Kol | Michelin-Starred Mexican in Marylebone
Understatement alert: Noma is a good restaurant.
It won ‘best restaurant in the world’ on the World’s 50 Best List three years running. It’s got two Michelin Stars. It’s credited with essentially reinventing Nordic cuisine.
The basic point we’re trying to get across here is that when head chef René Redzepi decided to open a pop up of Noma in Mexico back in 2017, he didn’t just choose some rando to help set it up. He chose Santiago Lastra. And Santiago Lastra did such a fine job managing the project and sourcing the ingredients, he’s now opened his own super-fancy restaurant in London. And that super fancy restaurant has won a Michelin Star.
It’s called Kol (which means ‘cabbage’, and is supposed to illustrate the incredible potential of seemingly mundane ingredients). You’ll find it on Marylebone’s Seymour Street, set over two storeys, with a tortilla factory and an open kitchen/chef’s table on the ground floor.
As for the menu, it showcases Mexican dishes made with the “finest of British ingredients and craftsmanship”, such as lobster and smoked chilli tacos, whole grilled octopus with bone marrow, and chalk stream trout tostada with berries and black garlic. And there’s plenty to wash it down with, since he’s fitted in a Mezcaleria in the basement, serving rare agave spirits and cocktails. But if you really want to take things up a notch? Book into the Kol chef’s table experience, in which a few lucky diners get seats overlooking the restaurant’s development kitchen, with a nine course tasting menu served up while you chat to the chefs…
It’s definitely a good Kol.
NOTE: Kol is open for dinner Tues-Sun, and lunch Wed-Sun. You can check out their website, and make a booking, HERE.
Kol | 9 Seymour Street, Marylebone, W1H 5BT
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