Progress on my plan to visit most, if not all, of the Mexican restaurants I can find in London continues. So far heres my rankings:
Im sad to say that my meal at the Green and Red Bar and Cantina was one of my most disappointing meals in quite a while.
On arriving the 10 of us were greeted in a friendly way, sat straight down and ordered 2 buckets of beer as part of the happy hour. Seemed like a good start. The dcor was OK, although slightly hard to tell as they were overdoing the mood lighting a tad. The menu is very limited 8 starters and 6 main courses. Still, I thought, its quality not quantity, right? Well unfortunately the quality wasnt there either. The food wasnt bad per se, but it wasnt great either. It didnt help that it was lukewarm and the portions were relatively small. The side dishes werent good either. The pre-made guacamole was poor, the refried beans equally disappointing, and they only gave us 2 small flour tortillas each. When we pointed out that wasnt enough they brought us 3 more. There were 10 of us. It took them 15 mins to do this by which time the food was cold and they even charged us for the extra tortillas. I was the most cursed that evening, as the waiter got my order wrong and I had to wait 20 mins (was told 5) for it to arrive, but at least they gave me a free beer for that bit of trouble.
One of my companions rates Mexican restaurants on the quality of their Margaritas. Considering this place is a Bar and Cantina, and they do indeed have a very good selection of Tequila, wed hoped that would at least be good unfortunately again, it wasnt a particularly impressive Margarita, and it wasnt cheap. So overall: the staff are friendly but very slow and unresponsive, the food would have been average if it was hot, the menu is unexciting but mostly tries to be authentic and if you want a good drink youre going to have to pay for a premium one.
My rating: a very disappointing 2.5 out of 10. 
(This review was also posted to London-Eating.co.uk)
Taqueria is a bit out of the way, being half way between Westbourne Park and Notting Hill tube stations, but worth the walk.
Being part of the Cool Chile Company is a bonus for this restaurant. Not only can you buy some of their great ingredients at the restaurant, but of course most of the food is made with them too, meaning the menu is quite colourful and interesting. The food style is very much in the vein of traditional Mexican street food i.e. tacos. The best way, in my opinion, to eat this kind of food is to order a variety and share between a group. The food was tasty and varied in heat and flavour.
The staff were friendly and helpful, offering to explain the menu choices and advise on a keeping a good variety of dishes to share between our group. The drinks were pretty good a reasonable set of authentic Mexican beers and the margaritas, while nothing special, were none the less very pleasant. I left with a smile, a slight swagger from the beer, and a goody bag of fresh chile peppers, dried spices and 2 jars of salsa. Its quite a small restaurant so if theres a reasonably sized group with you, you are probably best off booking if you can.
A word of warning, if they have roasted stuffed habanero peppers on the specials menu only the most extreme heat lover should try these. Lovely but: Ouch!
My rating: a very pleased 8 out of 10. 
(This review was also posted to London-Eating.co.uk)
When Wahaca opened a lot of the press labelled it the Mexican Wagamama, and when you get in you can see why. It has a very similar modern, minimalist, space efficient feel to it. If you like that sort of atmosphere youll be right at home, but I like many like more personality to a restaurant and that does not mean expensive interior design.
I actually went unplanned, so didnt know what to expect. We were seated promptly, to a small table for two which felt very squeezed in. To be fair though, all the tables in Wahaca are like that. The floor manager took our drinks order and told us our waiter would be with us shortly. He was. He took our starter then did the same for the tables either side of us. He then returned relatively promptly, first serving the starters to the tables either side of us, then us. This seemed a bit odd considering wed ordered similar things by the looks of it and wed order first, but we were in no hurry.
Once wed finished, he then took our main course orders. Up until this point our waiter had been fairly quiet and polite, except this changed when my dining partner asked to have no dressing on her salad because of a food intolerance. Our waiter decided to criticize my friend for being fussy to which I pointed out that it was a reasonable request and after all we were the customers here, were paying for the food and the service.
So by now we were receiving our food much later than that of the people who were seated at the same time as us, in fact the dishes that made up our main courses came in dribs and drabs, and my side order of rice didnt come at all until I pointed out it was missing. By the time it arrived I had finished everything else. We would have ordered more drinks during this, except the waiter was being very inattentive I got the rice by asking the floor manager.
The food itself was OK, not very special. Small fancy looking portions. Its supposed to be a modern take on Mexican street food using eco-friendly (low air miles) locally sourced alternative ingredients the result is relatively expensive food that only very just resembles the original dish. Its nice enough, but its only very vaguely Mexican themed.
Towards the end of the evening, we just wanted to leave. The service as a whole, but particularly our waiter, soured the experience. That aside the rest of the dining experience wasnt very special, so I dont intend to revisit Wahaca anytime soon.
My rating: a slightly put-off 3.5 out of 10. 
(This review was also posted to London-Eating.co.uk)
I’m one of those people who likes to go out on one-to-one sessions with certain friends fairly regularly. Particularly the type of friend I know I can rant, ramble and just simply shoot the breeze with, over a good meal and a few beers (or glasses of red wine) – It helps keep me sane, much like Denny Crane on his balcony. Amanda is one of those people whom I make a point of doing this with on a semi regular basis, and last week I chose a completely random restaurant… well I did limit my choice to Mexican food, as that’s what I fancied at the time.
We went to Mestizo, near Warren Street tube station. I was so impressed by the restaurant I submitted a review to London-Eating. It’s not been moderated yet, but here’s the content:
This is the best and most authentic Mexican food I’ve had outside of Mexico. I asked about their ingredients and they say that they import their ingredients from Mexico as there are no good equivalents in the UK or Europe. Which is true, and this considered I’m surprised that their prices are really quite reasonable. They even sell some Mexican sauces and pickles to take home. Having been to Mexico many times and being a big fan of their cuisine, I’m very happy I’ve finally found a restaurant in London that satisfies my needs. The range of tequila’s is great, and they even stock my favourite Mexican beers – Modelo Especial, Negra Modelo and Pacifico.The service (from the Mexican staff) perhaps isn’t the fastest, but considering it was absolutely packed on a Wednesday night with a mere 2 waitresses and 2 young guys bringing out the food, so as they were all rushed of their feet, they still managed to be calm, friendly and got the order correct. One thing to remember is that Mexico, somewhat like Spain, tends to be a fairly laid back place. Quite rightly, what’s the rush? If you want to be served and have eaten inside of 10 minutes, you want MacDonald’s. If you want great traditional Mexican food, try Mestizo – just order a few drinks, sit back and relax while they make you a great meal.
I definitely plan on going back to this restaurant. But this whole process has made me realise I should be making good use of these one-to-one evenings I do. I now plan to review more of the places I visit, and as I’m so very fond of Mexican cuisine, I plan to check out a lot more of the options. Thus I have created these handy custom Google Maps to help me on my quest:
Of course it won’t just be Mexican food, but for me, good Mexican food is the hardest of my favorite cuisines to find in these parts.
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