Bocadito

A new concept by the Bar Estillo group, Bocadito opened its doors about a year ago in Esher. Slowly becoming a spot for good eats and food, Esher is certainly welcoming interesting concepts to its main High Street area. However, that’s about as glowing a review as I can give Bocadito.
It was absolutely hopping when we walked in, dim lights, with rather shabby chic décor greets you as you enter. Wooden shutters reminiscent of Paraty line the walls of the main bar, whilst salvaged wood clads the rest of the restaurant. It has a good buzz, likening the atmosphere to some of the most exciting London concepts.
We sit down to order and are intrigued by the somewhat Latin American fusion menu. Green beans with hazelnuts? Chicken Fajita Pizzas? This isn’t looking very promising… We finally settle on the Pulled Pork Quesadillas, Yukatan (yes, this was forcibly misspelled) Chicken Tacos, the Green beans with Hazelnuts and Trio fries (Potato, Cassava and Sweet Potato). It seemed like just enough, but beware portion sizes here aren’t tiny — which isn’t a bad thing if the quality comes with it too.
All in all, the food was ok, not great. The quesadilla was large, almost pizza like, with a lot of cheese. and looked very filling just from the start. As you dig into the quesadillas, gooey cheese doesn’t quite ooze out the already sliced portions. It’s a rather firm, cheese which feels like it’s more effort to eat than it should. The pulled pork itself is rather bland, but the paprika salt scattered on top of the entire quesadilla was all the palette could be reminded of. I’d rather layers of slight flavor than overpowering in one aspect and lacking in others. The tacos were at least a little bit more edible, and had a green chile sauce with fresh sliced veg as an accompaniment. Overall, it felt fresh, but I hate to say it, but Wahaca definitely has better overall tacos and for cheaper. Wahaca’s just feel more thought through, and have a market freshness to them that Bocadito tries, but doesn’t quite pull off as well.
We had the green beans as well, which arrived on a 4″ skillet. The skillet was cold to the touch which cries style over substance. The beans themselves were nice, but the smoked chilli butter and hazelnuts didn’t scintillate, Unique, but confused. The trio of fries were, well, fries.
Overall, it’s a nice atmosphere with middling food. Would I come back? Probably not. Better pubs and restaurants near by. I’d rather head to the Cote Brasserie up the street even though it’s a chain.