| Everyday Restaurants

Peyotito: Modern Mexican in Notting Hill


Notting Hill is one of those areas of London that you can just spend the whole day getting lost among pretty houses, browsing beautiful boutiques interspersed with a coffee here, a cocktail there and a tasty brunch. Westbourne Grove in particular is a little dangerous as the small parade contains all my favourite shops and if you watch my Instastories, you’ll see that I picked up a few things for my upcoming holiday.

Of course, heavy duty shopping requires fuelling and we headed into Mexican restaurant, Peyotito for lunch. The interior is super casual with exposed concrete walls and these cool neon lights ‘Tequila to wake the living. Mezcal to wake the dead…’ Honestly, I’m not someone who can take their tequila, so I think Mezcal would be a knockout! 
Fortunately, the mezcal comes separately in the Peyotito signature Margarita in a cute little bottle on the side of  the spicy Tajin rimmed glass containing blanco, cointreau, agave syrup and lime. The Peyotito Margarita is delicious and I can see why it’s the star drink as we found the fruit cocktails a little less successful. 
My passion fruit and chilli cocktail and Mr S’s watermelon margarita were a little watery and sweet, I would have preferred the hearty pulp of some fresh fruit in mine and a good kick more spice.

I basically turned into an avocado with the amount I ate in Mexico but I’d be missing my hit of the creamy good stuff. Peyotito’s guacamole did not disappoint and served with home made tostadas and spicy sauces – just how I’d had it in Mexico.

Don’t expect your standard fast food Mexican here, the menu is more refined and has been created by Executive Chef Eduardo Garcia of Maximo Bistro, one of the best restaurants in Latin America. At the weekend you can choose between the full a la carte comprised of sopa, salads, ceviche and tacos or the brunch menu which includes the traditional huevos rancheros.

Spicy yellow tail is one of our favourite Japanese dishes so I was keen to try the Mexican version with ginger vinaigrette, huitlacoche corn mushroom and serrano chile. 
And from the ceviche section octopus with salsa Mexicana and homemade clamato. Unfortunately both dishes fell short and whilst the produce was clearly high quality, the flavours were a little flat. I would have loved a bigger burst of citrus and a kick of spice! The addition of some of the table sauces did ramp up the flavours though. 
These sea bream tacos were my favourite dish of the day. The fish was really perfectly cooked and I loved the combination of pickled red onion and salsa verde, a good kick of lime tarted it up a treat too!

These chicken enchiladas weren’t too pretty to look but the overall combination was tasty. The chicken was steamed and slightly dry but smooth and spicy black mole, cool avocado and fresh cheese made up where the dish was lacking in other areas.
With the Maldives around the corner I had promised myself just a few bites of the mascarpone cheese cake but I certainly  had more than a few of this delicious concoction with a vanilla ice cream and a rather clever cactus fig compote. My favourite element of it however was the delicious crunch from the ginger biscuits that were scattered on top. 
We also had churros with chocolate…cos you just have to in a Mexican restaurant, don’t you?

Peyotito is a lovely little neighbourhood place in Notting Hill, I can just see locals popping in with their children for lunch or a group of girls coming to enjoy the club-like atmosphere in the evening. I’d love to see some bolder flavours in the food as with a few tweaks it would pack more of a punch.

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Peyotito
31 Kensington Park Road
London
W11 2EU

020 7043 1400

I was invited to review Peyotito.