Decimo, London: Mexican meets Spanish in this achingly cool restaurant

To Molly Codyre, Decimo is the kind of wonderful place that only makes sense in a city as eccentric as London

The Mexican-meets-Spanish menu felt perfectly fused, rather than serving as an incongruous mishmash of cuisines (Molly Codyre)

As someone who loves food and who has recently started writing about restaurants, I get asked relentlessly for dining recommendations in London. I always find it an impossible question because to me it’s about so much more than just a good meal. Where in the city are you going? Do you want vibrant and bustling or quietly dripping with romance? Are you vegan? I have tried to compile a list of tried and tested favourites, but perhaps I should start directing people to my author section on the Independent. It is starting to become something of a highlight reel; places I have dined at and loved.

As someone fairly fresh in the business of critiquing restaurants, it feels audacious to tear a restaurant down. And so I have been playing it safe, picking places I think I’m probably going to like based on research and hoping for the best. Decimo, however, was different. It possesses two things that always make me hesitant about a restaurant, the two h’s: height and hotel. As a general rule, I believe restaurants more than two floors above ground level tend to sack off the food, instead choosing to capitalise off grand views. Equally, places in hotels tend to feel a little sad, drooping under the weight of freshly pressed tablecloths and filled with disinterested diners. Decimo, however, has forced me to eat my words, it is now likely to join the ranks of restaurants I offer glowing praise – the snarky comments will have to wait another week.

Housed on the top floor of The Standard hotel, you arrive at Decimo via a cherry-red, pill-shaped lift attached to the building’s exterior which whisks you at such a speed that you arrive on the 10th floor a little bleary and blinking eyed, wondering if you were accidentally transported, Jeff Bezos-style, to another planet. The interiors are otherworldly and achingly cool, elevated further by the almost impossibly lithe and good looking staff draped in beige uniforms that wouldn’t look amiss in a dystopian TV show – did their recruitment process involve consulting the books of all nearby modelling agencies?

We started with a selection of snacks. Creamy, lightly spiced guacamole served with homemade tortilla chips; Golden croquetas, marinated red peppers and a hunk of olive-oil doused sourdough (Molly Codyre)

The clientele weren’t much different. On the day we visited there was a live band playing – more on that later – and a few of the guests seemed to be friends or family of the musicians. I had already mentally written a BBC Three drama based on their lives before our main courses had even been set down. Despite being surrounded by beautiful people, in an impossibly beautiful space, Decimo fails to be pretentious or terribly exclusive. It was simply – whisper it – fun. This is a place you could come and have a boozy night with friends, or bring visiting parents for lunch. Speaking of visitors – I'm keeping note, as this is the kind of place I would wholeheartedly recommend to any out-of-towners, being, as it is, the kind of restaurant that only makes sense in a city as eccentric as London.

The thing about Decimo, however, is that the food is actually good. It would be easy for them to capitalise off of the views, the vibes, and the vibrancy, but instead they’ve doubled down, ensuring a dining experience that’s on par with the rest of it – just make sure you visit when your bank account is feeling flush.

The Mexican-meets-Spanish menu felt perfectly fused, rather than serving as an incongruous mishmash of cuisines. We started with a selection of snacks. Creamy, lightly spiced guacamole that seemed to have been mixed through with some kind of soft cheese – goat, perhaps? Or a very subtle feta – was served with homemade tortilla chips that were expectedly crunchy but with a soft chewiness that gave them enough integrity to handle mounds of the dip without feeling like they were going to crack your teeth in two. Golden croquetas came like glistening nuggets, crisp outsides hiding an oozy inner of ham and cheese, rich and lip-smackingly good. The deceptively named “marinated red peppers” were in fact a smoky, sweet and tangy mound of macerated peppers, perfect when scooped up by a hunk of olive oil doused sourdough.

The Iberico pork skewers were salty, tender little mouthfuls, a true testament to the joy of a good cut of meat (Molly Codyre)

After an almost agonising decision-making process – did we need tacos? Would it be better to get another meat dish? How much is too much? Can we order it all? – we opted for the Baja fish taco – one enormous battered piece of fish, simply paired with white cabbage and aioli, each bite a big wallop of creamy, acid-spiked crunch – and the lamb – a dripping mess of shredded meat with pickled onions and jalapeno salsa, hoovered up in one delightful mouthful. The Iberico pork skewers were salty, tender little mouthfuls, a true testament to the joy of a good cut of meat. The typically simple Spanish tortilla was given an indulgent rework courtesy of the addition of red prawns. Cutting into the glistening disc revealed a golden inner oozing with tender potato slices, juicy prawns and caramelised onions, all held loosely together by its eggy sauce. It was jammy and delicately smoky thanks to the caramelisation of the onions, with the prawns adding a subtle depth of flavour.

The experience was soundtracked by South American-inspired jazz, courtesy of the aforementioned band, and the people watching provided enough entertainment to last hours (my guiltiest pleasure). A visit to Decimo will leave your wallet decidedly lighter, but dare I say it’s worth it. This is the sort of place to keep in your back pocket, using it to impress visitors or simply to mark a special occasion. You’ll leave well-fed and with a merriment that it takes somewhere particularly special to achieve.

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Counter culture

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