Chef-patron Santiago Lastra’s KOL restaurant was one of the hottest dining tickets of 2021. It had opened in 2020 but owing to the pandemic, only truly got going in last year. Your reviewer dined there seven days after the Government permitted indoor meals to restart. He loved it so much that he sought to rebook for the full nine-course tasting menu in the evening. Once again, the pandemic intervened and he had to wait until a recent Saturday in March finally to take his seat. In the interim, KOL has – justifiably – received a Michelin star. It is undoubtedly merited. For diners after a novel and memorable experience in London, KOL is the place to go.
KOL is the antithesis of Tex-Mex. As your reviewer noted on his previous visit, the angle pursued by Lastra is all about creating what he terms ‘soul food’ in an atmosphere that would not be out of place in Mexico City. Beyond the abundantly evident deployment of classic Mexican influences, KOL puts an emphasis – as is currently fashionable – on local and seasonal ingredients. Cleavers featured on the menu as did (an almost excessive) abundance of rhubarb. If you take one thing away from what KOL is trying to achieve then it is about the judicious use of salt and chilli. You can’t get much more iconic Mexican than this duo. Both featured in almost every dish and were used as enhancers. It’s all about creating a lingering subtlety. The paired drinks, for which we opted, also showed a high degree of thoughtfulness. While not all of them were either obvious or classic (unfiltered natural wines just don’t do it for me), when combined with the food, their profiles typically served as excellent foils. When you have spice, acidity is often necessary. Beyond wine, diners can expect cocktails as well as the ubiquitous agave, the latter paired with one of our dessert courses.
Back to the food and it’s set menu or nothing at KOL in the evenings. There’s a choice of six or nine options and some scope for variation along the way. Some of the classics from our previous visit remained, particularly the signature octopus dish served with scissors for slicing. It was paired on this occasion with bone marrow, parsnip root and seaweed macha. Even at a posh restaurant, there is still a certain element of fun attached to assembling your own dish. Tacos are provided in a nifty keep-warm bag alongside. Culinary highlights on this occasion included a wonderful enoki, crab, pistachio mole and Scotch bonnet amuse-bouche. It was presented beautifully, could be consumed in one bit, but its taste lingered for some time. The £25 supplement for a mole dish of purple carrot cecina (carrot smoked such that it resembled meat) and topped with black truffle was worth every penny. If there were a pervasive take-away from the meal at KOL then it was the sensation of wanting more at the end of each dish. Magically, we were not even full by the meal’s close. Full plaudits to KOL also for not treating vegetarianism as an after-thought. My comrade who opted for this variant of the tasting menu was not short of culinary surprises either.
It would be inaccurate to suggest that every dish was an unqualified success – and this was certainly not the case with the drinks – but very few tasting menus ever deliver across their course. For three hours’ worth of entertainment – and diners can see much of the cooking live from an open kitchen – a visit to KOL is well worth it. Check out the downstairs too where their Mezcalaria offers a selection of the eponymous drink as well as some cool cocktails.