Rating: **1/2
Address: 31 Wellesley St West
Phone: 09 366 7001
Cuisine: Mexican Cantina and Tequila Bar
From the menu: Bean dip $10, Chicken on rice $20, Beef fajitas $25
Vegetarian: Plenty of bean options
Drinks: Margarita $12, Mojito $12. Good selection of Mexican beers.
One of the great aspects of eating out is that you can take your tastebuds on a trip but save yourself the airfare.
Walking into Little Mexico with its bar and cosy cantina atmosphere is pleasant enough. The line-up of starters has no real surprises and this in itself is not a bad thing - dips, guacamole, nachos. We settle on the bean dip. This arrives with sides of sour cream, guacamole, a miniscule dollop of green salsa and corn chips. The flavours do not transport us to Mexico.
The drinks on the other hand - a margarita on the rocks and a mojito - stop us in our tracks. Packed full of punch, tangy and strong with no hint of the pre-mix that can really cheapen a cocktail experience. With our spirits lifted and our memories awakened by the authentic drinks, we set about ordering our mains.
Little Mexico offers all the dishes we've come to expect plus a few you wouldn't, such as Mexican-inspired hamburgers. Because hamburgers seemed more LA than Mexico we gave these a miss in favour of beef fajitas and chicken on rice.
The fajitas arrived on a sizzling platter which is always attention grabbing. But this sizzle was all sound and no substance. Traditionally fajitas are made with cheaper, tougher cuts of beef and an acidic marinade is used to tenderise the meat and in doing so, it also lends wonderful flavour to the beef.
What arrived this night was a better cut of beef but I suspect it had missed the "marination" and therefore was devoid of the real tastes that we were hankering after - lime, coriander, garlic, black pepper, perhaps a hint of cumin. The corn tortilla were warm and soft but large in diameter making rolling the fajitas somewhat difficult.
I've never been able to find more than one variety of 100 per cent corn tortilla in NZ, but surely an authentic Mexican cantina has contacts? The all important condiments that go into assembling one's perfect fajita - pico de gallo and guacamole - were thin on the ground and not nearly spicy enough.
To the chicken on rice then. Nicely presented but "unremarkable and lacking any real heat" was the consensus. Black pepper was the main seasoning in this dish and even this had been applied by a cautious chef.
We accepted the offer of some extra chilli as a side order. What arrived was a small dish of minced chilli that could have been from a jar of supermarket brand.
Mexican food is fabulous. It is full of zing, fire and freshness. There is a lot that is authentic about Little Mexico in Wellesley St - the staff, the cocktails, the candles - but they need to be braver with their food. Go on amigos, spice it up, Auckland is ready for a genuine Mexican eating experience.
