The Westbourne Grove restaurant will close next week (23 February) after 20 years of trading and reopen early next month as TAQ.
The restaurant will have a new identity and menu that reflects the fact that “London’s taco culture has vastly improved in recent years, while Taqueria’s offering has stayed largely the same”.
The team reached out to Boxer last year, having seen the success he’d had relaunching his Notting Hill restaurant Orasay as the more casual Dove.
Jackson already knew Taqueria well, having had his first taco there when it opened, and still occasionally dropping in for lunch with his team from Dove.
“Taqueria already had an amazing team with huge potential – it just needed an exciting new offering and identity to breathe new life into the place,” Jackson says. “Knowing that my good friend Eduardo was looking for a new project, it made perfect sense to bring them together.”
Yishima is a graduate of the Instituto Mexicano de Gastronomía and has worked across Mexico and London, including developing the menu for CDMX Tacos in Soho and working as sous chef at Side Hustle at The NoMad.
He has also collaborated on a range of Mexican restaurant projects across the city, supporting menu development, openings and kitchen operations.
He joins TAQ as culinary director, leading development of the new menu, with Jackson and the Dove team providing mentorship and support.
The current Taqueria team, including chef Elias Marin and managers Milton Vazquez and Natalia Patino, will continue in their roles at TAQ.
TAQ will be grounded in a simple proposition: fresh, hot tortillas topped with high-quality grilled meat and salsa, cold beers and great-value margaritas.
Eduardo’s menu is centred around staples – tacos, tostadas and quesadillas – alongside inventive blackboard specials.
These include a fish torta, a Mexican interpretation of Yishima’s favourite snack from the old Orasay menu, the fish bun, as well as his riff on the famous Dove cheeseburger, reimagined in taco form.
Highlights from the core menu include tacos filled with the likes of tempura fish and macha mayo, or freshly grilled chuck steak with beef fat and matchstick fries; crisp fried tostadas topped with tuna, guac and macha mayo, or chicken with frijoles, green mole, sesame and verdura; and quesadillas stuffed with cheese and carnitas, mushroom or chorizo.
The menu is rounded out by snacks and sides such as chorizo and jalapeño croquetas; shrimp taco dorados; guacamole and totopos; and TAQ tostaditos – chips seasoned with a house spice blend of annatto and smoked peppers, topped with carnitas, salsa verde, crema and verdura.
A tightly focused drinks list will include £10 classic margaritas, palomas and mezcalitas, as well as Mexican lagers, micheladas and a short wine list of “fun, approachable bottles”.