Navajo Joe is a Bar/Restaurant located in Covent Garden serving south-western American cuisine. Walking into the venue you are hit by the extreme funkiness it excudes from the led-lit bar to the two story restaurant area situated along-side and behind the bar and floor to ceiling backdrop. We were escorted to the upper floor of the restaurant where we had a great view over the bar patrons. What was pleasing to me was that although there was music running in the background, that’s what it remained and Rehana and I didn’t need to shout in order to hear each other.

Our waitress was really friendly and efficient. She was also happy to chat to us all night if she needed to either giving us advice on the menu, bringing out extra dishes etc. Everything on the menu at Navajo Joe was really tempting. I like the fact that with your starters you can choose three smaller samplers for £10 to share between you or, of course, the traditional option of getting one each. We opted to go for the three starters as we wanted to sample a bit of lots of things without being too greedy: Crispy Duck Nachos with Hoisin Sauce (surprisingly a combination that went well but the dish also had quite a bite to it so they must have thrown some chilli into the dish too), Crunchy Catfish Goujons (need I say more – these little deep fried bundles of goodness were delicious. I really liked the catfish flavour too) and Coxina Chicken served with tabasco and lime dressing (these turned out to be like chicken croquettes. Also quite tasty.) I actually would have happily continued snacking on the “amusements” (as they are called) but thought we should check something out from the main menu too.

The “Southwestern Favourites” on the menu included things like fajitas and enchiladas, but as Rehana rightly pointed out, the most interesting option was the Trio of Fish: which consisted of
– cajun catfish with pineapple & coconut salsa
– mexican beer battered sea bass with jalapeño mayo and fries and
– smoked salmon with crispy capers.

Hilariously our waitress joked that we’d gone for the healthy option with this trio!

All three dishes were tasty and I particularly liked the pineapple and coconut salsa. Went surprisingly well with the catfish.

We both could have happily stopped there but what’s a night out without having desserts as well. Once again the both of us were attracted to the same dish, especially after our waitresses glowing recommendation (she says its her absolutely favourite dessert at Navajo Joe), the Pineapple Tart. I adore pineapple so couldn’t resist. Served with coconut ice-cream it was the perfect light dish to have to finish the meal.

Having read some so-so reviews on Navajo Joe (some good some bad) I hadn’t set my expectations very high so I was very pleased with how tonight went. We had the perfect service, atmosphere, and the food, not to mention great company – thanks Rehana! The food was the biggest surprise being of much higher quality than I expected and just an absolute joy to consume.