Best-Value Restaurants in South East London: Cheap, But Not Cheap Eats | Eater London
"It seems to be no coincidence that one of the most beautiful London cafes has been created by an architect couple from Asmara, Eritrea’s capital whose unique Art Deco architecture has outlasted the Italians who designed it. Indeed Eritrea has been more willing than other countries to embrace their colonial rubble by turning them into heritage, and this is as visible in the food as the buildings. Inside Blue Nile, sensitively restored by Jon and Nina from the old W. Geller sausage shop, there are white tiles, low lights, Giro d’Eritrea posters, and a chart translating Ge’ez script into English. Meanwhile, Italy punctures the now-familiar menu of stews and injera with unfamiliar berbere-spiced pastas, tiramisu, affogato, and Peroni. Jon’s mother Shewa is responsible for most of the cooking here, tending towards (but not exclusively) vegetarian with complex, nimble spicing in a dish of tumtumo (lentils) and a heavier hand in the brick-red silsi that serves both as a sauce and a dish in itself, enlivening a mixed platter of mixed vegetable dishes served on wine-gum sour injera, made in-house. Make sure to end (or begin) with some kemem tea — which is not a tea but a grounding infusion of many of the spices used in the cooking itself." - Jonathan Nunn
