Southbank, Mexican Restaurant Guide

“For a large chain, they still do pretty much unbeatable Mexican fusion fare”, say fans of these “busy and atmospheric” street-food cafés, now with 11 London branches and three others around the UK. That said, there are also some niggles in feedback; and the sentiment is widespread that – though “still enjoyable” – the food can seem “a little mass-produced”. Even so, practically all diners still consider them “dependable for a quick, cheap ’n’ cheerful bite”. Top Tip – the new, 150-cover Paddington branch is their first opening in six years and puts a focus on sustainability and a menu including some larger sharing plates (e.g. grilled Achiote Seabass, Lamb Barbacoa and Chimichurri Cauliflower).

“The tacos are still loaded and delicious and the frozen margaritas are exceptional” at the Hart Bros’ “lively” Latino haunts: particularly the original SE1 branch – a “fabulous Mexican street food venue under the arches in Borough Market”. (The newer Soho branch with its basement ‘Mezcaleria Colmillo’ bar inspires good marks but much less feedback). In April 2024, they launched a new, 90-cover site in Battersea Power Station, with adjoining 60-cover, open-all-year, outdoor riverside terrace.

Well-travelled chef Nick Fitzgerald has worked in Mexico City restaurant Pujol, and his street-food stand in Borough Market serves some of the “best tacos in London”. Now daytimes-only, following the closure of the evening restaurant.

2022 Review: “Great-tasting tacos… you don’t even realise the food is vegan!” – This meat-free Mexican has (after a series of pop-ups, and a big line in delivery) found a permanent home in a pink-painted unit (with outside seats too) at Soho’s Kingly Court, and is already winning high praise from reporters: “the meal totally sated us and the ‘fake meat’ was amazingly good”. They also have a stall in Covent Garden’s Seven Dials Market.

“The tacos are still loaded and delicious and the frozen margaritas are exceptional” at the Hart Bros’ “lively” Latino haunts: particularly the original SE1 branch – a “fabulous Mexican street food venue under the arches in Borough Market”. (The newer Soho branch with its basement ‘Mezcaleria Colmillo’ bar inspires good marks but much less feedback). In April 2024, they launched a new, 90-cover site in Battersea Power Station, with adjoining 60-cover, open-all-year, outdoor riverside terrace.

“Authentic burritos on Leather Lane” from Mexican food veteran Joel Henderson, who celebrates the 20th anniversary of his first London street-food stand this year.

2023 Review: This well-travelled ten-year-old cult pop-up has been “a great addition to Soho” since it alighted in 2021 on the cute, quirky site formerly occupied by Aurora (RIP), opposite the venerable Andrew Edmunds on Lexington Street. Gabriel Price’s highly rated cooking takes an American-inspired approach to the best of English ingredients, pleasing critics as disparate as Jimi Famurewa and Tom Parker Bowles, while Missy Flynn looks after the front of house and guarantees “so much fun”.

A “very good Mexican near Tower Bridge”, which has a more café-style spin-off in Shoreditch. Both serve a selection of tacos, tostados and quesadillas and both make a feature of bottomless brunch, but at the original there’s also regional dishes, like sea bass cooked over a wood-fire grill and Beef Short Rib with Oaxacan Mole.

2022 Review: Impress your friends on Instagram with enviable scenes from the lush outside terraces at this very good-looking boutique hotel in Fitzrovia. Not as many reports as we’d like on its interesting restaurant – where the cuisine comes with a South American accent – hence, for this year, we’ve left it unrated.

2022 Review: On the 15th floor of a two-year-old hotel next to the Beeb – this large (160 seat) and expensively designed perch is little sister to Los Angeles-based Toca Madera. Alongside its (not inexpensive) cocktails, it serves a Mexican menu (lots of tortillas) which early reviewers were not especially impressed by. (On the floor above there’s the rooftop NEST bar which is open for weekend brunch.)

2022 Review: Mexico City chef Martha Ortiz was creating a good reputation for her street-food-inspired menu at this venture, within a large hotel right on Hyde Park Corner. ‘Temporarily closed’ as we go to press: a call to the hotel in September 2021 showed no fixed time had been set for a re-opening.

2022 Review: “The real deal!”, say fans of this ten-year-old tacos brand, which has various pitches around town, as well as this permanent taqueria in Clerkenwell, serving small plates alongside margaritas and mezcals.

“Everyone wanted to give the ambience a 6/5!” Few London eateries have as much drama as Peter Sanchez-Iglesias’s double-height Mexican venue, atop King’s Cross’s so-hip Standard Hotel, where huge floor-to-ceiling windows provide dramatic vistas of London… and that’s just from the toilets! You access via a red, pill-shaped lift creeping up the outside of the building to a gob-smacking view of the top of St Pancras Station opposite. Surprisingly, it doesn’t inspire quite as many positive ratings as one might expect, perhaps because it’s far-from-cheap. That said, its combination of tacos, Latino seafood and steaks (most of it grilled), all of them washed down with mezcal cocktails, was well rated this year. Top Tip – “visit before 6.30 pm Tue-Fri for the ‘Menu del Dia’ at £30 per person”.

“For a large chain, they still do pretty much unbeatable Mexican fusion fare”, say fans of these “busy and atmospheric” street-food cafés, now with 11 London branches and three others around the UK. That said, there are also some niggles in feedback; and the sentiment is widespread that – though “still enjoyable” – the food can seem “a little mass-produced”. Even so, practically all diners still consider them “dependable for a quick, cheap ’n’ cheerful bite”. Top Tip – the new, 150-cover Paddington branch is their first opening in six years and puts a focus on sustainability and a menu including some larger sharing plates (e.g. grilled Achiote Seabass, Lamb Barbacoa and Chimichurri Cauliflower).

‘Mexican soul, British ingredients’ is the mantra at Santiago Lastra’s and MJMK’s “high-end” Latino venue off Portman Square, which has acquired a formidable reputation for its “wonderful” cooking – “their way of handling chillies is a masterclass” and contributes to a “fantastic” nine-course menu for £175 per person, all served in a “casual” and stylish setting. It’s “maybe a little overhyped claiming it’s the 17th best restaurant in the world” – and the UK’s best restaurant – according to World’s 50 Best listing: it certainly isn’t the highest scoring restaurant in our annual diners’ poll and for its deepest critics “the phrase Emperor’s New Clothes comes to mind”. But that’s not a widespread feeling of scepticism: the general impression is of an excellent venue that deserves most, just not quite all, of the accolades that have come its way.

“The tacos are good, the margaritas even better”, say fans of this ‘little sister’ to the Hart Bros’ El Pastor Mexican brand. Much hyped when it opened six years ago, these days it generates limited feedback in our annual survey of diners, but all reports agree it’s at least “serviceable” for a meal in fashionable Coal Drops Yard, near King’s Cross.

2021 Review: A 140-seater ‘craft bar and kitchen’ near some soon-to-be developed railway arches in hip Bethnal Green that opened in June 2019, too late for any survey feedback. It’s open from breakfast on – at lunch and thereafter the main menu offering is pizza.

Don’t run a mile from the plastic life-size Mexican guarding the door to this basic cantina in a grungy corner of Surrey Quays, if you want to discover its “top-notch, authentic Mexican dishes”, and in particular “excellent tacos”. The odd aficionado of Latino fare crosses town for this place. (There’s also a branch near Euston at 160 Eversholt Street).

“Excellent, innovative and delicious food” – a surprising Mexican/Japanese fusion dubbed ‘Baja-Nihon cuisine’ by its founder, restaurant entrepreneur Markus Thesleff – has made quite an impact at this “amazing” Notting Hill three-year-old (on the former site of famous chippy Geale’s, RIP), leading to the launch last year of a City branch with a huge rooftop terrace next to Liverpool Street station. Top Tip – “everything in this restaurant is gluten-free and suitable for coeliacs” (it’s also nut- and celery-free).