Kol

Kol is the first restaurant from Mexican chef Santiago Lastra, set in the former Marylebone police station on Seymour Street. It won a Michelin star in 2022, has retained it since, and entered the World's 50 Best Restaurants list, working under the banner 'Mexican soul, British ingredients' — overlaying Mexican technique and heritage onto hyper-seasonal British produce. It is the only Mexican restaurant in the UK to hold a Michelin star.

Below the dining room sits the Mezcaleria, an atmospheric stone-walled basement bar built as Lastra's homage to Mexico's mezcal bars and run by head bartender Maxim Schulte, previously head bartender at the American Bar. The bar works in synergy with the kitchen, incorporating trimmings from the food menu into its drinks. For anyone not drinking, that means a beetroot-and-hibiscus agua fresca made from those trimmings, plus classic Mexican non-alcoholic options — an in-house horchata and an agua fresca — crafted with the same attention as the alcoholic list rather than treated as an afterthought.

The pairing of a Michelin kitchen and a serious cocktail team makes the zero-proof drinks here more considered than most restaurant soft-drink menus, even if the alcohol-free selection remains a handful of builds rather than a full printed list. The room itself is a compelling, low-lit space of stone walls and succulents, with an antojitos small-plates menu alongside the drinks.