Chayote def. a succulent green pear-shaped tropical fruit that resembles cucumber in flavour. While the eponymous fruit may not be noted for its tastiness, this new addition to London's cuisine scene certainly brings lots of savour to all of its offerings. The menu are a riff on Mexican favourites with hints of Peruvian and Spanish influences. The ordering works like a tasting menu and we ordered from all three categories to create our meal: Starters, Tostadas & Tacos and To Share. To begin we opted for the guacamole which has to be the hallmark of any Mexican restaurant and the prawn and jalapeno croquetas with guajillo cream. The former was a beautifully simple guac which let the ingredients speak for themselves without any gimmicks. The latter was an absolutely unctuous introduction to the meal, rich, creamy and tasty. For our next course, we chose sesame yellowfin tuna tostadas, also with guajillo cream, and chicken tinga and sour cream tacos. The raw sesame tuna on the tostadas was a definite high point for us; it simply melted in the mouth. The chicken tinga was interesting, but just couldn't compete. For the main sharing course we were tempted by the al pastor skewers with pineapple & taquera salsa. but unfortunately these weren't available. As an alternative, we chose the lamb barbacoa in adobo, wrapped in banana leaf. This was served with tacos, and we added some pineapple salsa to balance the spiciness of the barbacoa. It proved a lovely combination. It's worth noting that most of the dishes we ordered had some heat. For us, this never proved overpowering and managed to successfully enhance Chayote's Mexican flavours. Was there still room for dessert? Somehow we managed to indulge in the doughnuts with raspberry coulis and spicy chocolate sauce plus the pumpkin cheesecake. The doughnuts recalled the churros so prevalent in Hispanic cuisine, and the cheesecake was quite light and thankfully not overwhelmed with pumpkin spice. Chef Tomasz Baranski and his team have definitely created a new destination restaurant on London's picturesque St Katharine Docks.
Rated: ★★★★
Reviewed by S.B.
Image: Prawn and jalapeno croquetas with guajillo cream
When, Where, Getting there:
- From October 12, 2023
- Mon to Sat: 12 - 11 pm, Sun: 12 -10 pm
- 2 Tower Bridge House, St Katharine's Way, London, E1W 1AA
- Nearest tube: Tower Hill
- https://chayote.co.uk/
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