KOL

The kitchen imports three things from Mexico, corn for the tortillas, chocolate and native chillies, and everything else on the plate was grown in Britain.

Why go

Santiago Lastra set up Noma's Mexico pop-up in Tulum before he opened here in October 2020, and the problem he took on was that the citrus and the avocado a Mexican kitchen runs on do not grow in this country. His answer was research trips rather than an import licence. Sea buckthorn does the work lime does, and 50 Best records that the only things crossing the border now are the corn, the chocolate and the chillies (50 Best). The tasting menu turns over with the seasons and one dish has survived every rewrite since the first service. It holds a Michelin star in the 2026 London list, and it was the seventeenth best restaurant in the world in 2024 before falling to forty-ninth in 2025.

Order this / avoid

• Order: the langoustine taco, rolled and ready with the head brought alongside to squeeze over it. The opening broth, which is arbol chilli and fermented beetroot with mezcal in it and arrives before you have settled. Crab chalupa under pistachio mole. Lamb saddle on mulato mole when the season has it.
• Avoid: coming for tacos and nachos, because the only format is the set menu. Mondays, when it is shut. Leaving the booking late: tables release a couple of months out and lunch is the service you can actually get.

What locals & experts say

• Giles Coren in The Times, scoring it 26/30: a "world-class, genre-defying, entirely new and original modern upscale Mexican restaurant," where Lastra is "all about the finest British seasonal ingredients presented in traditional Mexican arrangements with supermodern Michelin three-star technique." His sign-off was "I'd get along pronto, if I were you." ref
• Heidi Lauth Beasley for The Infatuation, scoring 8.4: "each element of their tasting menu creates a sort of delirious fever dream where you have absolutely no idea what you just ate but you do know that it was very good." She also filed the dissent, on a supplement course: "the chocolate and truffle mole supplement dish that tastes like a remix that just went a little too far." ref
• The World's 50 Best Restaurants, on the one dish that never leaves: "Lastra's signature langoustine taco has been the only mainstay since launch." No.17 in 2024, No.49 in 2025. ref
• No working chef has been found naming it. places-db/london/data/chef-votes.jsonl holds no vote for KOL, and that gap is stated rather than papered over. The rung rests on a star, two 50 Best placings and two bylined critics.

Good to know

• Where: 9 Seymour Street, Marylebone, a few minutes from Marble Arch. The FSA register holds the postcode as W1H 7JW; two published sources print different ones, and the register wins.
• Rooms: the restaurant is at street level. Down the spiral staircase are the chef's table and KOL Mezcaleria, the agave bar, which has its own entry here and its own verdict.
• Timing: lunch Wednesday to Sunday, dinner Tuesday to Saturday. Closed Mondays.
• Booking: essential. Tables release about two months ahead, the newsletter gets a 24-hour head start, and lunch is gettable a few days out.
• Diet: The Infatuation reports that a vegetarian is "catered to perfectly." That is a critic's account rather than the kitchen's own statement, and the venue's site could not be read.
• Hygiene: FSA rating 5, inspected 20 March 2026, with Hygiene, Structure and Confidence in Management all clean. ref
• Elsewhere by the same team: Fonda on Heddon Street since 2024, and KOL at Tate.

Jeff's take (his words)

Jeff has not written a note on this one. His saved-places export carries an empty Note for KOL, so jeff_note stays empty and nothing is put in his mouth. The master row's blurb was written by an enrichment pass rather than by him; it was checked against the sources here and rewritten from them.

Verdict (Chef Jeff ladder)

should-visit — The idea is better than the marketing line about it. Lastra cooks Mexican food out of a British larder and imports only what cannot be grown here, which is corn, chocolate and native chillies, and he found sea buckthorn to do the job lime does. That is a real technical answer to a real problem rather than a concept. Giles Coren gave it 26/30 and called it a world-class, genre-defying, entirely new and original modern upscale Mexican restaurant. The Infatuation put it at 8.4. It holds a Michelin star in the 2026 London list and it was the seventeenth best restaurant in the world in 2024. It sits below must-visit for two reasons that are about how to send someone rather than how well they cook: the 50 Best placing fell to No.49 in 2025, and this is a booked tasting menu at the top price band, which docs/RANKING.md files under occasion. Go at lunch, which is the service you can actually get, and drink in the Mezcaleria downstairs, which takes walk-ins.