Kol restaurant review: An endlessly inventive tour through modern Mexico
Restaurants have finally reopened this week and what better way to celebrate than by indulging in a tasting menu at Kol, designed by one of the world’s most highly-rated young chefs.
What is Kol?
Reopening on Wednesday, Kol is a Mexican fine dining restaurant that, after two years of meticulous planning, was open for just a month before lockdown 2 forced it to close again. I was able to get in during that short window and I can tell you that it’s worth the wait.
Kol is the brainchild of Santiago Lastra, who at just 30 years old is one of the leading lights of Mexican – and indeed any – cuisine. He was last in London during a hugely successful run at pop-up venue Carousel, although it’s his “jungle experiment” Noma Mexico that poped-up in the hippy-yoga retreat of Tulum that really cemented his name as one of the world’s top young chefs. The entire run sold out in just two hours despite the $750-a-sitting price tag.
Kol doesn’t cost quite as much as that, but it’s in the same ball-park, with two tasting menus plus wine setting you back £250.
Lastra says he wants to bring authentic Mexican food to a world more accustomed to “Tex-Mex”, although at Kol there’s the additional twist that he’s recreating authentic Mexican flavours with British ingredients, resulting in a menu that’s both familiar and unique.
What’s it like?
It’s safe to say Lastra does not lack vision. His stamp can be seen on every aspect of Kol, from the chic dining room, which fuses free flowing Mexican design with Scandinavian minimalism, to the crockery, which is rustic and beautiful and, I’m sure, nerve-janglingly expensive. And the food… that’s pretty great too.
Go on…
You don’t so much order dinner as join Lastra on a theatrical tour of modern Mexican cooking. You can have either the tasting menu or the other tasting menu, both of which are filled with endlessly inventive spins on traditional dishes.
Take the tostada, created by a team of fastidious, silent young chefs in a kitchen that isn’t just open, but is right in the middle of the dining room. These are no sloppy, overflowing things, but daintily prepared morsels served with the head of a langoustine for you to squeeze over them.
Our main was an incredible confit pork cheek served in a central pot, tossed with shards of crackling and some hibiscus flowers.
Dessert was perhaps the most outre of them all, a mad squash sorbet, smeared across one side of the bowl and pregnant with a little pool of rattlesnake chilli and mezcal. I’ve never tried anything quite like it.
What else?
You might expect an exciting and unusual wine list at Kol, but what you might not expect is one with such a strong Central and East European influence. The head sommelier has travelled a lot around the region and despite its wines being “much maligned” in recent years – Kol’s words, not mine – it produces bottles that are “grown and made respectfully”, which sits well with the overarching ethos of the restaurant. Highlights included a Czech wine by Petr Kocarik called Hibernal, a Solvakian white called El Melon, and an amazing pinot noir from German producer Enderle & Moll.
One last thing
Wash it down with a mezcal, which is the best way to end any meal. In fact, next week Kol is opening Kol Mezcalaria, with bar manager Maxim Schulte mixing cocktails infused with wild, seasonal ingredients sourced from the British Isles, including homemade sloe mezcal.
It’s designed to be accompanied by the new Antojitos menu – literally translated as ‘little cravings’ – showcasing Lastra’s interpretation of traditional Mexican street food and delicacies from indigenous communities throughout Mexico.