Randomness Guide to London Menu

Mexican place in Covent Garden, opened mid-2007.

They put emphasis on using seasonal produce, sustainable fish, and free-range meat. (See this Times article by the owner.) They even offer a British wine — it's pricy though; a sparkling rose at £45. (Other wines start at £11.75, or £3 by the glass. All wines except the sparkling one are available by the 175ml glass, 500ml carafe, or bottle.)

We visited on a Thursday evening; we had to wait a little while for a table, but this is not unexpected with a new opening, and the front of house guy handled it very well, making sure to greet us and get us some drinks while we waited.

Our wait for a table may also be explained by the fact that although the restaurant is reasonably large, the tables are spaced quite widely apart. Similarly, each diner is allocated quite a bit of space at the table; a good design choice, since the street food options all come on their own dishes, so you do need some space to put them! Tables and chairs are rather reminiscent of chunkier, sturdier versions of canteen furniture, which works well with the turquoise and green of the walls and ceiling.

The staff were very friendly and enthusiastic, and practically falling over themselves to give us free stuff — two refills of tortilla chips, guacamole, roasted nuts — I may have lost track of what else they assured us was "on the house". (I assume the freebies won't last past the initial month or so of opening.)

The food's reasonably priced — burritos cost between £5.50 (marinated chicken, or sauteed summer vegetables) and £6 (char-grilled steak), and main courses between £7.75 (chargrilled vegetables with chipotle slaw and rice) and £11 (fish of the week with tomatillo sauce, rice, and beans).

The heart of the menu though is the "street food" section, which recommends choosing 2-3 dishes per person; these are all priced between £3.25 and £5, and include tacos, tostadas, quesadillas, and taquitos, with fillings ranging from aubergine, potato, and goats' cheese to slow-cooked pork. You can also get a set selection for two people to share, at £22.50.

One unusual starter is pork scratchings served with guacamole (£3). Bob says it's actually pork crackle rather than pork scratchings; whatever you call them, they were very good, tasty and light and not at all greasy. We also tried the Wahaca nuts (£2), which are supposedly "roasted with garlic and chile de arbol"; although they were perfectly nice nuts, neither garlic nor chilli was detectable.

The rest of the food was quite competent — but Kake really wished for a slightly heavier hand with the seasoning. Nothing except the salsa had even a hint of chilli. Salt, and hence flavour, was also lacking in many of the dishes; notable exceptions were the aubergine, potato, and goat cheese quesadillas (£3.50) and the chorizo, thyme and potato quesadillas (£3.75), both of which include intrinsically salty ingredients. Fish tacos (£4.25) could have been great, but were let down by a greasiness which was both excessive and rather surprising, since it wasn't present in the other dishes. Most of the dishes were also lukewarm, which again came as a surprise, since the staff took pains to explain that food would arrive as soon as it was ready, rather than all at once.

Drinks were good, though. Classic margarita (£5.50) was perfect apart from the use of table salt rather than flake salt on the rim of the glass; mojito DF (£6) was wonderfully appley, and the Reserva Malbec we ordered a bottle (£15.95) and then a carafe (£10.75) of went perfectly with the food.

Like Dos Hermanos, we mentioned the seasoning problem to the staff, and were told that it was a deliberate decision, and people wanting more flavour in their food should "fix" this by means of the chilli sauce and flake salt provided on the table. A shame, I think. Presumably the temperature problem will be sorted out once the kitchen gets more into the swing of things; we can but hope they change their mind about the salt and chilli.

Other reviews:

• Dos Hermanos
• Square Meal
• A visitor named Joe Cripson comments that he really likes this place, and thinks the food is the most authentic he's found since returning from his six-month trip to Mexico.