Mexico

Not Mexico the country (I wish), but Mexico the restaurant.

But hey, it's as close to Mexico as you can get living in the middle of Auckland, and I'm not about to complain. In fact, I'm going to do just the opposite and tell you how great this restaurant is.

Mexico opened it's first store in Britomart a few years ago, and started off with a roaring trade. I ate there regularly, and watched in wonder to see if like many new restaurants, people would get sick of it as soon as the next best thing came along. But no, the customers remained, the restaurant only got better, and then franchised out to became one of Auckland's favourite eateries.

I had been meaning to check out Mexico's newest addition for a while, so, after being away for a long weekend with the girls, I thought I'd drag James along to Mexico Ponsonby for dinner, where we sat outside under colourful blankets, and ate our way through the delicious menu.

I started off with my favourite of their cocktails- the black plum margarita, while James went with a good ol' Corona. The margaritas are to die for, but if you don't fancy alcohol then the Jarritos are pretty damn good too, and a great alternative.

The food at Mexico is designed to be shared, so what I usually do is chose a taco each and a whole lot of other dishes for the table. After a small argument about the merits of coriander (come on who doesn't like coriander!) we went with chickpea patatas, octopus and chorzo pinchos, and Mexico's famous fried chicken to share, along with the fish taco for James, and the blackened duck taco for myself.

The fried chicken was, and always is delicious, and won dish of the night, followed in a close second by my delicious blackened duck taco.

Apart from the fried chicken, one of my favourite things about Mexico is that the menu changes fairly frequently, meaning you can go back time and time again trying new concoctions, creations and flavours that never disappoint (not that I need an excuse to go!).

Whether you go to Mexico in Hamilton, Takapuna, Ponsonby, Ellerslie, Britomart, or wherever they open up next, the food is always fantastic, it's good value, and is definitely worth a visit.