Boho Mexica near Spitalfields Market
Two weeks ago, some of my expat friends and I read this glowing review of Boho Mexica and knew we had to check it out immediately. If you know any American expats in London, you’ll know that Mexican food is our catnip and crack, rolled into one. (It’s an odd phenomenon, of course. When I lived in the U.S., I enjoyed Cal-Mex/Tex-Mex, but eating it was no big deal. Query why I’m now regularly asking visiting American friends to smuggle in salsas and “real” corn tortillas for me).
In any case, Boho Mexica is near my office, so I’ve already visited twice for lunch in the past week. Both times, I went with friends who are originally from California (Bay Area and SoCal), so they were ladies who know their way around Cal-Mex.
- three-pork tacos and chicken tacos at Boho Mexica
The good news is that Boho Mexica is small, charming and cheap, with most dishes costing less than £4, making it at least 33% cheaper than the Taqueria (which I’ve never visited again after spending £50 for eight orders of room-temperature, stale, oily tacos) and Green & Red (whose carnitas tacos are great but pricey). [And since we're on the topic, I've never had memorable meals at Mestizo or Wahaca, and Crazy Homies would be a lot better if they used thinner tortillas.]
The bad news is that Boho Mexica’s dishes are tiny; their tastiness varied greatly; and the service at lunch ranged from relatively-prompt (and disorganized) to disastrously-slow (and disorganized). They were, however, always polite.
“Very tasty” dishes:
Pan de Elote (£3.50), which translates as “cornbread,” is here served as a warm slice of sweet cornbread topped with vegetables in a light creamy-cheesy sauce. It was a tad sugary, but I’m a sucker for sweet cornbread.
The cochinita pibil yucatan taco (£3.25) is described on the menu as a “trio of pork served with red pickled onions,” and while I’m not sure what three pork parts are in this taco, it was tasty. The pickled onions could be crispier, but I’m splitting hairs.
Tacos de pezcao (£3.75). I remember one of the things that pissed me off about the Taqueria was paying £9 for the fish taco there (and it wasn’t even good). At Boho Mexica, they use plump bits of sea bass and pile on the all-important cabbage. Oddly, on one visit, the taco was served with a tartar sauce-like condiment, and on another visit, it was served sans sauce. I liked it better without the sauce.
Tinga poblana tacos (£3.25) are tacos filled with a smoky chicken filling and topped with a zippy green salsa. We had a bit of an issue getting our hands on extra Tabasco sauce to spice it up a little more (weird because the restaurant claims to serve specialties from the Tabasco region), but with a little extra spice, these were great both times I visited.
tacos de pezcao (fish)
“Good enough” dishes:
Carnitas tacos (£3.50). I was pretty excited about the carnitas (braised pork). While my SoCal friend enjoyed it, I found the tiny bits of crackling in the filling a bit tough, rather than deliciously crispy.
Guacamole and pico de gallo (£2 each) weren’t bad, but what ruined both of them were the stale-tasting homemade tortilla chips. Pretty unforgivable, even if the chips cost only 75p. [In the U.S. chips and salsa would be free at most restaurants.]
steak tacos at Boho Mexica
“Wouldn’t order it again” dishes:
Empanadas or pasties to you and me (£4.25 for two). I think of empanadas as more central/south American than Mexican, but these were stuffed with courgette blossoms and cheese, so we couldn’t resist. It turns out we should have resisted. Both empanadas, while pleasantly hot and crispy, tasted like giant pastry shells stuffed with oil.
Steak tacos (£3.50). How did this go so wrong? Where I was expecting slices of rare, juicy steak, I instead got slightly-grayish, chewy mystery meat.
Enchiladas de mole (£4.95), which I assume was on the menu to lend its Oaxacan legitimacy to the whole shebang. Now, I love chocolate-based moles, but for some reason this dish arrived at our table at room temperature. And at room temperature, the mole just *looked* unappealing. It turns out it tasted forgettable, too. Overly bitter and not enough chili smoke in there.
Agua Fresca
If you’re not in the mood for alcohol, you’ve got three interesting choices in the agua fresca section. I would’ve loved it if Boho Mexica offered a watermelon agua fresca, but the other options aren’t bad: a lightly-sweet-and-cinnamon horchata, a sweet-tangy tamarind juice, and an iced-tea-like Jamaica.
With a few juices and almost three dishes per person, our tab was £10-12 per person both times I visited. At those prices, I’ll keep trying out Boho Mexica because I have a feeling they’re capable of consistently good cooking. Improving the timing of when dishes emerge from the kitchen (so that they’re always hot when they reach your table) would be a good start.
Boho Mexica, 151-153 Commercial Street, E1 6BJ, 0207 377 8418; closest station: Liverpool Street.
Aww, I used to walk by there twice a day. If only there had been tacos there then
BTW, that ‘steak’ looks surly.
have you checked out mestizo?
http://www.mestizomx.com/london.html
I put boho in the “a place to meet people and have some drinks and decent nibbles without ringing up too huge a bill” category. Next time, try the green mole. Better than the regular (chocolate) mole. Mike
The music at night is for deaf people. That is, it’s VERY VERY LOUD. And that was like on a Tuesday. WTF?
Anonymous – that’s always the way it happens, I guess – just when you’re not passing by anymore, a place you’d actually want to visit opens up. And yes, the steak taco was definitely sub-par.
p law – Yes, I have. (See the paragraph below the photo of the three-pork tacos).
Mike – I’d be sad if the only thing Boho turns out to be is a place to meet for drinks – this city doesn’t need anymore places to meet people for drinks. What it needs is a place that serves tasty hot tacos at reasonable prices. I think Boho Mexica has potential if they figure out how to consistently get dishes to your table fast enough (such that it has the immediacy and freshness of the street food tacos are).
Krista – I can picture that (i.e., the overly-loud music at night). Luckily, I work in the area, so Boho Mexica is going to be a strictly lunch place for me if they improve their services and their food’s consistency. (At lunch, the music isn’t noticeable). Did you try the food there?
I like the way you’ve divided the dishes up by category! I ate a lot of good Mexican food when I lived in NYC, but here I don’t think I’ve had any (good or bad). Shame it’s not closer to me for lunch, as overly loud music irritates me!
Hi Helen, yes, I ate better Mexican food in New York than I do now in London, but actually, even the Mexican food in New York pales in comparison to what I’ve been able to try in the southwest and California (or even Chicago). So if you’re craving Mexican food, there are better places to go than NYC.
Maybe because of Krista’s feedback, they’ll dial down the music at night. : )
Can’t claim to be an expert on Mexican food at all, but if you are ever in the Lower Marsh (SE1) area at lunchtime check the food stalls out, there is a guy who sells quesedillas for £1.50 each and I think they’re great. Would be interested to see how he rates by NYC standards.
Suse – fresh quesadillas from a cart? Can’t beat that. Thanks for the tip.
I went to this place last night with my girlfriend. Basically I’ll cut a long story short. LOVELY atmosphere, nice staff (kinda), good music, really pleasant vibe. But the food…. OH MY GOD.
I’ve NEVER in my life eaten something SO disgusting. And I really mean that, it was virtually inedible. And so expensive.
I ordered the lamb taco, and my missus had the chicken enchilada. On the menu it says the lamb taco was ‘two x-large tortillas filled with…’ Picture this. Quite literally, the same size and proportions as a stick of seaside rock. A rolled up tube of tortilla, filled wit dry, cold, tough, chewy shredded lamb, and doused in the most revolting brown slop. It was some sort of tamarind, tart, bitter, vile swamp sewage which totally enveloped the food. I honestly cannot describe how utterly repulsive this thing tasted. Now, I’m no expert on mexican food, but COME ON…. No country would be proud of a dish like that. I’ve been to quite a few Mexican places, and they’ve been delicious. This was appalling. I almost felt sorry for the staff and the restaurant’s owners. The chef should be sacked immediately I don’t know where he/she learnt to cook like that. Comparing it to prison food would be a compliment.
As for the chicken ‘enchilada’ again, dry, chewy, tasteless slabs of protein, covered in this green slime and cold melted cheese. AND GET THIS… These ‘dishes’ both cost £7.80 each. So we basically paid £16 for thes 4 TINY portions of the most inedible garbage imaginable.
Trust me on this: AVOID THIS PLACE AT ALL COSTS.You WILL regret it. By all means, go for a drink, nice, cold beers, but DO NOT eat there. Go somewhere else for dinner.
@sinsbinsy – Sounds like your meal was pretty ugly. I haven’t been back in a year, though as you’ll see in my original post, it wasn’t all horrible a year ago. I’ll approach revisiting with caution.