In my eternal search for half decent Mexican food in London (I have given up on finding really good Mexican as we are a bit far away from the border…) it was time to try Taqueria. I have several friends who love it and think it is as good as it gets in London. If that is the case, we are in trouble and I will from now on stick to Indian, Peruvian and Pubs (after trying Crazy Homies and Peyote).
They recently re-opened Taqueria after a big remodel and now the space is almost too modern and clean and could be serving any type of cuisine as there is no evidence of Mexico in the décor.
We started with some margaritas which were the best part of the meal. Despite how good they were and the fact we had at least three each, we didn’t get drunk enough to think the food or service were good.
What we ate:
Botana: refried beans, guacamole, salsa and tortilla chips. Our waiter suggested this combo app platter instead of just guac and it was a waste of money and calories. The beans were way too solid, the salsa was watery and bland and the guac was the best of the three but I prefer chunkier avocado pieces and this was too homogeneous.
Chorizo quesadilla: it was served looking more taco like and despite the chorizo, the flavours didn’t pack a punch and the cheese was not as gooey as it should be. Maybe my fault for having to take a picture and it cooling slightly?
Ceviche: combination of seafood with a big dose of boring. So bland – yawn and skip!
We ordered a bunch of tacos and I am not sure it was miss-communication from the waiter or it was Stewart’s fault for not understanding him properly (more likely). We understood that each portion was one taco so we each ordered two and ended up getting 4 as each portion has two tacos, which makes more sense as the portions are priced around £7 and would have been ridiculous for one sole taco.
We ordered several tacos. The fish tacos, the chicken, steak and the pork carnitas. The chicken taco was extremely hot even for my husband who grew up in Texas and take heat and spicy foods as well as anyone, at least it was not bland or boring! The fish tacos were just ok, to me they could all use some more flavour and maybe guac. Maybe the issue is we recently had the best tacos at Tacos No. 1 at Chelsea Market (review http://www.samstewartetc.com/los-tacos-no-1-best-tacos-is-new-york/) and these ones were very amateurish in comparison.
Fish tacos
Chicken tacos
Tostada with raw tuna and avocado: Another mediocre dish. It was all a bit too goopy and messy and like everything else, a tad bland but compared to the ceviche, a dream.
Tostada with raw tuna and avocado
Crepes with ice cream and chocolate sauce: should have gone for churros. This was not good. The crepes were hard, the vanilla ice cream had no vanilla flavour and was a bit icy and the chocolate sauce was just ok. I ordered a side of dulce de leche and even that was too sticky and not great.
Crepes with ice cream and chocolate sauce
And the macchiato? Omg, they looked like mega lattes, even that didn’t work!
Macchiato
And then, the waiter brought us a bill, we paid and then five minutes later he said he made a mistake and was the wrong bill and the new one was £100 higher. He didn’t apologize enough and acted like it was the most common mistake ever.
In sum: don’t waste a meal on Taqueria and keep searching for other better Mexican foods. Or save for your next trip to Cali, Texas for Tex mex or of course, Mexico.
Taqueria Notting Hill http://www.taqueria.co.uk/index.html
141-145 Westbourne Grove, London W11 2RS
+44 20 7229 4734
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