Hammett's Mestizo — Restaurant in Saint Julian's

This was my 2nd time here. I won't come back, read further for arguments with a well thought review.

My opinion is that they want to be more than they actually are. It looks quite fancy both on the interioir design and the menu, but it does not live up to the standard that they seem to want.

So, place is called Mestizo, and serves latin american fusion cuisine. 1st, I would expect latin american waiters (There was 1 argentinian, then a serbian, and some indian). They were just not very subtle, all over the place, and they were just talking between themselves all the time, around our table, quite annoying to be true.

Music is standard loud electronic. You have amazing latin music, electronic even if you want. Like tons of it, yet the soundtrack is not related to the concept, and it is very loud!

Place is actually very nice. Nice furniture, modern, black, comfortable, although not warm enough for me (not cold either, just I would put 2 extra degrees on the heating in winter)

We had: Ceviche: Good although all the spicyness (hot) takes a bit too much of the original flavour. But still good. Cauliflower: Good on the outside, raw on the inside. Don't order. Picanha: Picanha has a layer of fat on one side, which you use to give flavour to the rest of the meat when cooked with the fat at the top (fat juice goes down and gives THE flavour). This was not the case. It was ok, just not delicious. Oven made, as it was equally pink on the inside all around. I think that makes it less juicier than it should (slow/med cooked on the oven must dry the meat...) Mango jelly dessert: This was the best of all our food. Interesting blend of spicy, salty and sweet.

We paid 120€ for 2, with 2 glasses of standard wines each.

As said above, it is a bit of a wannabe place. For that price, you get better food in many other places around the island, also cool places with a good notion of what they are, and how they set up everything accordingly.

You should at least go 1 time and judge for yourself. Maybe it is your kind of place. It is...

Well, half star would be the right rate. Last night I went to the restaurant along with all of my LATAM co-workers to celebrate an important landmark in our department. It was a special moment and would have been great if we could have had at least a decent meal. I really don't know how to describe the disappointment, but let me try: over 40min to get our first round of drinks, the "to share menu" does not work when you don't make sure to serve the tables in a reasonable time frame, so if I ordered a starter and get this dish 30min prior to everyone else, how am I supposed to share a tiny bit of a small starter with 18 people while they wait for theirs? If you don't have staff enough to support the menu proposal, just go for the regular way of serving, with a decent single pp portions. Another 40min round to get more drinks. How long a pint of beer takes to be sirved? How come you have only two bartenders with full house on a Thursday eve? When the waiter finally arrived (with part of the drinks), he was clueless of who order what and he even gave us a big eyeroll when no one even remembered what they ordered, cause it was ages ago, right? The food was served cold! Cold Picanha, yay! I'll stop here because it's already clear of how a group of 20 people will definitely never go back and never recommend the restaurant to anyone. It's a pity, such a great place, such...

So good, I went 2 nights in a row! The place is stunning to look at, that was what drew me to it initially. There is a Mestizo in London and, on arrival to this one, I was quite disappointed in a small ish menu (across 2 pages) - our Mestizo is like a book of options! But I needn't have worried. I ordered 2 dishes - plantain and pork balls and aubergine. The plantain balls came first and I thought they were really great. But the aubergine... Omg, it was one of the best dishes I've ever tasted in my life! You have to like aubergine and ricotta cheese, but if you do, it's incredible. I finished off with the coconut sorbet which was lovely too. The evening was made extra special when the chef came out to see me since I had gushed to the waitress about how good it was. I love food and I love to experiment with new things. This is perhaps a little beyond me but it will not stop me trying to recreate it! The service was great and the staff were really friendly and helpful. My second visit was a cold chicken Avocado and potato dish, excellent. But the winner tonight was the beef stir fry dish with potatoes, tomatoes and onions. The beef was perfectly cooked. Wow. Then a vanilla layered sponge soaked in some sort of milk I think and then burnt meringue and poached mandarin. So good! Thank you for being amazing 2 days in a row! An excellent way to end my...