La Tortilleria, Kensington, Melbourne

Curiously situated amongst warehouses and apartments in the heart of Kensington is a little Mexican place which M described as reminding him of some of the eateries in (East) LA. Indeed the place did have an authentic feel to it and the service was very polite.

Because the place was busy and we didn't book, we were seated on bar stools on a narrow bar. While this isn't normally a problem, the narrowness of the bar and the fact that our food came out in rapid succession meant that we often ran out of space to put dishes and it made for some awkward eating and manoeuvering.

We were very much looking forward to the food after reading the menu and ordering quickly. While we waited, we sipped on some horchata—something I'd always wanted to try after first hearing about it some five years ago through the Vampire Weekend song. M really enjoyed it but I wasn't a big fan. To me, it tasted like sweet rice milk with an abundance of cinnamon. I'm not the biggest fan of the standalone flavour of cinnamon in sweet things (although I love it in savoury stuff like pho and curries) and the mass of cinnamon powder floating in the drink was quite offputting.

Very quickly after we sat down, we were giving some complimentary tortilla chips with some little salsas. I really liked the fresh tomato one but we both found the brown one (it looked a bit like a mole) quite oddly flavoured. Being both chilli fiends, we loved the bottles of spicy sauce at the table and shook the bottle liberally over all our dishes. While it was definitely a plus that the spicy sauce was there, the main reason we had to use so much of it was because the dishes were distinctly lacking flavour.

The first dish that came to the table were the chilaquiles. These were underwhelming and to me either needed more flavoursome toppings or just more of it. What we got was pretty bland and uninteresting. The next dish of beef tamales was much better; it both the dish we were most looking forward to and what ended up being the best of the night. I had long wanted to try a tamale but had before now never had the opportunity. This one was was filled with lovely tender beef and we both thoroughly enjoyed it. The next dish of a beef flauta, however, was totally forgettable. Again, bland was the order of the day. The elotito, the baby corn, was very nice but it was kind of unbelievable that the dish consisted of one tiny baby corn. I know it's $4, but for 50c more you get a much more substantial portion of a full sized corn at Mamasita (review to come very soon). Our last two savouries of the night, both tostadas, were also disappointing. The ceviche one needed more actual fish ceviche and it was overpowered by the abundance of chopped red peppers on top. Neither of us enjoyed the chicharron (described on the menu as Mexican crackling) one due to its oiliness. I expected lovely crispy crackling but what we got instead of was fried lard without any of the skin in sight.

After the overall disappointment of the mains we were keen for a good finish to the meal and fortunately we got that in the form of a glorious slice of vanilla flan. The flan was lovely and smooth and I enjoyed the abundance of bitter caramel to counteract the sweetness of the custard.