Zambrero

I’m from Texas, and I have to be blunt — most Mexican food in Australia is a joke. I honestly think Australians just don’t know what they’re missing, which is why they accept sub-​par Mexican food and even think it’s good. This applies to both sit-​down Mexican restaurants and Mexican take-​away joints like Salsa’s. Australia does a lot of cuisines well, but sadly Mexican is not one of them :(
I especially enjoyed standing in line at Salsa’s shortly after I arrived in Australia (excited to try «Australian Mexican food» lolzzzz) and hearing the Aussie guy behind me ordering a quesadilla and pronouncing the double-«l» in it with an «el» sound and not a «y» sound — just like in Napoleon Dynamite. It made my ears bleed.
But Zambrero is a major step up from Salsa’s and most other Mexican take-​away joints here in Oz. It reminds me of Chipotle back home, and yes, their business model is admittedly «Mexican Subway,» but their ingredients are far fresher and tastier than Subway’s. Zambrero competes with the likes of Salsa’s and Mad Mex and Guzman y Gutierrez, but their flavours are much nicer and their ingredients just taste fresher. Salsa’s just tastes cheap, Guzman y Gutierrez feels overpriced for what you get, and Mad Mex is decent but somehow not quite as delicious as Zambrero.
I usually order the vegetarian burrito with black rice (antioxidants! cha-​ching!) and a vegan sauce (I like verde, but you have to be able to handle your spicy!) The staff always seems to know what «vegan» means, which is a plus.
It can be a bit pricey, but the burritos are filling and the right size for lunch, so I don’t mind. Plus you can grab a loyalty card that gives you freebies.
I always go to the Lonsdale St one in Melbourne, but I’ve eaten at Zambrero in Queensland and Tassie and they are consistently delicious.

Definitely amongst the best Mexican take away currently in Melbourne.
I noticed this little fast food place for months but it was always empty and I think empty is never a good sign! My dear friend from QLD promised me I’d enjoy it or my money back and I have been eating at Zambrero regularly ever since. It’s slowly but surely becoming popular in Melbourne :) It is apparently doing booming trade in other states!
The burritos are HUGE and I have had the smaller version which is much more manageable but it’s definitely a big meal with as much fresh salad, sauce and meat as you please! My husband calls it ‘Mexican subway’ but I disagree with him, the meat (and I’m not a huge meat eater) is really soft and fresh, not overly fatty or reminiscent of canned meat, which is how I feel when I walk past a subway! The TACOS are amazing, you can get a soft taco wrapped around a hard taco! It’s so perfect we’ve started doing this at home!
They can make your meal vegetarian and also vegan if requested and there’s much variety with sauces and salad!
Downsides is that it’s a bit expensive for take away and they have no desserts ;) They should really work on that! and you should definitely try Zambrero if you haven’t already. after writing my review I think I’ll probably be there tomorrow!

By far the worst service I have ever experienced!!! I (customer) was in the right over a groupon purchase that I made and management told me to take it up with an outside entity (groupon) instead of honouring the customer. This was clearly a mistake the restaurant made with groupon and instead of making things right for the customer, they pretty much laughed in my face and told me good luck. They were RUDE and disrespectful!!! Service is everything at a restaurant!!! I have told all my friends about this and we will never frequent again!!! PLUS, THEIR SO CALLLED «MEXICAN» FOOD WAS TERRIBLE! Shame of a business. The END!