The Top Floor Flat

Although I’ve never lived in New York, I often imagine there are a number of similarities between London and NYC. In particular, in a city of this size and diversity, it’s generally assumed that you can get anything – anything at all – as long as you know where to look.

I have been looking for decent Tex-Mex style food in London and I must not be looking in the right places. Wahaca, a London-based traditional Mexican style restaurant, definitely has the spices and flavours covered and is the closest I’ve tasted but in an effort to find something a bit more in line with just north-of-the-border food, I rounded up my friend Kate and new acquaintance Adam to try the overly themed Navajo Joe’s restaurant in Covent Garden.

Ostensibly a Native American themed Mexican restaurant (right, we’re already off to a good start), they suggest on their website “don’t let our name fool you. Although our history is traditionally rooted in south-western cuisine, we’ve evolved over time into offering some of the most forward thinking, refreshingly accessible food in Covent Garden.”

Unsure what that meant but in the mood for polenta, buffalo wings, quesadillas, and a hell of a lot of chipotle we took our seats in front of perhaps the most schizophrenic menu since The Cheesecake Factory opened. There were our BBQ chicken wings and nachos under the starters menu – accompanied by asparagus tempura with truffle hollandaise, seared steak teriyaki and crispy duck with hoi sin sauce. Those were some worldly Native Americans putting together this menu.

Their main plates looked equally ridiculous under the bull’s skull on the wall and southwestern themed décor. Blackened duck with bak choi, ginger salmon, char-grilled peri peri chicken… even the southwestern favourites section featured an asparagus and oyster mushroom enchilada with sugar snap peas and goat’s cheese.

While we were debating what percent of the American south west would know what an oyster mushroom was, our drinks arrived and a couple of potent margaritas later we were feeling a bit more kindly towards the menu (or at least very hungry and quite ready for something off said menu to arrive). We started with mini platters of four cheese nachos, stuffed tempura jalepenos, coxina chicken with lime dressing and plates of the BBQ chicken wings and mozzarella and sundried tomato quesadillas with pesto dressing. It was a good spread and although that sounds like quite a bit of food, portion-wise it was a good starter mix for the three of us. Surprisingly, it was the quesidillas that proved table favourite with the jalapenos coming second. The wings, sticky and sweet, still felt more like something they’d run in from Chinatown, a couple of blocks away, than the searing hot buffalo wings we were craving.

For the mains, we had all ordered the fajitas and a rather uninspiring stone plate of mostly onions and a bit of meat arrive about 30 minutes after our starters had been cleared. These guys were not scoring points for presentation with a couple of tin cups of toppings (cheese, guacamole, sour cream and salsa) accompanying our bare serving plates and onion-laden meals. The food was good, and chipotle heavy as desired but we were soon left with, between us, about three to four marinated onions on a plate – this is after making an effort to eat a lot of them with our meal. This is definitely not a meal for a date and frankly a pretty lousy way to make the plate look more full. We were offered a dessert menu but, in search of a real American flavour, we opted for the Ben and Jerry’s down the road.

Navajo Joe’s restaurant was a pretty depressing display of the most minimal effort in menu and maximum in cheesy decorating for an attempt at a Mexican restaurant in one of the most tourist-laden parts of London. I’m sure it does quite well. I had a fantastic night out with my friends, got a pretty tasty dinner in the process but if I ever decide that I want another Tex-Mex meal here in London, I’m just going to have to keep looking.

Navajo Joe’s
www.navajojoe.co.uk

34 King Street
London, WC2
020 72404008