Mexican Restaurants in London Worth Knowing About

Ask most people where to find good Mexican food in London and they’ll point you towards whichever taco chain is nearest. That’s not wrong, exactly. But the more interesting question is which kitchens are paying attention to what sits underneath the filling: the corn, the tortilla, the chillies and the salsa.

A handful of London kitchens are doing exactly that, building menus around fresh masa made from nixtamalized corn, regional salsas and Sonoran-style wheat tortillas. Here are four worth knowing about.

Cometa

Cometa in Fitzrovia is a contemporary Mexican seafood restaurant built around British produce and Mexican flavours. Its kitchen brings together chefs Ollie Templeton, José Lizarralde Serralde and Alejandra Juarez, with a menu that moves through ceviche, aguachile, mole negro, recado negro and other techniques and flavours drawn from different parts of Mexico.

Sonora Taquería

Sonora Taquería started as a market stall before opening its permanent home on Stoke Newington High Street. As the name suggests, Northern Mexico is central to what it does, with freshly made tortillas and tacos including barbacoa on the menu.

Ixchel

Ixchel brings the cooking of Mexican chef Ximena Gayosso Gonzalez to King’s Road in Chelsea. The menu is designed around sharing and includes tacos, tostadas, salsas and dishes such as recado negro marinated beef, drawing on Mexican ingredients and techniques in a contemporary London setting.

Lucia’s

Tucked away in Queen’s Yard in Hackney Wick, Lucia’s is a small Mexican restaurant centred around tacos and open-fire cooking. Alongside its tacos, the kitchen serves charcoal-fired meats, grilled vegetables and seafood, with mezcal playing a similarly prominent role behind the bar.

What Ties These Kitchens Together?

The four restaurants look very different on the plate, from Cometa’s seafood to Sonora’s Northern Mexican tacos. What connects them is an attention to the ingredients and techniques underneath the finished dish.

That’s where Masafina comes in. At our tortillería in North Acton, heirloom Mexican corn is nixtamalized and stoneground using volcanic millstones brought from Mexico. Our Sonoran-style wheat flour tortillas are made with regeneratively grown British wheat, while our regional salsas draw on recipes and techniques from Mexico.

Sometimes the most important part of a taco is the bit holding everything together.

Masafina supplies fresh tortillas, masa and regional Mexican ingredients to restaurants and food-service teams across the UK. If you’re a chef or buyer looking for Mexican ingredients for your menu, get in touch with our team.