Tātā Eatery: land of the rising sando

Tātā Eatery is another of London’s great food stories born from unconventional means, as neither Ana nor Meng are from traditional chef backgrounds. Ana was born and raised in Portugal and worked as a graphic designer before moving to London and enrolling at Le Cordon Bleu. ‘I just got bored with it, I guess,’ she says of her old job. ‘There was no way I could just sit at a computer for eight hours a day.’ Meng’s story is similar – ‘I always loved cooking,’ he explains. ‘I did a fine art degree. After I graduated, I pretty much went straight into the kitchen.’

The pair met whilst working at The Loft – Nuno Mendes' breakout restaurant, based out of his own flat in Dalston – and followed him to Viajante, where his molecular gastronomy and far-out flavour combinations attracted nationwide attention and a Michelin star, among other awards. They both worked at Chiltern Firehouse too, before leaving and starting up their own project. ‘We pretty much only worked for Nuno,’ says Meng. ‘We still keep in touch, he’s like family.’

A combination of time spent with Nuno and the pair’s cultural backgrounds has rather pigeon-holed their food as being Portuguese-Chinese fusion, but they both insist that isn’t an accurate portrayal of their food. ‘When we started Tātā Eatery, everyone picked up on the fact that we were a Portuguese woman and a Chinese man and assumed that we were doing Portuguese-Chinese fusion, but our food is not about that at all,’ says Ana. ‘Those things do come into our cooking but we have lots of other influences too.’ The pair inherited a fondness for Mediterranean produce from their time with Nuno, and both love food from all over Asia. The combination of the two has little to do with their backgrounds. ‘When we started out, we used Portuguese and Spanish produce because it was really good quality,’ says Ana. ‘Not so much anymore though,’ Meng adds. ‘We still use Iberico pork and Spanish anchovies, but ninety percent of our produce is British now.’

The unusual flavours that brought them a huge cult following have little to do with their cultural backgrounds and more to do with their own unique approach to food and imagination. They take influence from Portugal and China, but also Japan, the rest of the Mediterranean and far beyond. Their menus at Tātā Eatery have always revolved around the pair’s mutual love of rice, as well as fresh seafood and lots of fermented ingredients. Tātā first started as a street food stall on Druid Street in Bermondsey before Ana and Meng embarked on a series of residencies at venues like Borough Wines in Kensal Green, Curio Cabal in Dalston and Kitchen Table (at the invitation of James Knappett).

Fast forward to 2019 and Tātā Eatery is one of the most exciting projects in London. The pair have expanded into two permanent sites – a collaboration with world-famous bartenders Monica Berg and Alex Kratena at Tayēr + Elementary in Old Street, and Tōu (pronounced ‘toe’), a restaurant which takes pride of place on the mezzanine of the shiny new Centrepoint Arcade near Tottenham Court Road. The two are vastly different and represent the grand spectrum that Ana and Meng’s cookery can cover. At Tayēr + Elementary, Meng serves a daily changing, five-course set menu for four lucky people at a time at the kitchen counter – ‘I don’t do numbers anymore,’ he deadpans. ‘Just four.’ Tōu is focused more on the magnum opus that shot Tātā Eatery into Instagram stardom – the famous katsu sando.

‘We did a dinner with our friend António Galapito (chef patron of Prado in Lisbon) – he used to be head chef of Taberna do Mercado,’ Ana explains. ‘Meng wanted to do a pork sandwich that was better than the Portuguese bifana, and the result was our very first katsu sando.’ The original went down well enough that the pair kept it on the menu at Tātā Eatery when they returned, and the rest, as they say, is history. ‘It was just another dish to be honest,’ Meng adds. ‘Our menu changes on a daily basis. We knew it would stay on for a bit because we were at Borough Wines at the time – we didn’t have much starch on the menu and it’s food for eating with a drink, but we didn’t know it was going to become this.’