I’d say the biggest pitfall of working near Borough Market is having a wife who doesn’t work near Borough Market who really likes nice restaurants. There isn’t a week that she reminds me that I have been to Rambutan and Heard without her and we made it to Kolae together sometime last year, which is now one of my favourite places for a solo lunch. Akara was also on the list since we saw it on wherever we saw it (could have been Masterchef. I think it was Masterchef), meaning I held back on a solo lunch until Sophie was also able to make it, which ended up being another of my birthday meals this year, shortly before we ended-up in the Mad Max Thunderdome that was All Points East for The Maccabees. The dust. I still cannot escape the dust. It is in places dust should never reach.
We make Akara for a warmer welcome than I expected given the passive aggressive emails they send pre-lunch. It’s well-lit and airy, a tasteful blend of neutral shades which wouldn’t put anyone out of place. Our seat at the counter looks down the pass to the team who manage to be focused, chilled, and discuss the recent signings of Arsenal all at the same time. A couple of good cocktails to start and off we go.
I won’t pretend to know anything about the food of West Africa where the bulk of the menu originates, nor know anything about the Brazilian street food dish acaraje from which the restaurant takes inspiration of name. What I can tell you is that this is some of London’s most interesting cooking, which makes it some of the UK’s most interesting cooking by default. We start with black bean hummus, pleasingly bland and starchy, a foil for the punchy hibiscus and chilli oil that sets the tongue on alight. We smear these inch-thick onto rice pancakes that oddly remind me of McDonalds pancakes. And beef fataya, gorgeous little patties of spiced beef in flaky pastry and an upgrade on the mighty empanadas. The Ata din din emulsion to dredge them through tastes a bit like Subway’s southwest sauce. I’m sorry if that is a shit reference but it’s the best I have. Regardless of that, it was superb.
Now those akara. We need to talk about those akara. Google tells me that the black eyed bean goes through five processes before being fried into a doughnut-like fritter. We have two; a barbecue prawn that Sophie says is one of the best prawns she has ever eaten, and another loaded with white crab meat. They are both beautiful, absolutely-knock-out in flavour, and with just enough heat to make you sit up straight. It’s a wonderfully messy affair, more so when dunked into the sous kani that lingers with habanero heat.
The only dish we don’t love is the lamb dibi, which I’m reliably told is usually a roadside slow-cooked leg of lamb but here is strips of lamb belly bound in a mustard sauce. It’s very rich, so much so that I find myself pulling the meat and adding it to the eflk rice that’s umami, meaty and fishy all at once. The Lagos chicken is worth the wait, a deliciously tender, smokey, fiery spatchcock bird coated in a habanero glaze that echoes that awful chicken brand but a million times better. A Ghanian sauce called green shito only adds to the fun with its base of scotch bonnets, ginger, garlic and all spice. The bill hits £148 for all of the above plus two glasses of wine, which I’d argue is good value for what was too much food between two.
In my head I had hoped that Akara would be interesting, spicy, and delicious, and in that respect it lived-up to the expectations. Lamb dish aside, everything was eye-opening in terms of meshing some big flavours in a sweeter, more approachable take on African food than I have had before. And for that I don’t care about how authentic it is. I care about how tasty the food is, and whether or not I’ll return. The answer to that is a resounding yes; maybe not for the full onslaught of the menu, but maybe for the cheaper lunch menu, and almost certainly to sit at the bar with the akara, some fataya, and glass of wine. Whilst Borough Market itself is turning into a slow parody of awful viral dishes, the restaurants around it continue to be some of London’s best. You can add Akara to that list.
9/10
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