices, friendly staff, good. night out I’d say

The Provincial is nestled away in the Market Row side of Brixton Village. It describes itself as a Latin Fusion restaurant and there seems to be a mix of primarily Peruvian and Columbian but also some Spanish dishes. This is my second time here and I have enjoyed the food and the atmosphere here very much both times.
Both times I have gone for the Tapas option. They have an exceptionally good value option of 6 tapas and a litre of Sangria for £35. This is more than enough food for two people. We were greedy and ordered seven dishes but couldn’t finish them.
I really enjoy trying food from other cuisines which I would not usually eat and this was no exception. I particularly enjoyed the Beef Empanadas, little beef patties encased in a corn meal dough and deep fried. I was reliably informed that these were Colombian Empanadas, as I believe they differ slightly from those in other countries such as Portugal and Spain. They reminded me a little of the English pasty although they were smaller and in my opinion more delicious.
I also really liked the cassava. Cassava is a root vegetable which is very popular in South America. It is treated like we would a potato. Here it was deep fried and served with a spicy sauce. The sauce really packed a punch.
We also had the Spanish Meatballs in tomato sauce, the calamari, the broken eggs on potato fries with smokey onions (very good!), chorizo cooked in wine and the goat’s cheese croquettes.
I wasn’t a fan of the goat’s cheese croquettes but mainly because I am not a fan of goat’s cheese and the chorizo in wine was too soft as if it had been stewed for a long time. The flavour was good but I prefer the texture to be firmer.
Overall the food was really good. I did find too much of it seemed to be deep fried but I think that was mainly down to our choices. There are a number of other options on the tapas menu which I would like to try next time which don’t seem to require a deep fat fryer. The bigger plates looked amazing too and I was consumed with food envy as these were coming out to other tables. I will definitely be giving these a go next time, and there will be a next time. The food was good, the service excellent and best of all was the price. I can certainly afford to eat here again and again.

Despite reviews you’ll find on UrbanSpoons for this place, I quite enjoyed my time here. Nestled in the grimier side of Brixton Market, this Spanish tapas place allows you to bring in your own bottle of wine free of charge.
The place is small but quaint and the service was really friendly. There was some confusion as their menu advertised outside was slightly different than the one placed inside, but that was soon settled and our food was cooked in a decent amount of time.
My date had a lovely creamy and delicious chicken in yellow sauce, while I had spiced pork belly with tomatoes. The portions were enormous and I’m thankful they allowed us to take some our leftover food to go. Both of the dishes were very tasty and I was extremely satisfied by the evening.
Judging by other reviews this place can be prone to poor management, but my experience was lovely and quite romantic.