Rating
In A Word
PARTY
Cuisine
Mexican
Appeals To
Most obviously: those in search of LEGIT Mexican food, such as a bunch of mole sauces you have probably never heard of. And artisan mezcal – which is something that I strongly believe everybody should know about. Actually this would probably be a great place for Mexican expats, as it seems to form a nucleus for the Mexican community in this part of London
Those who wish to get schooled in/acquire a taste for those much maligned South American spirits, tequila and Mezcal. After 6 years or so of hating tequila, I finally discover the ‘real deal’ here. Turns out I’d just been drinking shit tequila. They’ve got almost 300 kinds of Mexican spirits stacked high behind that mighty bar.
I ain’t ever been to Mexico, but…
The word ‘Mestizo’ means a mixed race person of both Spanish/Native Mesoamerican heritage. Fantastic way for me to make the start of a restaurant review sound like a Wikipedia entry, right? Did you know that Uranus has 27 moons that we know of? (*insert joke about your anus here*)
HAHA anus jokes in the first paragraph!
Anyway…
So, you may have noticed the 5/5, hm? It goes without saying that this whole food and drink thing is highly subjective, but Mestizo has a LOT going for it, and I will spend the rest of the article trying to explain what it was that worked for me.
The Atmosphere
Mestizo’s decor plays to the Mexican theme, but one glance at the menu and you can safely assume that there’s gonna be some authenticity with the food (I am asked by Brian, the manager, not to order nachos or guacamole because there’s so much more to Mexican food than this).
Brian has a slightly south American look about him but speaks with the Patrician tones of a man from the leafier parts of Surrey. Turns out he’s spent time living in Mexico, but is quite English. Probably the perfect man for such a position.
Brian laments that, with the increasing popularity of Mexican food (reader, have you noticed this?) people are starting to get in ‘on the Mexican thing’ – people who don’t really have much experience at all, or once ate street food in Mexico City and have decided to give it a go themselves.
Not so for Mestizo, who have been here for almost 9 years, are actually Mexican (i.e the management and most of the staff), and show no sign of slowing down.
I can substantiate my point – as far as I can see, these guys celebrate pretty much every festival (well, all the ones I’ve heard of, and many that I haven’t) that the Mexicans throw. I am here for Día de Muertos, The Day Of The Dead
They also have a wooden block that sits on each table and that serves as an order system. How’s it work? Green side facing up for service, red side facing up for no service. Pure simplicity and pure genius – if I ran a restaurant I’d totally use this system!
As well as the Day of The Dead – they’re also celebrating the mole festival, and so have I think about 8 types of mole dish on offer. AND simultaneously, October is Tequila Month so they’ve got another menu that reflects this too. Bloody hell, I can’t keep up. The place has anything between 230-280 types of tequila at any time however so as far as I can tell, it’s always tequila month here.
I have brought my mother with me (she gave birth to me so I figured the least I can do is feed her free Mexican food and drink). Madre speaks Spanish fluently so it’s not all that long before her and various members of staff have lapsed into full conversations that I only catch snippets of. Some of the female staff wear traditional Mexican garb, instead of the black uniforms that the rest wear.
It’s like a little Mexican outpost in a very non Mexican area (is this Hampstead?). The atmosphere is quite something else entirely. I guess I’d call it ‘cheery’ – restaurant/foyer combo – a woman with her baby selling things. It feels like a communal space with a restaurant attached, I am not sure if it feels like this all the time, but I love it!
The clientele is what you’d expect – some south Americans with kids, some hip young Londoners, me and my Mum… On the table beside us, a gradually increasing party of people orders more and more cocktails, becoming more and more animated as their numbers and blood alcohol levels increase. They’re happy drunks though, so it’s all good.
As the evening goes on, the festival atmosphere starts to kick off, with staff getting facepainted. Seeing things get into full swing I start to wonder if 6pm was too early a time to arrive.
The Drinks
There’s a Mezcal tasting menu with ‘Illegal’ Mezcal for £26. I see the name and immediately want to go to town on it. This happens later
Much as I (now) like tequila, their drinks menu needs more wine and non tequila/mezcal offerings. The cocktails look pretty good…
Actually, as far as cocktails go, they seem to focus on Margaritas, their selection offers variations aplenty (8 kinds!)
Mother Margarita
Madre goes for this one (see what she did there?). She describes it simply as “the best” – and still claims that she could taste every ingredient. She probably can.
Mezal & Tequila Tasting Menus
We’re given a whirlwind alcohol tour. Since I’m drinking tequila and mezcal with my mum, and this is a review, it’s more restrained than you might think, but I do learn a few things Quite a few things…
Tequila Tasting
So you actually taste the age and the oak in these. A lot of the kinds the you get in the UK and may have had a shot of (the ones I didn’t like) are ‘barely’ tequila. (i.e lower grade agave spirit and a large proportion of generic white spirit).
I am still a newbie so that’s about as far as I’ll go with that!
Mezcal Tasting
You can use the bubbles/pearls to tell the alcohol content in Mezcal. I can’t remember if more bubbles means more alcohol or less though. Mezcal itself has a smoky flavour (but not a peaty flavour) that comes from the stone oven. As a guy who likes Islay whiskies, it is a rather pleasant thing. Like discovering that your favourite person has a cousin from Mexico, and they’re quite similar.
The Mezcal that clocks in at 52.2% ABV is actually very smooth drinking. Whereas you may expect it to burn, the effect on the palette is actually quite warming. It is very ‘creamy’ – which I think is the oak. From above the glasses look full and I end up think that I’ve drunk them, when I haven’t (joy!)
I end up forgetting which is which and fudging up my tasting notes as they leave all the bottles and glasses on the table and I completely forget the order I am meant to put them back in. PRO.
I guess the synopsis here is:
Give (good) tequila a chance. Expect Mezcal to challenge you. Both are much better than I thought. I want to try more…
I forgot to mention wine
Gotta have wine if you’re trying to impress your Mum.
Well, turns out that there is wine made in Mexico, and Mestizo have one.
The Food
I like the food. Do you like the food?
Ceviche De Camaron
Prawns marinated in lemon juice with chopped onions, tomatoes, Serrano chiles & fresh cilantro, served with avocado slices & tortilla chips £8.80
The sauce is sweet and sour. The prawns are cooked to within an iota of perfection.
Ensalada Nopales
Tender cactus leaf with tomato, cilantro, queso fresco, onion & jalapeño chile, served on a bed of lettuce £7.50
This is a first for me. The cactus reminds me of snap peas – basically a cheesy salad with the odd spicy chili. Pretty damn good. Slightly chewy, the cactus contrasts with the lettuce’s crunch. Some vinegar adds a sharpness but is not too much. Tuff salad.
Mole Coloradito Mixto
Beef and lamb, in a complex roast chile selection including chile ancho & chilguacle, garlic, onion, parsley, sesame seeds, cinnamon & chocolate. £16.50
Mum’s Mole > My Mole. You can taste the lamb in the mole, but not the beef so much. Very lean – it feels rather ‘healthy’. In her words “extremely fulfilling”. It’s a rare thing to find a flavour so different that I can barely describe it, and have almost no reference points for it, but this happens here. I could swear that the Mole was ‘floral’. SAUCE ARTISTRY.
(it is also quite filling)
Guajolote En Mole Negro:
Perhaps the most difficult of all the moles to produce. Turkey with six kinds of chile; chilguacle, negro, mulatto, pasilla, ancho, & guajillo, plus a large secret selection of seeds, nuts, spices, herbs & chocolate. £14.00
Best refried beans ever (says the man who has tried at most, two varieties of refried beans). They’re black instead of brown, with a kind of flat, subtle taste.
Such subtle flavours are kinda a recurring theme here. The flavours are never too much of anything – but instead make for a complex and kinda…challenging blend. I’m not going to try and describe these subtleties, I’ll just say that it is subtle on a level you rarely find in a sauce.
Calabaza En Tacha
Candied pumpkin & sweet potato in syrup, cinnamon & vanilla £3.80
There’s a creaminess…a strong creaminess. And it comes from…the cream (MIND BLOWN)
Pan De Muertos
Our special sweet, ‘Day of the Dead’ bread. Perfect with coffee £2.00
Unexpected morbid dessert isn’t actually morbid (but entirely unexpected). This is apparently a Day Of The Dead Tradition – it’s a bit like a panettone, minus the almonds and marzipan.
Coffee (I have put this in the food section for a reason…)
It’s not every day in the culinary-adventurous entirely caffeine dependent man’s life that you discover a kind of coffee that you’ve never tried before, but again – Mestizo delivers!
Mexican coffee is heavily flavoured with cinnamon (something that I thought only me and my ex girlfriend do), and also incredibly sugary. It’s a hell of a pick up at the end of a meal, and I end up sleeping pretty well later on, in spite of it.
I also try to dip my ‘Dead Bread’ into the coffee – but all that manages to do is create soggy dead bread which partially dissolves and then sinks to the bottom of the pot. I end up drinking said bread later.
Tastes like victory.
The Verdict
Mind blown.
Who’d have thought that you could have so much fun having dinner with your Mum?
Caveat:
The Day Of The Dead comes but once a year, and so it is quite obviously different to your regular dining experience at Mestizo. However, with the restaurant’s busy festival schedule you may find it rather easy to drop in on another of their events.
To summarise:
Flavours quite entirely different to what you’ve tried before. So different that it’s hard to actually have a reference to describe them by. And I’ve had Mexican food before!
Spirits you’ve never tried before – unless you already have a thing for Mezcal and ‘proper tequila’
A vibrant and I guess… communal atmosphere? (this is based on only having been once but I do my best here)
Would most definitely return for whatever Mexican festival they run next. Or any excuse.
The Details
103 Hampstead Rd, London NW1 3EL
020 7387 4064
http://london.mestizomx.com/
@mestizomx