Two new Latin American restaurants are opening almost simultaneously in east London – Chakana, bringing Peruvian cuisine to Broadway Market in London Fields, and Chayote with a Mexican-Peruvian-Spanish mix in St Katharine Docks.

Chakana marks the return to London of Robert Ortiz, who was the chef behind Fitzrovia restaurant Lima, which opened to wide acclaim in 2012. He launched Chakana in Moseley, Birmingham, in 2019, and says of his return to the capital: “The time has come to go back to London and cook again.”

Chayote is the first solo project from well-travelled Polish-born chef Tomasz Baranski, the former head chef at Barrafina. It aims for authentic Mexican flavours without the flamboyance of typical Mexican restaurants in London, and with a dash of sophisticated elegance from its Peruvian-Spanish influences.