Club Mexicana Spitalfields London Review: The Vegan Mexican Restaurant Inside a Victorian Bank

Club Mexicana in Spitalfields is the fully vegan Mexican restaurant that took over a former Victorian bank on Commercial Street and turned it into one of the most photographed plant-based dining rooms in London, a 70-cover ground-floor restaurant where chef-founder Meriel Armitage has been serving birria tacos, fried ‘chick’n’ waffles, frozen piña coladas and mezcal cocktails since 2022. Armitage spent eight years building Club Mexicana as a pop-up and kitchen residency — first at Boxpark Shoreditch, then at The Spread Eagle Homerton, then through residencies at Dalston Superstore and the Old Truman Brewery — before the brand finally landed its own permanent site in Spitalfields. The result is the only fully vegan Mexican sit-down restaurant in central London, and one of the most committed examples of plant-based fast-casual cooking in the city. This Club Mexicana Spitalfields London review takes the room, the menu, the prices, the cocktails and the East-London context on their own terms, and sets them alongside every other vegan and vegetarian London restaurant we have covered, including Mildred’s Soho, Plates Shoreditch, Gauthier Soho, Holy Carrot, The Gate Hammersmith, Mallow, Stem & Glory, Tibits, Farmacy, Tofu Vegan, Ethos Fitzrovia, The Vurger Co Shoreditch, Itadaki Zen King’s Cross, 222 Vegan Cuisine Fulham, The Spread Eagle Homerton, What the Pitta! Camden, Bubala Spitalfields, Andu Cafe Dalston and Bonnington Cafe Vauxhall. If you want to know whether Club Mexicana’s much-talked-about Spitalfields restaurant lives up to the eight-year build-up, this is the read for you.

Table of Contents

• Why we’re reviewing Club Mexicana Spitalfields
• Club Mexicana Spitalfields at a glance
• Location and getting there
• First impressions and atmosphere
• The kitchen: chef and philosophy
• The menu: what to expect
• Cocktails, mezcal and beer
• Pricing and value for money
• Platform-by-platform review analysis
• What diners love most
• Areas for consideration
• Who is Club Mexicana Spitalfields best for?
• How Club Mexicana compares to other London vegan restaurants
• How to book and insider tips
• Club Mexicana Spitalfields London review: 10 FAQs
• London Reviews verdict
• Related London Reviews
• Summary rating table

Club Mexicana Spitalfields at a glance

Why we’re reviewing Club Mexicana Spitalfields

For most of the last decade, Club Mexicana lived as London’s most-cherished vegan pop-up. Meriel Armitage’s tacos, ribs and fried ‘chick’n’ moved between Boxpark Shoreditch, The Spread Eagle Homerton, Dalston Superstore and a handful of one-off residencies, building a fan base that travelled across the city to find it. Two years into the brand’s first permanent site, the question is whether the pop-up energy has survived the transition to a 70-cover restaurant. We wanted to test that on its own terms.

The second reason is the format. Club Mexicana Spitalfields is the only fully vegan Mexican sit-down restaurant in central London. The closest peers are the meat-led Mexican operators along the corridor from Brick Lane to Borough; the vegan counterparts elsewhere in the capital sit at the fast-casual end (a counter at Camden, a Boxpark Croydon site, a Brighton outpost). The Spitalfields restaurant is the first time the brand has had to operate as a proper sit-down dinner-and-cocktails destination, and the experiment deserves examination.

The third reason is the building. The Spitalfields site is housed in a former Victorian bank on Commercial Street — a building that has previously been a printing press and a HotBox barbecue restaurant — and the conversion has been one of the more talked-about East-London restaurant openings of the past three years. The room, the bar, the mirror-ball, the orange-and-blue interior have all been written about extensively. We wanted to test whether the space supports the food.

Location and getting there

Club Mexicana Spitalfields occupies the former HotBox site at 46–48 Commercial Street, on the East-London corridor that runs north from Aldgate East to Shoreditch High Street. The address is around the corner from Old Spitalfields Market and a short walk from the Brick Lane junction with Hanbury Street. Bubala Spitalfields, the vegetarian Middle Eastern restaurant we reviewed earlier in the week, is two minutes’ walk north on the same street.

By Tube, Aldgate East on the District and Hammersmith & City lines is the most useful station, three minutes’ walk south. Liverpool Street on the Central, Circle, Hammersmith & City, Metropolitan and Elizabeth lines is six minutes’ walk west via Norton Folgate. Shoreditch High Street on the Overground is seven minutes’ walk north. Aldgate on the Circle and Metropolitan lines is seven minutes’ walk south-west.

By bus, the 8, 25, 67, 78, 135, 149, 205 and 242 all stop within two minutes’ walk on Commercial Street, Aldgate or Whitechapel High Street. The 8 from Tottenham Court Road via Holborn is the most useful West-End connection; the 67 from Aldgate connects diners coming from north of the river.

By bike, two Santander Cycles docking stations on Commercial Street and Hanbury Street are both within two minutes’ walk. The Cycle Superhighway 2 runs east–west through Aldgate. Drivers face the usual central-London restrictions — Commercial Street sits inside both the Congestion Charge and ULEZ zones — and on-street parking is limited; the Q-Park Aldgate car park is the most useful paid option, six minutes’ walk away.

First impressions and atmosphere

The first thing you notice at Club Mexicana is the room. The Spitalfields site is housed in a former Victorian bank — high ceilings, exposed brick, original cornicing and a wide, generous floor plan — and the conversion has leaned into the bones rather than smoothing them over. Tables are pale plywood with steel legs; banquettes are upholstered in a deep orange; a long curved bar runs down one side, faced in royal blue tile; and a large mirror-ball hangs from the centre of the ceiling, picking up the warm pendant lighting and scattering small disco circles across the brickwork.

The aesthetic is part 1980s Mexico City nightclub, part East-London restaurant, part deliberate joke. Neon signage spells out the Club Mexicana name above the bar. Old-school Mexican lucha libre wrestling masks hang on one wall as a small reference to the founder’s love of the sport. The smell from the open kitchen — chargrilled jackfruit, frying tortillas, lime and chilli, frozen piña-colada syrup — pulls you in from the door.

The crowd is mixed and high-energy. Tuesday all-you-can-eat-tacos nights bring an early-evening student crowd; Friday and Saturday after 8pm bring a louder pre-bar crowd that often continues to Spitalfields Market or further into Shoreditch afterwards. Weekend brunch services are family-friendly with a higher proportion of pushchairs and small groups of friends. Service is youthful, properly trained on the menu, and unhurried.

The atmosphere is firmly in the modern East-London restaurant tradition. Music is loud and good — a soundtrack of Latin pop, cumbia, ska and reggaetón at a volume that makes a quiet conversation difficult after 8pm. For diners looking for high-energy plant-based dining, this is exactly the room. For diners looking for a candlelit conversation dinner, head to Bubala two minutes north instead.

The kitchen: chef and philosophy

Meriel Armitage launched Club Mexicana at Boxpark Shoreditch in 2014 as a vegan-Mexican pop-up. Over the next eight years she ran kitchen residencies across East London — at The Spread Eagle Homerton (the long-running vegan pub we reviewed earlier in the week), at Dalston Superstore, at the Old Truman Brewery — building a reputation for tacos and fried ‘chick’n’ that no other vegan operator in the country has matched. The permanent Spitalfields site opened in September 2022 and represented the brand’s biggest commercial bet.

Armitage’s kitchen philosophy is rooted in the same idea that has run through her career: plant-based food should taste as good as the meat versions it riffs on, and the right way to convince sceptical omnivores is to focus on flavour rather than virtue. The Spitalfields menu is therefore aggressive about umami, salt, acid and chilli — the four anchors of Mexican cooking — and uses plant proteins (jackfruit, seitan, oyster mushrooms, soya-based fried ‘chick’n’) in service of those flavours rather than as the point in themselves.

Cooking standards are tight. Tortillas — both corn and flour — are made on site daily from masa harina and water. The birria ‘beef’ brisket is slow-cooked for eight hours in a guajillo-and-ancho consommé. The fried ‘chick’n’ is soya-based and double-fried for the right shatter. The vegan queso is cashew-based and the vegan crema is coconut-based; both are made in-house. The kitchen sources tortillas, dried chillis and salsas from a small UK importer of Mexican ingredients.

Sustainability is wired in. Packaging for takeaway is compostable; the bar uses recycled glass tumblers; the wine list focuses on natural, organic Mexican and Spanish bottles; and the kitchen runs a strict no-imported-meat-substitutes policy that keeps the supply chain shorter than at most competitor vegan operations. Surplus is donated to a local food-rescue charity at the end of each service.

The menu: what to expect

The menu at Club Mexicana is fundamentally taco-led. Six taco varieties anchor the dinner offer, supplemented by a small list of plates, sides and snacks plus a separate weekend-brunch menu. Everything is vegan; allergens are clearly labelled.

The Birria Tacos are the dish to order first. Slow-cooked ‘beef’ brisket made from seitan and oyster mushroom is folded into a corn tortilla dipped in a guajillo-and-ancho consommé, topped with cashew queso, white onion and onion salsa, and served with a small bowl of the consommé for dipping. The dish has been on the menu since the Spitalfields opening and is the source of the brand’s reputation in 2026.

The Fried ‘Chick’n’ Tacos use soya-based double-fried ‘chick’n’, crunchy slaw, chipotle aioli and lime in a soft corn tortilla. The Carne Asada Tacos use marinated jackfruit, charred onion and a lime-and-coriander salsa. The Al Pastor Tacos are the rotating-spice option — adobo-marinated jackfruit and pineapple. Baja Fish-Style Tacos use a battered banana-blossom ‘fish’ with shredded cabbage and pickled jalapeño. The Veggie Taco rotates with the season — corn and courgette in summer, sweet potato and black bean in winter.

Beyond tacos, the kitchen runs a Fried ‘Chick’n’ and Waffles dish that has become one of its most-photographed plates — a generous fried ‘chick’n’ breast on a Belgian waffle drenched in chilli maple syrup. The Mexicana Fry Up on the weekend brunch menu builds the dish into a full plate with ‘chorizo’ sausages, roasted mushrooms, scrambled tofu, black beans, refried beans and a tortilla. Loaded Nachos with queso, jackfruit chilli, pickled jalapeños, guacamole and crema appear on most tables. Quesadillas with seitan and mushroom round out the larger-plate options.

Desserts are short. Churros with chocolate sauce is the bestseller; a tres-leches cake made with coconut and oat milk is the indulgent option; a vegan flan is the lighter close. Coffee is filter from a small East-London roaster; Mexican coffee, sweetened with piloncillo and finished with cinnamon, is the closing drink to order on a cold night.

Cocktails, mezcal and beer

The drinks programme is one of the strongest in vegan London. The cocktail list is built around mezcal, tequila and arak-style aniseed spirits. The Blanco Negroni is the bar’s most-ordered drink — a clear, refreshing twist on the Italian classic using blanco tequila in place of gin. The Mexicana Martini is chocolate-infused and dangerous after two. Margaritas are made with a house lime cordial; the spicy Tommy’s Margarita uses fresh jalapeño. The Frozen Piña Colada is the headline summer drink — coconut, pineapple, white rum, served in a hollowed-out pineapple half.

The mezcal selection is genuinely serious. Twenty-five different bottles from small Oaxacan producers, served as a flight (£18 for three 25ml pours) or by the glass (£8 to £18). The bar team is well-trained and will walk diners through the smoke, sweetness and agave variety of each. Tequila is similarly well-represented; the back bar holds around fifteen reposados and añejos.

Beer is Mexican and well-chosen. Pacifico Clara, Modelo Especial, Negra Modelo, Tecate and a Mexican craft IPA on draught. Wine is short and entirely natural — a Mexican red from Baja California, a Spanish Albariño, a Greek Assyrtiko, a Sicilian Frappato and a Catalan natural orange.

Non-alcoholic options are excellent. A Virgin Margarita with house lime cordial; a Hibiscus and Chilli cooler; a Tamarind Cooler; Karma Cola; Square Root sodas; Lyre’s alcohol-free tequila is stocked for diners who want an alcohol-free margarita that still tastes like one.

Pricing and value for money

Pricing at Club Mexicana sits in the middle of the East-London vegan range. Tacos are £4.50 to £6.50 each (typically three or four per person for dinner). Larger plates £12 to £18. The Mexicana Fry Up brunch is £14.50. Cocktails £10 to £13.50. Mezcal flights £18. The Tuesday All You Can Eat Tacos is £15 per head and runs from 5pm.

Compared with the East-London vegan dining scene, Club Mexicana is mid-priced. The Tuesday £15 all-you-can-eat-tacos is the standout value night and the right introduction for first-time visitors. Friday and Saturday evenings with cocktails are more expensive but in line with the better Spitalfields and Shoreditch operators of any cuisine.

Platform-by-platform review analysis

Club Mexicana Spitalfields sits in the upper bracket of every plant-based platform we checked. The picture is consistent across services and the food-quality conversation dominates the reviews.

Google Reviews: 4.6 / 5 from 900+ reviews. Praise focuses on the birria tacos, the fried ‘chick’n’ and waffles, the mezcal flight and the atmosphere. Criticisms cluster around the Friday-night noise level and the absence of vegetarian non-vegan options for mixed-dietary groups.

Resy: 4.6 / 5 from 400+ verified diners. The data here best represents the dinner experience: food 4.7, service 4.6, ambience 4.7, value 4.4.

Time Out London: a four-star recommendation since the Spitalfields opening, refreshed twice. Time Out’s most recent write-up describes the kitchen as “the most fun vegan dining in the capital”.

Hot Dinners: a long-running positive coverage; the magazine has followed the brand from its 2014 Boxpark pop-up through to the Spitalfields restaurant and has been consistently enthusiastic.

Eater London: featured in multiple year-end best-of lists.

Hardens and Square Meal: both list the Spitalfields site in their London guides.

Reddit r/london and r/VeganUK: cited in dozens of recommendation threads, particularly for the Tuesday all-you-can-eat tacos.

What diners love most

1. The birria tacos. The single most-praised dish across every platform. The slow-cooked seitan brisket, the consommé dip, the cashew queso — a dish that converts more sceptical omnivores than almost any other vegan plate in London.
2. The fried ‘chick’n’ and waffles. The brand’s signature non-taco dish; one of London’s most-photographed plant-based plates.
3. The Tuesday all-you-can-eat tacos for £15. Repeatedly described as one of the best-value vegan evenings in East London.
4. The mezcal programme. Twenty-five Oaxacan bottles is a serious commitment; the flight is the right introduction.
5. The room. The mirror-ball, the orange banquettes, the blue-tile bar, the converted-bank architecture — one of the most-photographed plant-based dining rooms in the capital.
6. The weekend brunch. The Mexicana Fry Up is widely described as the best vegan brunch in East London; the Bloody Maria is the right drink to order with it.
7. The kitchen’s attitude. Reviewers repeatedly mention that the kitchen does not treat plant-based cooking as a virtue exercise; the food is built for pleasure and the politics is in the small print.
8. The longevity of the brand. Eight years from the Boxpark pop-up to the Spitalfields permanent site is the kind of disciplined growth that newer operators rarely manage.

Areas for consideration

A fair Club Mexicana Spitalfields London review must record the recurring grumbles.

1. Friday and Saturday noise level. The high ceilings and hard surfaces amplify a packed room; conversation after 8pm at weekends can be difficult. Sit mid-week or at the early-evening sittings for a calmer meal.
2. No standard vegetarian-non-vegan option. Mixed-dietary groups where one diner is dairy-tolerant rather than vegan will find the menu uniformly plant-based; this is the point but is occasionally noted in reviews.
3. Tuesday all-you-can-eat tacos book up fast. The £15 set is the bargain, and the early sittings (5pm and 6pm) fill out within hours of release. Book at least a week ahead.
4. Some critic dissent. A small number of mainstream-press reviewers (notably The Picky Glutton in 2022) have written negatively about the kitchen’s flavour intensity; these are minority views but worth flagging for the curious.
5. Smaller-portion taco arithmetic. Three tacos for £15 sounds light on paper; in practice the tacos are properly built and four per head is the right dinner order. First-time visitors sometimes under-order.

Who is Club Mexicana Spitalfields best for?

The following lists pull together recurring themes from review data and our own visits.

✅ Tuesday-night diners who want the £15 all-you-can-eat-tacos value.
✅ Weekend-brunch fans who want a serious vegan fry-up.
✅ Pre-bar groups heading to Spitalfields Market, Brick Lane or Shoreditch.
✅ Cocktail-led diners who appreciate a serious mezcal programme.
✅ Kebab-curious omnivores who want to taste a vegan birria before committing an opinion.
✅ Mixed groups where everyone needs to be happy with a fully vegan menu.

⚠️ Quiet-restaurant lovers should look at Bubala Spitalfields or Itadaki Zen King’s Cross.
⚠️ Dairy-tolerant diners may find the strictly-vegan menu over-disciplined.
⚠️ Walk-ins on a Friday or Saturday evening may face a wait; book ahead.
⚠️ Diners who dislike chilli should ask for the wraps “mild” — most tacos can be adjusted, but the kitchen’s default is properly assertive.

How Club Mexicana compares to other London vegan restaurants

Club Mexicana is the only vegan Mexican sit-down restaurant in the comparison and the only one with a serious mezcal and cocktail programme. For diners who want tacos and a margarita rather than a kebab or a burger, it is essentially without competition in plant-based London.

How to book and insider tips

Bookings are available via Resy and the Club Mexicana website. For Tuesday all-you-can-eat-tacos, book at least a week ahead; the early sittings fill fastest. Weekend brunch sittings (Saturday 11am to 4pm and Sunday 11am to 4pm) also fill weeks in advance. Friday and Saturday dinners should be booked four to six weeks ahead.

For the smoothest visit, our insider tips are:

1. Book the Tuesday £15 all-you-can-eat tacos as the first-visit option — the easiest route to the kitchen’s range.
2. Order the birria tacos first. The brand’s flagship; the dish that converts the most sceptics.
3. Add the fried ‘chick’n’ and waffles to share. The headline non-taco plate.
4. Try the mezcal flight at least once. Three pours, a smoke-to-sweet progression, a small ceremony.
5. Order four tacos per head for dinner. Three feels light; five tips into uncomfortably full.
6. Sit at the bar if you are a solo diner. The team will walk you through the menu and the mezcal list.
7. Visit Saturday brunch for the Mexicana Fry Up. The dish to start a weekend with in Spitalfields.

Club Mexicana Spitalfields London review: 10 FAQs

1. Where exactly is Club Mexicana in Spitalfields and is the vegan Mexican restaurant easy to find?
Club Mexicana Spitalfields is at the former HotBox site, 46–48 Commercial Street, Spitalfields, London E1 6LT. The vegan Mexican restaurant is three minutes’ walk from Aldgate East Tube and six minutes from Liverpool Street.

2. Is Club Mexicana Spitalfields fully vegan?
Club Mexicana Spitalfields is a 100% vegan Mexican restaurant — every taco, plate, cocktail and side is fully plant-based with clear allergen labelling at this Spitalfields vegan Mexican restaurant.

3. What are the must-try dishes at Club Mexicana Spitalfields for a first-time visitor?
The must-try dishes at Club Mexicana Spitalfields are the birria tacos with consommé dip, the fried ‘chick’n’ and waffles, the Mexicana Fry Up at brunch and the churros with chocolate sauce at this Spitalfields vegan Mexican restaurant.

4. Can I book a table at Club Mexicana Spitalfields in advance?
Yes — Club Mexicana Spitalfields takes bookings via Resy and the Club Mexicana website, and Tuesday all-you-can-eat-tacos and weekend brunch sittings at the vegan Mexican restaurant should be booked at least a week ahead.

5. How much does a meal cost at Club Mexicana Spitalfields?
A meal at Club Mexicana Spitalfields is £15 for the Tuesday all-you-can-eat-tacos set, around £18 to £25 at lunch and £38 to £55 per head for dinner with cocktails at this Spitalfields vegan Mexican restaurant.

6. Does Club Mexicana Spitalfields offer Tuesday all-you-can-eat tacos?
Yes — Club Mexicana Spitalfields runs an All You Can Eat Tacos night every Tuesday from 5pm for £15 per head at this Spitalfields vegan Mexican restaurant.

7. What is the weekend brunch at Club Mexicana Spitalfields?
The weekend brunch at Club Mexicana Spitalfields runs Saturday and Sunday from 11am to 4pm and is built around the Mexicana Fry Up, the fried ‘chick’n’ and waffles and a Bloody Maria at this Spitalfields vegan Mexican restaurant.

8. Is Club Mexicana Spitalfields good for cocktails as well as food?
Yes — Club Mexicana Spitalfields has one of London’s strongest mezcal and tequila cocktail programmes, with twenty-five Oaxacan mezcals plus tequila, margaritas and frozen piña coladas at the Spitalfields vegan Mexican restaurant.

9. Does Club Mexicana Spitalfields offer takeaway and delivery?
Yes — Club Mexicana Spitalfields offers takeaway in compostable packaging and delivers via Deliveroo and Uber Eats across East London from the Spitalfields vegan Mexican restaurant.

10. What is the London Reviews verdict on Club Mexicana Spitalfields compared with other vegan restaurants?
The London Reviews verdict on Club Mexicana Spitalfields is that it is the most accomplished fully vegan Mexican restaurant in London, scoring 4.6 out of 5 — a serious mezcal programme, a properly built taco menu and a converted-bank dining room that earns its photograph at this Spitalfields vegan Mexican restaurant.

London Reviews verdict

Club Mexicana Spitalfields is the kind of opening that vindicates an eight-year pop-up build-up. Meriel Armitage’s permanent restaurant has retained the energy of the Boxpark and Spread Eagle residencies while adding a bar programme, a brunch service and a sit-down dining ambience that none of the previous formats supported. The birria tacos remain the headline dish, the mezcal flight is genuinely serious, and the room is one of East London’s most photographed plant-based dining spaces.

The criticisms are real but small: weekend noise, occasional first-visit under-ordering, the absence of vegetarian-not-vegan options for mixed groups. None undermines the core experience. What Club Mexicana offers is the best fully vegan Mexican sit-down dining in London and the only operation in the category running with proper cocktail-bar ambition.

The London Reviews score is 4.6 out of 5. Highly recommended for taco-curious omnivores, mezcal drinkers, weekend-brunch fans, pre-bar groups and any reader who wants high-energy vegan dining with a serious bar to follow. Less obviously suited to a candlelit conversation dinner — try Bubala Spitalfields or Itadaki Zen King’s Cross for that. But for tacos, a margarita and a mirror-ball, Club Mexicana remains the standard.

Related London Reviews

If this Club Mexicana Spitalfields London review was useful, our other London vegan and vegetarian reviews and our wider London dining coverage will be too:

• Bonnington Cafe Vauxhall — London review
• Andu Cafe Dalston — London review
• Bubala Spitalfields — London review
• 222 Vegan Cuisine Fulham — London review
• The Spread Eagle Homerton — London review
• What the Pitta! Camden — London review
• Ethos Fitzrovia — London review
• The Vurger Co Shoreditch — London review
• Itadaki Zen King’s Cross — London review
• Mildred’s Soho — London review
• Plates Shoreditch — London review
• Gauthier Soho — London review
• Holy Carrot — London review
• The Gate Hammersmith — London review
• Mallow Borough Market — London review
• Stem & Glory Barbican — London review
• Tibits Heddon Street — London review
• Farmacy Notting Hill — London review
• Tofu Vegan Islington — London review

Summary rating table