Mama Lan - Brixton Village, SW9

Brixton Village is one of my favourite places to go mooch around at the moment. Well worn, tatty but entirely charming the old Granville Arcade has a really good feeling about it and there is always something new every time I visit.

Mama Lan opened about a month ago now and word must be getting around quick as shortly after we sat down people were queuing out the door. This little unit specialises in street food from Beijing; delicious fresh dumplings, snacks and noodles all cooked to order.

It's the brain child of Ning Ma who is also behind the supper club of the same name and it’s a completely family run enterprise with mom and pop behind the counter cooking away and her boyfriend helping out on the floor. I don’t know about you but that just makes me like the whole thing a hell of a lot more!

The food is incredibly well priced which is lucky as we ordered almost everything on the menu. The fried vegetable balls were fresh, crisp and incredibly tasty with a delicious spicy sauce.

The spicy chicken wings came perfectly cooked, too often they are pre-cooked and refried to order, but these were spot on with crisp spicy skin and tender meat. Onto the dumplings and they definitely rank amongst some of the best I’ve had in London.

The pork and Chinese leaf were sweet and juicy with great texture. The beef and carrot were delicious, I feel like I can’t do them justice really and I keep coming back to the same word in my head and that’s FRESH.

They were excellent on their own and just amazing when dipped in some of the dark sweet vinegar or soy on the table. The seaweed and sesame salad was a bowl of meh but that’s only because I don’t like seaweed that much.

All in all it’s definitely worth a visit and at £24 for two with a couple of teas it’s also incredibly good value. It’s everything good Chinese food should be; delicious, fresh and packed full of flavour and spice.

I think I’m in love with it a little bit as well!