A room with a view allows diners to forget and forgive an awful lot. This has been the typical experience of your reviewer. Just marvel at the London (or replace with any other icon city) skyline from a slightly novel angle and everything will be all right. Some of this formula seems to have been deployed by the Treehouse Hotel group who have recently taken over an ugly and unprepossessing premises close All Souls Church and the BBC building just north of Oxford Circus and installed Madera on its top floor. Madera is a mini chain, with outlets in Arizona and California, which is now bringing its brand of Mexican food to London.
Having spent some time in Mexico – including a dedicated six-week period – your reviewer can state that what Madera offers is not authentic Mexican food, but a take on it, which will more likely appeal to British and American palates. Beyond the view and the people watching opportunities, Madera ticks almost all the evident boxes of what ‘on-trend’ restaurants seek to offer – a bewilderingly complicated menu, dishes explicitly made for sharing which arrive as soon as they are ready and music that was slightly too loud for a midweek lunchtime.
Diners are confronted by a menu grouped into small plates, large plates, pan planos (effectively Mexican pizzas) as well as there being a raw bar, a salad section and a taqueria (range of tacos). It’s great for grazing, but much less helpful if you’re trying to figure out what to order for a lunch comprising three diners. Fortunately our friendly server was able to provide some helpful suggestions – put simply, a bit of everything – even if there was a slight emphasis on the up-sell, the more pricey options generally advocated most strongly. I would love to say that I remember all the dishes – we ordered five and were brought two gratis by the restaurant – but unfortunately they arrived in such rapid succession without any introduction to which was which, that the overall impression was that they blurred into one.
What I do recall was that the presentation was superb – presumably with half an eye to Instagrammers – and that the cooking was mostly thoughtful. There was a judicious use of spice – in other words, chilli was far from ubiquitous – and the sourcing of ingredients (such as the ceviche) clearly high quality. Our pan plato of avocado and roasted garlic had such an intense smell that it wafted – in a very good way – off the plate from the moment it was set down on the table. By coincidence (or not) it was also the first dish we received. After that, it was a bustle of flavours and textures. The Oaxacan mole, or chocolate sauce, was a novel crowd pleaser, but poorly executed. Better were the chicken taquitos – I think – and carne asado from the taqueria list. All this was washed down with a satisfying bottle of Italian Merlot chosen from a decent wine list. It was only a pity that the server poured it a little too quickly and injudiciously. All-in, pricing was more reasonable than might have been expected from a venue of this sort. I am sure that the views will keep people coming, but there is work to be done, particularly in terms of what gets brought when and how the overall experience is explained to the potentially unwitting diner.