FOOD&DRINK

Number One Son rang home. “That Mexican place – reckon we should do it soon.” I’d recently mentioned the newly opened Mexican Kitchen but it’s not often a recommendation from me has had such a direct impact. I had to ask “how come?” and it seemed his mate Jo spoke highly of the place – so much for parental wisdom. We like Mexican food, though, and once spent a year growing chilli plants and nearly mastering the making of quesadillas and enchiladas. The exercise showed that the mince-bound sludge often called ‘chilli’ was well wide of the freshness and subtlety of Mexican cuisine. The Mexican Kitchen promises “fast, fresh Mexican street food” cooked on the premises and we headed for Corn Street with some expectations.

The place is at heart a ‘fast food’ operation, whereby you get the meal of your choice assembled at a counter before either finding a table or taking it away. You proceed in three steps to make the meal of your choice, first picking between burritos and fajitas (with choices of tortillas, too), a pair of firmer corn tacos or a bed of rice. Then you add beans and either pork, chicken, steak or vegetables before choosing salad, cheese, sour cream and one of three different salsa-style chilli sauces. Your helpful counter assistant then wraps the thing up – impressive, given the fairly generous helpings – and off you go. Eaters-in need to visit a condiments shelf, where biodegradable cutlery and a half-dozen kick-ass sauces are arrayed, before finding a table.

We’d picked a portion of vegetable-topped nachos to share plus a pork burrito for him and tacos with chicken and steak (splitting the order was no problem) for me. There was a two-for-one deal on Corona beer so we got some of that, too. What with some guacamole the whole thing came to £20, which felt quite hefty for a fast food meal all wrapped in foil, but then again we were in a nicely open and minimally decorated white and green room in the middle of town. The food proved very satisfying, the meat (especially the pork) having rich spicy flavours and all else being fine examples of what they should be. We were still hungry after (we’re both pretty damn greedy when we want to be) and so tried a fajita and a chilli on rice as well, bringing the bill to just over £30 and inducing a gently pleasing strain to the trouser waistband.

There’s no doubt they’re trying something new here and I’d suspect the pleasant sitting conditions and tasty foods balanced against the cost and the ‘hands off’ fast food service culture could still make it a popular lunch spot but might prove a harder sell to the kebab hounds scouring Corn Street as the evening wears on. That said both me and Number One Son opened out loyalty cards and reckoned to be back in the near future. (Tony Benjamin)

THE MEXICAN KITCHEN 37 CORN ST, BRISTOL, BS1 1HT. WEB: WWW.THEMEXICANKITCHEN.CO.UK

VENUE VERDICT

COMBINING GREAT FOOD POLICY AND TASTY DISHES IT DESERVES TO SUCCEED.

Copyright Tony Benjamin 2010