A cheerful, laid back, very reasonably priced Caribbean-African-English restaurant serving excellent nosh in a chi chi part of Battersea.

The Venue
On the narrow, bustling St John’s Hill lined with boutiques, bars and restaurants, Ace Fusion is a medium-sized West Indian-African-English restaurant. It has a large glass exterior and sports a red and yellow colour scheme, while inside it’s all cream walls and warm dark wood furniture and flooring. There is a high ceiling which houses a cute and popular mezzanine level on wooden stilts. There’s more seating at a lower level at the back.

The Atmosphere
The glass frontage means the place is filled with light in the day and at night the tables have candles. The service is agreeable and friendly, as well as efficient, and the wait between courses was perfectly timed. It’s fairly busy all week and the party soca and reggae music in the background is not too intrusive.

The Food
Starters include chicken wings, yam balls and crab cakes. The pepper pot soup (£3.95) is a dark green puree made from callaloo, kale, potatoes and one of the world’s hottest chillies, the Scotch bonnet. It’s suitably fiery and comes with sweet Jamaican hard dough bread on request. The hummus is a puree of cannelloni beans mixed with sour cream (£4.25): it is light and creamy and comes with deep-fried (but not overly greasy) wedges of plantain.

For the main course, there are prawns sauteed in garlic butter and flamed in rum. They arrive split in two, making them easier to eat and are plump, juicy and not too garlicky. The accompanying African jollof rice is tomatoey and spicy. The jerk chicken is also spicy (mild is recommended) and the sliced chicken breast is tender while the rice and peas is nutty and spicy. The dumplings (a side order) are a little chewy, but again are not too oily and are only £1.50 for three. Indeed the pricing is highly competitive, with mains coming in generally at around the £8-£9 mark. Other main course options include ackee and saltfish, snapper fillet, Caesar salad, Creole cod, grilled pork loin and mango chicken.

Finally, the desserts are colourful: the fruit pot of yoghurt, honey, walnut, sunflower seeds and grapes comes in a glass topped with bright red strawberry halves and chunks of papaya. And the stuffed papaya (perhaps boat would be a better description) is topped with a dollop of vanilla ice cream covered with gloopy, sweet caramel sauce. Otherwise there’s rum cake, spotted dick, trifle, apple crumble and an allegedly yummy chocolate cake.

The Drink
The wine list comprises three bottles of white, five reds and one rosé. The house Chardonnay is clean and refreshing, lemony, smooth and not over-oaked (£12.50). Otherwise the Rioja (£18.95) would go well with the menu, and there’s also Red Stripe, Guinness and Bulmer’s cider on offer. Other drinks include a classic Guinness punch and fruit smoothies and milkshakes, which can also be taken as a dessert.

The Last Word
Ace Fusion serves up well-cooked, fresh fusion food at a very reasonable price in a pleasant atmosphere.

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