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Level 6, Curtin House, 252 Swanston Street, Melbourne, 9654 4417
My score: 3.5/5
Surely, Melbourne is ready to relax about Mexican food. There are now enough Mexican restaurants for the cuisine to have escaped the frenzy of ‘exciting trend’ and become just one more way to feed ourselves. Sure, we may still need to ask what sope, epazote and huitlacoche mean (they’re a thick corn tortilla, a herb, and an edible fungus that grows on corn) but we’re down with the basics and we’re as likely to hanker for tacos as for pasta or tapas.
Mesa Verde opened in March on the top floor of Curtin House. It’s dimly lit and feels like fun, with intricately carved cow skulls, hefty timber furniture, waiters in cool livery and a frighteningly comprehensive wall of tequila. The girls’ toilets have great city views; guys, please just trust us. There’s a dining area but DJ sets and the darkness make Mesa Verde feel like a bar with food rather than a restaurant with rocking drinks.
The spaghetti western culture mash extends to a nimble Mexicano menu which is more concerned with keeping the good times rolling than it is with authenticity. The food is super tasty though, infused with energetic south-of-the-border riffs. There’s usually a sope, pre-grilled then deep-fried to order and topped with something yummy, maybe vinegared chicken escabeche and quince mayo, or parsnip, wild mushroom and nettles. An ox tongue taco with sauce gribiche (a cooked-egg mayonnaise) is a neat example of the laid back approach to the culinary canon. Other good dishes include a watermelon, beetroot and pomegranate seed salad that’s a ravishing array of red, and well-cooked pork belly with good crackle, slathered with pineapple and coriander salsa. The pork came with plantain, that chalky cousin of banana, little seen in Melbourne so I always order it when I come upon it. For dessert: an excellent caramel-tinged pineapple cake and churros (skinny donuts) that I begged myself to stop eating to the very last bite.
It would be a shame not to have a cocktail when the bartenders go to so much trouble, setting jalapenos on fire to make burnt chilli salt for margaritas and other cool stuff that is in my notes if only I could read them. What did stick was how easy it was to enjoy being at Mesa Verde. It’s upbeat and tasty to boot – zoom me to the sixth floor and colour me happy.
See their website.
More Mexican:
La Tortilleria, 72 Stubbs Street, Kensington, 9376 5577
Fresh, handmade tortillas are the thing here. Corn is soaked in white lime and stone-ground then the maize is made into tortillas. Take them home or eat here as quesadillas, tacos or sopes.
Touche Hombre Electrica, 15 Claremont Street, South Yarra, 9827 0399
Claremont Tonic has been reborn as a southside cantina building on the popularity of Lonsdale Street’s Touche Hombre. There’s a vegetarian focus on Sunday nights with dishes such as taco de quinoa and roast pumpkin quesadilla.
Los Amates, 34 Johnston Street, Fitzroy, 9417 0441
Since 2004, long before new wave Mexican hit town, Los Amates has been dishing up regional food in its low-key shopfront. This month the menu journeys through the south-western state of Michoacan.
First published in The Age, July 21, 2013
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