La Perla

La Perla was another stop in the Tequila Tuesday adventures early in 2013. We received them as a recommendation from friends who decided to tag along that night, despite the recommenders never having attended a TT before, and having had La Perla for dinner just a few nights before.
We were a bit worried that bringing a big party in unexpected on a Tuesday night might be a problem, but luckily they had plenty of space and were able to put together a big table to fit everyone.
The service was wonderful – friendly and attentive but still not intrusive. Throughout the meal, we had a great time interacting with the main server who was checking how well we liked the food and checked how his recommendations were received.
The food itself was good, I had the first real chili I’ve been able to find in this city, and it was even the right level and kind of spicy. Everyone else’s food looked amazing, and the guacamole we all shared was fresh and tasty. Drinks were good too, with margaritas on par with any I’ve had.
Basically, a solid Mexican restaurant in an area becoming increasingly populated by them. I’d definitely recommend!

La Perla satisfies my weekly craving for mexican food. It’s hard to find semi-​decent mexican food in London and this little joint is just delightful.
I love their shrimp taco and chimichanga. A bit too much cheese on the nacho than I’m used to but one shall never complain about too much cheese on anything, so I’m not complaining. Would love it even more if they could add fish tacos on the menu.
oh yes, this place looks a bit hidden even though it’s smack on Charlotte street so I can openly enjoy my sneaky lunch boozy!

I’ve been here a couple of times. The vegetarian options aren’t
terribly exciting but they are well executed and it has a tequila flight
which is nice for those of us who haven’t had a chance to try much nice
tequila. It’s a pretty nice all rounder, the only reason why I
wouldn’t go there more often is because it’s not Lupita and Lupita is
only a short walk away.

This bar has so much potential, but sadly potential doesn’t win the race.
I didn’t eat here
nor did I stay for a second drink.
I shared a half pitcher of frozen margarita with two others.
It was cold, wet but wasn’t particularly satisfying. Quite bland (how do you make a bland marg?)
I think the bar itself is not too bad but it’s nothing super special.
Perhaps the food is good (I doubt) but I don’t think I’ll be back to try it.
Sorry La Perla, you didn’t leave a bad taste in my mouth, but then again you didn’t leave an impression on me at all.

For London, the Mexican here is not bad. I had the chimichanga and it was good enough. Friends had the fajitas and street tacos and all had nice things to say. The honey berry margarita was delicious. But I tend to judge a Mexican place on its guacamole and rice — both of which are a bit on the bland side. All in all, the food was fine, but won’t blow you away.

My favorite sit-​down Mexican place in London. Not super authentic, but run by a very friendly Canadian chap and always makes us feel welcome. A bucket of Coronas hits the spot for Friday lunch!

Tucked under the wing of the renovated Charlotte Street Hotel. It’s been around for a while, like the original Chez Gerard opposite, and is one third of a small Mexican chain in the capital.
The Picho and I start in the Latino style basement bar, boards displaying the top tequila tipplers of years gone by. We suck Sol and ruminate. Upstairs the space is small, rickety and crowded. Small bare tables fit together jigsaw-​like into the space. Old photos and advertising boards fill the walls. It’s authentic Mexican in a mid 70’s British way, where Alison Steadman and Felicity Kendal might have come for the exotic thrill of a taco post performance.
The menu is sparse and fairly obvious. Nacho chips and a spicy tomato dip arrive unbidden and are followed by a selection of chicken, duck and pulled beef quesadilla to share. The cheese oozing from the side puts them at the unhealthy side of hearty and it’s very much there to eat with your hands. Haute it is not, but nor is it pretending to be. They’re perfect following a couple of beers, but you struggle to identify which is which.
My main, a selection plate of street tacos is fine. You’d get more innovative flavours at Wahaca, but you’d have had to wait 45 minutes for a table too, so judge it that way. The corn tortillas come topped with spiced prawns (an unexpected hit of chilli heat), chicken and duck (shredded and a little indeterminate), beef sirloin, shredded beef and shredded chicken topped with coriander and onions, served with black beans and a selection of dips. The Picho went for a big bowl of *extra hot* chile con carne. It passed without comment, but this wasn’t food to occupy attention, but a fairly solid bite of faux-​Mex spice while catching up with a friend.

As far as Mexican in London goes, this place is not bad. But Mexican in London is getting much, much better, and so La Perla will need to try harder if it wants to keep with the competition.
On the plus side: free corn chips which are actually tasty and definitely not Doritos.
On the minus side: really mediocre black beans.
On the okay side: salsa with flavour if not enough spice.
Be warned, portions are on an American scale — bring your appetite.

After being out of your home space for a couple weeks it is nice to have something familiar — funny how some lime and tequilla will fill a void.
The margaritas are solid — none of that syrup crap — all fresh and very strong!
Pollo Los Altos (chicken mole) — just awesome! The mole was just a little sweet and was even more enjoyable when I through it in a tortilla with some blackbeans and rice.
Tommy Boy when with the street tacos — it is an array of small tacos with meat ranging from prawns to duck. It is served with various salsa. It was a fun dish that tasted as good as it looked.

This is one of my favorite places to go to around Charlotte Street, if not London. While I prefer their location in Covent Garden, this location tends to not get as busy, and has much more room to hang out without getting some suity Media-type’s elbows in your kidneys.
From strawberry margaritas to some of the finest tequila known to man, if you’re looking for an authentic Mexican experience, this is it. The food is delicious, the staff is always friendly and helpful, and the Happy Hour is THE MOST AWESOME THING IN THE WORLD after a hectic week.
This place is also good for groups of if you’re looking for a place to have birthday drinks!

I love La Perla, mainly because the service is always friendly and fast and it’s just always a great night out! We often arrange to meet friends here as we are always given a great welcome, the staff accommodate big parties well and it’s often quiet enough mid-​week not to be a nightmare for a group of people.
The food is obviously not like real Mexican food because that’s just not how it’s done in London. But for Tex-​Mex fare it’s pretty tasty and it seems like a lot of the sauces (guacamole and salsa etc) are all made fresh on the premises.
The drinks are excellent (my favourite is the vanilla daiquiri — 2 of those and I’m anyone’s!) and the mixes are always made fresh, in-​house — no pre-​made mixes in this establishment! Phew!
All in all a good reliable Mexican conveniently close to the centre of London. Do it…

I like reviewing Mexican restaurants.
Well, I like eating mexican and thinking about reviewing. This will be my first one.
Being english and pretty english means that I can make statements about mexican food without any way of backing them up. I am free of comparison and knowledge.
I am totally agnostic.
Or ignorant, whichev.
So anyway, I would say that La Perla is perhaps the least best mexican I have had in London. It isn’t bad, really. It ain’t good though.
I mean, I had to eat my nachos with a knife and fork and not just because I am a noob.
Service was a bit slow too, come to think of it.
If you are in the area, a little hungry and know exactly what to expect from mexican in london, go for it.
The one in covent garden is better though. In my opinion.

La Perla is a Mexican bar and restaurant, and while I am generally skeptical of Mexican food in London, I was prepared to give this a shot. Every table is provided with a bowl of chips and salsa for free, so they score a point automatically for that, and they get another point for actually having proper plain tortilla chips that aren’t stale. Pretty good for lunch, I’d go back again.

Granted I have not had a meal in the restaurant. I have only been to the downstairs bar and even then I only really ordered from the bar menu. The bar was pretty dead for a Tuesday night. It was only 8ish so I’m not sure where all of the people have gone. Our bartender was really friendly, a rarity in London. The bar has a bunch of stools in the front area but in the back there are plenty of tables. Since the place was pretty empty, it was ideal to hold a conversation. We were given free chips and salsa at our table. The chips were pretty standard but the salsa was actually really good. It was spicy and tasted fresh. We ordered a few taquitos. They were also really good and cost a fiver per plate. Overall it was a nice place to just sit with some drinks and have a chat. I would however like to go to the restaurant and have a proper meal.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me every single friggin’ time I attempt to stomach this so called «Mexican» food in London, shame shame shame on me. Pobre Laurita. :(
In fairness, food at La Perla is up to Cheveys, Azteca, El Torito standards, which is saying that it’s some of the «best» I’ve had. In other words, pretty bad. And yet, three stars. That’s telling of what we’re dealing with here, people.
But sometimes you’ve just gotta get a taste of your Mexican’t fix here in London, even if your order is completely bass-​ackwards and piled with what can only be described as Prego marinara sauce. Hell, serve me some bread sticks and we’ll make a fiesta out of it.
p. s. I believe that blended drinks are the devil’s business. There are no blenders involved in margarita making.

Fuelled by tasty half-​pitchers of margaritas, I mowed down my chicken burrito especiale. And I had no regrets. NO REGRETS! This is some of the better Mexican (ok Tex-​Mex) I’ve had here.
And you know, I really liked the dressing on salad. It had a little kick to it.
Also, our waitress was a sweetheart. (Didn’t hurt that she was American. I like to think we got that leeeetttle bit extra customer service because of it.)

well. now I’ve had mexican food in london. To be honest, I have not heard many good things about mexican food in this country so I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised. To start with, the menu was quite boring. All of the standard things you’d see at any mexican restaurant, almost as if they started from template of what a mexican restaurant’s menu should look like. Not much in the way of fish other than seafood fajitas and I was very surprised and confused by what they described as «creole salsa.» I suppose its a real sauce, but its definitely not mexican in origin.
I opted for the steak fajitas… a pretty simple dish that is relatively healthy and is generally good. I mean, even when I’m eating mexican food up at the ski resorts in california or at a chain like Chevys the fajitas are usually tasty and good. Not so here. The meat was chewy and not very well marinated — it was a bit flavorful on the outside, but they were cut very thick and the flavor hadn’t soaked throughout. The veggies were fine, but it was mostly just bell pepper and not enough onions (though I suppose other people were grateful for that minor favor!) It came with 4 tortillas which was good, but they weren’t very warm and certainly weren’t fresh. All in all, it was edible, but not something I would want to order again.
In addition to the fajitas I had ordered a large margarita. I think there was tequila in it but not sure — it was very weak. Fortunately they didn’t seem to use a sugary mix so it was quite sour which is how I like it. Would have been good if it were limeade but not enough tequila by my standards.
At the end of the day, the restaurant was overpriced, felt way too typical, boring menu, and to be honest, none of the dishes I saw around the table looked all that great. I would not recommend it, even if you haven’t had mexican before.
Hmm… this review makes me want to fly to Austin and eat at Chuys… :)

Wow. This place is great if you like your plate piled high with chopped tomatoes!
My happy hour margarita for £3.50 was small and didn’t pack a punch. It also tasted a little bit too acidic.
I ordered the ‘Street Tacos’ — well, these puppies must’ve been Kensington High Street, because for £13 there were a lot of chopped tomatoes and not much else (to put this into context, you can get 3 tacos piled high with delicious meaty goodness for $ 6 in SF).
The Street Tacos were 6 mini corn tacos: 2 prawn, 2 pork, 2 chicken. They came with 2 types of salsa and a little bowl of black beans. Each taco had one prawn, or one small chunk of meat and was covered in chopped tomatoes. The tomatoes made the tacos kinda soggy so they broke when I tried to pick them up. In nearly all of my previous taco-​tasting experience, the tacos have been served with 2 corn tacos on top of each other, which I think makes them more able to withstand the weight of the filling without breaking.
The super-​small size of the tacos also made it practically impossible to fold them in half to pick up and shovel into the mouth. To do this, I had to scrape off nearly all the chopped tomatoes.
The good thing was, that I felt my meal was a pretty healthy option, and it was nice and light, so I didn’t leave feeling all bloated like I often do when I go all out on Mexican food. When I had finished my meal, half of my plate was still covered in a pile of chopped tomatoes.
They also add on a 12.5% service charge, so for my margarita and my plate of chopped tomatoes, I ended up paying nearly £20. This is kinda steep methinks!

I have been to this tex-​mex restaurant a few times now and have always had a pleasant evening. The food is good, the service is great, and the bar is full of yummy cocktails.
I would say that the best options on the menu are the very very hot chilli con carne or if you are feeling very pekish, the chimi changa meal. This restaurant was opened by a friendly American who is often there himself and has served our table a couple of times. The bar specializes in tequilas and have an extensive cocktail list. This is a good location for a mid-​week meal which will leave you feeling very satisfied.

Last friday we had hoped to get into Wahaca but the queue was enormous so we went to La Perla not holding out much hope of getting a table but we got lucky as someone finished as we got there.
There is a great atmosphere as the pub attached was rammed full of people enjoying mexican beers and cocktails. It gives the place a great buzz. There are not too many tables to eat at but you can book. The kitchen is open which I quite like.
We started with margaritta’s which were excellent. So good that we reversed our idea to get some wine and stuck to the margaritta’s. The food was exellent and fairly large portions. We over ate because the food was good. The service was good although we battled to get our bill.
I would definately go back and eat there again.