Black-Owned London Restaurants To Support On Black Pound Day

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“I think the black pound initiative is a fantastic idea,” says Adrian Luckie, owner of beloved Brixton/Deptford street food joint Mama’s Jerk, which recently reopened its doors. “The money will help reinvigorate and support black owned businesses in this current climate.” Luckie’s success is built upon his late nan Mama Charlotte’s secret recipe for jerk barbecue marinade, but lockdown has impacted sales by nearly 70 per cent. The menu has changed but the food is as delicious as ever, and the restaurant has now diversified into selling products online too (including Mama’s Jerk Sauce).

Pop Brixton: Mamas Jerk, Brixton Station Road, SW9 8PQ

Deptford Market Yard. Arch 10, SE8 4NS

Mama's Jerk at Wharf Kitchen, Lower Mall -2 Jubilee Place, Canary Wharf, E14 5NY

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James Cochran, former Great British Menu champ and co-owner of Islington restaurant 12:51 (yep, The Strokes song), has been working hard over lockdown. The chef launched his Around the Cluck delivery service to ensure that his trademark dishes – fried chicken with scotch bonnet jam and buttermilk chicken burgers – were made available to locked down locals. He's since crafted his own at-home jerk chicken burger kit too, available nationwide.

107 Upper St, The Angel, N1 1QN

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When professional heavyweight boxer Warren Richards suffered a career-threatening eye injury, he decided to pursuit an altogether less dangerous career path: replicating his cherished family recipes at Café Caribbean. He first opened a location in Covent Garden in 1993, offering a chalk-drawn menu inspired by the cuisine of Content District, St Catherine, Jamaica, where his mum and nan were born. It’s now situated in Old Spitalfields Market, serving up vibrant jerk chicken, oxtail, plantains and much, much more.

Old Spitalfields Market, Brushfield St, Spitalfields, E1 6AA

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A lovely pub, this, owned and operated by Clement Ogbonnaya, who went to school in Peckham and settled on the green-tiled spot two years ago after running bars and clubs across London. The name is taken from the Eighties British comedy Desmond's, in-keeping with Ogbonnaya’s aim of building the kind of invaluable community space found in the show’s barbershop. The décor, as we’ve mentioned, is top drawer, as is the jerk sauce-slathered menu and pub garden. Here’s hoping the club nights ­– which flit between disco, garage, funky house, jungle, hip-hop and dancehall – come back soon, too.

1 Clayton Rd, Peckham, SE15 5JA

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African restaurants are generally overlooked by the gatekeepers of the fine dining world, but Ikoyi co-owners Iré Hassan-Odukale and Jeremy Chan earned a Michelin star for their much-hyped St James spot in 2018, one year after opening. It was more than deserved. The menu ­– a visually stunning contemporary take on traditional West African cuisine – will leave a lasting impression. Opt for the beef rib suya and summer tomato salad, teamed with plantain caramelised in ginger and kombu and, of course, smoked jollof rice.

1 St James's Market, St. James's, SW1Y 4AH

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Affordable and authentic Caribbean comfort food with one of the best al fresco dining situations in South London. Not that that really matters as this current time, as the BYOB Brixton Hill spot has been limited to pick-up and takeaway over the past few weeks. Negril focuses on fresh ingredients – “good, honest food”, as the owner puts it – and you can help keep a local favourite alive by ordering up some roti flat bread and a rich goat curry. Or just stump up for the Negril platter: two 1/4 jerk chicken, plantain wedges, rice and peas, coleslaw, mixed salad, sweet potato fries & saltfish fritters (that should just about do it).

132 Brixton Hill, Brixton, SW2 1RS

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A family business that flowered from humble beginnings, Mosob has been offering up delicious Eritrean food to Maida Hill for sixteen years now. The restaurant is named about the traditional handwoven serving table that Eritreans use to share food, which takes influence from Ethiopia, Sudan, Arabia and, most unexpectedly, Italy. Whatever dish you opt for (vegetarians are particularly well served here), you should be shovelling it into your mouth with a scrap of injera – a soft, crepe-like bread that provides the perfect vehicle for Mosob’s fresh, authentic flavours.

339 Harrow Road, Maida Hill, W9 3RB

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Trinidadian fare from this much-loved West Ealing outpost, which is currently only offering delivery and pick-up (which is a shame, because the portions are as generous as they are Instagrammable). Without the benefit of having the menu explained to you in-store, you may have to ring up for a little rundown of the dishes, but we recommend the boneless curry mutton with macaroni pie.

46-48 Drayton Green Rd, West Ealing, W13 8RY