Mamasita

My only encounter of Mexican food was a couple of years ago at Bluecorn in St Kilda. I don't know whether the food there was authentic but I didn't like it at all. Every dish tasted similar and too many beans were used. I stayed away from Mexican food since but the Mexican food that Top Chef Masters finalist Rick Bayless cooked looked so amazing I decided to give it another chance.

Mamasita is a Mexican restaurant bar and grill at Collins street that opened last year. The restaurant received great reviews from The Age but only mixed reviews from the general public.

We went at 3pm for 'afternoon tea' as we heard service can be quite disorganised during peak hours. The interior was simple, but I was not too sure why they picked that particular photo to put on the wall - a lady from the ?60s wearing bikini, with a funny dent on her abdomen. Hmm.

We ordered only three items. One of which is the "Street Style" chargrilled corn with queso, chipotle mayonnaise and lime. Queso is a type of Mexican cheese. It was the white stuff that coated the corn.  I actually had no idea what it was when I ate it as there wasn't the typical 'pungent' smell that normal cheeses have. I felt that the flavours worked very well together (especially the lime and queso) and we really enjoyed it. Cost aud$3.80 per cob.

The tacos on the other hand were nice but not fantastic. We ordered the pork and the fish taco (was too busy eating I forgot to take a close up photo of the fish one) and they cost aud$5 each. The menu said that the pork taco had roasted pork, pineapple, coriander and white onion, but I felt the flavours didn't really come through and was a bit bland. The other taco had grilled fish with lime, achiote paste & red onion salsa. I felt the latter tasted better but both tacos weren't very memorable. The accompanying salsa, however, was really good! (sorry didn't take any photos of it). I liked it more than the tacos.

Overall it was a nice snack and I really liked the corn. A bit too expensive for a snack (total of $13.80) and don't think i can be full even after eating 4 tacos (haha I'm a big eater :D). Will definitely go back and try the mains sometime.