Lucia’s

The only way to secure a seat at this tiny Mexican restaurant is to put down your name at the door – owner Jo Kurdi will pencil you into his book and give you a bell when your table is ready. He estimated we’d have to wait an hour for a spot – and we did. Nearby microbreweries Howling Hops and Crate are good, if noisy, places to kill time. Once you're in, drinks come quickly as you perch on stools at the counter in front of the glowing charcoal grill. There's a choice of paloma cocktails (mezcal or tequila... name your poison), as well as bottled beer or a Mexican soda. 

The menu is split into tacos and tostadas, ‘plates’ and ‘cuts’. Beef barbacoa tacos are juicy and piping hot, the tender meat and soft corn tortillas garnished with coriander, lime wedges and chopped white onion. Tostadas are contrastingly crunchy, loaded with plentiful sweet white crab and fresh tomato salsa. The ribeye is all gone, so we accept another wait for a pork chop – a whopping great thing for a bargainous £25. It’s cooked just past blush-pink – we should have reached over and pulled it off the coals ourselves – but it’s tremendous meat, served with the bone, for caveman-style chewing. You probably won't have room for pudding, but a pair of dark chocolate chilli truffles should satisfy any sweet cravings. 

We don’t know who Lucia is – the restaurant’s website and social media reveal the bare minimum – but judging by the food that’s cooked in her name, we think we’d get on.