Daddy Donkey Mexican Grill

Yesterday I braved the London cold for my first taste of UK street food in ages. My destination was the Daddy Donkey Mexican Grill in Leather Lane Market, Holborn. The grill comes highly recommended, and I was interested to see how UK fare compared to its Asian counterparts.

Daddy Donkey started off as a wooden stall four years ago, and since then has upgraded to a fully fledged burrito mobile . It's a slick operation, staffed by a friendly and dexterous 4-5 man crew that churn out burritos to a long line of customers at a frightening pace.

Ordering is simple - decide between a burrito, tacos or a salad, then choose a filling and either mild, medium, hot or extra hot salsa. I went for a Daddy D burrito with steak and hot salsa. The steak had been marinated in chipotle adobo and grilled, and the burrito included lime rice, black beans, lettuce, sour cream and cheese.

I've never been to Mexico, but this was up there with the best burritos I've had. The steak was great - charred, flavoursome and substantial, and the fillings worked a charm. I particularly enjoyed the black beans, which were slow cooked to form a wonderful, viscous mass that gave the burrito an extra dimension.

All this made for an excellent lunch and a great intro to British street food. At £5.75 it didn't come cheap, but the quality ingredients and large servings made it just about worth it (this is London after all.)

One thing I noticed about the stall was the heavy branding that was going on. To be honest the logos, slogans and t-shirts took me back a bit, and my single burrito was served in what I considered an unnecessarily expensive looking paper bag( I do realise however that the branding is a central reason for its success and without it I probably never would have been there in the first place.)

A great feed, and an essential stop on any self-respectin', mex-lovin', street food freak's London itinerary