A MEXICAN restaurant is to feature on the new series of BBC Two’s Britain’s Top Takeaway, writes Nick Mosley.

Brighton’s La Choza appears in the show to be broadcast next week featuring authentic Mexican dishes, drawing inspiration from all corners of the country.

Hosted by Sara Cox and Darren Harriott, each episode sees five of the UK’s leading takeaway kitchens competing against each other in popular categories including Indian, pizza, fish and chips, fried chicken and noodles.

The judges are a panel of five typical British families, who each get a delivery from the takeout kitchens that they eat, rate and score from the comfort of their own sofas.

“During lockdown we pushed our takeout and home delivery service hard to survive,” said Aoife Sweeney, co-owner of La Choza. “We learned a lot over those difficult months so presenting our food on Britain’s Top Takeaway was the perfect platform to show the quality and creativity of our dishes and the skill of our kitchen team including our wonderful head chef Benji Hinchliffe.”

Competing against La Choza for the top Mexican takeaway accolade are a Lincolnshire father and daughter who run El Ajolote, a married couple who own hip-hop-inspired Homies On Donkies Mexican takeaway in Walthamstow, Hertfordshire’s The Mexican in Ware, Hertfordshire, and two friends from Tacos MX in Fulham who serve up their grannies’ authentic Mexican dishes.

Aoife was under no illusion as to how tough the competition was going to be.

“We’re up against the best in the business,” she said. “Although we celebrate our tenth anniversary at our Gloucester Road independent restaurant this year, some of these guys have been cooking up the Mexican kitchen since they were kids. But we were quietly confident that our Sussex seafood dish would make waves with the other chefs and impress the family judging at home.”

Tune in to the epic battle of tacos and quesadillas on Tuesday at 8pm.