Casa Morita

I really like Casa Morita; though it’s always best experienced in slightly less busy times!
Sit at the bar, enjoy a marg and some gauc and watch the world (well, Brixton) go by… lovely.

Well, it’s Mexican food.
I really should have went with my gut when I saw the mixed reviews. Because they’re absolutely spot on.
It’s fine. But like lots of London Mexican establishments, it could be so much better. We did the nachos to start which were pretty good actually, with crispy tortillas and a nice sauce and lots of beef. But then I had the tacos for my main and they were all just eh… Too soft tortillas, either non-​spiced or over-​spiced, meat lacking, messy but not in the fun way just kind of the gross way, it was all just a little disappointing.
It’s also not a very fast establishment. There was only one party before us (granted it was a big party with lots of kids) but we waited forever for our food, or even for them to take our order. I even asked if the major order before us would delay our meal and they promised it wouldn’t.
It did. For sure.
I was really craving Mexican food too, but it turns out I was actually just craving good Mexican food.

So after quite the deliberation we decided on Mexican. There are A LOT of options in Brixton but when a girl wants nachos, A GIRL WANTS NACHOS!
We took a seat outside. Sadly we were just behind a group of 6 with children so the service was slow, normally I would understand this but there was only one more table seated so I felt the service was a tad too slow for a total of 11 people. The waitress was however lovely. Very friendly and apologetic for the wait.
We ordered the pulled pork nachos to share and then I chose off the 2 course lunch menu. I must say 2 courses for £7.50 is pretty impressive, especially in central London. I opted for the quesadillas tacos with chorizo and the chicken chipotle tacos for starters and then the shredded chicken toastida for main.
The food, again, was slightly slow but came out in sections meaning we had time to rest between each course. The nachos were large and fully loaded. These were by far my favourite course — nachos crispy, pulled pork juicy and plentiful and all the extras you’d expect were there and tasted good! Would recommend.
Now to the tacos and the toastida. All were very similar. I must say they did have flavour but sadly they were way too greasy for me and just pretty standard in the sense of toppings and that mmmmm factor.
Would I go back? Most likely not, I’d like to try another Mexican option in the area. Mexican is a hard one to nail and I understand that. Casa Morita definitely give it a good try BUT I think A-​OK is pretty much spot on for this meal and the service overall.

Our saturday brunch and day was ruined after reviewing the bill and had already paid for it. My boyfriend is not a mexican food lover, so after this experience, it’ll be hard to convince him to go to another mexican restaurant.
We ordered twor orders of chilaquiles with eggs, rice and chorizo, not only the food was cold, but the chilaquiles were more like totopos or doritos and didn’t have the consistency of traditional chilaquiles. The chorizo, rice and beens were ok. We then ordered bread to eat with our, however the waiter couldn’t fathom that we wanted bread to eat with our chilaquiles, i mean, if it was authentic mexican food, they would know that mexicans do eat bread with chilaquiles, c’mob. He then takes the order and comes back asking if we wanted 1 or 2, we said 2. After we were almost finished eating the chilaquiles, he comes with 1 telera (bread used for tortas) cut in half, one half for me, the other half for my boyfriend. At this point, I just didn’t say anything and ate my silly half piece of bread. We finished our drinks and asked for the bill. Unfortunately we paid without realising we got charged £5.60 for the 2 halves pieces of bread !!! Apparently he pointe that the menu said it was £2.80 per order, I mean, for real? for a half piece of bread you’re going to charge that to your customers? We brought it up to the waiter, and he just said, yes that’s the price and I even confirmed with the manager. I couldn’t believe it. So I just said, I will never come back here.

Let me be upfront; it takes a lot for me to post such a negative review. in fact, I don’t think I’ve ever given a one star rating before. however, it’s justly deserved at Casa Morita. First we order guacamole and chips to start. the guacamole was almost runny and didn’t taste of anything. it looks like it had come out of a jar of Doritos dip. terrible. then I ordered two tacos and a quesadilla. I’m not Mexican but I know the difference between a taco and a quesadilla. unfortunately the chef did not. it and the pulled pork taco were at least edible but I’d also ordered the veggie taco and I couldn’t take more than one bite. it was like every bit of flavour had been drained and I was just eating mush. they served it with plain rice with a few sweet corns sprinkled throughout. my friend also said it was rubbish and we wouldn’t be coming back. thoroughly disappointing and I would not recommend to anyone.

Not mind-​blowing Mexican, but not bad either! Much closer to authentic Mexican than the burrito places or Wahaca (for instance mole tacos, good black beans) and they serve favorites like chiliquilies. My biggest complaint is that the rice wasn’t authentic Mexican rice – it looked like jasmine rice! And the waiter didn’t understand Spanish (or should I say when I pronounced the food properly she looked at me with surprise and confusion).
But I liked the food and the buzz, although there are probably better places to eat in the market.

The tacos were great, real Mexican styled food. A nice refreshing Margarita, albeit a little on the small side. Excellent fresh Guacamole with crispy salty tortilla.
My only downer was the service was slow! Their were maybe 3 tables in the bar at the time and it still felt like it took an age.

The tostada here was okay. However, the pork and chicken tacos were inedible. The worst I have ever had.

The chicken mole, chorizo and pork pibil tacos are very good, albeit a bit too minimalistic. I don’t vary from those tacos when I go there because the rest of the menu doesn’t really measure up to their quality. The tostadas are cold and are weighted down by huge pile of a watery lettuce mixture, not to mention the weird addition of a puddle of double cream; not much flavour to the vegetarian filling in those. They have good drinks and good tortilla chips to start, but the guacamole is a bit of a joke: an almost liquid purée of avocados and not much else; no discernible flavour of coriander, onion, jalapeño, garlic or lime.

Dont expect to get a massive portion for your money, but what you will get will be worth every penny. Delicious.
Great atmosphere but a little crammed. Staff seemed friendly enough.
Brixon Market is an amazing spot and it’s restaurants like this that make me want to return sharpish.

Casa Morita is in an ideal spot to inspire a wandering foodie to sit down and eat. It did just that. Bright colours, a chalkboard menu shouting about the best beer cocktail in town. Great.
Not totally starving yet, we thought we would whet our appetite with a cocktail to begin with. My rum-​drinking friend chose a dark rum Mojito and I had a tequila, salt-​edged Paloma. I know cocktail glasses must be very tricky to put in a dishwasher but when a frequently washed tumbler is stuck in front of you with a titchy pre-​squeezed wedge of lime floating in it, I felt a little disappointed.
Both drinks tasted ok, but we didn’t want to invest in food if this was the overall impression so far.
One more chance — Guacamole and tortilla. Tortillas were gorgeous. Crispy, peppery, salty and totally homemade. The guacamole… maybe we just had a bad batch but it was pretty watery despite having a great flavour.
We moved on from here. It was a good stopping place but didn’t go out of its way to grab you. And when there are places like Franco Manca’s 6 paces to the right…

The best mexican in the market. Authentic, homemade and just yummy. They have kooki cool décor as well. Its definitely casual dinner more for a group of friends than a date, but you’d can’t go wrong with Casa Morita !

Hmmmm, I can’t say I was overly impressed. This may well be ‘authentic Mexican food’, but not being from Mexico nor having ever visited I wouldn’t be able to tell anyway.
What I can tell is whether I like my food or not. I wouldn’t say I hated it but it looked like someone had thrown up onto my plate two small enchiladas and sprinkled some cheese on top.
These are not the sort of enchiladas Mr Old El Paso* taught me to cook from the back of the box as a student…
are there really no vegetables in it?
should they really be so small?
should I still want more food after eating 3 of them?
and should my partners prawn dish be similarly unfilling for £12?
If you have been to Mexico or are Mexican and the answers to all these questions are resounding YESes then get here quick: I clearly know nothing about Mexican food.
*although I prefer the Old El Paso fajitas myself.

Casa Morita, I want to marry you. You are the tastiest señorita in the Mercado de Brixton. Your chilaquiles are el gato’s pijamas. If only you had more tables. See you en la mañana!

I grew up in Texas. The boy lived in Arizona for four years. We’ve been here once. He said, and I quote, «I haven’t had Mexican food like this in years» (and those years included multiple major American cities). He’s already recommended Casa Morita to a coworker who’s from southern California.
Service was good, but not particularly attentive. Short menu. He had the chicken enchiladas. I had the dish with prawns, which was very tasty, but a whole lot of work to removed the shells. And they have Negra Modelo. We’ll be back.