When one considers how cosmopolitan London’s restaurant scene is, it is rather surprising how under represented the entire continent of Latin America seems to be. OK, so I know it’s pretty easy to satisfy a taco craving and there are, admittedly, a few good places for Argentine steak. While Cubana in Waterloo has to be one of the most popular party restaurants around. But more serious foodies might feel that inventive Latin American menus are a bit thin on the ground.
Step forward Zuaya. Just off Kensington High Street in a cobbled street opposite Kensington Palace, it’s a bit of a hidden gem. It’s also a bit of a Tardis. There are a handful of tables outside (empty on the rainy evening I was there except for a man smoking a fat – surely Cuban? – cigar). Inside there’s a bar and a few quiet tables but downstairs opens up into a much bigger space with lots of tables ideal for parties and where there’s often a resident DJ playing Latin American favourites.
The menu is a mixture of Brazilian, Peruvian and Mexican (I think there’s a bit of Argentinian in the mix too) and you can just go for a drink and share some tapas. Alternatively, you can go for the tasting menu, starting with one of the house cocktails. This was, of course, what my friend Gem and I decided to do. Gem went for London to Lima. Pisco, falernum, lime, agave syrup and egg white, it was a delicate creamy concoction served in a martini glass and decorated with flowers. My Black Forest was a bit of a contrast. I was slightly thrown by the name (shouldn’t that be a German cocktail?) and even more surprised by the stoneware jar that it was served in but it was a heady and rather delicious mixture of tequila, wild berries, apple, lychee, grenadine and lime.
While we were drinking these, our starters began to arrive. First came proper (by which I mean chunky) guacamole served with sweet potato chips. A bowl of padron peppers had two or three with a mighty kick (as is normal in Mexico – you take your chances). And then we did indeed get a couple of tacos filled with a truly delicious tuna ceviche – this was my favourite dish of the evening though there was another about to appear that ran it a close second.
This was the Iberian pork with butternut squash and mojo verde, cut into thick pink slices. I am not generally a great fan of pork but this dish could very easily convert me. It came with a quinoa pomegranate salad and a bowl of wild rice with shitake mushrooms and duck. This was a great combination of tastes and all very colourful – there are plenty of decorative touches here when it comes to presentation.
By this time, the place was filling up and downstairs was really buzzing in spite of the fact that this was a wet Tuesday evening. Both of us having an early start the next morning, we were considering crying off the dessert. What a good idea that we didn’t. There were two (everything here is to share).
The first was a passion fruit crème brulee – the passion fruit cutting through the sweetness and the whole thing as light as air. The second was a dulce de leche flan. Dulce de leche is, in fact, evaporated milk which sounds a good deal less enticing in English. It is, though, something that South Americans do wonders with – my favourite was dulce de leche pancakes in Argentina. Gem remembered staying in a little hostel in Buenos Aires and having a breakfast of chunks of bread with jam and dulce de leche. It was, she said, a revelation.
When a restaurant triggers streams of happy foodie memories it must be doing something right. Time for us all to discover a little more of South American cuisine maybe.
Zuaya, 35B Kensington High Street, Kensington, London W8 5EB. For more information, and bookings, please visit www.zuaya.co.uk.
