Review: Mexico Lindo

Mexico Lindo serves home-style Mexican cuisine.  The first thing I always notice is the wonderful smell of spices permeating the air inside, a sign of the delicious Mexican meal to come.  A bowl of homemade salsa and corn tortilla chips are brought to our table shortly after we're seated.

The decor is humble, with local awards for food and business displayed proudly on the wall.  I can only describe the ambiance as honest; a small, local, successful business doing what they love in Fairview.  My wife and I both love this restaurant for what it is.  We're not experts in traditional Mexican food, we have not traveled around Mexico, we're not qualified to comment on what components of this dish or that are traditional or not.

With that being said, this is not Taco Bell or another Tex-Mex restaurant chain food.  Once seated our first question is, as always, if there is any Aqua Fresca made.  There is, today it is made with cantaloupe, our favorite.  We order a pitcher before they run out of it and proceed to review the menu.  My wife decides on the chicken chimichanga and I get the beef burrito meal.  We start in on the tortilla chips and salsa.  The chips themselves are nothing special, just round corn-based transportation for the salsa really.  There are usually 4 different salsas available if you ask about them, Mild, Medium, Hot and Extra Hot.  The hotter you can handle, the tastier it gets but because their target audience is Haligonians, I can't imagine they put out too much Hot and Extra Hot during the run of a service.

Chimichanga with Rice and Beans

Our meal comes out, the food hot to the touch.  The shell of the tortilla on the chimichanga is crispy, inside the shredded chicken, onions and green peppers are steaming.  The diced onions, tomato and sour cream on top are still cool but warming very quickly from the rising heat of the deep-fried chimichanga.  My wife comments the the green peppers seem fresh and flavourful and that the chicken is moist.  No complaints there.  I cut open my burrito.

Beef Burrito

One of the best things about Mexico Lindos is that they don't use ground hamburger.  All the beef versions of dishes I've tried so far use pulled beef and my burrito today is no exception.  The plate comes with Mexican rice and refried beans, the burrito is a large flour tortilla folded up and stuffed with seasoned beef and some more refried beans and topped with salsa and crisp iceberg lettuce.  Like the chimichanga, the burrito normally has a generous dollop of sour cream but I request it without.  I have to cut it open and let it sit for a moment, too hot to eat immediately.  I try the rice and beans while I wait.  The rice is moist but not mushy and the beans have the consistency of a nice oatmeal.  They work really well together on a fork.


All in all, another delicious meal from Ana in the kitchen for a reasonable price.  No surprise there as this is our favourite restaurant for a reason.  We will be back soon, hopefully for lunch to take advantage of their lunch specials.