Please note, Comensal has now closed. Time Out Food editors, JANUARY 2020.
Abbeville Road has no shortage of smart, mid-priced dining options, but most of them lack the va-va-voom of Clapham’s many lively bars. Comensal aims to change that, and bridge the gap between post-college drinkers and mortgaged coupledom. The bar at the front spill onto the street through open doors; more intimate tables beckon within. The service is friendly and engaging. But on our visit, we found the ‘contemporary’ Mexican food disappointing. The ingredients were fresh, the dish presentation pretty; it’s just that the flavours were bland and so-what, not that far removed from the sort of easy bites you can find in a score of burrito joints around the capital. One dish you won’t find in a burrito bar though is ceviche; but the version here of the citrus-cured fish tended towards tame, despite the promise of chipotle oil on the menu. The nopalitos taco, made using cactus, was so undistinguished they might as well have used pickled jalapenos instead to give the dish some more interest. Even as a bar it was still finding its feet on our visit: a margarita cocktail was inexpertly made, the salt unevenly slopped around the rim. All this might be forgivable in a budget Mexican theme bar, but Comensal has aspirations – and prices – which it didn’t quite live up to.