Mexican
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ZAPOTE
- Monday: Closed
- Tuesday: 12:00 – 11:00 PM
- Wednesday: 12:00 – 11:00 PM
- Thursday: 12:00 – 11:00 PM
- Friday: 12:00 – 11:00 PM
- Saturday: 12:00 – 11:00 PM
- Sunday: Closed
What was formerly home to St Leonards, and before that Eyre Brothers, has been reinvented once again and turned into modern Mexican restaurant Zapote. It’s the debut restaurant from Mexican chef Yahir Gonzalez and hospitality veteran Tony Geary. Yahir is really putting his own spin on familiar Mexican dishes, including making tortillas in-house using native corn varieties. And what tortillas they are – truly some of the best we’ve ever had. Happily they make quite a few appearances on the menu, including folded into a delicate little quesadilla filled with smoky wild mushrooms; crisped up into a tostada topped with actually spicy chilli-flecked crab and ruby red slices of fresh yellowfin tuna; and served on the side of a superb dry-aged beef ribeye with salsa roja and habanero aioli to make tacos. Don’t miss the smoked aubergine with tamarind and chilli, the al pastor skewers with a vibrant citrusy guac and pork skin crispies; and the chorizo, potato and burnt cheese. Zapote delivers sophisticated, refined food without veering into super high-end territory, and it’s a great addition to the neighbourhood.
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CLUB MEXICANA
- Monday: Closed
- Tuesday: 5:00 – 9:00 PM
- Wednesday: 12:00 – 10:00 PM
- Thursday: 12:00 – 10:00 PM
- Friday: 12:00 – 10:00 PM
- Saturday: 11:00 AM – 4:00 PM, 5:00 – 10:00 PM
- Sunday: 11:00 AM – 4:00 PM
Brightly coloured vegan restaurant Club Mexicana is known for taking over your insta feed with some of the best plant-based Mexican food in London. It’s recently launched a new brunch menu, that’s available every weekend at its Spitalfields site. Living up to the name, the menu is banging and includes a selection of its vegan takes on the classics like the mex-shuka and a Mexicana fry-up (featuring probably the longest vegan chorizo in London). It wouldn’t be brunch without a cocktail, and all can be washed down with some of the special brunch tipples, our personal favourite being the marmalade margarita. Available Sat and Sun, head there for plenty of fun energy and a knock-out vegan brunch.
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CAVITA
- Monday: Closed
- Tuesday: 11:30 AM – 2:30 PM, 6:00 – 10:15 PM
- Wednesday: 11:30 AM – 2:30 PM, 6:00 – 10:15 PM
- Thursday: 11:30 AM – 2:30 PM, 6:00 – 10:15 PM
- Friday: 11:30 AM – 2:30 PM, 6:00 – 10:15 PM
- Saturday: 11:30 AM – 2:30 PM, 6:00 – 10:15 PM
- Sunday: 11:30 AM – 2:30 PM, 6:00 – 9:30 PM
Do brunch Mexican style at Adriana Cavita’s namesake Marylebone restaurant Cavita. Not only does the place look the part, with exposed bricks, earthy colours and plenty of cacti, but it delivers her take on traditional dishes, including chilaquiles, aguachile rojo and tacos de cochinita pibil. If it just ain’t brunch without some eggs and the huevos rancheros is a winner, with two fried eggs on tortillas covered with red and green salsa, smoky bacon and Oaxacan style beans. And you can really get stuck in with DIY tacos de asada; a huge plate of rump steak, chargrilled spring onions and nopales, radish and cucumber, arbol sauce, and tortillas for you to fold up and chow down on. For something sweet, finish up with pan de elote, a traditional Mexican cornbread served with honeycomb ice cream and cajeta. All of that with a round of spicy mezcalitas (made with Ojo de Dios Espadin, fresh lime, homemade sugar syrup & fresh jalapeno), is how to do the weekend right.
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LA CHINGADA
- Monday: Closed
- Tuesday: 12:00 – 10:00 PM
- Wednesday: 12:00 – 10:00 PM
- Thursday: 12:00 – 10:00 PM
- Friday: 12:00 – 10:00 PM
- Saturday: 12:00 – 10:00 PM
- Sunday: 12:00 – 9:00 PM
La Chingada occupies a very unassuming spot round the back of the Surrey Quays but it’s well worth seeking out because this place is turning out some of, if not the best, tacos in London. We don’t like to play favourites but the al pastor – marinated pork, pineapple and diced onion – edges it for us (the al pastor quesadilla is also excellent) but the suadero (confit beef), carnitas (confit pork), chorizo and baja prawn tacos are well worth your time. Fresh tortillas, juicy fillings, great salsas, what more could you want? There’s no bells and whistles here (apart from the Comic Sans sign) but that makes it all the better because all the effort has been put into the food. Order as many tacos as you can physically eat because you’ll regret it if you don’t. And if they’ve got margs on the go, have a couple of those too.
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CORROCHIO'S
- Monday: Closed
- Tuesday: 6:00 – 11:00 PM
- Wednesday: 6:00 – 11:00 PM
- Thursday: 6:00 – 11:00 PM
- Friday: 6:00 PM – 1:30 AM
- Saturday: 12:00 PM – 1:30 AM
- Sunday: Closed
A slice of Mexico has come to Dalston as Ruby’s has got a brand new kitchen and bar. Corrochio’s, run by chef and cocktail wizard Daniel Corrochio (who actually used to run Ruby’s and has worked with founder Tom Gibson at his pub The Bluecoats in Tottenham as well) is tucked away across from the main bar at Ruby’s and it’s a proper intimate spot – real basement vibes with a bar at one end, a fireplace on the wall and a little water fountain in the middle. Daniel’s menu combines authentic Mexican dishes, with recipes inspired by his mother featuring lesser-known Mexican ingredients. The dishes change fairly regularly but there’ll always be a handful of tacos to choose from, made with excellent corn tortillas. In fact, the tortillas are so good that you’ll defo need to order the guac and totopos too so you can try the crispy versions as well. The drinks list features a range of tequila, mezcal, sotol and raicilla as well as inventive cocktails like the Mezcalita and the Monarca but they shake up a mean marg too for those who want to keep it classic.
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SANTO REMEDIO MEXICAN CAFE
- Monday: Closed
- Tuesday: 12:00 – 11:00 PM
- Wednesday: 12:00 – 11:00 PM
- Thursday: 12:00 – 11:00 PM
- Friday: 12:00 – 11:00 PM
- Saturday: 12:00 – 11:00 PM
- Sunday: 12:00 – 4:00 PM
London Bridge’s much-loved Mexican restaurant Santo Remedio has opened a second site in Shoreditch. The Mexican joint run by Edson and Natalie Diaz-Fuentes first opened in Shoreditch six years ago on Rivington Street, they were forced to close the restaurant after five months after problems with the building. Now the pair are back in the neighbourhood, this time on Great Eastern Street. The menu at Santo Remedio is a mix of tacos, tostadas and quesadillas, all designed to be shared amongst the table. Our faves are the baja fish tacos, pork carnitas tacos, hibiscus quesadillas and the prawn & padron peppers raja cazuela. You can’t go for tacos without having some margaritas, and Santo Remedio have plenty of them to offer, including the dangerously good peach mezcalita.
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TACOS PADRE
- Monday: Closed
- Tuesday: 12:00 – 4:00 PM
- Wednesday: 12:00 – 4:00 PM
- Thursday: 12:00 – 4:00 PM
- Friday: 12:00 – 4:00 PM
- Saturday: 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
- Sunday: 10:00 AM – 3:00 PM
Located in Borough Market, Tacos Padre is the Mexican spot from hot Irish chef Nick Fitzgerald who earned his stripes at Pujol, Mexico City (on the World’s 50 Best don’t ya know). The stall serves some of the best tacos in London, including beef short rib suadero with morita salsa, cauliflower al pastor with salsa macha and lamb barbacoa with gauc, alongside homemade bottled sauces, local beers and mezcal margs. And the annual summer residency, where Nick sets up on the terrace by the stall, has a bangin’ dinner menu with dishes like oysters divorciados, crab tostada with guajillo & tamarind, gilt head bream with shiso ceviche, confit pork chop cochinita with charred x-ni-pec, smoked celeriac with orange habanero glaze & macadamia sikil pak, and bueñuelos with morita cajeta.
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KOL
- Monday: Closed
- Tuesday: 6:00 PM – 12:00 AM
- Wednesday: 12:00 – 2:00 PM, 6:00 PM – 12:00 AM
- Thursday: 12:00 – 2:00 PM, 6:00 PM – 12:00 AM
- Friday: 12:00 – 2:00 PM, 6:00 PM – 12:00 AM
- Saturday: 12:00 – 2:00 PM, 6:00 PM – 12:00 AM
- Sunday: 12:00 – 2:30 PM
Mexican chef Santiago Lastra, who worked at Rene Redzepi’s Noma Mexico pop-up in 2017 and has cooked at the Tate Modern finally opened his debut solo restaurant Kol in London in 2020, after a more than a year of looking for a location. Kol is broadly Mexican, drawing influence from across the country as well as making use of British produce too with dishes like langoustine tacos with sea buckthorn, kohlrabi ceviche, lamb leg totasta cured in gooseberries with walnut oil, and tamal with corn husk ice cream. You can see some of the work that goes into the food thanks to the open kitchen, complete with tortilla station, right in the middle of the first floor dining room. As well as a biodynamic wine list, Kol also serves up mezcals, tequilas and less well-known Mexican spirits like whisky from Oaxaca, gin from the Yucatan and rum from Puebla in the dedicated mezcaleria on the lower ground floor.
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SANTO REMEDIO
- Monday: 5:30 – 10:30 PM
- Tuesday: 5:30 – 10:30 PM
- Wednesday: 5:30 – 10:30 PM
- Thursday: 5:30 – 11:00 PM
- Friday: 5:30 – 11:00 PM
- Saturday: 12:00 – 11:00 PM
- Sunday: 12:00 – 9:00 PM
Run by husband and wife team Edson and Natalie Diaz-Fuentes, Santo Remedio is one of the best Mexican restaurants in town. They’re famous for their grasshopper-topped guacamole but everything on the menu is legit great, especially the soft shell crab tacos, the beef short rib with mole negro and the churros. They shake up a great marg here too and if you want to get your weekend off to a flying start, their bottomless brunch featuring free-flowing said margs, is the way to do it.
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EL PASTOR
- Monday: 12:00 – 3:00 PM, 5:00 – 11:00 PM
- Tuesday: 12:00 – 3:00 PM, 5:00 – 11:00 PM
- Wednesday: 12:00 – 3:00 PM, 5:00 – 11:00 PM
- Thursday: 12:00 – 3:00 PM, 5:00 – 11:00 PM
- Friday: 12:00 – 3:00 PM, 5:00 – 11:00 PM
- Saturday: 12:00 – 4:00 PM, 6:00 – 11:00 PM
- Sunday: 12:00 – 3:00 PM, 5:00 – 10:00 PM
It’s fair to say that when the Hart brothers, the pair behind Barrafina and Quo Vadis, announced that they were to open a new Mexican restaurant called El Pastor, people got just a little bit excited. Not only are they top restaurateurs but Sam Hart actually lived in Mexico City for many years, operating a cult nightclub El Colmillo, so he certainly knows a thing or two about tacos. El Pastor is under the railway tracks in Borough Market, a long thin room with high tables and a bar at the front, and a small dining room and kitchen at the back. Whilst you should start with some guac with chicharron and the tuna tostadas, tacos are the main focus on the menu and you don’t want to miss the namesake al pastor, the baja and the epic sharing short rib served on the bone and with a bowl of fresh tacos to roll up your own. BOOM.
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CALDERA
Whether you want a burrito and a margarita or some more inventive Mexican dishes, Caldera is the place to go. The Mare Street spot serves up all the classics like nachos, quesadillas, enchiladas and tacos – the baja fish tacos are particularly good, chunky pieces of fish with a smokey kick, though you do have to eat them quick or risk the filling dropping out. And if you go by during the day, they do a £5 burrito lunch offer. It’s also worth trying out some of the other, more inventive plates; the mole-miso marinated lamb cutlets are insanely moreish and you will find yourself gnawing at them to get every last bit of flavour off. You’ll also find yourself scraping the pot of dulce de leche dip that comes with the churros and that’s ok too.
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SANTO REMEDIO
We’re already fans of Santo Remedio – it’s one of the best Mexican restaurants in town – but now they’ve got a new bottomless brunch menu, we love it even more. It all kicks off with some of their famous guac and chips before a sharing starter; we can highly recommend the pork belly tacos with chicarron and tomatillo salsa because they are SO GOOD. And they don’t skimp on the filling either, so you’ll need both hands to stuff them in. The mains feature classic dishes like chilaquiles, torta agohada and chicken enchiladas suizas, which come in a moreish tomatillo sauce and topped with Chihuahua cheese. The huevos motulenos – corn tostadas with black beans, grilled bacon, plantain, fried eggs and salsa roja – is a bit like a Mexican fry-up and if you like eggs in the morning, this really hits the spot. There’s only one way to finish here and it’s with a pot of churros and cajeta (dulce de leche sauce) for dippage, trust us when we say you really don’t need anything else (expect maybe another portion). Bubbles and beers are both amongst the bottomless options but this is a Mexican brunch so it’s gotta be the margaritas – and they do shake up a particularly great one at Santo Remedio.
