Review: El Mexicano

With the recent surge in Mexican restaurants and much hype surrounding El Mexicano across town, we journeyed west to see if their Gubei outpost has been living up to the reputation. The verdict, going good, but could do with giving their Chihuahua sized portions a bark and bite upgrade to make a claim for top-dog.

Not happy with being tucked away up in Yangpu, Owner Pedro Garcia opened up a small off-Hongmei Lu branch. With a Xuhui based kitchen for deliveries they’ve most of the city covered.

Having heard great things about their Tortas (¥32-36) we thought ordering would be a doddle. Unfortunately they were unavailable this time so had the run of the extensive tex-mex menu to choose from. The truth is that you almost need one order of everything, most are on the mini side. Fortunately it’s all moderately priced, although after working our way through four or five options from the menu we felt a far from stuffed and verging on a flatbread overdose.

Perhaps the delicately light and clean taste, washed down with a silky-sweet glass of cinnamon Horchata (¥10) contributed to the deceptively un-satiated sensation. Or it could just be that they need to add more spicy beef to the burritos (¥36). Regardless, the ‘cielo, mar y tierra’ fajitas (¥37) were slightly bland and missing a couple tortillas and the carnitas taco (¥9) was tasty but a little weedy. The BBQ pork quesadillas (¥29) inputted a safe combination of melted cheese with smoky and sweet flavours, and the chorizo and potato gorditas (¥9/each), the real star of the show, brought a scrumptious sample of the simplicity and variety of Mexican cuisine.

Our advice; leave the burritos to Togo, the tacos to Loco and go straight for a basket of mixed gorditas with a drizzle of salsa verde and a dab of sour cream – delicious. We’ll be back to try and add a pork leg torta to the recommendation. Actually we won't. El Mexicano is now closed.