Brixton Village: Etta's Seafood Kitchen

It can be disappointing when you read about how friendly and welcoming a cook/owner of a restaurant is and then go there and find that they're not talking to you anymore than a chef does anywhere else.  Do they not like me you think, who are these stupid newspaper reviewers who everyone talks to anyway - mutter, mutter.  Thankfully I cannot imagine this being a problem at Etta's.  Talking is what they do (that and cooking, obvously).  They are welcoming and chatty and extremely friendly the whole time.  Their caribean influenced food's pretty sharp too.

Before I talk about the food though, I have to mention the home-made sorrel juice.  The sour herb has been mixed with a punchy amount of ginger and sweetened just enough.  Absolutely brilliant and definitely worth the £2.90 that initially might seem a little steep.  But, enough of that and on to the food.  To start we had crab fritters.  These were really fried dumplings with a bit of crab running through them, rather than large bits of crab in batter.  They were tasty, but I don't think tasty enough for me to order them again.  The main course - a mixed seafood curry - on the other hand was great.  A mix of crab claws, mussels, prawns and fish sat in a mild, coconutty vegetable sauce filled with coriander seeds.  This sat over a nice portion of rice and peas.  Good solid flavours, not messed around with made the whole thing a real treat.  My friend fish and chips were pretty good too, with not a hint of grease on the batter, though it wasn't the thick crisp type that I prefer.

Friendly, tasty and satisfying would describe Etta's in a nutshell - what more do you really need and at £26 for two you're getting it at pretty good value to boot.