Peckham beckons, but only just

This review was first published in November 2001.

Even in Peckham, place of many eccentricities, it seems perverse to name your restaurant after a health and vitality programme from the 1930s.

Today's Peckham Experiment is a similarly pioneering venture: a bright little spot attempting to bring a contemporary approach to an area whose usual restaurants seem more concerned with avoiding lawsuits from KFC.

It's definitely a shoestring operation, one of those labours of love where I'd be willing to bet that our waiter was also a partner in the business. Furniture is functional at best, scrubbed wood of the second-hand, job-lot variety, and you sit alongside a glass takeaway counter.

Even the 'art' - a large wall panel of interestingly diffuse little squares - has an endearingly handknitted feel, although it turns out to be by local luminary Tom Phillips. Then there's exterior work by Anthony 'Angel Of The North' Gormley.

The menu's a curious one: a meander around staples - fish pie, pizza - with a nod to exoticism - lamb with couscous, Thai green curry - via some distinct oddities - cassava fritters with fresh chilli sauce. These latter were about the best we ordered, fresh, fluffy and pungent; a Christmas Dinner (I know, I'm sorry) was OK, but the rest of our choices left us unimpressed.

I hope this was just because we chose badly - a floury whole haddock with unnervingly unstable eyeballs, and a breadsaucy bread and butter pudding. There's so much effort, and it's so reasonably priced, I wanted very much to like it. Even given our disappointments, it's an experiment I'll try again.

The Peckham Experiment
168 Bellenden Road, SE15