There was a time when the Hollywood set couldn’t stop opening restaurants. From Dino’s Lodge in Hollywood (Dean Martin) to Langan’s in Mayfair (Michael Caine) and with an honourable mention for Mickey Rooney’s apocryphal Potato Fantasy, there was a hallowed, edible era in which getting kitchen with adjoining banquette seating was second only to scoring an Academy Award.
Danny Trejo – everyone’s favourite B-movie mercenary/psychopath/assassin – picked up the baton in his native Los Angeles in 2016, when he opened the first branch of Trejo’s Tacos. Wildly successful, even Anthony Bourdain was a fan, it was followed by a handful of outlets across the city, including a donut shop and larger cantina space. Almost a decade later – and with Danny about to turn the grand old age of 80 – his concept has taken a leap across the pond, settling on Portobello Road.
Trejo’s Hollywood heritage is played upon lightly here. Sure, his beaming face decorates the hoarding and he gleefully brandishes a machete in a window-etching, but inside we’re in much more trad Mexican restaurant territory, complete with a mini cactus garden and southwestern scatter cushions.
At Trejo’s Tacos beverages are just as, if not more, important than the food. Despite the fact that Trejo himself has been sober for over half a century, this is a drinking spot, with a long tequila-stacked bar everyone has to pass before getting to the restaurant proper. The first page of the menu is dedicated as much to cocktails as it is chips with dips, nachos, tostadas and quesadillas. Here, margaritas come all manner of ways, infused with jalapenos, cucumber and cilantro (that’s coriander to us Brits) and with a spiced Tajin rim, and there are lavender palomas, pineapple picantes and horchata with mezcal.
Food comes largely on, or with, flour tortillas – there are a lot of tortillas – from the titular tacos to the entrees, including whole chargrilled sea bass to ribeye steak. The taco menu seems to be largely the same as the US one, with OG Beer battered fish, carnitas, steak asada and roasted cauliflower options, and, in a small nod to homegrown cuisine, a chicken tikka option.