Just a stone’s throw from London Bridge and a short stumble to Borough Market, Brigade Bar + Kitchen is what would seem from our first-hand experience to be the area’s most bustling restaurant right now. Filled with friends, couples and city workers looking to end their busy weekday nights in all the right ways. Opened in 2011, the restaurant was built with a social purpose in mind and offers training opportunities to vulnerable people or those who have fallen on hard times, together with the beyond food foundation.
Behind the scenes and in the kitchen is head chef Marcilio Da Silva. Originally from Brazil, Marcilio brings his South American inspired live-fire cooking to Brigade Bar + Kitchen and has worked in leading restaurants including Bacco and Il Bianco. In short, expect some expertly cooked dishes – especially if it’s involving meat or smoke.
Inside, there’s a spacious bar area as you walk in and a large adjoining dining room that looks out across to the open kitchen space where you can spy on the chefs at work. The atmosphere here is so infectious that you’ll want to hang around all night, eating and drinking until your heart’s content. For those looking for a little privacy, there are two separate private dining spaces for groups or meetings – catering for up to 12 people.
The restaurant also has a learning kitchen and meeting rooms upstairs which aren’t just useful for workshops and training apprentices, but also very popular for hire for company away days. Workshops are often held here by Simon Boyle, founder of the Brigade Bar + Kitchen and the Beyond Food Foundation (the charity that sits behind the restaurant).
We took our seats, ordered our food, sipped on a heady Negroni and shortly after our starters arrived. One of which was these absolutely divine mini Cornish crab doughnuts. Each about the size of your palm, it was the perfect blend of both sweet and savoury. It was in fact a sweet doughnut (not impersonating one) that was stuffed with the most delicious fresh crab, confit garlic aioli, coriander, chives and a little sliced chilli. A fantastic dish and one I hope they keep on the menu forever – or at least in some form.
Equally as lovely was our other starter of house-cured salmon with pickles, dill and lime creme fraiche. The salmon had a beautiful colour, tasted again so fresh and each mouthful was such a delight. My only negative with this dish was the size, which in real life I thought was more akin to something you’d enjoy on a lengthy tasting menu and given how good it was – I wanted more on my plate.
I’ve eaten a lot of food this year and whilst my main course here was for me personally a little on the small side, it was still one of the tastiest things I’ve put into my mouth in 2022. This was the oak roasted venison loin with celeriac puree and braised radicchio. The venison itself was a thing of beauty, had so much flavour and felt as if it melted in my mouth. It also had a lovely rich, deep vein of smokiness that ran all the way through it. The puree was also heaven and the radicchio whose bitterness can sometimes spoil a dish, was perfectly balanced. You might need a few sides with this if you’re as hungry as I always am, but otherwise – it’s practically perfect.
As for those sides – go for the charred broccoli. It’s large, tasty, sits on a smokey romesco sauce and is sprinkled with almond crumbs for added texture. The perfect accompaniment to just about everything they serve here.
To finish, a rather accomplished dessert of treacle tart, torched blood orange, creme fraiche and brandy snaps. The tart was great, but the actual pastry case itself was the stuff of dreams. Buttery, sweet, crumbly and a little be toasted in all the right places. Filled with a mouth-watering treacle filling and scented with orange – this could happily be my go-to Winter dessert forever.
We had such a lovely time at Brigade Bar + Kitchen and I can’t recommend it enough. Yes, I moaned a little about some of the portion sizes, but the place has so much going for it that it’s nothing an extra side or two can’t fix. It’s packed with atmosphere, has a separate bar to continue (or start) your meal and the food is some of the best in the area, competitively priced and importantly – with purpose at its core. Would we come back? Yes!
