Adriana Cavita to open first restaurant in London

Mexican chef Adriana Cavita is opening her first restaurant in the UK this November in London’s Marylebone.

The 70-cover venue, called Cavita, will have an open fire kitchen with reclaimed wooden tables for couples and smaller groups, and communal dining at the chef's table. Downstairs there will be a mezcaleria, Mayahuel, and the bar will have its own dedicated entrance.

Cavita was inspired to enter the industry by her grandma, who owned a street food business. Cavita was apprenticed aged 17 at Nicos in Mexico City before her first full-time paid job at Pujol. She spent a year as a chef de partie at El Bulli in Spain and as a senior sous chef at Lalo in Mexico before moving to the UK in 2016 to work as head chef at Peyotito restaurants in both London and Ibiza for three years.

At the restaurant there will be a strong ‘street food’ focus, drawing on culinary traditions from across Mexico, including a range of tacos such as baja fish, ‘pastor’ presa ibérica and cochinita pibil, alongside tetelas (triangular corn masa filled with blue corn and roasted pink fir potato) and calabacitas (smoked fresh corn with courgette, tomato and morita sauce).

Larger plates will be based around a selection of moles, such as pollo al carbon (chargrilled corn-fed chicken, verde mole with tomatillo and roasted poblano), carne a las brasas (dry aged bone-in ribeye, amarillito mole of Guajillo chilli and mixed spices from Oaxaca) and Puerto Nuevo lobster with ajillo sauce. Sides will include heirloom tomatoes with macha sauce, avocado, grilled nopales or spicy pickled vegetables.

Desserts will be based around corn and chocolate, with a traditional corn cake served with salted caramel ice-cream, strawberries and dulce de leche, and a Mexican chocolate cake with honeycomb ice-cream and cinnamon cream cheese.

The bar will also serve antojitos (Mexican snacking plates) like tuna tostada and esquites, a Mexican corn salad with chicken broth, jalapeño mayo and Applebey’s Cheshire cheese, with the option to add bone marrow.