Confederacy of a Dunce - More London Mexican food -- closer to home!

Friday, July 28, 2006

« The great helmet debate | Main | Day in Whitstable »

More London Mexican food -- closer to home!

Yesterday we visited yet another new Mexican restaurant in London, Mercado (I've linked to their website even though it's still quite inactive. You never know). It's actually relatively close to our house (31 minutes' walk according to journeyplanner.org. So how could we resist the suggestion by a certain gentleman of our acquaintance to give it a try?

Mercado is at the top of Stoke Newington Church Street, and occupies the former location of Yum Yum Thai Restaurant (now moved to a fancy new location just around the corner). There's no sign of Thai there now; it's been redecorated in a colorful Mexican manner (not just sombreros and piñatas). When we sat down we were given a (small) serving of tortilla chips and a smidgen of salsa verde. The chips were nice and did not seem to have come from a bag (always a major strike). They have quite a range of cocktails and I can definitely report that the house margarita is quite tasty. Due to some sort of miscommunication (errr, a nice way of saying that I just wasn't paying any attention) both Mrs. Dunce and I ordered guacamole with chips. I understand that some previous reviews (which I haven't seen) have complained about the stingy portions of chips, and we felt the same way when we got our guacamole: each order had a nicely hefty portion of guacamole, but only a little handful of chips. However, as we got to the end of the chips (but nowhere near the end of the guacamole), the waitress brought us more (we didn't have to ask, nor were we charged). The main courses were really good as well. The menu is fairly brief, and features a number of dishes you wouldn't exactly call "ordinary". I had, erm, I've forgotten the name but it was a poblano pepper, stuffed with cheese and black beans and stuff, covered in a lovely-spicy almond mole (and with a side of new potatoes and spinach). Mrs. Dunce had a crepe with cuitlacoche (a much nicer term than "corn fungus" or "corn smut", never mind the description "a bulbous black fungus (Ustilago maydis) that infects corn, producing silvery, swollen, pebble like kernels") and cheese, covered in a light sauce whose ingredients failed to register with me. Cilantro, perhaps). And our gentleman companion had a chicken mole dish. Portions were quite large, but we somehow managed to make short work of them anyway.

The bill came to something like £75 (+ tip) which isn't bad at all, considering that we each had two cocktails. We'll definitely be back, it's really worth a repeat visit or two.

consume

Friday, July 28, 2006 2:24:30 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)