London's Rising Star Chef, Santiago Lastra, Shares Culinary Gems
Meet the chef behind the 23rd-best restaurant in the world
The Relisher is where the world's top chefs reveal their favorite spots in their home cities. This week, we spoke with Santiago Lastra, the chef and co-owner of KOL, a one-Michelin-starred restaurant in London ranked 23rd among the world's best. He's also set to open Fonda later this year.
Originally from Mexico, Chef Santiago honed his skills at Europe's leading dining establishments, including Mugaritz in San Sebastian. However, the career-defining moment that solidified his position as one of the world's most promising chefs came when René Redzepi of Noma in Copenhagen selected him to lead the Noma Pop-up in Tulum, Mexico.
In 2020, Chef Santiago opened KOL, which blends Mexican cuisine with British ingredients, and in less than 2.5 years, it earned a spot on the World's 50 Best Restaurants list. Below, London’s most exciting chef shares his favorite restaurants.
The Best Coffee & Pastry Shops in London
My favorite bakery in town is Pophams Bakery, an all-day kind of place. You can come here in the morning for coffee and pastries, or grab a sandwich/fresh pasta for either lunch or dinner. Everything here, from the coffee to the pastries and sandwiches, is truly amazing.
At the moment, I love their beautiful rhubarb pastry — it's an unbelievably good pastry as you can feel the freshness of the fruit. It's as if they picked it this morning. I like to have it with a flat white coffee. If I visit for lunch, I'll order the cheddar sandwich with the sourdough bread. I adore their sourdough bread — how they make it is pure magic and elevates the sandwich. For me, it's worth the trip to Pophams just for this bread.
Omotesando Koffee is the best coffee in London. It's a relatively new coffee shop chain from Japan with branches in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, and London. The coffee shop has a minimalist design and has a deeper professional medical vibe to it, where the baristas wear lab coats, and their utensils include test tubes. I recommend ordering the pour-over coffee; it's absolutely delicious, and you can really taste the coffee beans.
Fine Dining: Innovative West African, High-End Chinese, and Exceptional Omakase
When it comes to special occasion dining, I have three favorites. I love Ikoyi (two-Michelin-stars) for its highly inventive flavor combinations that are truly outside the box and unique. While many restaurants offer similar dishes and flavor combinations like lemon, butter, and parsley, Ikoyi's constantly changing and hyper-seasonal tasting menu keeps things fresh and exciting.
My favorite dish, the Jollof rice — a spicy West African rice dish mixed with lobster or other seafood — is always on the menu with different variations or sides. Another standout is the scallops with spicy peanut sauce, and the desserts are also excellent. The spectacular ambiance further enhances the interesting dining experience, as the restaurant was designed by the same firm that designed Noma in Copenhagen.
Another favorite is A.Wong boasting two-Michelin-stars. It was a Chinese restaurant for many years, and the founder's son, Andrew, took the restaurant's roots and transformed it into a Michelin-starred establishment. They serve a dim sum menu at lunch (which is truly some of the best dim sum in the world), and a tasting menu in the evening. Everything here is made by hand, with the highest quality ingredients, and you can really feel the amount of work and dedication that goes into every dish.
I think that Chinese cuisine is similar to Mexican in the sense that it’s quite underrated, as people think of it as just street food, and it's difficult to present it in a high-quality, elevated way. A.Wong perfectly breaks this stigma.
I adore Japan and everything Japanese, so naturally, one of my top three favorite restaurants would have to be Japanese. And so, my favorite is Endo at the Rotunda (one-Michelin-star). I came here for the Omakase, and it turned out to be probably the best meal I had in the last year. The incredibly friendly chef takes the time to explain the history and unique ingredients of each dish. He blends super high-quality ingredients sourced from Japan and Britain's top suppliers with traditional Japanese techniques to craft the tasting menu.
During my last visit, I began with sparkling sake followed by different varieties of sake to complement each course, and finished with amazing Japanese whiskey. I think this is a way to elevate an already sublime experience.
Casual Restaurants: A Portuguese Gem, Progressive Thai, and the Best Wine List in London
Among my favorite restaurants in London that I visit on a regular basis is Lisboeta, a modern Portuguese restaurant helmed by one of the world's best Portuguese chefs. What makes it truly special, apart from the incredible ingredients, is their modern approach to traditional Portuguese dishes, making them better than the original versions.
For example, they serve incredible Carabinero prawns (the vibrant red, massive prawns typically only seen in movies or magazines) that are incredibly sweet and absolutely delicious. The skillful chefs cook these prawns over an open flame with this untraditional garlic sauce, creating an unbelievable flavor. For dessert, their pastel de nata (the traditional Portuguese custard tart) is the best in London. Another must-try dish is the egg yolk cake with its vanilla-like flavor that’s cooked on the outside but raw center.
Another one of my regular spots is Kiln, a progressive Thai restaurant located in the heart of Soho. I love sitting at the counter to watch the chefs cook dishes over an open fire. My go-to orders are the Thai salad, chicken thighs, or the mackerel fish with spicy noodles. To complement the cuisine, I'll often opt for an orange wine – a skin-contact white where the grape skins are left on during production, unlike typical whites. Enjoying orange wine at a Thai restaurant is a quintessentially London experience.
For excellent traditional British cuisine with a touch of French inspiration, I love Noble Rot, which has three locations across London. They also boast one of the best wine lists in the city. A personal favorite dish is the langoustine from Scotland – it has the perfect balance of lemon and mayonnaise, simply amazing. And in terms of wines at the moment, I'm particularly enjoying the Gravner, Pignolo 'Breg' from Friuli, Italy – a stellar dry red vintage from 2007.
Quick Bites: The Freshest Udon Noodles, Best Hummus in London, and a Pasta Mecca
Koya serves the best udon noodles in London. The noodles are handmade using very high-quality, seasonal ingredients, and so this place truly shines given that many udon places serve frozen noodles. Depending on my mood, I typically order either pork or duck udon. They also offer special seasonal dishes, like the current amazing dish of mussels with wild garlic and miso. Adding to Koya’s authenticity, most of the staff are Japanese and are very warm.
I personally really like vegetables, and if you’re a vegetarian, you must visit Bubala, a Middle Eastern restaurant with two locations (one in SoHo and one that’s close to Liverpool Street). I like that you can either make a quick meal or take your time here. I also find the dishes to be super inventive, yet not very expensive. Their hummus is the best hummus in London, while I typically order it with chickpeas, they also offer a baba ganoush version with eggplant that’s delicious.
If I'm craving pasta, my go-to spot is Padella, which in my opinion, has raised the standards of pasta in London. The pasta is handmade, with exceptional quality, and you can truly taste the freshness of the ingredients. My favorite dish is the lemon and crab pasta, and I also adore their sourdough bread.
A Taste of Japan in London
Japanese Knife Company is a gorgeous store that specializes in Japanese utensils like beautiful tea ceremony cups and pots, table mats, and more. As previously mentioned, I love all things from Japan, and I am particularly obsessed with Japanese utensils. So it's something that I like to treat myself to once a month. Also, when I want to buy a gift for someone, this is where I go — it's just perfect for giving gifts to people.
Three Favorite Restaurants in The World
This is a super difficult question to answer. For now, my favorite are:
Noma in Copenhagen, Hiša Franko in Slovenia, and Quintonil in Mexico City.
Thanks for reading — Gabrielle
THE DETAILS
HERE is the Google map link.
COFFEE & PASTRIES
FINE DINING RESTAURANTS
Ikoyi $$$$
A.Wong $$$$
Endo at the Rotunda $$$$
CASUAL RESTAURANTS
QUICK BITE RESTAURANTS
BOUTIQUE