London's only Michelin starred Mexican restaurant having gained in 2022

Kol opened in 2020, one of many that had planned in one of the worst possible, periods of the century so far. Having fought through the hardships it gained its Michelin star in the 2022 guide under Exec chef Santiago Lastri (formlery of a Noma pop up and restaurants within Mexico). The menu was £125 for the tasting menu only option for the 9 courses with supplements available. Overall I did enjoy this meal and whilst not exactly traditional Mexican food, you will not find hand-made tortillas and inventive Mexican dishes like this in many other venues anywhere in the UK. So, lucky for you if you live or work in London and love Mexican food.

Read full review

First up was fermented tomato, blackberry and beach rose broth Courgette and caramelised blue cheese chalupa, pistachio mole which was pleasant and smoky with a good crunch. Nicoatole is a yellow pepper custard with British Exmoor Cornish salted caviar and elderflower, traditionally a dessert but this was a savoury version, served with crème fraiche. This was actually very good and the salt from the caviar working well with the egg.

Aguachile is a spiced water and was a different, yet refreshing interlude. Squid came with dashi aubergine, cobnuts, pasilla chilli. This was presented well in a broth that was fine and squid that was likewise but a far cry from the likes of cephalopods one will find massaged for 40 minutes in Tokyo restaurants.

Next came an absolute staple – the taco. This was hand made using a sour dough tortilla and came with langoustine, cooked in garlic, smoked chilli, sea buckthorn. The asada was a +£25 supplement of British wagyu in a taco using cascabel (little bell peppers), rosé wine, glazed in bone marrow and pickled rams. This was absolutely delightful with melt in the mouth beef, quality fat content and a tortilla that was not too thick, all complementing each other very well.

Next was a dish called Mole (a blend) consisting of purple carrot, cecina (beef jerk) fermented blackcurrant and chocolate to make the mole. This seemed to work in the end after the initial surprise of combinations. Chilmole was Chalkstream trout, horseradish, piquin chilli and blonde cucumber which was a light and perfectly fine seafood dish.

The main was a choice of either pork or grilled octopus served in hand made tortillas with condiments to share – we opted for the carnitas – confit pork cheek, which came with gooseberry and pear salsa, black beans, sweet seaweed and woodruff, pickled onions in combuchs. This was very pleasing with melt in the mouth pork, with good flavour and good combination all round.

After the main a crossover called Nieve – a sorrel, fennel and Jalapeño sorbet with mezcal (alcohol drink distilled from agave leaves) served with dill oil on top. This wasn’t my favourite dish in terms of overall flavour but I appreciated the originality of a ‘hot’ sorbet. The Elote was sweetcorn cake, sheep’s milk yoghurt ice cream and fig leaf which was fine and a final Tunworth ice cream served with sea buckthorn and ancho chilli likewise. Coffee from Wahaka, roasted by Assembly coffee was good and included petit fours of marshmallow and chocolate.

As mentioned in the summary, this is a good restaurant and very enjoyable for something different. The dining room itself was slightly noisy with the acoustics, but it held a smart look and was all served with attentive and decent service to make an enjoyable experience.

Food Grade: 78%