Dos Dedos, Bath: 'A better start to a meal has rarely been had'
Go for the Catalytic Cornverter, don't stay for the tacos
I thought I’d start this review with a Haiku. Haikus are Japenese and this review is about Mexican food, but fusion cuisine is all the rage these days and why not? I’m feeling creative.
Good Mexican food,
Like sun on bank holidays,
Rare in the UK.
Dos Dedos is up a little cobbled side street in Bath and has excellent neighbours in the form of Beckford Canteen. They don’t take bookings, which worked in our favour as we rocked up at 9pm having spent the last two hours getting our glamping set up just right in a nearby field in anticipation of an al fresco wedding.
It’s clever of Dos Dedos to make you wait outside for your table; it only increases the sense of anticipation. From the door you can see all of the small cantina - dimly light by twinkling fairy lights and towered over by an impressive spirit collection behind the wooden bar. Patrons sipping patron were sat on stools at high tables or tucked into a long bench on one side. The tunes were good, the atmosphere was even better and I was awash with a genuine sense of nostalgia for my time in Mexico.
Drinking cocktails the night before a wedding is a risky game, but with the selection on offer at Dos Dedos I was over a barrel. The Catalytic Cornverter (£11) was a ‘cornstar’ martini which was literally made with tortilla infused whisky in the name of preventing waste with a side of cornsecco. A better start to a meal has rarely been had. Inventive, creative and exquisite. If I were rating inclined it would be a ten out of ten with no notes. A table became available and we were moved from our barrel, drinks in hand.
A small menu shrunk further by lack of ceviche - no surprise they’d run out by that time of night - offered pork katsu tacos (what was I saying earlier about fusion?), chicken ‘n’ corn tacos, mezcal-glazed plantain tacos and a refried bean quesadilla. And nachos, of course. All menu items were £9.75 and the tacos come in pairs.
Intermission: That, my friends, is where you should stop reading if you wish to think of Dos Dedos the perfect little Mexican cantina serving top notch tacos in Bath. If, however, you’re more interested in journalistic integrity and honesty with a dash of humour, please continue.
Nachos arrived first, awash with American-style cheese sauce which I’ve always found to offer a certain je ne sais crap. Pea guacamole is far more sustainable than the avocado variety and for that commendable, but it does not have the same fat content and therefore is inherently not as delicious. Some would argue sustainability is more important than moreish nachos. They’re probably right.
Adding popcorn to a taco is a stroke of genius and very apt given that a bad romantic comedy was starting to unfold on the table next to us. But no amount of tajin-topped popcorn can make up for overcooked chicken. It wasn’t overly bad, but Mexican cuisine is defined by big flavours and this was sorely lacking some citrus. A spicy pineapple salsa would have brought this to life but as it was it was more day of the dead.
By the time we got onto the pork katsu taco eating was becoming logistically very difficult. The taco itself split at the bottom as soon as I looked at it, it was as wet through as the couple snogging for their lives next door. Slightly more appetising was the nori tostada ‘crunch’ it was topped with, which like the chicken’s popcorn was a strong textural addition.
From what I learned during my time there, the Mexicans are not precious about authenticity - preferring to embrace experimentation and new influences on their food. So had the flavours of the katsu taco been any good, I think they would have liked it. Sadly, the top notes were ‘weird’ and ‘what’ and the bottom notes were, well, as I’ve already mentioned the bottom had fallen apart.
In a bid to rescue the situation and increase my tolerance for the couple to our right who were showing no signs of abating their display of affection, I ordered a mezcal margarita. Unfortunately, the result was a twenty minute wait while I drank the overly diluted concoction and having to endure plenty more osculating while being £12 the poorer for it. Time to evacuate.
Dos Dedos translates to two fingers. Putting two fingers up to tradition and serving things with more than a distinct share of your own personality is creditable if done well. In some places (read: the cornstar martini) this has paid off in spades. But you cannot put two fingers up to the basics.
Providing I’m not barred, I’d go back to Dos Dedos for more of their cocktails - I’m hoping the mezcalita was just a misfire. But I’ll be heading over the road to Beckford Canteen for dinner.
All words and photos by Meg Houghton-Gilmour
Dos Dedos, Edgar Mews, Bartlett St, BA1 2QZ
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