Kol

The story

Crafted with passion, served with love

Mexican Soul, Shaped by British Soil

Kol is Santiago Lastra's answer to a question few chefs would dare ask: what does authentic Mexican cooking taste like when built almost entirely from British ingredients? Launched in late 2020 on Seymour Street in Marylebone, the restaurant has since ranked among The World's 50 Best Restaurants every year — reaching as high as 17th in 2024 — a measure of just how convincingly Lastra has made his case.

The premise is not a gimmick. Lastra spent years cooking across Europe, including a formative stint at Mugaritz, before René Redzepi invited him to set up Noma's celebrated Mexico pop-up in Tulum in 2016. That experience sharpened his understanding of what Mexican cuisine actually is at its core — and what it could become when transplanted somewhere new. Back in the UK, he spent considerable time researching local growers, fishers and foragers, mapping British produce onto the flavour logic of his home country. Sea buckthorn stands in for lime. The corn for tortillas, the chocolate, and the native chillies are the only imports — essentials that cannot be substituted.

What's on the Plate

The result is a seven-course tasting menu priced at £145, described by the restaurant itself as "memories of Mexico, shaped by British produce." The familiar foundations are all present — mole, corn masa, ceviche — reimagined in their presentation rather than hollowed out. One dish has appeared on the menu since the very first service: the langoustine taco, assembled and ready to eat, with the crustacean's head served alongside to be squeezed over for a hit of umami. Seasonal highlights have included lamb saddle with rye koji and wood sorrel on a rich mulato mole — a dish that speaks both languages at once.

The Chef's Table, a private dining room inspired by the grand houses of Oaxaca, sits below the main restaurant overlooking its own kitchen. It seats up to twenty guests and offers five and eight-course menus, with optional sharing supplements such as whole confit suckling pig or Cornish blue lobster grilled over kelp, served with fresh tortillas and seasonal salsas.

The Mezcaleria and Beyond

Beneath the restaurant, the Mezcaleria houses one of the UK's most serious collections of agave spirits, sourced in collaboration with small-scale Mexican producers. The cocktail list takes the same care as the food — a Kol Margarita made with verjus and yuzu sake, or a Corn Old Fashioned built on mezcal and mole bitters, are as considered as anything upstairs. In 2024, Lastra extended his vision further with Fonda, a more relaxed taco and tequila spot on nearby Heddon Street.

Behind every dish, as the restaurant puts it, is "a community of growers, fishers, and foragers whose care shapes everything we do." That ethos — rigorous, rooted, and quietly radical — is what has made Kol one of London's most compelling restaurants since the moment it opened.