101 Acre Ln, Brixton Hill
London SW2 5TU, UK
Acre Lane, that oft-ignored stretch of road between Clapham and Brixton, contains a few noteworthy spots — among them Khamsa for Algerian and newcomer Mikos for a rare sighting of gyros south of the river. The standout is True Flavours, a relatively new (by Jamaican standards, at less than 10 years old) takeaway joint that is permanently busy whether people are inside or not. Residents in the know will phone ahead for chef Junior’s cooking, since the warm rack in the back is not for patties but a catalogue of takeaway orders. Oxtail, jerk chicken, fried chicken, fried fish, brown stew chicken — each is likely to run out after a canny phone order is placed, but there will always be another tempting option or a small wait for a fresh batch to be made in the well-seasoned cooking pots. The most popular item by far is the pepper steak, charred and singing with thyme, slow-cooked until the meat breaks down, served with rice and peas and “jerk pasta,” a massive opportunity missed by a certain celebrity chef.