Restaurants

By Euan Ferguson

Hoxton Square still holds its too-cool cachet, but don’t let the address put you off this friendly little licensed Latin café-gallery, which acts as something of a haven from the haircut hangouts surrounding it. It’s far from a sombrero-and-slammer theme joint - inside, it feels like a hospitable, eccentric artist’s studio, with paintings on bare brick walls, vases and sculptures dotted around and quirky oversized foam sandwiches hanging from the ceiling. Comfy sofas ring the room and sunny Latin numbers float from the stereo. The drinks show real attention to detail, with a selection of interesting Spanish and South American wines, good coffee and fresh juices. It’s also rightly highly regarded for its cocktail list, which keeps with the overall direction and focuses on proper margaritas and caipirinhas, and stars a perfectly balanced Pisco Sour.

All this is just as well, because the Spanish-Mexican food is a bit disappointing. A display shelf of ‘deli specials’ sits unrefrigerated, looking more unappetising as the day goes on. At least they’re generous: our chock-sized slice of chorizo tortilla came with a colourful pile of salad, and a plate of nachos was similarly well-proportioned. The own-made cakes, especially a moist carrot cake, are much more attractive, suggesting this is a better place for an afternoon coffee or post-work drink on the small front terrace than a sit-down dinner.

Curiously, the menu warns you to ‘expect relaxed service’, with an instruction to order at the counter if this is inconvenient. It was actually very pleasant and efficient, but ‘relaxed’ is too often a euphemism for ‘slow’; surely the customers should be relaxing, not the workforce?

Time Out June 2009