It has been a long lament of mine that I have been unable to find a good Mexican restaurant in this country. Not having been to Mexico itself and sadly with no current overseas plans for the future, I have had to rely on what Australia has to offer.
I had fantastic Mexican when living in Edinburgh in Scotland, but that was a good 15 years ago. Every Mexican restaurant I have been to so far in this country has been a disappointment. There was one half-decent one in Melbourne, but also a slew of sub-par ones. The Tex-Mex venue in Bathurst is not what one would call proper Mexican cuisine and The Cactus Jam in Waarnambool was simply atrocious. Was I to never again sample good Mexican food?
When news got around that a Mexican restaurant was opening up in Rylstone, a town where you can count the places to go out for dinner on the fingers of a blind butcher, I was cautiously optimistic but couldn’t silence that little voice in my head that was saying ‘It’s just going to be another crappy gimmicky place with food that makes an Old El’Paso kit look good’. So along I took my family with my hopes not high.
Sometimes it’s nice to be wrong.
The food was excellent! Really great stuff! Not since eating at The Kings Hotel in Bathurst have I encountered a restaurant where you get such a high level of quantity AND quality combined! Let’s have a look at what’s on offer:
As you can see from the menu pics, there are a solid seven different starters one can have, along with 5 mains and 1 salad. While 5 different mains doesn’t sound like a lot, each one can be customised to your personal tastes with a variety of fillings ranging from several meat options to those for vegetarians. Add to that over a dozen different sides and you have a lot of customisation options for your meal.
The Starter
Even casual readers of this Blog know I have a fondness for hot spicy foods, even when like the God Slayer Hot Sauce they nearly kill me! So I couldn’t bypass the chance to try a plate of the Jalapeno Poppers (heat rating 2 out of 3) which I shared with my somewhat reluctant wife. Easily the best I have ever had! Stuffed with cream cheese and cheddar, then beer battered and deep fried! Yeah boi! The great thing about these were there was a good bit of heat to them, but what you tasted primarily was the excellent flavours of the food. Even my wife who is not a spice fan loved these, attesting to their quality.
The Mains
El Pepino
My wife had hers stuffed with chicken and it was damn tasty. She quite enjoyed the salsa fresca it came with too. Her plate runneth over to the point that she could not even finish her meal, as tasty as she found it.
Burrito el Grande
Being a Deadpool fan I was tempted to go the Chimichangas route, but couldn’t resist the sound of this giant Burrito. I had mine filled ground beef and blended beans. Given this meal already came with beans, I can attest that at 4am that morning they ganged up together to produce a wind that would challenge Cyclone Trevor that is currently threatening the top of the Northern Territory. So take a word from the wise, if the meal already comes with beans, don’t add more!
This meal came with plenty of sides such as rice, sour cream, guacamole and I made sure to sample everything separately before it all became one big mixed up mess. But both individually and combined this all tasted excellent and by the time I ate the last grain of rice from my plate my gut was groaning and my belt was under more tension than a Technobot at a Combaticon Convention.
Kids Meals
There are 3 different kids meals on offer. We ordered two and two extra plates so that the kids could have a Fajita each and share the Nachos.
The Fajitas were very good, but the toppings came out in tiny little shallow bowls you were supposed to tip on to your food. Given sour cream and guacamole don’t pour too well (and neither does our 4 year old) we asked for some spoons so the kids could serve themselves, like they do at home when we have tacos. Upon this request we were given two giant dessert spoons instead of teaspoons. So my wife and I ended up making the kids Fajitas for them which wasn’t a big hassle, though little spoons for kids in the future would be appreciated.
Since the kids were having beef with their Fajitas we ordered them chicken on their Nachos. At first we were taken aback by how plain the nachos looked, only having melted cheese and shredded chicken on them. But given that my kids, the little buggers, picked off all the melted cheese and chicken and just ate the corn chips underneath, more toppings would have proven a waste anyway.
Desserts
Watch this space. We had fully intended to order some Churros for dessert but all four of us were so full (again, my wife couldn’t even finish her whole meal) that none of us had space in our bellies for something sweet. So next time I hope to get a bead on what the desserts are like.
Drinks
My wife had a couple of Sangrias which she quite enjoyed, and I tried two different Mexican beers – a Pacifico and a Negra Modelo. And these were nice Mexican beers too, actually brewed and bottled in Mexico rather than in Hobart and given a Mexican name, very tasty! Not like the ones you buy at your local Bottle-O.
Worth going?
Indeed! To feed four of us and have a few drinks for the adults it came to around $100, which is quite reasonable in this day and age. The food was great tasting and pletniful, the atmosphere was nice, there were novelty hats to wear (so commonly overlooked by eating establishments these days one finds) – all good! I had opportunity to chat with the owner before leaving and he informed me they used to run a similar restaurant in Sydney for 12 years and the experience certainly shows. So if you find yourself in the position to will be visiting the little township of Rylstone, book a table ahead of time (they seemed very busy!) and tell’em Big Angry Trev sent ya.
Have you eaten here and have anything to say? Pop it in the comments section below!
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