FOOD&DRINK

There’s a homecoming feel about Casa Mexicana that bespeaks the fact that, 20-something years on, it’s seemingly always been there. As the longest established Mexican restaurant in Bristol, it was the place where I first learnt about enchiladas and chimichangas and tasted the bracing zap of coriander and lime juice in a proper salsa. The hospitable vibe also reflects the generosity of the meals I’ve had there. Is there a Mexican equivalent of that stereotypical Jewish mother urging you to eat up and grow strong? If there is then she has heaped many a hearty plateful for me over the years. But when I heard the news that original proprietors Kevin and Lesley Duff had sold the business on last spring I feared that Mama might have moved on too.

So there I was, hovering outside waiting for my hard-to-please companion She Who Must Complain and feeling the warmth of the Casa Mexicana ambience drawing me in. Inside was already bustling, and I recognised John, formerly manager and now owner, very much ‘hands on’ between the bar and the tables. She Who having arrived, we were showed to a window table by Marcello, whose enthusiastic endorsement of our choice of a Carmenere wine betrayed his Chilean origins. It’s a splendid variety, unique to the country and combining a clean lightness of taste with real depth, and at £15.50 a bottle a very reasonable treat.

Nibbling appetisers of antojitos (corn chips) with zingy salsita to dip made me want more so I started with nachos ‘extra’, the usual embellishments of guacamole, cream, cheese and refried beans themselves enhanced with chorizo and jalapeno peppers. She Who, on the other hand, went for the day’s special starter of fried whitebait with tartare sauce. When they arrived it was clear that Mama Mexicana had very much not left the building – my portion could have fed a couple more people while She had a small shoal of sizzling fishes heaped on her plate. More to the point they were both spot on, even the refried beans (so often a sludge of dusty tastelessness) had a just-cooked freshness about them. That was all good news but the bad news was that the main courses were likewise ginormous, double helpings of tostada (hers) and enchilada (mine). Oh Mama! The richly flavoured food made us want to pile in while the enormity of the task made us need to hold back. As it was, we veered between the two, taking breaks that became so long the alert Marcello began to hover in case it was table-clearing time. I regret to report that the plates were not entirely clean when that time finally arrived.

Perversely, we nonetheless went on to share a palate-refreshing dessert of fresh pineapple with mojito sorbet and a decent espresso rounded off a meal that came to £60 (inc wine). The bill represented real value for quality and quantity and I’m glad to report that Casa Mexicana may be under new management but they’re very much playing by the old rules. (Tony Benjamin)

CASA MEXICANA 31 ZETLAND RD, BRISTOL, BS6 7AH. TEL: 0117 924 3901; WEB: WWW.CASAMEXICANA.CO.UK

VENUE VERDICT

ALL THE FAMILIAR TASTES AND GENEROUS HOSPITALITY OF A FINE OLD MEXICAN FRIEND.

Copyright Tony Benjamin 2010