Weekly Review: Homies on Donkeys

Fantastic tacos with a sense of humour.

Quick hit: An authentic nod to Mexican food culture, but with an accompanying wink, laugh, and ironic smile.

Details: Booking advised. Leytonstone. £.
Restaurant website. More on Instagram.
Find it on Google Maps. 686 High Rd Leytonstone, E11 3AA.

Back in the early 20th century, Tijuana was the original Las Vegas. It was just across the border from southern California. Gambling was legal. There was horse racing. Booze flowed freely. It was a frontier den of hedonistic pleasure. And there were great restaurants. The Caesar Salad, which turned a hundred last year, was invented there. Americans discovered tacos and learned that they were the perfect street food for morning, noon, or (late) night.

So Tijuana became a destination for tourists. Naturally, locals looking to pocket a few dollars started offering their donkey carts as modes as transport — sometimes for sitting passengers, but just as often for passengers travelling horizontally at the end of a long night.

Then in 1935, Tijuana outlawed gambling, and its appeal started to wane. The carters tried to make themselves a draw, creating intricate scenes for photographs and selling odds and ends. But the donkeys didn’t appear so well in black and white photos, until one carter decided to paint their donkey to look like a zebra. Much better for pictures. And the Tijuana Zonkey was born.

Nearly a hundred years later, there are virtually no donkey carts left in the city, but the images remain, and the Zonkey is a firmly established, beloved icon. Even the local professional basketball team are the Zonkeys.

So when Sandra Bello and chef Erik “Smokey” Bautista were thinking of opening an authentic Mexican taco joint in London, they visited Tijuana, and were struck by the Zonkey, so adopted it as their icon, too.

It’s an authentic nod to the culture that has produced so many amazing food traditions, but with an accompanying wink, laugh, and ironic smile.

And that’s Homies on Donkeys.

The instructions are simple: “No cutlery. No exceptions. We got napkins. Get messy.”

So we did. On tacos, chips, homemade salsas, delicious guacamole, and a few margaritas.

I’ve rarely enjoyed better tacos outside of Mexican, southern California, or Texas. My favourite was the chicken barbacoa. Classic with a hint of roasted garlic. The bette steak taco was on the same level — perfectly cooked meat, served simply with chilli and onions. Obviously, the tortillas are all homemade.

Fantastic, authentic tacos and Homies on Donkeys.

Some went beyond the traditional. Broccoli tacos? Hmmm. Not sure. At Homies, a triumph. A blend of flavours that I’ve not experienced before, but they really work.

Even the beans were excellent.

And the place buzzes. We visited on a weeknight, and it was full of celebrations. A birthday here. A first date there. A family in the corner. The space contributes to the fun of the whole experience.

Is it for professional lunch? Well, no. It’s in Leytonstone, which is a trek no matter where you start.

But is it for team dinner? Absolutely. Or a celebration with a client? Most definitely. It’s casual. Low stress. Chill. Fun. And inexpensive.

Last year, Vittles ran a piece by Chloe-Rose Crabtree called “Why I hate Americans talking about tacos in London.” It’s a lovely piece, and she concludes by telling us that she had “found my London taco spot” and eventually started working there. She doesn’t say whether that place was Homies on Donkeys, but I have no trouble believing that it could have been.

We’re lucky to have La Chingada, another wonderfully authentic taco spot, around the corner from where we live. But if I lived in north London, I’d be spending a lot of time enjoying the tacos at Homies on Donkeys.

Thanks so much for reading this week’s review. What’s your favourite Mexican place in London?