London isn’t short on excellent restaurants serving up creative, innovative and wacky dishes. But sometimes you just want a classic, something you can guarantee will be good. Something you might – whisper it – even queue for. Think Padella’s pici cacio e pepe, Quo Vadis’s smoked eel sandwich and Gloria’s Incomparable Lemon Pie. These are London’s hype dishes – and in this series, we’ll be dissecting what goes into these much-loved creations.
Club Mexicana’s tofish taco is a thing of edible wizardry. The dish is founder Meriel Armitage’s vegan take on a Baja fish taco – it’s made with tofu but, somehow, tastes exactly like fish. It’s been on the menu since she launched around five years ago. Armitage says she still gets a kick out of watching non-vegans tuck in. ‘The best thing is seeing people who don’t know it’s vegan and they’re like: What?!’ As she opens the brand’s first permanent restaurant, in Soho, she talks us through this much-loved dish.
The tofu
‘The “tofish” is a mixture of tofu and potato flour, which gives it a flaky texture. It’s then wrapped in seaweed to create a fishy flavour. Seaweed can make anything fishy!’
The batter
‘We make a beer batter for the tofu. I’d love to use an east London craft beer but after loads of attempts, London Pride works best. It’s got that beery, malty flavour.’
The sauce
‘We make our own vegan mayo with soy milk and oil. We mix it with our chipotle oil, which has about five different Mexican chillies in it, but it’s easier just to call it chipotle!’
The extras
‘We keep it simple. A white-and-red cabbage slaw dressed in lime juice and coriander brings crunch, while the pico de gallo salsa gives a punch of freshness.’
The tortilla
‘They’ve got to be corn; flour tacos aren’t the same. The ones we use are handmade in London by these Mexican guys. They’re the most important bit of the dish.’
Kingly Court. £4 for one taco, £10 for three.