L'autre, Mayfair, London

A few of us went here for our work Christmas party thinking it would be quite quirky. We were put downstairs near the kitchen area and were shocked to find that most of the heated food was microwaved! The mexican and polish menus are seperate and not fused. Nonetheless, all the mexican echiladas were bland, cold and as mentioned before heated in the microwave. Most of us were unable to finish off our plates. I have been living in London for nearly 20 years and this is the worse restaurant I have eaten in. How they have remained in business is a mystery. Avoid.

Always been a fan and keep going back... often. Love it

Fantastic food, fantastic service, fatastic location and fantastic ambiance!!! Can I say more!? Love this place and we go back again and again whenever we can.

This is one of london's best kept secrets!
.The name "L'Autre" is French for "the other'. In English "a liittle bit of the other" has an entirely different meaning! The pun is actually unintentional. The owner previously operated a restaurant in Oxford under the name of 'This and That'.
It has a tiny steet frontage with the dining area on that level catering for about a dozen guests.Try to reserve,(or be prepared to wait for,) the bay window or, weather permitting, take one of the couple of tables on the footpath where you can watch the eclectic population of Shepherd market wander past.
The Mexican offerings are fair average fare but the Polish side of the menu offers the very best of their traditional cuisine. I have not eaten better in Cracow or Warsaw. Try the wild boar sausages and the slow roasted pork as a main course. Either can be preceded with an entree of stuffed cabbage rolls. Don't let childhood memories deter you from this dish. It is truly outstanding!

I have always judged restaurants by quality of food, wine and service. This is London's most underrated ethnic cuisine establishment.

I noticed this restaurant many years ago but never managed to eat there, until last night because Mr Penguin and I were in the area for the cinema.

I always thought Mexican and Polish are an unlikely combo. To be honest, I am biased because an aunt by marriage is Tex-Mex and her Mexican food has set the standards for me. So I focused on the Polish offerings on L'Autre's menu and found myself quite excited about hearty, meaty dishes. It was a cold night and we both needed warming up.

Service is efficient, warm and faultless. Seating space was really rather cramped! But the food which arrived made up for it.

The borscht was really very good: hot, naturally flavoursome and additionally flavoured with fresh chopped dill which is the herb of choice in Poland and the nordic regions. It came with lightly chewy little mushroom dumplings which I loved especially for their strong mushroom flavour. The little pot of soured cream on the side was perfect for getting the borscht to one's preferred degree of richness. I really loved their borscht. It reached a certain warm spot in my stomach.

Mr Penguin then had a roasted meat dish which came with bigos - the meat was fine but the bigos made a stronger impression. It was a sauerkraut type casserole flavoured with pieces of smoked sausage. It was very tasty and unique.

I had a seafood main course blinis which was good (generous amount of fillings). However, I felt it was an easy to make dish which I might have been able to make myself at home and wish I ordered something which I couldn't easily make for myself.

I also had a vodka long drink called Tatanka made with apple juice. It was very refreshing and deceptively alcoholic!! By the time I had drunk half a glass, I was VERY relaxed ....

Our bill came to just over £50 for two excluding desserts which included one vodka long drink and one Polish beer (we didn't order wine). So it was a little pricey but given the area, the good quality of the food and good service, it was fair value.

This place is a real hidden gem: Mayfair style without the Mayfair prices. Polish and Mexican foods seem like unlikely bedfellows, but the novelty of getting pirogi and enchiladas in the same meal is too great to pass up. Neither cuisine is exceptionally good, but the small menu gives a good offering of two different cultures sorely underrepresented in London. If they’re old favourites you’ll be satisfied, and if they’re new experiences you should be well pleased with your first tastes.

The restaurant itself is really lovely. It’s an intimate little spot - not bad for a date with someone a bit adventurous - with wooden tables and wooden walls, nice bay windows looking onto the quiet street, and portraits of Hedy Lemarr on the walls. Plus you can get good Eastern European beers with your nachos.

Does seem to polarise opinion both here and on other review sites. Couldn’t fault the atmosphere, comfortably cosy and just what was required for the company at lunchtime!

We were both in a meaty mood so wild boar sausages followed a shared plate of Polish charcuterie. Both were OK, but not stunning. A (slightly overpriced) bottle of Polish lager helped proceedings along.

We didn’t try anything Mexican, though I do think I’ll be returning for a “second opinion”!

Famously oddball: French name, but serves Mexican and Polish dishes. It’s a great place to get some hearty food after hanging about in Mayfair.

It’s very small (especially upstairs) but quirky and charming. Old trinkets on the walls and - usually - ‘50s music playing gently in the background. It’s a kitschy place. Service is good and friendly.

Most of the starters are Mexican: nachos and the like. The mains are a mix of Mexican (chicken quesedillas, seafood enchiladas, etc) and Polish (perogis, roast pork, chicken in sauce, etc) dishes. Not life-changing food, but everything I’ve had has been good.

A fun place to eat.

From the first time I walked by L’Autre, I was intrigued. A Polish and Mexican Restaurant? With a French name? Things didn’t quite add up. But the more I walked by, the more I wanted to go in and try it for myself.

I was worried I wouldn’t find any vegetarian options, but was pleasantly surprised to find several — potato and cheese pierogi, vegetarian burritos, nachos, borscht, vegetable blinis — it was quite a selection. And thankfully they don’t try to take the Polish-Mexican concept in the fusion direction. There are two separate menu sections for each cuisine.

We and I started with borscht and nachos. The borscht was decidedly better — from what I gleaned from our waitress, the restaurant had a Mexican chef for many years to cater to customers from the Mexican embassy nearby, but the Mexican chef left and a Polish chef came in, still cooking the Mexican (or rather, Tex-Mex) specialties along with her own Polish ones. The borscht was sweet and hot and had small, mushroom-filled tortellinis in it. It also came with some cream and hearty bread.

The nachos seemed pretty prepackaged — I doubt we’ll find homemade tortilla chips and salsa in London — but we still ate the whole small plate.

The decor of the place also leaned heavily on the Polish side, with lots of photos of Greta Garbo, military hats and lots of bottles of wine in the small, dim main room. There were some sort of funny Mexican items, like a sombrero and a Speedy Gonzales figurine. We had a lot of fun just looking around the room and finding new oddities.

We stuck with Polish food for our main courses. My friend got kielbasa and I got vegetable blinis, which I enjoyed. Both portions were huge. We walked away stuffed, and we want to make sure to save room for dessert next time we go since there were plenty of chocolaty items we wanted to try.

I entered this restaurant wanting to like it so much for its traditional polish decorations and friendly staff. The restaurant is quite small but manages to maintain a cosyness against the odds. The staff are curteous and extremely friendly and again my pidgen polish may have helped with that! My partner had a plate of pierogi and I joined her whilst our friend tried the Bigos - antoher traditional polish dish which is very tasty - I thought the pierogi a touch too much in size and texture. Traditional pierogi is far far smaller than the gargantuam portions served by L'autre. That said, our friend enjoyed his Bigos greatly.

Although it was quiet on the day we entered, the service was swift and efficient. My only gripe is that for the Shepherd's market restaurants in common with so many london eating establishments aren't afraid to amplify the cost of their beers and my receipt made me wince. If you aren't afraid to spend a few pounds or don't have a raging unquenchable thirst then this won't be a problem.

Paddyman's verdict...? Good restaurant for the area, but there are better polish places in London to visit. As for the mexican angle, please, dont even go there!

Quite possibly one of my favorite restaurants in London! Tucked away off Green Park in Shepherd Market in Mayfair, L'Autre's name belies its two specialties - Polish and Mexican food.

Originally began as a Polish restaurant, L'Autre added Mexican fare after requests from nearby employees at the Mexican embassy. They handle both styles deliciously! The best nachos I've found in London and very tasty enchiladas, not to mention mouthwatering Polish dumplings, pancakes and stews.

The staff is very warm and friendly, the space is cozy with small tables on the top floor and a large room downstairs for groups/bigger parties. Desserts are to die for and the prices are very reasonable.