The restaurant critic hunts for the top and the Mexicans at Hops Cantina

New owners and an (almost) new name for the well-known little spot Top Hops. The three old Mexicans in the kitchen have been replaced and the whole offer modernised. The sign hasn't gone up yet. Only the word "bar" looks out at the Fontanka and at the indecency going on aboard the tour boats.

The changes in the small room will be clear to the regulars; to me it all looks the same. A bar. I understand everything. What I don't understand is how two tables with many covers were rammed in beside the kitchen pass in the second room. I won't use the word "economy" — this is something else, harsher. For the staff to reach the kitchen, for plates of hot and greasy food, they have to either shift a guest, shove someone angrily, or ask people to pass the plates along? Naturally, within five minutes I understood everything: that uncomfortable table was offered even at the height of a festive Saturday evening, which is logical — there aren't that many masochists in the population! Happily a good "window" table came free, with no such problems. And then…

Tex-Mex tartare (690 ₽) is spicy — "it can't be made un-spicy", which is splendid — and it says 280 grams: what is lying in there that weighs so much? A gorgeous warm flatbread — I judged it solo, since it is delicious in its own right; a powerful tartare with a classic chop and a yolk thickened to marmalade that binds it and makes the mass serious. Hot, but Mexican-complicated with many chillies, not stupidly, not head-on. Superb.

Three kinds of taco (280–300 ₽), and you can order from two. One got mixed up, so it came to three anyway! Complex, packed, dense — overfilled. The last ones I had were somehow half-empty; these barely fit into the "pocket" once you fold it. All genuinely different, and the lamb is the most interesting: an unusual filling, originally seasoned, and expressive — you couldn't confuse it. And we love everything you can't confuse, everything "exclusive to our cantina".

Chili con carne (660 ₽). A mixture of meats, and although everything here is marked with symbols for the sharp-eyed, nobody asks you about the heat. Nobody warns you: "careful, super-sex"! That such impressions ought to come with every dish as it's set down, and you thank yourself for ordering. And six dishes like this, or even five, would already be two stars. Against the background of the dreary [censored] I've received from the last several carnes, the celebration is doubled. A complex tomato broth with the density of a gravy, where the acidity, even without anything added, balances the heat magnificently at 0.76 of a flame. Two meats, beef and pork, in different pieces: from lumps the size of a pea to the size of a thumbnail; not that much bean — more difference, more expense. And the buttery, flaky flatbread I've already praised. "Worth a special trip."

Machete (690 ₽): by default almost rare. Not quite like 200 grams, but honestly, at that price you can gift them 10 or 15. Animal, direct, blokeish, without any cooing — both in the rough texture of the fibres and in the composition. In places too rough. Perhaps at 990 ₽ they could buy meat of another level?

Quesadilla with chicken (670 ₽). Hot, better to wait; in places as spicy as the tartare; more cheese and sauce than chicken. Tasty. Very filling — the local flatbread is a noticeable part of the calorie count. And what good butter, even if there is too much of it: afterwards your fingers are tender and moisturised, as after a 670 ₽ scrub and a 1,670 ₽ cream.

Burrito carne asada (690 ₽). Two of the three burritos are meat ones, but one has mince and the other adds pieces of machete to the chopped meat. That's more expressive, isn't it? An astonishing creation — possibly only for me, since I always order the burrito wherever it's served and am usually disappointed. Thin, light, crisp as a wafer, the lavash — I don't know which (best) shawarma shop they sent the Master to. You eat it to the end neatly, without losses. A solid square of clear filling, expensive, interesting, and after the tartare not spicy at all. If you love this dish, here's a reason for a trip of its own.

Beer, traditionally, is only on the board, and there's a novelty: three, but simply gorgeous, infusions (250 ₽ each), coffee 200 ₽, tea 460 ₽, cocktails from 560 ₽, wine from 480 ₽. And the water is free of charrrge. Desserts are "in progress", so I'll wrap up. The same bar, a different bar. That is probably the highest mark I can award ANY transformation of an establishment. In places it's a "Tasty Little Place" by format; otherwise I wouldn't have gone three times without compulsion, whether or not you care about beer on a dozen taps. Beyond the can.

P.S. Eleonora is a star! Let her work a shift at least once a month. Pleeeease.