Sunday, June 26

mad mex, 332 brunswick st, fortitude valley

i was invited to attend a lunch with the founder, clovis young, of mad mex at their (first) brisbane store in the fortitude valley mall.  clovis (californian raised & acquainted w baja cuisine) opened the first mad mex store on crown st, darlinghurst in 2007 & since has expanded to have 10 stores (syd, melb & brisbane).  i met clovis along with brisbane based food writer fiona ryan.  clovis talked about the creation of mad mex, the concept, their passion for delivering fresh, traditional & quality flavours...& we then sampled several dishes.  i chose the burrito w chicken, black beans, cheese, rice, lettuce & sour cream - it was delicious, generous & certainly fresh.  fiona ordered the soft tacos & appeared to find them tasty too.  clovis ordered a serving of quesadilla's which i found tasty but possibly a little bit guilt ridden for me.  we sipped on mexican imported soft drinks (mine) quava & fiona had the tamarind.  then i just had to sample the margarita with salt & it was very good...i did expect a watered down version but it wasn't!  clovis then brought out cinnamon churros with chocolate dipping sauce...i indulged in 2 & thought they were very good!  one of the first things i said to clovis when meeting him was that i like mexican but i usually find myself feeling very full & uncomfortable after eating it...after all the above dishes at mad mex i have to say i felt good.  not sluggish or uncomfortable!  clovis said that they use fresh avocados for their guacamole & source/use local produce as much as possible...with other ingredients like the black beans, jalapenos, chillies, seasonings & spices & various beverages direct from mexico.
would i go back?...definitely!  so much so that i tried a competitor of mad mex at sth bank with my family the following day & the whole experience was not a scratch on my mad mex meal!  i did feel uncomfortable after trying the competitor!  i do like various touches that mad mex have too...like the tapatio sauce bottles placed around for customers usage (tapatio sauce is a hot mex sauce that is excellent).  see attached their menu along with their full story & 10 store locations mad mex




5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Who was the south bank competitor burrito bar or cactus republic they are both bad but I can't help my curiosity ?

greenbeenfood said...

anon: the one near max brenner.

john@heneedsfood said...

I'm yet to make it to one of the Sydney outlets. It seems they're popping up in just about every inner city neighbourhood. Look out McDonalds!

greenbeenfood said...

John...They are expanding but don't taste like mcdonalds! I promise!

Sophie said...

I've seen this in Sydney aswell the past couple of weeks in the city and have been meaning to try out Mad Mex even to just try churros and mexican soft drinks!