KOL is not interested in giving you the version of Mexican food London already knows. That is exactly why it stands out.
Just off Marble Arch, Santiago Lastra has built a restaurant around an idea that sounds deceptively simple: Mexican cooking through the lens of British produce. In lesser hands, that could have ended up feeling either forced or overly clever. At KOL, it feels natural. Not casual, not accidental, but properly resolved. Every dish seems to know exactly why it is there.
Lastra’s path into food explains a lot. Before kitchens took over, he was drawn to maths and problem solving, and that instinct still runs through the restaurant. There is real structure to the cooking, but it never feels stiff or overly worked. His career has taken him across some of Europe’s most serious kitchens, through research led projects and international pop ups, before arriving in London with a sharper sense of how he wanted to cook and what he wanted to say. KOL feels like the result of all of that experience landing in one place at the right time.
The room helps set the tone. Warm, low lit and calm, it has none of the usual Michelin star frostiness. Earthy textures, soft leather, natural wood and an open kitchen give it energy without turning the whole thing into a stage set. You feel looked after, but not managed. It is stylish without begging you to notice.
Then the food starts arriving, and the whole thing clicks.
The short rib quesadilla is the kind of opening move that immediately tells you you are in good hands. Rich, deep and intensely satisfying, it has all the comfort of something familiar but none of the heaviness. Caviar and ceviche follows with more restraint than the name might suggest, letting freshness and texture do the work rather than leaning into luxury for effect. The langoustine taco is one of those bites that makes the table go quiet for a second, partly out of appreciation and partly because nobody wants to waste time talking when they could be eating.
Then things shift into deeper, darker territory. The mushroom pozole is one of the standout dishes of the evening, full of savoury depth and completely without fuss. It is the sort of dish that stays with you not because it is loud, but because it gets under your skin. The duck mole has the same quiet confidence. Rich, layered and controlled, it delivers all the depth you want from mole without tipping into anything too weighty or overblown. Even the wagyu huarache, which could easily have felt like an obvious luxury add on, earns its place.
We chose the wine pairing, which gave the meal a strong sense of momentum from the outset. Starting with Riesling and building towards a striking Cabernet Franc from Christian Tschida, it felt tuned to the food rather than bolted on for ceremony. The bolder red later in the evening had real presence, but still knew when to hold back. It was a smart match for the cooking: distinctive, slightly unexpected and handled with confidence.
For dessert, we moved downstairs to the Mezcaleria, which shifted the mood in the best way. The evening relaxed a little without losing its shape. Paired with dessert wines, paleta, pastel and buñuelos rounded things off with enough sweetness to satisfy, but never so much that the meal lost its balance. It felt like a very good ending to a very well judged night.
That is really what KOL does so well. It never pushes too hard. It does not hide behind theatre, over explanation or expensive ingredients used as shorthand for importance. It trusts the cooking to speak for itself, and it can afford to. Lastra’s food is smart, but never smug. Precise, but never cold. There is thought in every plate, but also feeling.
In a city where restaurants often try too hard to manufacture relevance, KOL does something much more convincing. It simply serves food that matters.
@kol.restaurant | kolrestaurant.com
9 Seymour St, London W1H 7JW
