Vibrant Atmosphere Meets Lackluster Fare
Cafe Pacifico offers a vibrant atmosphere and exceptional cocktails, making it a delightful spot for socializing. The lively ambiance and friendly staff create an enjoyable dining experience.
Cafe Pacifico in Covent Garden offers a lively atmosphere with Mexican vibes and an extensive tequila selection. While cocktails impress, food falls short with lackluster seasoning and care evident in details like dry rice and wilting salad. Despite friendly staff and welcoming ambiance, food quality disappoints.
We showed up on the small side street in Covent Garden to a lively place. It felt convivial, the music giving Mexican vibes and the din of the diners giving you the feeling you were in a neighbourhood local, but Mexican. I liked the deep blue colour used to accent all the vibrant Mexican themed artwork, and the many shields hanging everywhere honouring those who had joined the 1000 Club, which our lovely host explained was a club you joined if you had a certain tequila. If you love tequila and mescaline this is the place to be. There’s a long line behind the bar of what I imagine must be every agave based spirit known to humanity. The cocktails celebrate tequila and mezcal, but don’t worry if. that’s not your tipple, there’s lots of other options. For drinks we tried the Picante Margarita, which had a lot of heat, so be warned it’s more than just a little chili on top. This drink is committed to it’s fire. We also had the Bru-Goni, a nix of mezcal and Campari, wonderfully smoky and complex as you’d imagine. My partner and I have this think about nachos. It seems there’s never enough cheese on them wherever we go in the U.K. So we had to see what their version was. And it turns out all the cheese that was missing everywhere else is on the nachos at Cafe Pacifico. The guacamole, which you have to order separately, was fresh with a nice garlic kick and reassuring lumps of avocado to let us know it wasn’t from a jar.
We tried the slow cooked short ribs and the prawn and fish tacos. The meat on the rib fell off the bone, and was doused in a cooked onion sauce, It’s served with tortillas, rice, black beans, shredded cabbage and a green salsa so you can assemble your own tacos or just eat the parts you like. Sadly, though it looked impressive the rice was dry, the meat lacked any seasoning to make it stand out, and the green salsa seems like it came out of a bottle.
The prawn and fish tacos were a bit better. The fish was lightly battered and nicely cooked, but the tacos were laid with a large chunk of pineapple that overpowered them. A pineapple salsa would have made sense, but I had to remove the large pieces to enjoy the rest of the tacos. The dish was also served with black beans and the green salsa, as well as what was a generous tenderleaf salad. I was looking forward to the salad until I recognised wilted greens in the mix, and had to resign to picking out a few reliable leaves before giving up.
Small details give me the feeling someone has given up. A visit to the toilets revealed peeling wallpaper, and the lack of care in the food. It’s a shame because the place has a great energy and the staff seem friendly.
While we were there they staff sang happy birthday to a table near us, and I appreciated the way the staff and the environment make you feel genuinely welcome. I’d pop by for drinks with friends on a night out, but wouldn’t count on the food to life your mood.
