What happens when you bring together some of London’s best street food and Jamie Oliver and his food empire? Turns out one hell of a street party! This weekend Oliver’s restaurant Fifteen turned ten and to celebrate he closed Westland Place, brought ten Eat St traders to join his teams from Fifteen, Fifteen Cornwall and Barbecoa and invited all of London to join in the celebrations.

The ten Eat St traders ranged from Healthy Yummies and their famous scallops, to the Bowler and their fabulous meatballs. With plenty to choose from I headed to three traders who were new to me.

First up was Toma Mexicano who
seemed to have one of the longest queues all day long. And that popularity was clearly justified as their food was fantastic, the fajita steak tacos were amazing, messy as anything, but the tastiest thing I tried all day and some of the best Mexican I’ve had in the city. Nice and spicy, the beef was beautifully tender and complimented perfectly with the fresh pico de gallo. I could have eaten these all day!

Next up was a trader I’ve been meaning to try for ages – BanhMi11 and their Vietnamese baguettes. Opting for the Imperial BBQ option I was greeted with some delicious pork that was nicely caramelised and packed in with generous amounts of cucumber, carrot, coriander, pickled turnip (I think) and enough chilli to pack a punch. It may have taken me over a year to try this sandwich but it won’t take me that long to get back.

And as is only right, I finished off with something sweet – this time from Westonbirt Ice Cream. While I had to wait 10 minutes to reach the front of the queue I heard stories of people waiting over 30 minutes, so you have to ask was it worth the wait? Oh yes it was! The ice cream was easily amongst the best I’ve had in London. I tried the toasted coconut and salted caramel flavours and both were excellent. The coconut ice cream was a bit of a revelation, why don’t more people make it?

With food as good as this you can understand why Jamie Oliver wanted to celebrate with Eat St and why he thinks street food is one of the most exciting things happening in British food today.