Lupita: A Step Up From Wahaca

I was out with the Weegie on Friday night and we needed a quick bite to eat before heading on for a night of beers and whisky.  Nothing fancy, something to line the stomach.  We were meeting people at Trafalgar Square and settled on Lupita when we were walking up from Embankment tube.

I had noticed Lupita a couple of times so was happy to give it a shot.  We were seated downstairs, next to the bar after having asked not to sit at the bottom of the stairs.

With a modelo negra in hand (the Wegie went for a Margherita, typical!), we had a look through the menu. There are some staples - tacos, quesadillas etc - but also some more interesting things.

We started by sharing a ceviche and some chorizo.  The ceviche was absolutely delicious, tangy lime, avocado and fresh fish.  The chorizo was less impressive - it did not have that wonderful smoked paprika taste that you expect from chorizo and all in all was a little disappointing.

The ceviche.

For main I went for the Costras - Arrachera steak (flank steak that is normally quite tough but wasn't in this case), flour tortillas and "crispy cheese" - when drizzled with a couple of the accompanying salsas this was actually pretty good.

The Costras

The Weegie had the Alambre - corn tortillas with Chile Poblano, onion, bacon and steak.  He seemed pretty happy with this although it did look a little plain.

If you are looking for sophisticated then Lupita is not the place for you.  But if you are looking for a quick bite of Mexican you could do a lot worse than steering clear of the distinctly average Wahaca and heading to Lupita instead. 

Brixton Village: Tapas Dining at Seven at Brixton, Casa Morita and French and Grace

As I have been saying for a while now, the most happening place for new restaurants in London has to be Brixton Village (and Brixton Market Row, accross the street). It all started two and a bit years ago - with long term residents such as Cornercopia and Etta's Seafood - but in the last few months has gone stellar with places like Kao Sarn and Honest Burger getting rave reviews.

And so with a free Friday night ahead of us the Fashionista and I decided to head round some of the new offerings to see if they match up with some of the more established places.

First to Seven At Brixton in Brixton Market Row (across the road from Brixton Village proper). We got to this place around 7 and it was already jumping. Given that this was the official opening night (it had been open for a soft opening the weekend before) the turn out was incredible. Specialising in pintxos and booze this was my kind of place. We went for the skewers of chorizo and cheese and olives anchovies and padron peppers and a bocadillo of goats cheese and fig. The skewers were okay, the bocadillo nice.  But this place really comes into its own when its booze you're after -  great vibe and awesome mojitos for a fiver!

We then moved next door to Casa Morita. They were fully booked (it was not long ago that the idea of a fully booked restaurant in Brixton Village was a pipe dream -how times have changed!. No matter we propped ourselves up on a couple of chairs. I had modela negra beer and we shared a taco carnitas and a taco de chorizo. The welcome you will get here is second to none and the food is delicious - highly recommended!

The Fashionista hadn't been tempted by the beers at Casa Morita so she decided to get a caipirinha from the Brazilian place across the market (super friendly bar man - such a shame that restaurant didn't seem to be getting any trade). Really good caipirinha and nice that Casa Morita were more than happy for us to drink another place's caiparinha while tucking into their tasty tacos.

We then wandered next door to Brixton Village proper to see what else we could find- it was rammed. Places like Honest Burger had queues of 20 long. But we found French and Grace (of the Salad Club) who do take away and settled on a chorizo wrap and a lamb merguez (a sausage traditionally from north Africa) wrap- we asked for haloumi but unfortunately after a few minutes they realised they didn't have any left- no matter, they refunded the difference. I enjoyed my lamb merguez one but the Fashionista thought her chorizo wrap pretty average - both could have done with being warmer, maybe just down to the constant rush that night -  I will have to give them another shot and report back.

My verdict -  Seven At Brixton, a great bar with reasonable snacks to soak up the booze; Casa Morita, all round brilliance - tasty food, nice drinks, brilliant staff and atmosphere; French and Grace - almost very good but not quite.  If you've never been to Brixton Village and you like your food, you need to get on it, there is something for everyone!

P.S. Sorry for the quality of photos on this one, left my camera at home and my old school i phone 3GS was just not up to scratch!