Molé Taco Bar

Tucked away from the bustle of Oxford Street and around the corner from Selfridge’s, Mole Taco Bar is perfectly situated for refuelling.
Stepping inside on a Sunday evening, the venue was roomy, spread across two dining areas. The tables were amply spaced, giving diners a generous level of intimacy. The ambiance is clean and contemporary– styled as industrial chic– with a casual atmosphere. The serving staff were chirpy, cool and obliging.
Being a taco bar, the ideal way of dining is in small, sharing portions. Dishes take inspiration from Mexico and South America, offering ceviche and grilled skewers in addition to the sundry taco selection. Tacos range from classic flavours of Baja fish, chicken tinga and cochinita pibil, to more modern infusions of roasted lamb shoulder, hoisin duck and beef short rib. Each is priced at a reasonable £7 and arrives as a pair. They are generously portioned, poised on a corn tortilla and artfully presented with vibrant layers of fresh ingredients. The vivid purple hue of jalapeño slaw that accompanied the fish tacos jumped from the plate. The short rib tacos were equally as pleasing on the eye, posing as sticky meat crowned with a nest of sweet potato hay.
Although the tacos are undoubtedly the highlight of the menu, the in-​house guacamole has tremendous merit: paired with crispy corn chips, it’s a perfect balance of flavour and texture. Roughly mashed avocado chunks are balanced with zesty lime and pomegranate seeds are folded in to provide the occasional burst of sweetness; it’s a delicious twist on a classic. It also acts as a perfect foil to the excellent pisco sour.
We also ordered the mixed ceviche of octopus, sea bass, mussels and avocado– a cocktail of seafood that arrived steeped in black squid ink, leaving everything stained with grey. Although a scattering of micro herbs gave it some vivacity, it isn’t the most visually enticing dish. Despite this, everything was nicely dressed with the acidity of lime. Be warned: the inky residue made it a precarious choice for a white shirt and left a pool of ink on every plate it touched!
The ancho garlic king prawns were a highpoint. Assembled as a ring of succulent prawns roasted in an ancho mix, which lent them a smoky heat, they sat on a corn tortilla base. We also ordered a side of patatas bravas, arriving as a heaped portion of golden roasted potatoes drizzled with a zingy cream sauce, liberally tossed in oil and herbs.
Disregarding our aching stomachs, we indulged in the deconstructed cheesecake for dessert. It was presented as a cornet of shocking pink upon scattered crumbs. Upon ordering, we were advised that it was mango flavour, so the colour baffled us– thankfully, it turned out that it was blackcurrant! Despite this, it was an easily palatable texture of a whipped mousse. My only complaint was that it was stingy on the crumb base (crucial to every good cheesecake).
Mole Taco Bar offers a chilled out haven just feet away from shopping pandemonium. For a respite, the guacamole and chips can’t be beat and the tacos are great to share if you’re feeling more than peckish. Be careful, though– we left fit to burst and yearning for only a siesta, not more shopping.

I’m from California and love Mexican food. Only including this fact because there’s plenty of Mexican restaurants there. This is by far the best Mexican restaurant I’ve ever been too! Please go and get the guac, chicken and fish tacos. They will not disappoint. Can’t wait to go back!

Mole is a relatively new opening by Bond Street, and my friends and I decided to come for dinner before walking around the area for Lumiere London. For a quick bite, it was perfect. We ordered the large guacamole to start, and we got a heaping mound of guacamole with big chunks of avocado and interestingly enough, pomegranate seeds that we rather liked as an unusual twist. There was so much guacamole that we had to get a second order of chips (£1 pound extra). We were recommended to get 2 plates per person, so my friend and I split the soft shell crab and roast duck tacos. You get two tacos on each plate and it’s a small sized taco (I think the same size as Wahaca) but there is approximately twice as much filling in it than you need, so each time I removed half of it so that I could actually wrap the taco and eat it properly. Both were delicious though! We also got baby squid that came with an amazing Serrano cream — not sure what that is, but I like it! There were so many pieces of squid… the description doesn’t say that it is fried, but it was basically like calamari. And lastly we got the pork belly skewers that actually weren’t as rich and fatty as I expected. I think it could have used a sauce. As we split the four dishes between the two of us, my friend and I both thought the last dish may not have been necessary, given that we had gotten the guacamole to start and we were pretty full by that point. Our vegetarian friend got the cheese empanadas and the patatas bravas, and said both were very good. This is a nice Mexican restaurant channeling the same type of vibe as Wahaca, but in a less chain-​y setting. The food was great and most of the dishes came decorated with purple edible flowers, which is a nice touch. It’s not what you would think when you hear «taco bar» — it’s actually much more upscale than it sounds!