Santo Remedio translates as “holy remedy” and it has been one for me, for everything from hangover to heartbreak. It is the first restaurant I visited post the first lockdown, clamouring for their soft-shell crab tacos zinging with fresh Jalepeno peppers, corn on the cob showered in Pecorino and grilled into fudgy sweetness, and a margarita — of course — dusted with a chilli salt rim. It is, for what it’s worth, mostly authentic. Where necessary, ingredients are imported from Mexico — dried chillies, cocoa for the mole, dried corn for the tortillas — but the vegetables, meat and fish are meticulously British. Its owners, chef Edson Diaz-Fuentes and his wife, general manager Natalie, are Mexican, and their warmth, enthusiasm and integrity imbues the spirit of the two restaurants, which are somehow at once colourful and cluttered and reassuringly pared back. Order the chicharrons and the guacamole, truly one of the best in town, and come here on a Saturday for bottomless brunch, if that’s your thing.
Best Mexican restaurants and bars in London, from KOL to La Chingada
