Get Afuego whilst it’s hot

The King & Co is great for featuring some really cool pop ups in their kitchen. They break with the boring and serve a lot more than just sausage & mash or fish & chips with their beers. Just this year alone they’ve had Indian street food and burgers from RockIT, they’ve had gourmet hot dogs from OH MY DOG!, veggie food from Mav Popat, Southern BBQ from The Southern Kitchen, Dominican flavours from BocaChica, Spanish tapas from The Tapeo and now it’s a new chef’s time to shine.

Afuego has moved in to the kitchen at The King & Co for 6 weeks. Until 3rd September they are going to be cooking up Latin inspired food by chef Yassir, who also happens to be a South West London local and self proclaimed burger expert… exactly someone to trust with our order! Yassir fell in love with Mexican and Colombian flavours on his travels and after working in Latin restaurants decided to create Afuego, his Latino burger and street food concept. The menu is a selection of tacos, burgers and sides and after trying a good portion of it, we guarantee you can’t go wrong with anything you pick.

Starting off with some tacos, we got two flavours: the cauliflower and the carnitas, which is a Latin style pulled pork. The cauliflower tacos were a refreshing and colourful alternative to the (often) dull and overlooked vegan options you can expect at many restaurants. These were far from boring- fresh and zingy and ready to give any meaty version a run for its money. The honey chipotle BBQ sauce that came with the pulled pork in the carnitas was unbelievably good- there just enough sweetness to cut through the richness of the dish without being sickly and the salsa criolla was a lovely addition of pickle to the palate.

Chef’s favourite burger is the vegan burger… and he isn’t a vegan! He knows the stereotype of bland vegan options and is determined to turn that round and make it every bit as good as the other burgers on the menu. It didn’t disappoint. The ‘super vegan burger’ lived up to it’s name- a butternut squash and spinach patty with vegan cheese, guacamole, Pico de Gallo, chilli jam and soft brioche bun was a flavour and texture joy. Just the right amount of spice to make it really sing, we can totally understand why this is Yassir’s number one. We also tried the signature Afuego burger which is a must for the carnivores. That same 8 hour slow cooked porky carnitas with smokey BBQ sauce, Latin burger sauce and Emmental cheese, it was everything you could want from a burger- juicy and worth every bit of mess it will undoubtedly create.

This is affordable, good grub. How we’d describe it? F*cking delicious. There really isn’t any other better way to put it. Get down and enjoy it as much as we did. Even better when enjoyed in the colourful outdoor area of The King & Co with a cold, crisp lager.