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RestaurantsLondonKing's CrossWC1H

Breaking news

April 22, 2026: 

Mexico City-born chef Paola Arenas took the reins in Spring 2026 following the departure of executive chef Peter Sanchez-Iglesias, who launched the restaurant in 2019. She is guiding the menu in a more specifically Mexican direction, with fewer Spanish influences.

survey result

Summary

£112
£££££
2
Average
3
Good
4
Very Good
* Based on a three course dinner, half a bottle of wine, coffee, cover charge, service and VAT.

There’s a certain Bond-villain chic to this top-floor Mexican dining room reached by an exterior red pill-shaped lift up the outside of the Standard Hotel. Complete with dramatic double-height ceilings, funky 1970s decor and floor-to-ceiling windows, it has incredible views of King’s Cross opposite. And the Mexican food is provided by Peter Sanchez-Iglesias, who won fame in Bristol as one of the UK’s top chefs. With all this glam and heritage then, it’s all the more remarkable how little buzz this five-year-old actually generates nowadays. Like so many chefs who have found success outside London and then aim to storm the capital, hitting the right formula can be tricky. One who did make the trip this year says its luxurious Latino dishes and mezcal cocktails are “good” but the sense that it’s “overpriced” is also highlighted as it has been in previous years .

Summary

£106
£££££
3
Good
3
Good
4
Very Good
* Based on a three course dinner, half a bottle of wine, coffee, cover charge, service and VAT.

“Everyone wanted to give the ambience a 6/5!” Few London eateries have as much drama as Peter Sanchez-Iglesias’s double-height Mexican venue, atop King’s Cross’s so-hip Standard Hotel, where huge floor-to-ceiling windows provide dramatic vistas of London… and that’s just from the toilets! You access via a red, pill-shaped lift creeping up the outside of the building to a gob-smacking view of the top of St Pancras Station opposite. Surprisingly, it doesn’t inspire quite as many positive ratings as one might expect, perhaps because it’s far-from-cheap. That said, its combination of tacos, Latino seafood and steaks (most of it grilled), all of them washed down with mezcal cocktails, was well rated this year. Top Tip – “visit before 6.30 pm Tue-Fri for the ‘Menu del Dia’ at £30 per person”.

Summary

£97
 ££££
3
Good
2
Average
4
Very Good
* Based on a three course dinner, half a bottle of wine, coffee, cover charge, service and VAT.

“A spectacular room with spectacular views (including from the loos!)” sets a high-octane scene at Peter Sanchez-Iglesias’s dramatic Mexican venue: a high-ceilinged space on the top of King’s Cross’s über-hip Standard Hotel, with a breathtaking outlook over St Pancras station next door, and accessed via an exterior, red, glass-walled lift. “It seems less busy at lunch – it looks more like one for the cool kids after dark”. Most reporters are “pleasantly surprised by the food” which majors in ribs, steaks and seafood from the grill “(I thought it was going to be yet another celebrity rip-off)”. It’s far from a cheap experience, though, and one or two dud meals were also reported.

Summary

£94
 ££££
3
Good
2
Average
4
Very Good
* Based on a three course dinner, half a bottle of wine, coffee, cover charge, service and VAT.

“Trying very hard to be trendy and mostly succeeding” (“the views from the WC were a big hit in my party!”) – Peter Sanchez-Iglesias’s dramatic three-year-old occupies the high-ceilinged 10th-floor space of the über-funky Standard Hotel, with incredible views of St Pancras from its huge, floor-to-ceiling windows. (To enter, shoot up the side of the hotel in the red-pill-shaped, glass-sided lift). It’s all very 1970s James Bond. “There are some really exceptional dishes” from a vibrant Spanish/Mexican menu (e.g. lobster with lime chilli, quail with mole glaze, even caviar tortilla). But while all reports rate it decently well, gripes about “silly prices and one or two disappointments” limit the overall verdict to good rather than outstanding.

For 35 years we've been curating reviews of the UK's most notable restaurant. In a typical year, diners submit over 50,000 reviews to create the most authoritative restaurant guide in the UK. Each year, the guide is re-written from scratch based on this survey (although for the 2021 edition, reviews are little changed from 2020 as no survey could run for that year).

Have you eaten at Decimo?

The Standard, 10 Argyle St, London, WC1H 9JE

Restaurant details

No dress code

What the Newspaper Critics are saying

Evening Standard

Lauren O’Neill found “lots to love” about this rooftop Mexican at the Standard hotel opposite King’s Cross station, recast under Mexico City-born chef Paola Arenas following the departure of Peter Sanchez-Iglesias, whose menus had a more Spanish flavour.

The main drawback, she suggested, was an unevenness across the meal as more personal dishes like halibut with corn husk and pumpkin seeds or bream with mole jostled with the sort of crowd-pleasers required in a hotel restaurant.

There were triumphs, though. “Iberico pork served à la Flintstones — that is on an ostentatiously large bone and on top of a smoothed-out salsa morita — is a little short of fabulous.” Among desserts, rum-spiked tres leches “is a must”, while a dish listed only as ‘piña’ “turns out to be a refreshing and novel combo of grilled pineapple and pineapple sorbet”. 

Lauren O'Neill - 2026-08-23

Prices

Traditional European menu

Starter Main Veggies Pudding
£10.50 £37.50 £12.00 £6.00
Drinks  
Wine per bottle £53.00
Filter Coffee £5.00
Extras  
Bread £0.00
Service 15.00%
The Standard, 10 Argyle St, London, WC1H 9JE
Opening hours
MondayCLOSED
Tuesday5 pm‑12 am
Wednesday12 pm‑2:30 pm, 5 pm‑12 am
Thursday12 pm‑2:30 pm, 5 pm‑1 am
Friday12 pm‑2:30 pm, 5 pm‑2 am
Saturday12 pm‑2:30 pm, 5 pm‑2 am
SundayCLOSED

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