First of all, HAPPY NEW YEAR! I hope 2012 becomes everything you want it to be!
Our first restaurant visit for the year is Mexican, and after reading about Mad Mex at The Food Pornographer, we just had to come and give it a try. The shop in Harbourside at Darling Harbour is brand new. We saw it a few weeks ago, but it was still boarded up and we said we’d come past again soon once it had opened. It has now opened and is looking good.
The ordering process is similar to Subway. Plenty of options and combinations to choose from. Not as many as Subway, but still too many in my opinion. What I reckon they should do is have a few pre-selected options so you can just ask for “Option A” and not have to go though the hassle of choosing each item individually. The process is simple as long as you can decide what you want! Step one is to choose your style. Crispy or soft tacos, nachos, burrito, naked burrito (served in a bowl without a wrap), quesadilla or tortilla. Next step two, choose your filling. Chicken, shredded beef, steak, pork or veggie. Then step three, add salsas. Tomato, corn, tomatillo, roasted tomato, chilli and you can add guacamole for an extra $2.
We opted to share our meals and chose quesadilla, with chicken, corn & tomatillo salsas, and guacamole ($11.90). Very nice taste. I would have preferred it if I could pick up a slice and eat it with my hands but it was a bit too floppy for that and required the use of a knife and fork. The corn was nice too, it comes with pineapple, onion and jalapeño, but it isn’t hot. The tomatillo was nice, but I didn’t really get to appreciate it much as I didn’t really have anything to dip into it, or pour it over. The star of this meal in my opinion was actually the guacamole, which I could have polished off myself given the chance. (Which in itself is odd considering that a couple of years ago I hated avocado, considering it far too bland for my attention.)
Next we had the nachos ($10.90). You can hardly see the meat for all the salad and salsa, but there was more than just the one piece you can see here. This was very nice, particularly the cheese sauce, but I would have liked to have seen an option to have cheese grilled onto the top. The salad and salsa was lovely and the nacho chips were fresh and crispy. More guacamole was of course welcome! The meat was wonderfully tender.
For drinks we chose the Mexican soda, Jarritos. There are more flavours but I chose the mandarin, and Caro chose the Lime. We each had half of each others, and both of them were highly enjoyable, and wonderfully vividly coloured!
For dessert we had a portion of churros with chocolate sauce ($5.90). Very hot, very nice. The sauce had a strange consistency, almost like gooey play dough than a sauce. When you scooped a bit out of the tub with the end of the churros the whole thing would want to come out leaving the container clean. Very strange, but very tasty. For those not in the know, churros are a Mexican doughnut.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
I haven’t eaten much Mexican food in my life, but I really like guacamole. I love avocado! My gang had a New Year’s day potluck party recently, and someone brought tortilla chips and homemade guacamole, which was a big hit. We noshed on them so quickly! I’d love to try a soft taco someday. Or a quesadilla.
Yeah I like the usual Mexican, nachos, quesedilla etc, but haven’t delved much further than that. What I have had, I really like when they’re done well.
That Mexican food looks great. And I love those dessert thingys – just don’t know how to spell them!
Hi Hotly Spiced,
You’re right, it was good!
wow. those nachos are LOADED. not skimping at all. I like that.