Inside Cometa, Carousel’s New & Permanent Mexican Restaurant

Since 2014, Carousel has built a cult following for its rotating chef residencies. Now brothers Ed and Ollie Templeton are putting down permanent roots with Cometa, a Mexican restaurant led by José Lizarralde Serralde in the kitchen. 

In First Sitting, we take you into the earliest services at London’s newest restaurant openings.  

Inside Cometa, Charlotte Street

The interiors at Cometa were designed in-house by the Templeton brothers

The Scene

Fitzrovia’s Charlotte Street is almost an overwhelm of excellent restaurants – many of which are Michelin-listed, Bib Gourmand or starred – with nary a breather between them. Carousel is a gem amongst them with its residency-first dining approach. Following extensive renovation of the wine bar, Cometa is their first permanent play here. 

The brothers took on the redesign themselves, and the result is an atmospheric dining room compartmentalised by large booths. Blue metal trough pendants hang low overhead – casting the tables in a moody light, only undercut by a strikingly cool contemporary Afrocuban playlist – while a bar runs the length of the back wall. Behind this bar sits a kaleidoscope of mezcal and tequila bottles. The rest of the walls are minimalist brick, painted white, trailing colourful artworks from American painter Todd Bienvenu.  

The Drinks

Though the wine bar is history, there is no love lost for a good wine list at Cometa. There remains a tight curation of red, white, rosé and orange wine, by the glass, but it’s the tequila and mezcal-based drinks that really shine. The menu has three margaritas – the house, the classic and the spicy, though they might as well just have one, as chilli-hued trays meander by at increasing frequency throughout the night’s service. There are twists on classic cocktails, too. The Cometa Martini is a 60:40 gin to vodka martini with the gin distilled in the smokier stylings of a mezcal. At a sip, it’s crisp and not overly botanical; orange bitters take it back to Mexico. The drinks arrive on attractive mats in shades of summer colour, with chatty bartenders in tow. 

Scallop and aguacahile tiradito

The Food

Expect dinner to take you from crudos (raw and cured nibbles) and otros (table starters) to platos (grilled goods) and postres (your sweet outro). You’ll need group consensus – it’s a small plate concept – but there’s no real risk of going wrong here. Everything is pleasingly colourful. The scallops come with their sunstone coral, served in a pooling ruby red guacachile tiradito sauce; the sea bream, with its incredibly moreish sesame sauce, is accompanied by tostaditos the colour of ash.   

Grilled lobster with chintextle and smoked butter

The hero dish is no doubt its crab chilpachole rice. This is a rich and smoky seafood stew that brings a slow heat, countered by a dollop of smoked eel cream at its centre. A close second is the chintextle grilled lobster in a seafoam of smoked butter; between the two you’ll want to order the chips to mop up various sauces. Like the overhead playlist, these dishes swerve pastiches of Mexican culture or cuisine by feeling a bit more specific and regionally rooted – there’s nothing obvious on the menu (and definitely no sombrero-donning a la Chiquito), and it asks some trust of diners less familiar with the territory. 

Citrus bonanza

Desserts are fabulous, and the citrus bonanza is a feat of vitamin C which layers flakes of sorbet atop a creamier buttermilk icecream with a sharp bergamot curd. The pacing by which you get to dessert is well-pitched and totally relaxed. It’s notable, too, that Cometa’s menu is relatively carb-light and, barring maybe the chips – which are very good – there’s very little to leave you feeling sleepy by the end of the meal. Leaving room for one last margarita.

Now open at 19-23 Charlotte Street, London W1T 1RL. Starters from £16.50, sharing plates range from £16-60, desserts from £9. Book via opentable.com