A First-Look at the Brand New Santo Remedio

Mexican taqueria, “cantina and comedor”, Santo Remedio is one of this year’s most anticipated restaurant openings. Edson and Natalie Diaz-Fuentes’ are re-opening their restaurant in the second week of September, on Tooley Street near London Bridge. Widespread disappointment met the restaurant’s closure in Shoreditch last year. Excitement greeted their successful crowdfunding campaign earlier this year.

After nearly a year without a fixed location, they are back: Eater London was given an exclusive first look at the site, what Diaz-Fuentes describes as “the evolution of Santo Remedio.”

Laura James

The restaurant, over two floors, is bigger; the kitchen will have a greater capacity for Diaz-Fuentes to prepare a a much broader range of traditional Mexican dishes, from different regions of the country. The downstairs bar will have a small kitchen prep area for “guacamole, aguachiles, micheladas, margheritas, mescalitas and lots of local beers, from Bermondsey [famously with a high density of local breweries] and Hackney; no Corona this time.”

Laura James

One thing that is new to the site is a charcoal grill, which Diaz-Fuentes told Eater London will be used for “chicken, lamb cutlets, fish and octopus in achiote. It gives us more options so we can diversify our flavours coming our of the kitchen. Before we just had a gas grill. I’m excited to use this new piece of equipment,” he said. It will also mean that the new menu will have a small section devoted to al carbon — from the grill — “a few specials: tacos al carbon, pollo al carbon, chuletas al carbon — the blackboard will change as we decide what’s fresh, what we want to cook. I want to have the freedom to change things as we go. I don’t want a printed menu for two years,” he added.

Laura James