Corrochio's / CINCO Bar

Corrochio's—a fun Mexican restaurant with excellent chilaquiles—is Dalston’s answer to a pre-night out restaurant or morning-after brunch.

mood a fun Mexican restaurant

A hidden, but also not-so-hidden Mexican cocktail bar…

mood A hidden, but also not-so-hidden Mexican cocktail bar

A jaunty staircase from the street brings a dim-lit room full of candles, with wooden ducks on walls that look old, a fireplace in the centre of the room and a Mexican bartender who’s always ready. ... Cinco is a superb basement bar below Corrochio’s, home to some of the city’s best tacos.

mood dim-lit room full of candles, with wooden ducks on walls that look old, a fireplace in the centre of the room... In the corner, a fuzzy lamp pools an orange glow

Visit Mexico City via Dalston at the ever-excellent Corrochio’s on the Kingsland Road and sip on knock-down price classic and tommy's margs every day of the week until 7pm. You might as well order a pot of just-chunky-enough guacamole and a queso fundido too.

mood Visit Mexico City via Dalston

Corrochio’s has been serving up some of the best regional Mexican food and cocktails in town since 2021 and now there’s even more to go around as a new 120-cover street-level bar and restaurant has opened above the original site. The Corrochio’s space has been turned into Cinco, a bar specialising in lesser-known agave and Mexican spirits, while the new upstairs area has become a Cocina & Cocteleria. The food menu showcase both regional Mexican specialities and modern bar food... with tequila and mezcal featuring heavily alongside other Mexican spirits like Sotol, Raicilla, and Bacanora on the Cocteleria list.

mood new 120-cover street-level bar and restaurant

My abbreviated route started at CINCO – below Corrochio’s – where the bar manager Edourardo whipped us up an off-menu concoction each, with some generous pours of mezcal, naturally. Feeling safe in Eduardo’s hands – even if one compromised and bandaged up after a run in with a kitchen knife – he delivered our first drinks of the night. Mine; Mezcal based, laced with a homemade pear and basil syrup, pandana (used like sugar syrup) and St Germain. My tipple was balanced, herbaceous and had that signature smoky note lingering in the background without overpowering the harmony of the other flavours. My drinking partner plucked for the El Rey, using Banhez ensemble Mezcal, Alma Finca orange liquor for bite, vermouth, al pastor mango shrub topped to the brim with mango & blood orange soda. It tasted like sunshine; slightly honeyed from the mango but light on its enough with acidity. A promising start – and a high bar for the next bar.