Review of 'Killer Tomato (NOW CLOSED)'

I have to admit with a great deal of shame that we never tried Killer Tomato until it was too late…The day after our visit the restaurant closed it's door for good and the reason we visited is because we knew this. I say it is a shame as the food was absolutely amazing. To be fair, we had been attending to visit for quite some time as we had heard it was very good but also seen it from the window of the bus we regularly take in and out of the city. The problem is the location is a bit awkward for us - in between our house and where we generally visit - Just a bit too far from Westfield to visit when we are there…Perhaps this is part of the failure of the restaurant, not sure.

One of the thing that Killer Tomato was famous for was only accepting plastic or electronic payment - All of the standard credit/debit cards as well as Android and Apple Pay. Probably fair enough as this was not a cheap restaurant. When we visited on a Friday evening just after 6:00 it was already jammed so we had to wait a few minutes for one of their few tables to be free. The dark interior was cramped with the front right dominated by the food preparation area and the tables scattered over the rest of the small area. The wooden tables and chairs were basic but perfectly adequate. Two of the walls were dominated by colourful graffiti/murals.

This was not really a place to linger particularly except, of course, if you wanted to continue eating your way through the menu and given that the dishes, with the exception of the burritos, were all quite small this is quite easy to do while at the same time eating through your bank balance. The small food menu was on the single side of an A4 sheet of paper with “House Tacos” (home-made soft-shell tortillas, small tacos served in twos, £6.50/order), Tostadas (on crisp corn tortillas, only vegetarian and salmon options), burritos (£6.50 each with guacamole an extra £1), quesadillas (£6.50-£7), and tortilla chips (£4-£6). On Saturday afternoons they featured bottomless tacos and drinks…no idea how much that was!

We started with the “Brisket Croquettes with sriracha mayo” (£7.50) which were little bits of (extremely hot though we braved the burns) heaven - Deliciously tasty beef brisket deep fried with a deliciously crunchy shell and an amazing mayo dip. So juicy it made it interesting to eat without burning ourselves! Having heard the “Korean sticky fried chicken” tacos (£6.50) were good we gave them a go and they were very good indeed - Lots of flavour but still could taste the chicken.

Croquettes and Sticky Chicken

Next I wanted to try something a bit unusual with the “Peppered squid, citrus salad” (£6.50) tacos which were quite tasty with the squid not overcooked but a bit under-spiced though the delicious “salad” and sauce made up for this. The wonderful contrast of the soft tortilla and the crunchy and piping hot crunchy squid really made this work.

Squid

For our last dish we tried another unusual menu offering: “Cheeseburger tacos” (a bit more at £7) which tasted, well, like cheeseburger tacos. Somehow this captured the flavour of the cheeseburger in a taco form with deliciously meaty ground beef, ketchup, pickle and mustard. Really quite good.

Cheese Burger

Dishes all came at different times in small metal serving trays placed in the middle of our small table for us to share…but only had food in them for a short period of time as we quickly finished them off…

At £40 for the two of us (with one alcoholic drink, one “mock-tail” and an optional 10% service charge) it was not a cheap dinner, particularly since we really did not have a lot of food, however, it was really good, fresh, food with lots of flavour. The staff were very friendly and helpful (for what little we could hear them in the din) throughout our visit.

Interior - Fan pictures

We are very sad to see this ray of sunshine in the dire restaurant choices of the area. We are disappointed we were never able to enjoy the entire menu. Can only hope that they decide to open another shop (though our server, who seemed to be the owner, seemed quite convinced this would not be happening when we asked). Another tragic loss but at least we were able to sample their menu before they disappeared…

Rating: “Nearly perfect, but not quite”

Review Date: 2018-07-20


Cuisine: Mexican

Address: 18 Goldhawk Rd, White City, London W12 8DH ENGLAND

Public Transport: TUBE Goldhawk Road, TUBE Shepherd's Bush

Location: London (England) - Shepherd's Bush

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Telephone: +44 (0) 20 8743 0082

URL: http://killertomato.co.uk/